Is the rail system there reliable? <BR>I was hoping to go to Canakkale and Ephesus, in addition to Istanbul. Thank you.

The usual public transportation in Turkey is by bus. The long-trip buses are excellent, and fairly inexpensive. There are double decker buses which even have no smoking areas. There is a lot of competition between bus lines, so take the more expensive ones, with the slick, modern buses. Some of them even come equipped with a stewardess. The rest stops are clean and modern, with reasonably priced Turkish food. If you are a man and will be traveling alone, be sure to take an English-Turkish dictionary. Not so much for catching the buses-- there's usually someone around who speaks English-- but for chatting with your fellow travelers. Gule gule!

I agree with the above posting that buses are the way to go. I've done many bus trips around south western Turkey and they really are nice. Do go with the most expensive - VARAN is the best (according to my Turkish husband). Their buses are totally non-smoking, they are very safe (both the buses and the passengers). I do disagree with the stops having reasonalbly priced meals - not all of them do. We always take a snack with us. Lastly, most bus trips are overnight. Hope this helps. <BR>

Not to belabor the point !!! but the buses really are very nice. In many of the ones we took, they came around with scented water for your hands. They really were very luxurious.

We took the train from Pamukkale to Istanbul. Left about 4pm and got there about 8am. We had a sleeping compartment for all 6 of us at about $15 each (2yrs ago) The ride was beautiful, the food was cheap and good in the dining car and we arrived in Istanbul well rested. The advantage of the train is that you can move around -- important if you travel with kids. We used the buses for shorter day trips.