City Ville Guide

Transport
By plane : from Paris flight time is 3 hours to Istanbul, Izmir, Dalaman and Antalya. Count on 4 hours for Ankara.
There are about 40 regular or charter flights from France a week.
Air France or Turkish Airlines
Istanbul Airlines have flights Paris/Istanbul every Thursday and Sunday. (tel 01 42 46 00 89)

The tour operators which specialize in Turkey are Maxi (01 43 12 85 85), Marmara and Pacha Tours.

By rail or road : since the war in Yugoslavia, the rail and road distances are long and the travelling slow.
By boat : boats are not frequent and tend to be overloaded from Greece or Italy.

Internal transport :
Plane : internal flights are very cheap. Be careful : the arrivals and departures board is marked in Turkish.
Bus, Trams or underground : All these are operational in Istanbul.
Trains : The railway network is being renovated. There will soon be a TGV between Istanbul and Ankara.

Coaches, collective taxis : The coaches with their varying degrees of comfort, are more practical on the main road axes than the train. Collective taxis are little buses with a lantern 'dolmus' which go around the villages on a fixed itinerary. They drop you off wherever you want. They only go though when they are full.

Cars/Taxis : You should preferably reserve your rented car from France. Like that you are sure to have a choice. The best means of transport in Istanbul is the taxi.

Others : To cross the Dardanelles take a ferry at Gallipoli (every 2 hours) or at Canakkale (every hour). Between Istanbul and Izmir there also exists stops (during the high season) at the main sea resorts.
The road network has greatly improved since 1994. The best road maps are the ones from the Tourist Office which are more often up-to-date than others (they are quickly out of date), but be careful as they have very few details. Take both kind of maps with you.
Traffic is very dense in Istanbul, there are constant traffic jams.