hfly

Stewie, I have never taken the bus, I can tell you that it will be from the -2 floor however. You will exit customs, walk left walk almost to the end and then either take the elevator or ramps down 4 floors to -2. I would suggest the elevators before exiting as they are less crowded. The walk should take maybe 5-7 minutes. I think you can use the Istanbul Kart, as well as cash or credit card, seems that in the morning they run at once and hour at a quarter past, it costs 96 Lira, is schedules at TWO HOURS and makes 4 stops along the way. i would just go by taxi............

Stewie Mac

(And correcting hfly on a couple of points - as he says, he’s never taken the bus!)

head to the far RIGHT and down to -2 to get the bus, if you walk fast it’s only two minutes from leaving customs (made the bus by 30 seconds) and they take card or cash but not istanbulkart. It was 75 minutes to Besiktas, so about 2 hours to Kadikoy including the ferry, slower than a taxi but not massively and made a nice change… took the same route in reverse today and without the queue yesterday afternoon behind people trying to get over the bridge it was only 50 minutes from Besiktas to the airport.

hfly

You are right, it is "walk right". I disagree with the 2 minute thing, but it depends what "after customs" means. If you mean once you have cleared the customs door, or after you have cleared the customs agent, but may be blocked by clueless people at the exit doors and then a bunch of over enthusiastic friends and family that weave and stop in front of you in the funnel? It is a good 600 meters to the elevator or rampways down, so I still stick by my 5-7 minutes estimate though. While we have no idea where in Moda/Kadikoy you are going, I can say that I recently made the drive myself in about an hour, but like anything in Istanbul, everything is traffic dependent.

Grigoris

My first time in IST, the arrival is quite late so taxi is the only option to get to Sirkeci.
The airport page https://www.istairport.com/en/passen...taxi?locale=en says I can take a taxi either from International Flights Passenger exit doors, which I suppose concerns Arrival level 1 or from Departure level 2.
Is any of these two places better?
Is in practice BiTaksi possible? I’ve read the pick-up point is in the area of Door 7 of Departure level.

akm

Reviving a somewhat dormant thread: My flight arrives after mid-night at the new airport and I suspect I will be done with immigration/baggage etc. around 2am. I am wondering if there is a way to spend around 3-4 hours at the airport (landside) before heading out to the city, perhaps using the now functional metro. I could go to a close to a nearby hotel (though the airport Yotel is way too expensive) but then again I will have to deal with a taxi situation, First time in Istanbul and I hear horror stories about taxis and would like to avoid a late night unpleasantness if possible. Not sure if the airport bus works at night (I will be staying in Taksim area). I do not think I can use the Priority Pass lounge since that will be on the airside (and besides they will want a departure boarding card, I guess). Advice/suggestions will be welcome.

ISTFlyer

Most airport buses run 24/7 including the Havaist coach to Taksim.

If you would like to spend 3-4 hours landside at IST, some restaurants/cafés at landside arrivals are also open 24/7.

I would agree that not paying the YOTEL landside is a great idea as it's certainly overpriced.

akm

Thanks. I was not sure if the Havaist runs 24/7. Their website is not so great but I will check again. If the bus takes us close enough to a Taksim hotel (we might go to the Intercontinental), we might just do that. Thanks.

Stewie Mac

hmm - I find the website excellent (hava.ist) with everything available in English. Anyway, bus 16 runs to Taksim at 03:05, 04:05 and 05:05, says 90 minutes on the website but certainly for the first two of those I'd expect you be in Taksim in less than an hour...

ISTFlyer

Correct, however, be aware that night buses do run via 4. Levent, Zincirlikuyu and Beşiktaş so it's a slightly longer journey but the full journey wouldn't take longer than 60 minutes at those times of the day.

ffgap

Post deleted

aster

If arriving from BCN and connecting to SIN (both flights with Turkish Airlines) do you have to take all laptops/tablets/liquids out all over again for screening or do you proceed straight to the next gate without waiting in any lines?

DaveS

From BCN I think you would arrive 'clean'. That means you can proceed straight to the departures lounge if you have your boarding pass for the next flight. Shortly after getting off the aircraft you should see someone directing transfer passengers up the ramp. Make sure to go that way and not follow everyone else to arrivals. This way you avoid security screening again.

gnomey

does anyone have recommendations on hotel near istanbul new airport, with great wifi for video calls?

every trip of mine to IST airport - the wifi is atrocious.

fredc84

Just returned from Istanbul and, of course, NOW I find this thread. Though, I'm slightly glad I didn't...we might have taken the bus into the city instead of the new M11 metro line. We were staying south of Taksim so we did the M11, with a connection to the M2 to Sishane stop. Comfortable ride, very new cars (on the M11), but long. I think it was close to an hour from the airport to getting off the M2. The M11 has it's own pricing (I think about double the other routes fee) but was still very affordable compared to here in NYC. The only pain was the connection between the two lines...probably close to a kilometer walk between them (at least there were moving sidewalks a large part of the way).

edit: And, of course, I could have looked down the threads list to see the dedicated one about the M11.

bertles86

Folks, a bit of advice from FF using IST.
If I'm flying IST-WAW at 0800 on a Saturday morning with checked luggage, is 0600 early enough to walk into departures?

And any good breakfast spots in departures?