The short version
- Check your visa or e-Visa requirement before you fly — it cannot be fixed on arrival
- Passport control at IST can take twenty minutes or over an hour
- Buy a SIM in the city, not at the airport, unless you need data immediately
- Agree how you are getting to your hotel before you land, not at the kerb
Before you fly: the visa question
Many nationalities need an e-Visa to enter Türkiye and it takes minutes to obtain online in advance. A smaller number are visa-exempt, and some require a full visa from a consulate. Check your own passport's requirement on the official e-Visa site rather than trusting a forum post.
This matters even for a layover, if you plan to leave the airport between flights.
Passport control and baggage
Istanbul Airport is vast and the walk from a far gate to passport control can take fifteen minutes on its own. Queues vary enormously with the hour: mid-morning and late evening are the heaviest.
Budget an hour from touchdown to walking out of customs, and be pleasantly surprised when it takes half that. If someone is meeting you, make sure their waiting time is generous — ours is sixty minutes from the actual landing for exactly this reason.
Money and connectivity
Card is accepted almost everywhere in Istanbul. You do not need to change large amounts of cash at the airport, where the rates are poorest; a small amount for a first taxi or a coffee is plenty.
Airport SIM cards are priced for people who have no alternative. If you can wait, buy in the city, or arrange an eSIM before you travel. Airport Wi-Fi will get you online for the first hour.
The arrivals hall
You emerge into a single wide hall. Drivers wait directly opposite the exit with name signs. If you have booked a transfer, that is where your chauffeur will be — not outside, not in a car park.
Be wary of anyone approaching you inside the terminal offering a taxi. Licensed drivers do not solicit; they wait with a sign, and the company that booked them answers the phone if anything is unclear.
Getting to the hotel
Decide this before you land. Whether it is the metro, a HAVAIST coach or a booked car, knowing the answer in advance means you never have to make a transport decision while exhausted and surrounded by people who would like to make it for you.
Want this handled for you?
Fixed price per vehicle, met inside the terminal, 60 minutes of free waiting from the moment you land. Tell us the flight and we do the rest.