Sabiha Gökçen transfers

Sabiha Gökçen is the Asian side's airport, at Pendik on the eastern edge of the city. For Kadıköy, Üsküdar and the districts along the Marmara coast it is much the closer of the two airports; for anything across the Bosphorus it is much the further, and the crossing is where the time goes. The M4 metro reaches Kadıköy from the terminal and HAVABÜS coaches serve the same side, and both stop short of the address you are actually going to.

The metro here is simpler to describe and harder to use. Sabiha Gökçen is the last station on the M4, which sounds convenient until you count: Kadıköy, the city end of the line, is twenty two stops away. That is the whole Asian side in sequence, with your luggage, and Kadıköy is where the line stops. Anything past it is a change and a crossing you arrange yourself.

That said, the M4 is the one airport rail link in Istanbul we will sometimes tell you to take. It runs through Kurtköy, Pendik, Kartal, Bostancı, Kozyatağı, Göztepe and Acıbadem, so if you are staying along that corridor the train goes almost exactly where you are going and the walk at the end is short. The route pages say when that is true. It stops being true the moment your address is off the line or your party has more bags than hands.

The coach network is thinner than the one on the European side. Where Istanbul Airport has thirteen airport coach lines, Sabiha Gökçen has two: one running to Kadıköy and one to Abdülhak Hamit Caddesi. Both are useful and both are cheap. Neither is going to your building, both charge per passenger and per bag, and both leave when the timetable says so rather than when you have finally found your suitcase.

This is also the airport where choosing the wrong side of Istanbul does the most damage. Landing at Sabiha Gökçen for a hotel in Sultanahmet means crossing the Bosphorus in whatever traffic the hour brings, and no timetable can promise you that crossing. We quote it as a fixed price anyway: once the price is agreed, the risk in the traffic is ours to carry rather than yours to absorb at the end of the drive.

What arriving with us looks like: a name board in the arrivals hall, a chauffeur who has been watching your flight, one price for the vehicle rather than a ticket for each traveller, and the bags handled once. Flight tracking is included, so a delay moves the pickup rather than stranding you at the kerb.

The pages under this one split every route out of Sabiha Gökçen into districts and landmarks, hotels, hospitals, shopping centres, and the ports and stations. Each route page gives the distance, the road, the price in every class and a like-for-like comparison with public transport on that journey. If you are still deciding which airport to fly into, start with the area page for where you are staying: it compares both airports for that one destination.

Terminal address: Sanayi, 34906 Pendik/İstanbul