Getting to Tekirdağ: By bus

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There are many bus companies operating between Istanbul’s Otogar (main bus station) and Tekirdağ. Just look around in the Otogar and soon you’ll see word Tekirdağ on one of the windows. However, some companies operating further than Tekirdağ also add Tekirdağ on their windows and their service may be inferior. The most popular company is arguably İstanbul Seyahat (tel 444 59 59, dialed without a prefix anywhere in Turkey except cellphones from which you should dial +90 212 444 59 59), but there are many more others. It is possible to find a bus to Tekirdağ about every 15 minutes, even every 5 minutes in summertime. Direct bus travel with the Asian side of Istanbul is less frequent, only once every few hours. From Istanbul’s Otogar to Tekirdağ doesn’t normally take more than two hours, but, especially in summertime, because many people heading for their “holiday homes” on the way to Tekirdağ use these services, stops can be tiresome, and can lengthen the travel time up to four hours when complemented with congested traffic. There is normally no scheduled stop on the Istanbul-Tekirdağ bus lines for a break.

Ticket fares from/to Istanbul are around 12 YTL as of December 2007 (no student discounts avalaible; 16 YTL from the Asian side of Istanbul), but between May and September many companies rise their fares with the increasing number of passengers. Despite this, because of rivalry, some companies lower their prices wildly to around 5 YTL, but these promotions are only occasional.

It may be wise to book your seat a week beforehand during the peak season (July-August) if you are going to either

travel from Istanbul to Tekirdağ on Fridays

and/or

travel from Tekirdağ to Istanbul on Sundays

Some companies deny to book a seat during peak season, instead, insist on selling the ticket right away.

Buses coming from Istanbul first enter Tekirdağ’s otogar, which is very tiny compared with Istanbul’s, and some proceed to outlying hoods of the city in the west, and some finish their journey right there. In summertime almost all buses end their trip in Kumbağ via Tekirdağ’s otogar and the avenue at the shoreline. To go to the downtown area (Çarşı, pronounced “char-sha”), you should either get off the bus at the shore and walk uphill for about 10 minutes or take one of the public busses (their stop is right next to the otogar).

Buses heading for Istanbul from Çanakkale and Gallipoli passes through Tekirdağ, so it is possible to board an Istanbul bus from these places and get off in Tekirdağ. When buying the ticket or paying the fare inside the bus tell them that you’ll get off in Tekirdağ, not Istanbul, a journey which deserves a slightly lower fare than all the way to Istanbul (about 3-4 YTL less than full price for Istanbul).

One easy and cheap way reaching from Greece to Tekirdağ by bus might be somehow to reach Keşan first, which is about 25 km away from Greco-Turkish border, then take a bus there coming from Çanakkale, Gallipoli or already has its terminus in Keşan and heading for Istanbul.

• Sutluce Ciftligi, 18 km (11 miles)