Dear PCG2014 Participants,
With the conference starting next week we would like to give you some information on how to get to santralistanbul.
santralistanbul is located at the upper end of Golden Horn and is easily reachable by regular shuttle services, bus, taxi, end even by boat.
Istanbul Bilgi University Shuttle Bus Service:
Istanbul Bilgi University Shuttle Bus Service is free for all and the schedule is as follows.
(Please check the conference website and this website for further details and updates on the schedule at the week of the conference!)
UPDATE: Istanbul Bilgi University Shuttle Bus Schedule has been changed for the duration of the conference. Please check the current schedules (weekdays – weekends) before planning your trip to santralistanbul!
Public Transportation:
There are basically two ways to pay for the fare: either you get a token (jeton) (for metro, tram and finicular) and from the sales booth or vending machines (jetonmatik), or you use the Istanbul Card (Istanbul Kart) – an electronic boarding pass (for bus, metro, tram and finicular). If you use a token you will pay 3 TL per ride, with an Istanbul Card you only pay 1,95 TL per ride, and get discounts for every transfer you make.
The easiest way to get the Istanbul Kart is to buy it at major transit stops such as the airport, Taksim, Beşiktaş, Eminönü. To buy an Istanbul Kart, you need to pay a non-refundable 6 TL fee (for the actual card and the service), and of course an amount of your choice to load onto the card. 20 TL should be enough for 2-3 use per day for 4 days. To reload the card, you can either go to the newsstands and small shops (Akbil Dolum Noktası) which offer this service, use self-service special purpose machines at major transit stations. The machines accept notes of 5, 10, 20, and 50 TL and have instructions in multiple languages.
There are two bus stops next to santralistanbul; SİLAHTARAĞA CADDESİ and BİLGİ ÜNİVERSİTESİ. Below is the list of bus lines passing through these stations:
For further information on bus lines please visit the IETT website.
Please note that travelling by bus in Istanbul might not be as convenient as other means of transportation for guests and tourists. Especially in rush hours buses tend to be very crowded and do not always rely on their departure time related to Istanbul’s traffic jam.
Taxi:
Taxis are a good and easy way to get around in Istanbul. They are inexpensive, have meters and are, most of the time, easy to find. The transportation speed however depends on the overall traffic of course. Hotels generally call taxies, that will be present within a few minutes. Please note, taxi fare is in Turkish Lira, not Euro or US Dollar. (You can use online taksi price calculation services to plan your trip.) Most of Istanbul’s public transportation lines operate between 06:00 and 00:00, so outside of these hours you must rely on a taxi.
Boat:
Although there is no pier at santralistanbul you may consider to take the HALİÇ boat line (Haliç Hattı) to come to Eyüp, from where you can reach santralistanbul either by bus or taxi very easily in less than 10 minutes. The trip from Üsküdar on the Asian side to Eyüp on the European side takes about 1 hour and visits each pier on the Golden Horn. Although not the fastest way to travel in Istanbul, it is one of the finest ways to experience the water ways of the city. You can find the schedule and the list of stops of the HALİÇ Line here.
Sincerely,
Conference Organization Committee
