Travel To Turkey
Visa Requirements For Turkey
American citizens do not need to obtain visas in advance of their trip to Turkey. Instead, three month-multiple entry visas can be obtained at the Istanbul Airport (or any other border gate) upon arrival for a fee of $20. If you are a citizen of a country other than the U.S. please check visa information on the following page:
To see what the visa requirements for non-U.S. citizens are click here
Please remember that you will need a valid passport for travel to Turkey, so don't forget to apply for one early if you don't already have a passport. If you do have a passport, double-check the expiration date to make sure it will be valid for the time you are traveling.
Flight Options
You should expect to pay somewhere upwards of $1000 for your roundtrip ticket to Turkey. If you find a ticket for less than that, consider yourself lucky, you've found a great deal! You may want to check with a travel agent, as they can sometimes get a better deal on international flights than what you can find online. We've found that to often be true with Turkish Airlines.
Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines offers direct flights to Istanbul from New York Kennedy Airport and Chicago O'Hare Airport. Flights from New York are daily. They depart NY at 5:30 pm and arrive in Istanbul at 10:20 am the following day. Flights from Chicago are only on Wed., Fri. and Sun. They depart Chicago at 5:00 pm and arrive in Istanbul at 11:45 am the following day.
Return flights from Istanbul to New York are daily, depart at 12:30 pm and arrive at 4:45 pm. On Saturdays there is also an additional flight which departs at 3:30 pm and arrives at 7:45 pm. Return flights from Istanbul to Chicago are also only on Wed., Fri. and Sun., depart at 10:00 am and arrive at 1:40 pm.
Currently Turkish Airlines code shares with American Airlines, but they just joined the Star Alliance and it is expected that may change in the near term. Turkish Airlines has already begun code-sharing with Lufthansa. It is possible that they will begin code sharing with United Airlines sometime soon. Turkish Airlines flies with Airbus 340 - 400.
Delta Airlines
Delta offers direct flights to Istanbul from New York Kennedy Airport.
Lufthansa
Lufthansa, like all the European airlines, makes a stopover in Europe, at the Frankfurt, Zurich or Munich Airports. You can fly to Istanbul from most major cities like New York (Kennedy), Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. (Dulles) and Los Angeles with one stopover in Europe.
Air France
Air France, like all the European airlines, makes a stopover in its home country, in its case at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. You can fly to Istanbul from most major cities like New York (Kennedy), Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. (Dulles) and Los Angeles with one stopover in Paris.
British Airways
British Airways, like all the European airlines, makes a stopover in its home country, in its case at the Heathrow Airport in London. You can fly to Istanbul from most major cities like New York (Kennedy or Newark), Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. (Dulles or BWI) and Los Angeles with one stopover in London.
Alitalia
Alitalia, like all the European airlines, makes a stopover in its home country, in its case at the Rome or Milan Airports. You can fly to Istanbul from many major cities like New York (Kennedy), Chicago, and Boston with one stopover in Italy. Alitalia's one-stop flights are from fewer major U.S. cities than the other airlines mentioned above.
KLM
KLM's website for flights departing the U.S. is run by Northwest Airlines. KLM, like all the European airlines, makes a stopover in its home country, in its case at the Amsterdam Airport. You can fly to Istanbul from many major cities like New York (Kennedy), Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C. (Dulles) and Los Angeles with one stopover in Amsterdam.
