How To Get Around Istanbul By Public Transportation

Planning your first travel to Istanbul and wondering how to get around? Istanbul has a fabulous public transportation system. It is cheap, reliable, and easy to navigate.

To use public transportation in Istanbul you must purchase an Istanbul Transport Card (Istanbul kart).

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What Is Istanbul Kart (Istanbul Card)

Istanbul kart is the only way to pay for using public transportation in Istanbul. It is a rechargeable card that is valid for all types of public transportation: metro, buses, trams, funiculars, and ferries. You can even use it to pay for public toilets around the city.

Istanbul Card is called Istanbul Kart in Turkish

The Istanbul kart can be used by up to five people, so you may not need to buy more than one. Children under the age of 6 travel for free. You can reload the Istanbul Card as many times as you need, up to the limit of 500 TL in a month.

Where To Buy Istanbul Kart

You can buy your Istanbul kart at vending machines in the metro stations, and tram stations. At Istanbul Airport the Istanbul Kart vending machines are located in the arrivals hall level -2.

There are blue and yellow vending machines. Only the yellow ones sell Istanbul kart. The blue ones are only for topping up the card.

Istanbul Card Price

The Istanbul kart price is 70 TL (2.13$) without any rides included in it.

Prices Of Public Transportation In Istanbul

A single trip by bus, tram, or ferry costs 17.70 TL (0.54$).

Ferry fares vary between 19.85 TL (0.60$) and 29.46 TL (0.90$) depending on the route. The ferry to the Princess Islands costs 57.94 TL (1.76$).

Ferries are one of the best transportation for getting around in Istanbul

The trip with Marmaray, the train that connects the European and Asian sides and runs under the water, costs 39.18 TL (1.19$). They used to charge the maximum amount at the beginning of your journey and returned the difference, if not the whole distance traveled, to the Istanbulkart at the end of the journey. This is not applicable to the anonymous (for tourists) Istanbul Kart anymore.

Note: Turkey suffers from huge inflation and prices are constantly changing. I do my best to keep the information accurate, but, please don’t blame me if the prices have changed. Anyway, public transportation in Istanbul is cheap and whatever small increase in prices won’t hurt any budget.

How To Reload Istanbul Card

Topping up your Istanbul kart is very easy. Go to a yellow machine.

These machines pretend to have a navigation menu in several languages, including English. From my own experience, I have never seen a machine with a working English menu. It does one step in English and then switches back to Turkish.

However, these machines are very easy to use. Place your card over the reader (a white window on the right). Wait a second for the machine to read the card and display the balance. Insert your bills. You will see the new balance on the screen. When you see the new balance, get your Istanbulkart.

The vending machines only accept banknotes and don’t give change. The total amount you put into the machine will be added to your Istanbul Card.

Often these machines refuse 100 and 50 TL banknotes.

Note: You can add up to 500 TL to one Istanbul kart in one month. This is an average of 20-25 rides.

The last time I was in Istanbul, they were testing a new contactless payment system that allows travelers to pay for public transportation using their credit or debit card or a mobile app. However, this contactless payment system is not yet 100 percent reliable.

Istanbul City Card

If you arrive in Istanbul at Istanbul Airport (IST), you may consider buying an Istanbul City Card. It includes a one-way free airport to city shuttle bus and 10 rides on a tram, ferry, metro, and bus. It is not rechargeable.

To wrap it up: Getting around in Istanbul by public transportation is easy and cheap. The only way to pay for the use of public transportation is with Istanbul Kart, which must be bought in advance.