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Istanbul

© Maria Elcoro-Iribe - Fotolia.com

Getting There By Rail


Rail Services
Rail services from Istanbul are cheap and the cities is well connected.
Turkish State Railways - TCDD (tel: 444 8233; www.tcdd.gov.tr) operates the national railway network, with rolling stock that is often slow and lacking air conditioning, although cheap. There are two stations in Istanbul - Sirkeci Station, Ankara Caddesi, near Eminönü on the European side, and HaydarpaÅŸa Station, HaydarpaÅŸa Istasyon Caddesi, near Kadiköy on the Asian side. Trains bound for Sofia, Belgrade, Bucharest and Budapest (with transfers to Munich and Vienna) leave from Sirkeci Station, departing in the evening.

Rail Operators
Turkish State Railways offers the Friendship Express service to Thessaloniki from Sirkeci Station. Trains for Turkish destinations (Asian side) leave from HaydarpaÅŸa Station. There are express trains between major Turkish cities but cheaper rural routes can be painfully slow and crowded.

The information presented here is solely based on data provided by third parties. Please note that BCD Travel shall not assume any liability or guarantee of correctness, completeness or actuality of the presented information of the content provided by third parties.
Interesting facts about Istanbul
Location: Northwest Turkey.
Dialling code: 90 (Turkey); 212 / 216 (Istanbul).
Population: 12,915,158 (2009).
Time zone: GMT + 2 (GMT + 3 from last Sunday in March to last Sunday in October).

Biztrails - Extra

Entry/Visa/Health

Check your specific situation. For example you are a citizen of Spain, live in Germany and want to enter Canada. Or you are planning a trip with multiple stopovers in diifferent countries. Which entry and health regulations apply to you? You can find out the varying regulations here: here (in Englisch).