Renting a car and Self Driving in Turkey

This post on Turkey Self Drive tour covers everything you need to know from renting self drive cars in Turkey to traffic rules and what all to be careful about. This post also covers everything you need to know for deciding about renting a car with driver, taking public transport or going on a Turkey self drive tour. The three cities/regions this post covers are Istanbul, Izmir and Cappadocia.

Traffic Situation + Ease and Availability of Public transport

• Istanbul: Terrible traffic as you can assume in any major city in the world today. Although my recommendation for all other places is renting self drive cars in Turkey, not so in Istanbul. Public transport is well established in the form of trams, taxis and radio taxis/private cab operators like B-Taxi, Uber. All the key monuments can be reached by tram. The ferry points are also connected by tram with 500-700mtrs of walk which was easily manageable. In dire needs the yellow cabs are available everywhere although they charge usually 3x to 4x the actual price.
  Travel Tip: Download the B Taxi app and connect your credit card to it. The cabs usually come within 2-3mins and charge much lower.
  From the airport if your hotel doesn’t provide airport pick up and drop, you can opt for either Uber or BTaxi. We tried booking Uber 3 times at the airport and every time the cabbie cancelled so we finally used BTaxi for both airport to hotel as well as for rest of the trip.
• Izmir: Traffic is manageable both within the city and outskirts. There is not much in the form of public transport except for regular taxis. Izmir is not exactly the tourist destination itself and is rather the gateway to some important tourist destinations (read Bodrum, Ephesus and Pamukkale). While both Bodrum and Pamukkale are around 3hrs by road, they can be done as a day trip from Izmir. Stay tuned for itinerary on Day trip to Pamukkale from Izmir and How history is brought alive in this trip to Ephesus from Izmir. Izmir hence is a good place to start your Turkey self drive tour. 
• Cappadocia: There is practically no traffic in Cappadocia to worry about. However with no public transport either, there is no option but renting a car and driving here. You will have to rent different self drive cars in Turkey if any of your legs includes a flight between any two places, so plan your itinerary appropriately. A lot of tourists visit Cappadocia as part of the travel package wherein their transportation is already covered. If you will need flexibility in schedule and opting for places that interest you, renting a car and self driving is a recommended option. Planning to visit Cappadocia? – See this post to know all about Hot Air Balloon Ride in Cappadocia.
  Recommendation: Renting a car and self driving is recommended in Izmir and Cappadocia and not in Istanbul (if you can manage in public transport including taxis)

Rental Options + Costs

• Sixt, Hertz and Avis are available at all the three places: Kayseri Airport (Cappadocia), Istanbul and Izmir
• In Kayseri, Hertz is not at the domestic arrivals terminal. You will have to walk for 3mins to the international departure and enter through the personnel entry gate.
• In the Izmir airport, the drop off parking is different than the regular airport parking so make sure to be clear which parking you have to drop off the car. This can cause you a 15minutes or so extra and thus a rushed checking in the flight. Especially because Izmir is a relatively busy airport (not in comparison to London, JFK, Mumbai, Dubai etc).

Ease of Renting + Pick Up/Drop off points

• Since these are mostly the standard car rental companies the procedure is also standard and fairly hassle free. Expect the total time to rent a car anywhere between 20mins to 30mins irrespective of the city you rent the car in.
• From what I know, the pick up and drop off is available only on the airport. This worked for us well since all our internal movement was through flights. However, if you have parts of the trip planned on a tour or are going from one place to the other by bus or other such transport, it may be a hassle for you to pick/drop the cab. This will entirely depend on your itinerary and travel plan.

Navigation

• Signboards in all the major roads in Turkey do have information in English. However, a lot of boards and information in the more remote parts is in Turish and people don’t understand English or any other language than Turkish either.
• Make sure you have mobile data for navigation at all points. A data plan with some local calls is the best option to take as you may need local call minutes to be able to give a call for dropping the car, resolving any issues, call back to the hotel or any reservations etc
• Google Maps works very well and is fairly accurate so you wouldn’t have to worry about navigation if you have a data plan.