laurig

Hello Travelers,
I'm planning a trip for us in May to Istanbul for a week.
One of the options is to add shuttle service to the hotel from the airport (and back) for about $50.00 per person. Is that a fair price? Is it necessary? Is there public transportation between the airport and Hagia Sophia (roughly were we will be staying).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Lauri

alanRow

http://www.ataturkairport.com/eng/2.php

It would be a lot quicker by the Metro system as otherwise you are looking at a minimum transfer time of an hour

laurie_ann

Don't know where you are staying but $50 pp sounds outrageous. Our hotel for staying more than 3 nights or something gave us free airport transportation. And many others we looked at in the same area and price range did too. www.ibrahimpasha.com. That was 2003 and I can see by their website now that the airport pickup is only 20 Euros (and not pp). And the hotel rooms looks highly upgraded. (and it was great then!) And taxis are not that expensive. We took taxis all over the city and even one for a special excursion to meet someone in the business district much farther than the airport would be from Sultanhamet (where Hagia Sophia is) and it was still only about $25.00.

AAFrequentFlyer

You're paying for the convenience of somebody standing outside of customs with a placecard with your name on it.

Any airport I have been to has limo/taxi stands either inside customs or just outside the door. Limos will be just a bit more expensive, taxis less, but either way you will pay a lot less than these pre-paid transfers. You walk up, pay and within a minute you're sitting in a limo/taxi. No need to pre-arrange.

Neopolitan

Every hotel I've heard of in Istanbul will provide a shuttle for free. Our hotel didn't even cost $100 a night and they provided free shuttle service. Yours is charging you $100 just for the service? I think they saw you coming. Is this being arranged by a travel agent by any chance?

AAFrequentFlyer

<b>Neapolitan</b>,

The Istanbul Conrad at ~$300 plus a night and the Istanbul Hilton at ~$250 plus a night will charge for limo service. I believe it's ~$75 per ride, not per person.

Taxi to these centrally located hotels OTOH will cost ~$15-20 all in.

sinan

Hi Lauri,

If you want you can take taxi and would be cheaper then $50 PP.

There is NO public transportation between Atatur Airport and Sultanahmet. There is METRO but I didn't use with my luggages. Tha's why I have no idea how you can go to Sultanahmet.

Have a nice trip in Turkey

Sinan Akdeniz

Neopolitan

I'm sorry about my information above. I forgot that expensive hotels will add on for transport. It's the less expensive ones that offer it for free. I wasn't thinking in terms of the luxury hotels where of course there is always an extra charge for everything. I'm not putting that down, just mentioning it as a fact. We had contacted four or five hotels in the &quot;old city&quot; and all offered free airport transfer -- but they were all three star hotels.

alanRow

&quot;There is NO public transportation between Atatur Airport and Sultanahmet.&quot;

But the Metro goes to the centre of Istanbul where OP can get a taxi to their hotel

MaggieOB

Just confirming what others have said---we will be in Istanbul later in April and the transfer from the airport is a courtesy. Were staying at the Celal Sultan.

madameX

$50 pp is outrageous, especially for where you are staying. We have stayed at hotels on the other side of the Golden Horn (FARTHER away) and had taxi fares of about $40 for the everything.

Some hotels have complimentary service; some do not. You should ask your hotel. If they don't offer this service, verify about how much you should expect to be charged. Confirm this BEFORE you get into the taxi -- many cabbies are honest, but this is probably the worst city in Europe for the number who try to overcharge (and I travel internationally and domestically a fair amount.)

I found that the shuttle services located in the airport will also be rather shameless in their charges.