Istanbul

Istanbul is the biggest city of Turkey, partly in Europe and partly in Asia.

In many parts in Europe you can find Turkish truckers, who might be heading to Istanbul. Watch out for Turkish number plates beginning with 34, the city code for Istanbul, but of course all truckers going to the Asian part will have to go through Istanbul.

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Hitching in

The trucks are banned from entering the city during rush hours (morning: ?, evening: about 17:00-21:00/5PM-9PM). So if you are arriving from west (Tekirdağ, Edirne, Greece, or Bulgaria) on the motorway by a truck, it is highly likely that the vehicle will be stopped at Mahmutbey toll booths of motorway, at the western entrance of the city, by cops. If this is the case, say your farewells to your driver, walk to the sideroad lying along to the right of motorway. Turn to the first or second street to your right (the first wide one, you will notice it). About 200 metres down that street, you will notice a bus stop. Here public buses (line #89M, with a sign saying Zeytinburnu Metro; costs about 1.50 TL pp (~ €0.75), pay cash to the driver and he will hand you his smart ticket (Akbil) which you will touch on that box at the entrance of the bus) heading for Zeytinburnu stop, from which there is an extensive choice of public transportation into the city such as trams to old city (Sultanahmet), buses to Taksim/Beyoğlu (#93C), or Metrobüs heading for Asian Side across the Bosphorus. From that stop close to the motorway toll booth, there are also more frequent minibuses to Topkapı, from where you can also find trams, buses, and Metrobüs into the city (beware, some minibuses stopping at there do not head for Topkapı, though).

Hitching Out

The Taksim Square in the center of the European part of Istanbul is chosen as a starting point for the upcoming description due to the fact that there the most bus lines of the European side start and end.

Northwest towards Edirne and Bulgaria

Get into the metro at Taksim Square and take a train towards Atatürk Oto Sanayi. This is currently the last station for the trains departing from Taksim. One ticket costs 1,50 YTL (~0,75 Euro). At the Sanayi Mahallesi station (not to be confused with Atatürk Oto Sanayi which is the last station en route), get out of the Metro. You will find yourself along the Büyükdere Caddesi avenue. Walk along the main street direction north (watch out for big signs that are leading drivers to the highway to Edirne. After 3-4 min and passing a military camp you'll see the on-ramp. Unfortunately, there is no way to cross the street from right to left then by attempting suicide, because the main street is mostly full of fast traffic. If you are not brave enough to do so, walk another 10 min further and cross the street over a bridge and walk back the way along the other side.

Or better, you may get off the metro at İTÜ-Ayazağa station (the first one after Sanayi Mahallesi), cross the street on an pedestrian overpass close to that station's exit and then walk south for about 10 min to get to the on ramp to the motorway. You will have to walk past the military park on the right side of the road, and then you will see the big highway below.

Go somewhat down the ramp and you can find a good spot to stand and stop cars. Also try to get short lifts (even some kilometres can help in Istanbul).

After getting a lift at the on-ramp, you'll notice that a few kilometers further on the highway, there is a toll booth where you can easily catch rides (the breadsellers might help you get a lift to your preferred destination).

Buses 98H (from Bakırköy, a suburb in the west) and 146T (from Yenikapı and Aksaray, near Sultanahmet) among others pass the toll booth. These buses pass adjacent the westbound lanes of E80. On on the other side of the highway is 'TEM Hospital' Crossing the highway here is not challenging.

Westwards towards Greece (via Tekirdag)

Take the suburban train (banliyö treni) from the very city center (Sirkeci) towards Halkali. It's only 1,50 lira. Get off at Küçükçekmece. If the train station is 6 o'clock, walk in the direction of 12 o'clock in order to find the on ramp towards Tekirdag. This is the same road that will take you directly to Greece, although you will still be well within the congested highways of suburban Istanbul. Be aware that you cannot cross this border walking! You have to find somebody to take you across. Knowing German will help you a lot to explain that you need help to cross the border due to many drivers with a Turkish-German background.

Another way to get to city's western outskirts is to take the metro from Aksaray close to Sultanahmet in the old city centre, and ride it till Yenibosna station (1.50 TL pp, roughly €0.75). Then, take the public bus #448 (Yenibosna Metro-Mimarsinan; an extra 1.50 TL pp), which departs from the stops right next to metro station. You will ride this bus for a long time, roughly an hour, until where it quits the highway west and turns to right in a cloverleaf interchange near the village of Mimarsinan, where the bus eventually heads. Get off at the stop right at the very location bus turns right, this is where as much west as you can get on Istanbul's public transportation. Then walk a bit further from the junction, and start thumbing. Hitchhiker Vidimian tried this route in 2002 or 2003, when he wasn't very experienced at hitchhiking. The first lift offer arrived so late (after about 2 hours of thumbing) and the following lifts were so short (and, again, late) that he could make it to Tekirdağ, a mere 120 km away from this hitching spot, after the night falls, despite starting early in the morning.

For those who rather not try hitchhiking through the overgrown western suburbs of the city, a slightly more expensive but a lot easier way to follow this westbound route to Greece may be to take the morning train to Muratlı from Sirkeci station in central Istanbul, and then hitch your way forward to Greece via Tekirdağ from there. See Muratlı article for full details.

Once you have passed the border, try to stay in the car which took you through, as the first 20-30 km on the Greek side is one of the worst places to hitchhike in Europe. Local people there are afraid of stories about immigrants from Iran and Afghanistan etc. so it's especially hard to get a ride. It took hitchhiker Lapulevel a full day to get out of this area—and that wasn't simply a shortage of luck as that happened twice!

Eastwards towards Ankara

For going east there are different options:

• From parking on motorway O4

Take ferry to Kadıköy on Asian side. Next to ferry terminal there is a bus terminal where you can take bus 19, 19C, or 19Y. Get off at Ferhatpaşa (you will see road going in circle looking like a big roundabout). From there walk north east till you get to the motorway O4 Anadolu Otoyolu. There is a fence along the motorway but has many holes, so getting to the other side is not hard. Once you get to the parking you can ask around or make a big sign and show at the end of the parking to the drivers going by motorway, so they can stop on a merge lane. There's one small restaurant in the parking so many drivers stop there for a short brake.

• From Gebze town

Get on a ferry to Haydarpaşa (1,50 TL) and from there a suburban train to the last station Gebze (also 1,50 TL). There is only one train line. There you leave the station to the left, and after 500 meters the you´ll see the road to Ankara on the left.

• From Şekerpınar close to Gebze

Get on the 111, 112 or 200 and stay on the bus almost all the way to the last stop (get off approximately two or three stops before). You are now located a little bit south of the O4 (E80) heading East towards Ankara. You will need to walk a little bit northwards in order to reach a ramp. There is a bus stop on the on-ramp. You can hitch out from there unto the O4 (E80) going East. Most people who will take you might just drive for another 10km or so. There are lots of petrol stations on the way in this giant suburban maze but chances are only local people stop there. You will have to go for about nearly 20 or 30 km until you will actually be out of the Istanbul metropolis.

If you want to avoid 30km of urban hitch hiking, from the last stop of 112 take bus 134BK (other 134 buses may work as well) which leaves across the road from where 112 ends. Ride until the end and transfer onto 133Ş and ride it until the last stop. You are then in Şekerpınar and can walk the 2km to the main motorway O4 Anadolu Otoyolu.

• From Bostancı Köprüsü (Bostancı Bridge)

From Taksim Square take bus 129T (Taksim - Üst Bostancı line), which, like the other transcontinental bus lines, requires two tickets (3 TL). Get off at the leaf-clover interchange called in Turkish Bostancı Köprüsü (literally Bostancı Bridge), close to its last stop. You can recognize the interchange by big signs saying Bostancı and İçerenköy (besides the usual İzmit and Ankara signs) there. Then, after getting off the bus, walk past the interchange until you see a safe shoulder down the road a couple hundred metres away. Start hitching there ready with a sign saying at least ‘Gebze'/'Izmit’, it’ll make you more visible and look like a total hitchhiker. Drivers around here seem to have some concerns about sharing their car with a stranger and looking like a total hitchhiker seems to somewhat ease their anxiety. However, there are also many minibuses heading for Gebze on this road, so hiding your sign when they are passing by and shaking your head both sides when its headlights flash (to ask whether you’d like a ride … for a fee) may prevent some of the unwanted attention. Expect to wait at least 30 minutes until you are offered a lift. Morning hours (approx. between 6:30-8:30) are best since the road is congested at that time and vehicles move slowly, which lets the drivers to think more about taking you in. Beware of the motorcycles by the way, which sometimes illegally drive inside the shoulder and literally skim you over.

There is a petrol station exactly 9km before Izmit where you can be dropped off. This is a great place to catch direct rides to almost any part of the country. Garthelgard got offered rides to Georgia and the Syrian border from that petrol station.

For Mediterranean cities such as Antalya, you should also take this eastwards route till Adapazari, then head south via highway D650 from there.

South towards Yalova/Bursa

See Eskihisar for how to get to the ferry jetty on the route and how to get into the ferry for free.

The route via Eskihisar is also the shortest way to Izmir and its adjacent area in western Turkey.

Turkish cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants

> 1.000.000: Adana • Ankara • Bursa • Gaziantep • Istanbul • İzmir

500.000–1.000.000: Antalya • Diyarbakır • Eskişehir • Kayseri • Konya • Mersin

300.000–500.000: Adapazarı • Batman • Denizli • Elazığ • Erzurum • Gebze • Kahramanmaraş • Malatya • Samsun • Şanlıurfa • Van

100.000–300.000: Adıyaman • Afyon • Ağrı • Aksaray • Antakya • Aydın • Balıkesir • Bandırma • Beylikdüzü • Bolu • Ceyhan • Çorlu • Çorum • Darıca • Derince • Düzce • Edirne • Esenyurt • İnegöl • İskenderun • Isparta • İzmit • Karabük • Karaman • Kayapınar • Kırıkkale • Kırşehir • Kızıltepe