Istanbul Public Transportation Complete Guide 2021

The large and beautiful city of Istanbul has a sophisticated public transportation system that serves one of the largest and most populated cities in the world. Whether you are coming to Istanbul as a tourist, student, businessman, or for any other purpose, it is very important to know how to go around the beautiful and congested city of Istanbul. We advise you to use public transportation in Istanbul especially in the central and tourist places such as Taksim, Sultan Ahmet, and so on, as it will be much easier and quicker. In this article, we are going to get you familiar with transportation systems in Istanbul as much as possible. From knowing all Public transportation methods and lines in Istanbul to prices of public transportation in Istanbul and useful mobile applications for Transportation in Istanbul, everything you need to know will be included in this blog post.

After the Municipality of Istanbul endorsed the second increase of Public transportation fares, a normal fare for all means of public transportation in Istanbul became between 4TL to 6 TL. However, there are different fares (cheaper) to students and people with certain criteria. Additionally, if you use public transportation daily, you can get a monthly pass for 316 TL for 180 points (credits). One trip by any Public transportation will cost you one credit except for Metrobus, which costs usually 2 credits. You must have Istanbulkart (Istanbul card) to be able to use Transportation in Istanbul.

An amagnetic card that everyone living in Istanbul should have. You must have an Istanbul card to be able to use public transportation in Istanbul but bear in mind that minibusses (Dolmuş) in Istanbul accepts only cash payments, at least for now. You can use Istanbul card to pay not only for all Transportation means in Istanbul, but you can pay for other things such as entry fees for some public toilets. Additionally, you can pay for Havaist Bus operates from and to Istanbul New Airport.

If you wonder where can you buy an Istanbul card, it is available in kiosks at the majority of stations of Public transportations including at Istanbul airports as well, you also can top up (load credit) to your Istanbul card from the same yellow Kiosks. Also, you can top up the transportation card from different mobile applications. The price of an Istanbul card is 10 TL. It is very important to know that that yellow machines (kiosks) don’t give change in return which means that you need to calculate exactly how much money is sufficient for your stay in Istanbul and insert a suitable amount of money in the machine.

You can buy the Istanbulkart upon your arrival at the New Istanbul Airport (IST), from the 24 yellow/blue kiosks located at the second arrivals floor, or from the Havaist (airport shuttle bus) counters located at the exit gates.

It is the basic and most common one. If you use this card for traveling in Istanbul, you will be charged 4- 6 TL for one trip by any means of Public Transportation in Istanbul. This card generally can be used by different people, even it was possible to pay for your friends using the same card at the same time. However, this is no longer available during the pandemic time.

It is a card made for passengers who use Public Transportation on daily basis and would like to have a monthly pass. 317 TL  is the cost of a monthly pass package. Istanbul Mavi Card monthly pass comes with 180 points. One point is what will cost you for every time you use public transportation in Istanbul, except for the Metrobus as it costs 2 points for 1 trip. It is important to know that this card is only useable by one person who purchased the card (his\her personal information will be printed on the card)

There are some special Istanbul cards for some passengers with certain criteria such as students. Students card is made for students who study in an educational institution in Istanbul and it the fare for a student is 2 TL while the normal fare is about 4 TL. Additionally, there is a free-pass Istanbul card that is made for people with certain criteria including the elderly.

An application created by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. With MobIETT, you can instantly access all the information you will need about public transportation from your smartphone at any time! For example, you can know bus stops and routes,  bus location, the nearest bus stop to you.

Another application that provides you instant information about routes and stops of different public transportation means in Istanbul. After choosing your destination and your location, you can know the best way to go there. Additionally, you can see the tracking of the bus’s location, in other words, you can know how many minutes are left until your bus arrives.

Probably everyone is familiar with google maps but some people are not fully aware of the public transportation section in the app. After choosing your destination and location, the app will show you the different routes that are available for you. It is important to know that these applications are very useful but at the same time, they are not 100% accurate. Therefore, if you are having an important meeting or something like that, make sure to add extra time on the amount of time needed for your trip that the app shows you.

In Istanbul, there are different large-scale transportation means that span the most of districts in the City which are the Istanbul Metrobus line, Istanbul Metro lines, Istanbul Tramways, Busses, Minibusses, Ferries, and the sea busses. In addition, there are other small-scale means of transportation that are mainly in touristic places such as  The Nostalgic Tramway, Funicular lines, and cable car lines.

Istanbul Metrobüs is basically similar to Metro but instead of railway vehicles, it has special busses. It is the most important public transportation in Istanbul as it is a 50-km long line and has a dedicated lane on the E-5 highway. Metrobus line pass through the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. It is also the only public transportation means in Istanbul that works 24 hours with high vehicle frequency. Istanbul Metrobus’s full Fare is 6 TL for the normal passenger. However, you can get refund money to the transportation card based on the length of travel distance. there are machines just next to the exit gates of the Metrobus station where you can get your money to your card.

If you have read all this article, we hope it was useful for you. For more blog posts about Istanbul and Turkey, you are welcome to browse our articles from here and If you are interested in buying a property for sale in Istanbul, you can browse different real estate investments in Istanbul here.