Van Transportation

We easily found the busses to Gevas, Edremit, Dogubayazit in Van center. But some the busses to some towns were hard to find, like Cavustepe. There are two kind of transportation in city: Small busses (dolmus) and big blue busses of municipality. Both were cheap, about 1.5-3 lira. The only problem was waiting. We waited almost an hour at Ahtamar pier for a bus to Gevas.
Busses use the two main roads of Van: Sihke and Kazim Karabekir Streets. If you want to go to Gevas-Edremit, you have to wait in Kazim Karabekir Street. If your destination is university, Ercis, Dogubayazit, you have to go to Sihke.
Roads are wide in Van. I think it should be nice to drive there. We could rent a car but we were only two person. Maybe it could be reasonable for 4 people.

Van is far from Istanbul. Being far from Istanbul is really important because Istanbul is the heart of Turkey. Since reaching to Van by bus takes 24 hours, the best option is airplane. I travelled with Pegasus Airlines. They depart from Sabiha Gokcen Airport and it is closer to my home than Ataturk Airport. Pegasus Airlines' Van flights stop by in Ankara and this makes the flight a little bit uncomfortable, though it is better travel 24 hours.

This is why you'll see lots of travel agencies in Van.

Van is accessible from many places within Turkey and possibly even outside the country. But keep in mind that it's not a common place for westerners to go through, or so it seemed. The problem was very simple- they thought the lemon-lime Gatorade in my Nalgene was a bomb. They were also freaked out by the carabiners (karabiners) on my backpack- and said I'd have to check them, which I didn't want to do. Fortunately we had our contacts -our local fixer- to keep things running smoothly and argue our case. Anyway, be aware of what you carry through that airport as it may not seem as innocent as you think?

Good times.

From Dogubayazit to Van there are some minibuses leaving every day from the corner Dr Ismail Besikci Caddesi/Agri Caddesi. It costs 8 000 000 TL and takes about 2 - 2,5 hours. When I went to Van we stopped by a petrol station/cafe where the driver had a sandwich to eat. He also bought me a tea.

I travelled the same way in 2004. The price was the same,
8 000 000 TL. There was one road control, like the year before, but this time the soldier seemed to be more interesting in practicing his English with me than to look at everybody’s identification card.

In Van the bus stops at a side-street of Iskele Caddesi.

In Van buses to Diyarbakir leaves from the otogar outside town. Most bus companies have free minibuses going from the office in town to the otogar.
I travelled with Best Van Tour, which had a good service and comfortable buses. The ride to Diyarbakir took almost eight hours but we stopped many times on the way. There was plenty of time for going to the bathroom, eat or just have a tea and watch people.
The price was 20 000 000 TL.

In 2004 I travelled the same way and this time it was a bit quicker. Maybe because this time there was only one road control by the military, compared to several the year before. The price was the same, 20 000 000 TL.

Arriving at the otogar in Diyarbakir there is a free service in to town. If it is not waiting by the bus, ask for it and it will come.

Lake Van & Isaak Pasa Serail are situated at the east-end of Turkey.

With my little map you might get an idea, where you have to look on your roadmap for these places.
As often in Turkey, the spelling of these villages and sights might be a bit different from one map to the other

Just off the road, 5 km west of Gevas, the boat leaves for Akdamar Island. There is no timetable, but the boat leaves when there are enough people to share the price. To find people to share the cost with is easiest during summer and weekends, when many families from Van go to the island for pic-nic. While waiting fore more people to arrive you can have a tea at the restaurant on the other side of the road.

I went straight there from Istanbul, what I would do is just show up at the otogar in Istanbul, and search for a ticket, you should be on a bus in less than an hour. Look for the Tatvan company, I beleive they are in number 45 (you'll see what i mean). Expect to pay 40 million turkish lira (EUR 25)