Has anyone used an airport transfer service in istanbul? Can you recommend an English speaking company that will give us a fair deal and get us to the airport on time?
Posted by
Land of La
8669 posts
English is widely spoken in Istanbul. Why not take a taxi?
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
If you're staying in a hotel, many of them arrange transfers with their own staff. The transfer is often free one or both ways, if you stay more than a certain length of time. In our case, we had a free transfer on the way in, and paid €20 for the transfer back (since we were pleased with the hotel's driver on the way in). I wish I could be as positive about other aspects of our hotel (the Sarniç Hotel, recommended in Rick's book); the breakfast was fine, but everything else was not, and we wouldn't stay there again.
Our other hotel was a small guesthouse with only 9 rooms, so they didn't have an in-house transfer service. Instead, he just called a taxi when we were ready to leave, and this worked fine. This small guesthouse was the Peradays - highly recommend if you want a place in the Taksim/Beyoğlu area. Their website is http://www.peradays.com/hotel2.aspx. If you then click "HOME" on the top, you'll get a video about the hotel.
Only potential problem with a taxi - note that Istanbul has two airports. Be sure to specify if you need Atatürk or Sabiha Gökçen.
We found lots of English in Istanbul (thankfully, since my Turkish is, shall we say, not quite fluent).
Posted by
OP
USA
139 posts
Thank you for the replies. I was stuck on a bad tour and wanted a back up in case they were not going to get me to the airport on time. I was not staying in a hotel and wanted something easy because it had been a long 10 days in Turkey. Luckily they did get me to the airport and I am home now.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15582 posts
Now I'm curious why your tour was so bad. If you want to vent. . .