Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles - IST to Taksim/Eminonu and back, on a Saturday...

Another few getting-into-and-back-out-of-Istanbul layover questions. :rolleyes:;)

On Saturday, June 9, I land at IST from TXL on TK at 10:45 and am off to BAH/MCT the same evening, also on TK, departing at 19:20.

Assuming my bags are checked through, I have my onward boarding passes, and I only have a small backpack with me, what's the best non-taxi way to get to Eminonu or Taksim to meet a friend, and how long might this journey take?

Or are taxis actually the best value here? Will I save two hours or something for an additional €10-20?

This graphic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Istanbul_Rapid_Transit_Map.png) from Wikipedia makes it appear that the easiest thing is to take the M1 light rail to Zeytinburnu, then change to the T1 tram for Eminonu or head on to Kabataş for the funicular to Taksim. Am I right? And in the evening, assuming I can go straight to immigration/security, when should I leave the city?

Finally, I can enter Turkey on a US or Italian passport. The official Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs site (http://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa) says this:

Italy: Ordinary and official passport holders are exempt from visa for their travels up to 90 days. ...
United States of America: Ordinary and official passport holders are required to have visa to enter Turkey. They can obtain three month-multiple entry visas from Turkish diplomatic representations abroad and also at the Turkish border gates.

Presumably, this means that if I enter on my Italian passport, I can just go right to the immigration booths?

Teşekkürler!

The difference between going directly to the booths which are about 10 feet away, is often 30 seconds. OTOH with an Italian visa you don't have to pay $20.

Regarding getting in and out, 11AM is probably one of the times with least traffic, so a Taxi ride to Taksim should take less than 30 minutes, the way back on the other hand could easily take you more than 90 minutes as leaving after 4PM traffic becomes murder. OTOH the public transport idea that you have would involve something like 30 stops and two transfers, if you allow 3 minutes for each stop and transfer you are easily looking at over 90 minutes in each direction (at least) to do that. The public transportation options were made to get workers between stops, not air travelers rapidly to and from the airport.

You can take the Havatas shuttle bus that runs every 30 mins straight to Taksim for 10 lira. Picks up right outside the departures.

This graphic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Istanbul_Rapid_Transit_Map.png) from Wikipedia makes it appear that the easiest thing is to take the M1 light rail to Zeytinburnu, then change to the T1 tram for Eminonu or head on to Kabataş for the funicular to Taksim. Am I right?That is what I normally do. It takes in the region of 1h/1h15 from the airport to Eminönü. Add another 15/20 mins or so for Taksim. You can get a blow by blow account of the various options on Tom Brosnahan's Turkey Travel Planner (http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Transport/airport_trans.html)


Presumably, this means that if I enter on my Italian passport, I can just go right to the immigration booths?Correct. Enter Turkey with your Italian passport so as to save the money and queuing that would be involved if you had to get a visa. Also, if you travel business class on TK, there are some priority immigration lanes that you can use.

Agree with all previous replies. Personally, I'm rather taking a taxi. On a Saturday morning/noon I'd expect this takes around 30-45' to Eminonu and 10' more to Taksim. The fare should be around 45-50 YTL to Eminonu and about 70 YTL to Taksim, i.e. fairly cheap compared to most European cities - but obviously more expensive than public transportation.

Personally, I'd travel to Dolmahbace, though. I like the waterfront cafes there.:) It's about the same time/fare as to Taksim.

If you are paying 70TL to Taksim you are being screwed. The fare should even now should never read more than 40TL, 45 TOPS. How are they taking you, TEM? Who cares about other European cities, in dollar terms the fare is a bit more than twice what it was five years ago and three times what it cost 10 years ago ( I should note that I tool one yesterday and one three days before that)

What waterside cafes in Dolmabahce? There are some in Besiktas, and there are some in Ortakoy, but I am unaware of any such Dolmabahce cafes (and I should note that I am looking at the area right now as I type this).