BY PLANE
Taking a direct flight to Ankara Esenboga Airport is the easiest way. Many international flights are offered by Turkish Airlines,Pegasus Airlines, Luthansa and Austrian Airlines. Moreover, to find the cheapest flight you can use EkoBilet and Skyscanner websites, which informs you about cheap flights of various airlines.
After the arrival to Ankara Esenboga Airport, you can go to the city center by service buses or by taxi. Taxi costs between 80-90 TL from the airport to the METU Campus, and around 90-100 TL to the Bilkent Campus.
One of the service buses is HAVAS which takes you directly to ASTI (Ankara Bus Terminal) or to Ulus in approximately 45 minutes (You can find the time tables from this link). The price for HAVAS is 10 TL. When you exit the airport door, you will see HAVAS is waiting just infront. HAVAS is a comfortable bus and if there are no place left in the bus, a new empty bus comes immediately therefore you never wait for it. METU is closer to ASTI than ULUS. Therefore when you are giving your luggage to HAVAS personnel, don’t forget to indicate that your stop is ASTI (he will put your luggage accordingly). We would also recommend you to write ASTI (in Turkish it is AŞTİ) on a piece of paper so you can show to personnel. HAVAS first stops in ULUS and then continues to ASTI. You pay it inside the bus (take your seat, ticket personnel will come and sell tickets)
Another service is provided by municipal buses which have their main stops in city center Kizilay, Ulus, ASTI and the Esenboga Airport. The price is 3.40 TL for public buses (more information about public transportation in Ankara EGO). Just like HAVAS when you exit the airport door, you will see EGO is waiting just infront. If your choice is on EGO, we should tell you that you can wait in queue to get in and spend your journey on foot (it usually depends on the number of incoming flights on that hour). EGO is the one which is very long, white&navyblue and it is public transportation bus that are used in city center. You can get the ticket from the bus driver.
Note that; tickets for HAVAS buses don’t include transfers to subway or other bus lines. You can find more detailed information about the transportation in Ankara under the title “Getting to METU”.
VIA ISTANBUL
First arriving to Istanbul rather than flying directly to Ankara might be cheaper. There are two international airports in Istanbul;Sabiha Gökçen Airport in Anatolian Side and Atatürk Airport in European Side. As mentioned above, many international flights are offered by Turkish Airlines, Pegasus Airlines, Sun Express and so on.
From the both airports you can go to several places by HAVAS buses, which run every 30 minutes. To get more detailed information, see Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Tickets cost about 12 TL. Approximate drive time to Taksim Square is 50 minutes.
From Atatürk Airport (in European Side) , you can take public buses or subway (metro) directly to Esenler Bus Terminal (the main bus terminal in Istanbul located in the European Side). There are frequent bus connections from Esenler Bus Terminal to ASTI (Ankara Bus Terminal) that last approximately 6 hours and cost about 45-50 TL. Some firms (e.g. Kamil Koç, Pamukkale Tourism, Ulusoy Tourism) provide wi-fi, satellite TV, snacks and drinks. Since there are many connections and many different companies, it is easy to get a ticket from Esenler Bus Terminal. To get more detailed information see Transportation.
From Sabiha Gökçen Airport (in Asian Side), you can also take the usual public buses (costs 3.70 TL), which takes to you Kadiköy in around 1 hour, and from there you can take buses to many other destinations, such as Esenler Bus Terminal.
BY BUS
There are also direct buses from other European cities to Istanbul and Ankara. To get more detailed information see Ulusoy Tourism.
GETTING TO METU
In order to enter the campus, make sure that you have an invitation letter or something equivalent.
Taxi is the most common way to get to METU from ASTI, Ulus or Kizilay for new comers. It costs about 15 TL from ASTI. There is a taxi stand inside the ASTI (it is behind the HAVAS stop, and on the right side of EGO stop). Most of the taxi drivers know the campus, however; you should write down the address in Turkish (METU Campus : ODTÜ Kampüsü) since most of the taxi drivers cannot speak English.
Moreover, you can use other ways such as EGO buses or minibuses. To get on the EGO buses you must get a ticket which costs around 2.00 TL. You should take the EGO bus with number 417 in order to get to the campus. Minibus is not an appropriate way if you have luggage since they are small and crowded. They have no exact time. At most in 20 minutes you can catch one of them going directly to the METU campus. The price is 2.10 TL.
You can find the map of METU from this link.
If your reservation is in Aysel Sabuncu Guest House it is here. Else if your reservation is in Housings guest house it is here.
If you have any questions about your journey in Turkey, please don’t hesitate to ask and send email: infomensura13@cs.hacettepe.edu.tr
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IWSM/MENSURA 2013 