Turkey In Brief

About Turkey

The country is surrounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean to the west and the Mediterranean to the south. Two straits (the Bosphorus and the Dardanelle) form gates to the inner Marmara Sea, dividing Thrace - the European part, and Anatolia - the Asian part of the country.

Turkey is truly the place where East and West meet. Click for More

How to Reach Ankara

By Air

Most of the airlines only fly to Atatürk Airport or Sabiha Gökçen Airport, which are in İstanbul. So you have to transfer to another vehicle - another airplane, train or bus.There are lots of bus companies routed between Ankara and İstanbul which is a 5-6 hours trip. Bus fares are around 40 TL one way. Also some of the local airlines can provide cheap tickets (AtlasJet, Onur Air, Pegasus, Anadolu Jet, Türk Hava Yolları (Turkish Airline). Ankara Esenboga Airport is 33 km (21 miles, about 40 minutes in normal traffic) northeast of the city center, reached by inexpensive (10-15 TL) airport shuttle bus (Havas) to/from the ASTI bus terminal or Ankara Gar train station. A metered taxi would cost about 60-80 TL. From the airport shuttle bus station in downtown Ankara (one near the Gar train station, and the other at the bus station ASTI), one can take a metered taxi to the hotel.

Turkish Airlines  www.thy.com 
Pegasus Airlines www.flypgs.com
Onur Air www.onurair.com.tr
AtlasJet www.atlasjet.com
Anadolu Jet www.anadolujet.com

Turkish Airlines (THY) at Esenboga Airport:  Tel: (+90 312) 398 0000 / 1517 or (+90 312) 398 0105. 
THY City Offices Tel: (+90 312) 428 0200.   Fax: (+90 312) 428 1681 
HAVAS Esenboga Airport   Tel: (+90 312) 398 0376 ext. 1601

By Bus

Using a bus to get into Turkey is another option. This is good and cheap if you're planning to get into Turkey from a nearby country such as Bulgaria, Romania or Greece. For Greece - Turkey routes you can even book tickets online through Varan Tourism for Thessaloniki - Istanbul. If you're planning to do that from a farther European country then it may get quite tiring, although you can at times find such a service, especially from Germany or Austria.
From Asia, you can take buses from Georgia to Turkey in both Batumi and Tbilisi but service is irregular and one should inquire around. From Armenia one can go through Georgia by bus to Turkey. From Iran there are buses to Turkey from Tabriz and from Syria one can get a minibus (shared taxi) from Aleppo to Adana. If you're starting your journey to Turkey in Damascus, you should get the bus to Aleppo and switch to shared taxi there.
Most of the intercity and international buses arrive at İstanbul Esenler Otogar from Europe.You can reach Ankara from İstanbul by three different ways again; bus, train and airplane.

The major bus companies are ;
Ulusoy - www.ulusoy.com.tr
Varan - www.varan.com.tr
Metro - www.metroturizm.com.tr
Nilüfer - www.niluferturizm.com.tr
Kamil Koç - www.kamilkoc.com.tr

By Sea

Most of the routes link Greek locations - mostly islands - with close-by Turkish locations and, a bit farther, Italy with Turkey. There are several companies operating such lines. A lot of travel agencies operate several routes between Greek Islands and Turkey and have an interesting sites where one can search for ferry departures and make reservations as well. If you're looking for a ferry from Italy to Turkey or vice-versa as well as alternatives to Greek-Turkey ferries, you should look on Aegean Ferry Services. They have a good map showing all of their ferry routes. One of the most interesting is their the ferry from Ancona to Çeşme.

By Train

Train journeys can be made to Istanbul directly from and via some of the major cities of Europe. You can reach Ankara by train after arriving at İstanbul.

For more information and fares: http://www.tcdd.gov.tr

By Private Car

You can come to Ankara by car. But we don't advise you to use this way because of the road conditions and custom regulations. The participants from İstanbul, Greece, Croatia, Romania, Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro may use this method.

General Route: Private car: London - Istanbul, approximately 3,000 km. Northern Route: Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Southern Route: Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Italy, with a ferry to Turkey.