Car Rental at Istanbul Airport (IST)

Picking up a car at Istanbul Airport

Istanbul Airport (IST) sits on the European side of the city, well north of the centre near the Black Sea coast. Depending on traffic, the drive to Taksim, Sultanahmet or Beşiktaş usually takes approximately 45–75 minutes. Collecting a car as soon as you land saves you juggling luggage on public transport, and it makes sense if you are travelling as a family, heading to meetings, or continuing beyond Istanbul.

How the handover works

Istanbul Airport is a pickup point for Beta Car Rental, not a staffed rental desk inside the terminal. Once your reservation is made, the team contacts you to agree on the meeting point and handover details. Sharing your flight number and arrival time with them helps the handover go smoothly.

Questions before or after booking? Call +90 850 885 23 82 or message +90 541 215 44 00 on WhatsApp.

Booking in four steps

1. On betacarrental.com, choose Istanbul Airport as the pickup location and enter your dates and times.
2. Compare the available cars and their requirements: minimum driver age, years of licence held and the security deposit all vary by vehicle.
3. Confirm the booking. Prices, availability and payment are shown only on the booking site.
4. Bring your driving licence and passport (or national ID) to the handover.

Want to drop the car off somewhere else, such as Sabiha Gökçen? Use the return-to-a-different-location option in the booking form; any conditions are shown while you book.

Which car suits an Istanbul trip?

• Solo travellers and couples staying in the city: an economy car is easier to park.
• More luggage or longer drives: a midsize car.
• Families: the SUV range includes 7-seat models.
• Business travel: luxury cars.
• Groups with lots of bags: minivans and minibuses.

Most of the fleet is automatic, which helps in stop-start city traffic. See automatic car rental.

Driving out of Istanbul Airport

Motorways and tolls. The airport links to the rest of the city via the Northern Marmara Motorway and its connector roads. Many motorways and bridges in Istanbul are tolled and paid electronically through the HGS system, so ask at handover how the car's HGS tag works and how tolls are settled.

Traffic and parking. Weekday rush hours can slow the drive into the city considerably. In central districts on-street parking is scarce, so a hotel with parking or a multi-storey car park makes life easier.

Easy escapes from the airport. The Black Sea beaches at Şile and Ağva on the Asian side are approximately 1.5–2 hours away via the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, and Edirne, with its Ottoman mosques, is approximately 2.5–3 hours by road.

Related pages

Read our Istanbul Airport car rental guide for more tips, or see how airport car rental works in general. Flying into the Asian side? Check Sabiha Gökçen Airport. Prefer to collect in the centre? Visit our Taksim head office.