Airfares from Europe and North America are at their highest during Easter week and from June to early September. They’re lower in April and May, and from late September into October, while you’ll get the best prices of all between November and March (excluding Christmas and New Year, when seats are at a premium). Australian and New Zealand fares are lowest from mid-January to the end of February and October/November; peak season is mid-May to August, plus December to mid-January. Flight comparison sites like w skyscanner.net are a good way to search for the cheapest option.
Flights from the UK and Ireland
You can fly direct from the UK to İstanbul (both airports), Ankara, İzmir, Bodrum, Dalaman and Antalya. Reaching any other destination in Turkey involves a change in İstanbul.
Direct, scheduled flights are provided by Turkish Airlines (THY; w turkishairlines.com) and British Airways (w ba.com). THY links London (Stansted or Heathrow) with İstanbul (Atatürk or Sabiha Gökçen) year-round, with less frequent flights from Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham. Return flight prices range from £200 in winter to as much as £550 in summer, with London Heathrow and Stansted generally the cheapest departure airports. BA has three daily services from Heathrow (from around £350 return in July & Aug). Information on onward domestic flights with either THY or competitors such as Sunexpress can be found in the section By plane.
Budget and charter flights
Among budget airlines, easyJet (w easyjet.com)flies from London Luton to İstanbul Sahiba Gökçen all year; from Gatwick to Antalya, Bodrum, İzmir and Dalaman (these four destinations are April to early Nov only); from Stansted to Bodrum or Dalaman; and from Manchester or Edinburgh to Dalaman (April–Oct). Advance low-season fares can be under £40 each way, though this can rise to £250 for late, summer-period bookings.
Pegasus (w flypgs.com) links Stansted to İstanbul Sabiha Gökçen daily all year, with fares likely to be a bit higher than easyJet. Jet2 (w jet2.com) serves Dalaman and Bodrum from Leeds-Bradford, Manchester, East Midlands and Newcastle (summer only, from about £100 each way). Atlasjet (w atlasjet.com) also fly from Stansted to İstanbul all year, and to Antalya and İzmir in the summer.
The widest choice of charter flights to Turkish coastal resorts is offered by Thomas Cook (w thomascookairlines.com) and Thomson (w www.tui.co.uk). With Thomas Cook, you can choose different departure and return airports and book one-way tickets. There are year-round charters to Antalya and Dalaman, while services to İzmir and Bodrum usually operate from late April/early May to late October. Peak-season prices can be as high as scheduled flights, but in winter they may drop as low as £100 return.
Flights from Ireland
From Belfast, British Airways offer year-round daily scheduled services, involving a stop in London or Manchester, but prices are high (in excess of £300 in July & Aug). From Dublin, Turkish Airlines have a direct daily flight, starting at €350. Probably the cheapest option is to use a budget carrier from either Dublin or Belfast into Gatwick, then continue with easyJet, Atlasjet or Pegasus on to İstanbul.
Flights from the US and Canada
The cheapest way to reach Turkey from North America is to buy a bargain transatlantic fare to Europe, and arrange your onward flight separately.
Turkish Airlines (THY; w turkishairlines.com) and Delta Airlines (w delta.com) are the only carriers who fly direct year-round from the US. THY operate twice daily flights (once daily in winter) from New York (JFK); several weekly from Los Angeles and Washington DC; and once daily out of Chicago, while Delta fly out of JFK daily in summer, and several times weekly in winter. United Airlines (w united.com) generally has the cheapest stopping fares, via Frankfurt. European carriers, such as British Airways (w ba.com), Air France (w airfrance.com), KLM (w klm.com), Alitalia (w alitalia.com) and Swiss (w swiss.com), route through hubs such as London, Paris, Milan and Zürich; the best choice is probably Lufthansa (w lufthansa.com) via Frankfurt.
One-month fares out of New York start from US$675 in winter and up to US$1800 in peak season for a direct flight with THY, $650–2500 with Delta. From LA prices range $1000–2400.
There is only one direct flight from Canada to Turkey: THY fly between Toronto and İstanbul several times a week, with fares from CAN$1000. Otherwise, several airlines fly to İstanbul via major European hubs. Winter fares from Montréal start at CAN$1100 and summer ones at CAN$1380, on British Airways via London.
Flights from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa
There are no direct flights from Australia or New Zealand to Turkey. However, several weekly scheduled flights will get you there after either a plane change or short layover in the airline’s hub city – typically Bahrain, Bangkok, Singapore or Milan – before the final leg of the journey. A marginally less expensive but far more time-consuming strategy would involve taking a flight to London and then proceeding from there with, say, easyJet.
Two-stop itineraries from Sydney are around AUS$1850 in low season to AUS$2700 high season, with Malaysian or Singapore airlines. From Auckland, Lufthansa (w lufthansa.com), Singapore Airlines (w singaporeair.com) and Emirates (w emirates.com) fly to İstanbul from NZ$2300 year-round.
Round-the-World (RTW) tickets including Turkey use combinations of airlines, and could be worth considering for a long trip taking in many destinations; generally, some free stopovers are allowed, with fares starting at AUS$2500.
From South Africa, Turkish Airlines (w turkishairlines.com) flies five times a week from Johannesburg to İstanbul with starting prices around R7300 – early booking rather than time of year is the most important criterion for bagging a cheap seat. Several airlines also fly from Cape Town. South Africa Airways (w flysaa.com) flies daily via Frankfurt or Munich, but these are longer and more expensive.
Trains
Travelling to Turkey by train is slow and expensive. It only makes sense if you are a rail buff or wish to visit several other countries en route. The best route from the UK begins with the Eurostar (w eurostar.com) service from London Waterloo to Paris, then an overnight sleeper to Munich, followed by a daytime Euro-City departure to Budapest, and finally two more nights aboard a sleeper to İstanbul (including a change of engine in Bucharest), making a total journey of five days and four nights. At the time of writing the final leg, between the Bulgarian-Turkish border and İstanbul, was closed for line maintenance, with a replacement bus service in operation. Check the excellent w seat61.com for more information. As each leg is booked separately, you can stop off in any of the cities where you change trains, but the cost, a minimum of £350 one-way, makes the purchase of an InterRail pass mandatory.
InterRail passes
The best train deal is provided by an InterRail pass (w interrailnet.com), which offers unlimited travel (except for express train supplements and reservation fees) on a zonal basis within thirty European rail networks. These passes are only available to European residents, and you must provide proof of residency to purchase one. To reach Turkey via the route described here, you need a Global Pass. For under-26s, a pass valid for one month’s second-class travel covering thirty countries, including Turkey, costs €409 (£360); the price for over-26s is €619 (£545). A cheaper alternative is their five-days-travel-within-ten-days option – €169 (£149) for under-26s, or €259 (£228) for over-26s. It’s possible to travel first class on an over-26s’ pass at a considerably higher cost.
InterRail passes do not allow free travel between Britain and the Continent, although InterRail pass holders are eligible for discounts on rail travel in Britain and Northern Ireland, the cross-Channel ferries, and the London to Paris Eurostar service.
