This bus takes you from the airport in Istanbul (Ataturk) right into the center of the area…read more(Taksim) and it stops regularly. It looks like it does have other buses for other stops, but Taksim was most common. It can be found as soon as you leave the airport as there are always several lined up by the taxis and many say Havatas and Taksim on the outside. It's approximately 30 minutes from the airport to the final destination in Taksim and about 22 Turkish Lira (from other reviewers it looks like it can vary depending on day) but it ends up being around 7 dollars. Driving in Istanbul looks to me like an insurance claim waiting to happen. The only thing that worried me about taking this bus, was wondering where I would end up (how close to hotel), so attaching map pic I used to help me decide where to book. If you don't take the Havatas, taking the metro would mean changing several trains from the airport and would also take more than an hour. The only other good option (in my experience) is to uber as it's much cheaper than a taxi in Istanbul and there are a lot of uber drivers.

Service from Sabiha Gokcen airport to Taksim was 15TL per person and well worth it. A taxi would…read morehave cost us at least 100TL. The Havatas shuttle has a couple of different routes. Make sure to double check your destination with the driver. Tickets are purchased on the shuttle bus. The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes from 4am to 1am. I would definitely use this service again.

This is the best company!!! My family and I have used them multiple times. anytime we…read moretravel to Istanbul these ppl are our go too. NEVER disappointing! always professional, helpful and courteous. thank you for always making us feel like family!

We have used this service for both to and from the airport and during our stay in Istanbul…read more The driver was very polite, helpfull and carefull. The car was comfy and clean. I can not compare the prices with other services but it was really cheap comparing back home. If you consider crazy drivers and street taxis of old cars and if you are not suicidal, use this service. We totally felt safe and we were really happy that we chose them. Their website is istanbulrides.com.

Much larger airport than I had imagined. A bit confusing when going through security. There are…read moreseveral to pass. There also two parallel lines that do the same thing, except one line might have one agent, while the others may have 2 or 3. We started at the first and realized there's just one woman working it. We moved to the next one when we saw that the other one was moving faster due to having multiple workers. At the actual gate, there's another security person checking your boarding card and passport to enter the enclosed area. Several entitled people decided they didn't need to wait and pushed to enter from the side, causing a scene. At boarding time, you have to show your passport and boarding card again. It's safe, but it's a lot of checks. Allow enough time.

This airport is extremely security conscious. You have to clear security twice before you get to…read moredepartures. It is a very clean and very busy. It's an airport. There are so many options for purchasing duty free and gadgets. That's all.

The Havaist airport shuttle service is the cheapest way to get to Taksim Square in downtown…read moreIstanbul. When arriving to Istanbul always consider this super convenient option. It is cheap and hassle free. Taxis are expensive. Although I have not tried any metro yet. Always consider the shifting magnitude of Istanbul traffic when planning your trip. It can take more than an hour if traffic is heavy. I used to take Havas airport shuttle at Ataturk International Airport, now it is basically the same service at the new airport run by Havaist. It is important to keep in mind that you cannot buy a ticket with cash. You can use an Istanbul Metro card or a credit card ONLY.

Havaist is a bus service that services the city of Istanbul and its 2 airports (New Istanbul…read moreAirport and Sabiha Gokcen). Havaist has set pickup locations throughout Istanbul. However, there are different stops for the two airports. The New Istanbul Airport offers more pick up and drop off locations than Sabiha Gokcen. For example, there is only a pick up and drop off in Eminonu and Sultanahmet for the New Istanbul Airport. To leave more about the pick up and drop off locations, use this link (https://hava.ist/en) or download the app. In regards to going from the airports to the city, I exclusively use this service because it is significantly cheaper (18 TL). Do not use a taxi! The New Istanbul Aiport has so many drop off points (17 I think). When you go to exit the airport, you will see signs for each of the drop off points. For the Sabiha Gokcen Airport, I have only been dropped off at Taksim. This may be the last drop off point. It's a lot cheaper to use a taxi from this airport than the New Istanbul Airport. Keep in mind that you must use a credit card to purchase an Istanbul card to use this service from the New Istanbul Airport. However, if you fly into Sabiha Gokcen, you can use TL to pay for your bus ticket. Buses are comfortable and pretty clean, especially the ones for the New Istanbul Airport. This is the cheapest method to get to and from the airport. I recommend using Havaist over a taxi.

This bus takes you directly from the two Istanbul international airports to Taksim Square (almost…read moreright there) and then back again. The price is reasonable. I had some great naps on the bus. You can pick up the bus at either the international or domestic terminal.

Very easy, affordable way to get from Taksim in the European side of Istanbul to either Attaturk or…read moreSabiha Gokcem airport. The shuttle leaves every half an hour. I took the shuttle to Sabiha Gokcem and it took about 45 minutes (although on the website they said it takes an hour and a half). This cost us 14 Lira per person. Just walk on the bus and pay once the bus ride starts. We were not sure which shuttle to take to make it to the airport in time and messaged the company on Facebook and they got back to us promptly. I would definitely use this service is you are staying near the Taksim area

We took two tours with this company, a half-day tour and a full-day tour and both were…read morewell-organized, and reasonable for the services provided. I did extensive online research for Istanbul guides and found them to be very expensive. However, this company's tours were a good value for the money. On the full day tour, lunch at a hotel was included and it was a fine meal. The guides were well qualified, although it was sometimes difficult to understand their English. In the morning of the full-day tour, however, each person got a set of headphones to carry/wear as we sat on the bus and as we walked about. This was a very good system to insure that people at the back of the bus or on the outer ring of the crowd could hear. I highly recommend this company and suggest that you avoid private guides that will charge as much as $200 to $300 per day. We paid 118 Euros for two people for a full-day tour including lunch The tour covered the major sites in Sultanahmen (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, etc.) and also offered a wonderful ship tour of the Bosphorus.

in istambul we purchased an excursion as part of our (excellent) cruise on Viking Cruise Line. We…read moreleft the ship on bus, drove to the Blue Mosque, then walked to the Sultans Palace and finally to the spice bazaar. Our Tura Turizm tour guide was excellent. She was good at keeping the group moving, spoke English well, was enthusiastic about sharing information about the sites, had a nice voice, gave us plenty of time to see things and seemed very sincere in wanting us to appreciate what we were seeing. She gets an A+. The last stop was the spice bazaar. I'm glad we went because it's definitely something unique. The noise, the smells, the building...all made for a great experience. Our guide did give us tips on shopping in the bazaar, acknowledging that there were some shops that could be "trusted" more than others. So, she brought us to a specific "trustworthy" shop where they gave us samples and explained their merchandise . I bought a couple of things, and the salesperson used his calculator to assure me of the price in U.S. dollars. When I paid for my items, I was encouraged to use a credit card instead of cash (hmm?). Before I signed the credit slip I asked to know the amount in U.S. dollars and, was told the correct amount. I signed, left, and returned home to a credit card charge $100+ dollars over the what should have been charged. The credit card company said I could dispute it, but needed more information from the store. I tried to contact them multiple times, incliding via the email address on their website, but got no reply. I learned a lesson (use cash in a place like that) and came home with Spice bazaar story to share, but I can't help thinking that the tour guide would be really embarrassed to know that this happened in the one store that she recommended. If Tura Turizm would have responded to me in any fashion, I probably wouldn't be writing this tome of a review. Oh, and the store in the Bazaar was named Bogazicibah.

We took a guided tour of Ephasus in Turkey as one of the shore excursions from our cruise. The…read moreguide himself was SUPERB: warm, knowledgeable, and fascinating. The bus had greatwestern-style air-conditioning (!) and was a welcome respite after the heat of the day walking through the ruins, which were among the most incredible we've ever seen. Our guide was able to bring the ancient world to life with his stories blending culture, history, and myth. Yet, one major drawback: upon our arrival in Kusadasi, at the end of the tour, we were taken on an "educational visit" of the carpet store Topkapi to learn how Turkish rugs/carpets are made. This was simply a sales job, and a badly done one at that. After an interesting demo of silkworms and weaving, we were ushered into a large room (seated at the back - truly trapped!) and shown carpets. The loud, aggressive sales manager was fakely over-friendly and frankly dishonest; he said several things about rug prices, for example, which we later learned in Istanbul were not true. Not to mention that his prices were grossly inflated. It's too bad that this company chose to end a wonderful tour with this charlatan: we are sure that American consumers are far more intelligent that he supposes. They kept telling us that they "didn't want us to get a negative idea about Turkey or carpet salesman"; unfortunately they imprinted a further stereotype.

This is a cruise company located at the Eminonu ferry terminal that does cruises along the…read moreBosphorus River. Some tour companies will try to sell you some package that includes this or will be a guided bus to the terminal, but you can show up here yourself and get it for much cheaper. There is a metro stop right near the terminal. Even the full cruise is only 25 lira (less than 4 US dollars!). Speaking of which, they offer a full 6 hour cruise which goes farther north along the river up to the Black Sea, but I do not recommend it unless you really have a lot of free time. The short 2 hour cruise was enough to see the city views of both the European and Asian sides of Istanbul and passes under many magnificent bridges. There are also some loudspeakers that give some history of what you are seeing, but I found the commentary fairly boring.

We couldn't leave Istanbul without a cruise on the Bosphorus, but were hestitant to take the full 7…read morehour cruise. Our hotel suggested a short 2 1/2 hour Bosphorus cruise operated by Sehir Hatlari. We took the tram to Eminonu stop and headed to the Bosphorus Pier, next to the Galata Bridge, and bought our Short Bosphorus Tour tickets for 10 TL. The boat has two interior levels, but join the crowd for a seat on the top outside deck for an open view as you cruise down the Bosphorus. The boat makes a stop at Ortakoy on both legs of the cruise. The tour takes you past the Bosphorus Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and as far as Istinye before making a U-turn and return trip. You have a great view of the European and Asian side of Istanbul, as well of palaces, the Ortakoy Mosque, Rumeli Fortress, Anatolian Fortress, and the ritzy residences and yachts lining the Bosphorus. (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/%C5%9Fehir-hatlar%C4%B1-istanbul?select=bxGT4_AHtwpU3Lj7CJ9kDQ#enf7GhPkxMJNAImICkh1kQ)( http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/%C5%9Fehir-hatlar%C4%B1-istanbul?select=bxGT4_AHtwpU3Lj7CJ9kDQ#3gpMJypNwdvLk0DUzhRfzA)( http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/%C5%9Fehir-hatlar%C4%B1-istanbul?select=bxGT4_AHtwpU3Lj7CJ9kDQ#dbrGdO7vCoj1gCdCSHhc8w)( http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/%C5%9Fehir-hatlar%C4%B1-istanbul?select=bxGT4_AHtwpU3Lj7CJ9kDQ#C887uP3yOsSxvbhu4cdz8A) We were so happy that we were able to take on this short Bosphorus cruise to take in more of the sites of Istanbul. At 10 TL or $5, what a bargain!