Request tips/corrections of Istanbul airport processing

I was on a RS tour and just arrived home. There was an Intrepid tour staying at our tour hotel in Istanbul.

Your arrival steps are essentially correct. Istanbul airport is enormous. It was a long walk from the plane to passport control. I suggest using the first open bathroom you see as you're walking (if you need one). My e-visa wasn't even looked at though I had printed it out and handed it to the passport control person. Baggage claim is just after that (I had no bags). There are ATMs in the arrival area that are likely a better choice than using currency exchange, but you do you. I provided a response on this thread re: Welcome Pickups and the time to town, I stayed in old town but the distances are similar.

Enjoy your trip, Turkey is simply amazing.

We did the Turkish Airline SeaTac flight in June this year.

1, Be prepared for a late departure and late arrival. This flight is a turnaround on both ends and is chronically late.
2. Signage is good but it's a very long walk to immigration. If you have the e visa it is all one stop. Likely to be substantial lines.
3. Baggage claim was easy.
4. Currency exchange (cash machines) are all grouped pretty far to the right after exiting baggage. Different banks have different fees so do a little research before you leave. Note that credit and debit cards are fine for museums, restaurants and most stores We did not use much cash.
5. The exit we used lead right to the taxi stand. Lots of taxi's and a greeter there to "help". There are two kinds of taxis - black (more expensive and more comfortable) and I think yellow or green. I believe all are metered. Traffic will be heavy and slow at your arrival time and the meter will be running. Your taxi cost estimate sounds about right.

Enjoy your trip, Robbie (in Puyallup)

Robbie & CL, thank you for your helpful details and reassuring responses!

The Rick Steves forum always has the best quality input.

I am nervous but excited about being on the Intrepid tour. I was told our group of 15 is made up of Australians and Kiwis… and the 2 of us Americans. I think it will make the Gallipoli tour, and bus rides, extra interesting.

Don't worry about your tour, the Aussies I chatted with were a delight. Just don't let them talk you into believing Vegemite is a legit food.

Not sure which tour you're taking, but make sure you have sturdy comfortable shoes - there are a lot of uneven stairs and terrain in many of the historical places and you'll not regret having good footwear.

I’m on the Intrepid Best of Turkey 15 days, and it shares about half of the itinerary of the Rick Steve’s tour. It’s more active, including hiking on the Mediterranean, so you can bet I’ve been breaking in my sturdy walking shoes! It also includes a day of sailing the Mediterranean, walking Goreme Valley, and an internal return flight from Cappadocia. So far I’ve traveled with Rick Steves, Adventures Abroad (Canadian), and REI (when they still had international tours). I’m in my 50s, and my son is in his 20s. We are so excited!

I’m in Istanbul right now (wrapping up an 18-day trip tomorrow). Your steps are essentially correct, as is the advice given above.

I’d never “change” money (use an ATM to pull cash from your home bank account). There are non-bank ATMs scattered throughout the airport as you make your way to the baggage claim area, and more of those in the baggage claim area itself; I’d skip those in favor of (many) actual bank-affiliated ATMs out in the Arrivals hall.

When you exit all the entry formalities/tasks, into the Arrivals Hall, just go up to the top level (Departures level). Taxis are right outside and plentiful. Before you jump in a cab, make sure 1) the cabbie knows where your destination is (ours got lost, even though we are in one of the biggest hotels in the city), and 2) the meter is working and will be used, and 3) the credit card machine is working (if you plan to use a card to pay for your ride), drivers want you to pay cash if they can get you to and may “discover” the CC machine is broken upon arrival.

Our taxi from the airport to our major hotel near Taksim Square (new city) was 700 lira (with a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic and getting “lost”).

Huge airport, expect lots of walking. It’ll stretch your legs after that 12 hour flight.

Thank you David.

Any other tips regarding Turkey? 18 days sounds like a good trip. (We’ll be there 21 days)

To clarify: Our trip has been about 18 days, but we spent most of that in Malta - with just the last 5 days here in Istanbul. We head back to Seattle from Istanbul on Tuesday.

This is actually our second visit to Turkey. We spent 17 days around western Turkey in the winter of 2020 - we had planned to end that trip with 4-5 days in Istanbul, but by the time we reached Istanbul, the pandemic was blowing up, countries were closing borders, flight schedules were collapsing, and airlines were parking jets at desert airports worldwide. We had to cut that trip short and scramble to come home early, giving us just one day in Istanbul before grabbing a flight home. So while this current trip was focused primarily on Malta (which we found fascinating), we decided to return home from Istanbul after stopping for 5 days here. So our time here in Istanbul represents something of a “pandemic closure” for us.

They Might Be Giants sang “No you can’t go back to Constantinople” but we did go back to Istanbul.

General advice for Turkey? Hmmm… Always pay in Turkish Lira if you can. Allow more time than you think you’ll need for most things. Expect crowds. Be adventurous. Only allow bottled water into your mouth or nose (don’t brush your teeth with tap water or use it to rinse your toothbrush). Go to a Hamam (Turkish bath). Don’t drive in the big cities (driving outside the major cities is pretty easy). If traveling long distance domestically, fly - internal flights are incredibly cheap. We found the “Istanbul Museum Card” a complete waste of money, it has proved 100% useless on this trip - not a single place we’ve been has accepted it, and there is no “skip the line” privilege anywhere (this was a contrast from our last trip when we bought a regional museum card, which was a good deal…go figure). Istanbul’s public transit system is great, extensive, and worth figuring out. Initial purchase of and setup of the transit card was extremely confusing and puzzling (every day we see bunches of perplexed foreign tourists clustered around the machines, and often a local “helper” trying to help, and occasionally scam, confused tourists). We figured it out eventually and have been heavily using the system but initially it was very puzzling and frustrating. There’s no need to pay a “helper” just keep at it, try a different machine, and most of all try crisp, clean 100 lira bills (machines are very picky about bill conditions); some (relatively few?) machines take credit/debit cards, those help simplify things. Sadly, and to my great disappointment, we found a LOT of details in the current Rick Steves Istanbul book to be either out of date, or just horribly wrong (maps very inaccurate and descriptions/directions very badly scrambled). Expect some surprises, be flexible and roll with the punches. Appreciate the very amplified “call to prayer” (once I started thinking of it as jazz vocal improv, I’ve really been enjoying it). Don’t be afraid to wander the old neighborhoods. Enjoy the Turkish toilets, if you’re lucky enough to be in a hotel that has a traditional one (trust me). OK, clearly TMI.

That’s enough. Turkey is amazing and awesome. Don’t worry. You’ll have a great time!

Traffic is seriously bad, so I wouldn't count on the trip from the airport taking only an hour.

I think it's easier to feed currency into the IstanbulKart machines than to use a credit card, because in my experience you can't count on convincing the machine to display instructions in English. I believe most of the people offering assistance at the IstanbulKart machines are genuinely trying to help. It benefits them if you can complete your transaction quickly, which isn't likely to happen if you're a newbie. Left to your own devices, you may struggle, and the line will stop moving. There's nearly always a line.

Basic local transportation is usually just 15 TL per ride. There are no free transfers, so if it takes a Metro (subway) ride and two buses to get somewhere, you'll have to tap the card each time for a total cost of 45 TL. Ferries may cost more. Still, it's hard to spend a lot of money with fares so cheap. Don't overload the card.

If you spot the tourist office at the airport (I did not), it would be smart to try to buy an IstanbulKart there so you don't have to deal with the vending machine for that necessary first step. I think the starter card costs 120 TL and comes preloaded with 30 TL of credit.

The steps you’ve outlined and others have echoed are similar to what I recently experienced. Choose an exit door that displays “taxi” sign overhead. Please note that once you exit the airport building (i.e. looking for a taxi) you cannot turn around and re-enter. You’ll see security personnel with weapons guarding the exit doors. Not sure if they are police, military, or other types. In order to go back inside you’ll need to use a main entrance and go through a light security protocol which is there for everyone wishing to enter the building.

My taxi cost was about 800 lira to Kadikoy/Galata.

acraven and David,
you’ve provided so much useful information that I will slowly read, and reread, your posts.

That’s helpful to hear about the museum pass. We intend to spend a full day at the Archaeological Museum, and perhaps a half day at Topkapi Palace (specifically the Treasury).

I will also try hard to locate the Tourism Office at the airport to buy our IstanbulKart cards. We will need them for 5-6 days of sightseeing, and our Airbnb is located 5 minutes from the Tophane station on Tram Line 1.

We will spend 1 day on a 6 hour foodie tour, that kicks off at the Spice Bazaar and includes ferry to the Asian side, and 10 food stops. (I have a stomach ache just thinking about it.). 😂
We intend to visit the Basilica Cistern, eat Turkish Delight, and have fish sandwiches on the waterfront.

Thank you for your tips!

Good to know, Raymonelee!

The only time I have heard a person talk about a negative experience in Istanbul it was about the touts. So I do recommend that you have a strategy to deal with them. I am in my 50's and travel with my 20's son and RS Best of Turkey was our first trip together.

It is our American culture that demands a polite response and conversation. We did get wrangled into visiting a shop by a friendly gentleman who helped us find the Basilica Cistern entrance. He was waiting for us at the exit. I was polite and allowed us to be escorted to a rug shop. Looking back it was a fabulous experience. We received a nice lunch and tea and witnessed the whole show of flipping carpets. I did purchase a kilim that I love to this day, to the disappointment of the seller (due to my small purchase). By the end of our trip we were much better at giving a friendly but firm no. We also stated we had purchased 2 rugs already and were out of funds. We had several entertaining interactions with back and forth conversation that we enjoyed. Don't take it too seriously, don't get wrangled, hold your ground.

In all of my travels, I found Turks to be the most friendly and engaging people. Yes, even more than Irish folks.

My son and I have taken several more trips together, but I will always treasure that trip to Turkey.

I think it's easier to feed currency into the IstanbulKart machines
than to use a credit card, because in my experience you can't count on
convincing the machine to display instructions in English.

There is a trick, I figured out how to make the machines display in English - a critical but surprisingly hard-to-accomplish task. Here’s how to do it. For context, the machines default to Turkish language (not surprisingly), but obviously support dozens of languages, all displayed as flags in a long, jumbled column. On the left side of the screen, there are four buttons in a column. Ignore the middle two buttons, you only need the top or bottom buttons. Press the bottom button, repeatedly, and watch the flags (and languages) change. To get to English, watch for the UK “Union Jack” flag. Just keep pressing the bottom button to scroll down until you get English, if you overshoot, press the top button to scroll backup. Once English pops up, press one of the (3?) buttons on the right side, to either buy a brand new transit card (I think not all machines have this option), or to add money (top off) an existing card. IMPORTANT: the system times out and resets the language to Turkish surprisingly quickly (feels like about 3 seconds, is probably more like 10-20 seconds but is way too short for most confused foreigners- this is the root cause of most trouble people have, I think). So once you get English to come up, be ready to make choices quickly, or you probably will need to start over (maybe many times). Find English and be ready for action. ALL SCREENS TIME-OUT AND REVERT TO TURKISH FASTER THAN YOU EXPECT THEM TO. The key is to be ready to move each time the screen changes.

I believe most of the people offering assistance at the IstanbulKart
machines are genuinely trying to help. It benefits them if you can
complete your transaction quickly, which isn't likely to happen if
you're a newbie. Left to your own devices, you may struggle, and the
line will stop moving. There's nearly always a line.

True. We saw many locals and other travelers attempting to help others (including trying to help us), generally to no avail. However, we also encountered a man who appeared to be making a business of helping others for a fee. He had a large bag of “new” cards he was offering to sell. He claimed the cards were brand new and had (I think) 50 to 70 lira loaded (don’t recall the exact number). He was selling them for greater than the actual cost. At one point (before we figured out the English trick) in frustration my spouse started negotiating with him on price (she enjoys haggling, I do not), before I put a stop to that and dragged her away. It probably was a tiny markup (10 or 30 lira), small change for us) but I worried we could have been buying old/empty /useless cards and I wanted no part of it. YMMV.

Bottom line: the machines used to buy or add money to a card will probably confuse and frustrate you. Just keep pressing the language button until you see English, then - without wasting any time - get your business done before each screen reverts to Turkish, and it becomes quite easy (though it is very picky about accepting old/crumpled bills).

Good luck (and don’t hesitate!).

Unfortunately, there's at least one machine outside Sirkeci Station where David's technique didn't work for me. The language scroll just sat where it was, on Turkish. Those machines are very heavily used; I imagine it's difficult to keep them functioning well. The machines at the airport Metro station are probably rather new, so one hopes they work as intended.

Once I started using currency, I didn't worry about the language. I just slapped my card onto the glass screen on the right of the machine and inserted my bill--nothing larger than 100 TL. I believe if you need to use more than one bill, you will have to do multiple transactions, removing and repositioning the IstanbulKart each time.

Just to add that the e-visa is usually hooked into your passport these days. Years ago, I would have to present a printed e-visa, but now the system seems to know about it automatically when they scan your passport. (I still keep a printed copy of the e-visa with me, just in case.)

Carla, I will be on that flight from Seattle too, but not until the end of the month. All the info about the Instanbulkart is great. Thanks for posting!

Have a great trip!