travel Istanbul to Cappadocia

Traveling late August or early Sept. Seeking advice on whether to go by plane or overnite train from Istanvul to Cappadocia area. Train is 20 hours can get sleeper . Do you know total travel time/ transport involved, ( ie taxi bus time /costs ) in getting to and from cities to airport and flight costs etc? which seems better? thanks

Bus travel from Ist to Capp: 6-7 hours from Ist to Ankara. Ankara to Capp, about another 5 or 6 hours.

Are you asking someone on this branch to calculate the total travel time/transport involved. and present it to you?

Obviously, flying is best. For flight costs go to www.THY.com, or try to contact some of the low cost carriers mentioned almost daily on this branch.

For train info see www.maninseat61.com<BR><BR>Overnight direct buses leave Istanbul around 8.30 - 9.30 pm, arriving Nevsehair/Goreme next morning. If you book from a travel agent in SultanAhmet the bus company will send a shuttle to take you to the otogar.

For flights to Nevsehir or Kayseri see Onur air or Pegasus. There is a shuttle bus from Kayseri airport to Goreme.

Just about anywhere in Turkey, buses are faster and much more comfortable than trains. You can probably get a cheap flight for Cappadocia as well.

4 hours of planes and airports? Or 12 hours in a bus seat trying to sleep overnight? Neither appeal!

The best way to go is to book a sleeper on the civilised, comfortable sleeper train, the "Ankara Express", from Istanbul to Ankara. A night in your own 1- or 2-bed sleeper, breakfast in the diner, and you're there.

The train leaves Haydarpasa station in istanbul at 22:30, arrives Ankara at 08:04 next morning. Fare about YTL 45 ($33) sharing 2-bed sleeper. See www.seat61.com/Turkey2.htm</a> for train times, fares, photos and info.

Then take the metro out to the bus terminal.

A bus from Ankara to Cappadoccia will only take 3-4 hours, a far nicer prospect than the nightmare 12 hour overnight bus ride all the way from Istanbul with no sleeping berth to sleep in. It's actually worth considering seeing Ankara for a half day, while you pass through - there's a citadel and Attaturk's mausoleum.

Related question: Is it possible to book a sleeper on the Ankara Express going the other way (Ankara to Istanbul) from a travel agent or guest house in Goreme? Thanks.

Sure, as you can book online. You can do it yourself with a little help from a Turkish speaker, or through a travel agent.

We did the reverse Goreme to Istanbul - below is comments I made once before -

Another option would be to take the bus from Goreme to Ankara and then the overnight train (that leaves about 10.30pm) with a sleeper that gets you into Istanbul about 8.00am. The overnight train is a very pleasnat experience. If you leave Goreme in the morning you will have half a day in Ankara to maybe visit say the Museum of Anatolian Civilisation (which is well worthwhile – helps put all the pre Ottoman history into context).

There is however one problem as there is nowhere to leave your lauggage at the train station. We ended up taking our bags in a taxi to the museum (and back again!!) and luckily we were able to leave it at the ticket office. An alternative might be to go to the bus station first and leave your bags there - not sure if there is luggage locker facilities at the bus station but your bus company will probably keep it in their office.

Re #5 and #6 I'd make the following comments from our experiences last year in trying to book the Ankara to Istanbul train sleeper trip -

Pre booking on THY is a challenge. From what I can gather you need to have a Tukish Identity card to book on the internet. And you can only pre book at THY train stations up to 30 days in advance. We ended up booking at Denizli on our way to Cappadocia. This was an experience in itself - but that's the fun of travel. I don't think you can book through travel agents - we tried several times down the coast without any luck.

The Turkey Travel Planner web site has some useful info. on train travelhttp://www.turkeytravelplanner.com and go to the transport/train area

maninseat61 has a great site; but so he should - he works for the railway.
Personally, I prefer to just get on a bus and go all the way; no hassle of changing from train to bus, no need to make a ferry crossing and find the train station, pleasant company on the journey, one ticket - and cheaper in total.
If you don't sleep so much on the way, you still arrive early enough in the morning to snatch a few hours sleep at your destination and be well set up for the day. By train,+bus you'll arrive later and so need to book ahead to ensure a bed.