Before you arrive in Istanbul: IST vs SAW, airport routes and border backup

IST and SAW aren't interchangeable

Istanbul Airport (IST) and Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) sit on opposite sides of a genuinely massive city. Before you book a flight or your first place to stay, work out the whole trip from the airport to your address — not just the ticket price.

Getting from the airport into the city

Istanbulkart and fares

Istanbulkart, the reloadable transit card, costs 165 TL — that's a one-time card fee, not travel credit, so budget for both. A single ride on metro, tram, bus, ferry or the funicular is a flat 35 TL; Marmaray (the cross-Bosphorus rail line) is 55 TL, and Metrobüs (the BRT line) is 40 TL. Transfer to a different mode within 2 hours on the same card and the next fare or two comes at a discount. Buy or top up at the yellow-and-blue Biletmatik machines — at every metro station, near major tram/bus stops, and at both Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen; they take cash. One card can be tapped for up to 5 people in a row, so a group doesn't need to buy one each.

Taxis — know the going rate before you get in

The 2026 official tariff is a 54 TL opening fare plus roughly 36 TL/km — worth reconfirming close to your trip since Istanbul revises taxi tariffs often. If a driver crosses a Bosphorus bridge, expect a toll add-on — a detailed 2026 thread in r/istanbul put the real added cost at roughly 100 TL for the older bridges, more for the new tunnel or third bridge. The most common overcharging patterns, especially around IST/SAW and tourist areas: a driver claims the meter is "broken" and demands a fixed price (often close to double); switches to the higher night (gece) tariff during the day; or takes a deliberately longer route. Reported real-world gaps: a legitimate airport-to-Sultanahmet ride (roughly 250–350 TL) turns into 450–600 TL, and a Sultanahmet–Taksim ride (roughly 150–200 TL) turns into 400–600 TL for travelers who didn't book through an app. The fix that actually works: book through BiTaksi or Uber (Uber now also books licensed yellow taxis in Istanbul, not just private drivers) — both lock in the route and driver before the ride starts, so there's much less room for the driver to freelance the fare.

Don't rely on one card or one app

Roaming, your bank card, or a ride-hailing app can all just fail to work the moment you land — it happens more often than you'd think. Carry some cash you can actually get to, keep your phone charged, and have your route written down somewhere that doesn't need the internet to open.

Test your daily commute before you sign anything

Before you sign a long lease, actually make the trip once, at the time of day you'll really be commuting. In Istanbul, distance is measured in transfer time and traffic, not kilometers on a map — a short-looking hop can eat an hour if it means changing lines twice.

Driving license — check the script before you drive

Whether your foreign driving license lets you drive here depends on the script it's printed in, not just which country issued it. A tourist can drive on a foreign license for up to 6 months only if it's printed in Roman-alphabet script (English or Turkish, for example). A license in a non-Roman script — Arabic, Cyrillic, and others — needs an International Driving Permit (IDP) or an official certified translation before it's valid to drive on. Skip that step and the real risks are fines, a denied rental car, or invalidated insurance if you're in a crash. Carry the original license together with the IDP or translation, not just a copy of either.

Overland routes to/from Iran

When flights between Istanbul and Iran get disrupted — around holidays, or from cancellations — the community fallback is an overland bus via Van, near the Iran border: reported at roughly 22 hours from Van to Istanbul, with you covering your own food along the way. It connects to the Bazargan (Iran side) / Gürbülak (Turkey side) crossing, the only 24/7 international land border between Iran and Turkey, with separate lanes for cars, buses and trucks — a bus crossing typically takes 4–6 hours. Flying is clearly the better option when it's actually running; treat the bus as a fallback, not a default plan.