We took 7pm Kamil Koc / Flixbus bus from Goreme to Kayseri bus station, cost 120 tl.
We had already made a reservation when we arrived at Goreme which was wise as the bus was quite full.
They served free snacks and soft drinks included in that price.
Bus had power outlets and ride took 90 minutes, as we were stopped at police roadblock.
Tip, make sure you have your ID/Passport on the bus with you.
Taxi from Goreme bus station to Goreme railway station cost 330 tl.
We would have preffered a cheaper bus or dolmus as we had plenty of time,
but there were none. It is not unusual in Turkey for the bus station to be outside the city.
In Kayseri the bus station seems to have no connecting local bus services to the city.
Perhaps this is to keep the taxi drivers in work.
Train departed at 1am so we had 4 hours wait.
First hour in Pizza Uno outside railway station where we bought a spare pizza to eat on the train.
Waiting room at railway station was comfortable and warm.
There were Toilets (10 tl) and snack bar.
Train arrived on time and stayed for 10 minutes so no rush to find correct carriage.
We had bought tickets in Istanbul no problem (see previous post)
We met people who had booked using a travel agent in the UK and said that tickets were very hard to get. This is the regular Dogu Express, not the Turistic one, that only runs in Winter (up to March).
All I can say is that we had no problem buying tickets for 575 tl at the Istanbul railway station.
Maybe we were just lucky 🙂
However even though we were husband and wife, we had to buy all 4 seats in the compartment.
So it costs 575 tl x 4.
We felt bad because there was only 1x sleeper carriage. The locals just sat in seats all the way.
Then we remembered we had flown to London from Australia and the seats on the plane were
not as comfortable as the train seats, did not have internet access, and the journey was just as long.
We didn’t feel so guilty then.
This carriage was the same as the one we had from Ankara to Kayseri a few days before.
Power outlet, fold down beds with blanket, sheet, pillow and pillow case provided.
The carriage shared toilets were a bit smelly.
We travel with a can of air freshener spray for such smelly situations.
We boarded at 1am so of course it was dark outside, so we slept.
The restaurant carriage didn’t open until 8am but the coffee was welcome.
The food was snacks but the locals were ordering a small breakfast with cheese and eggs.
At about 10am the whole trip became really worth it for the views.
The views all the way from Ankara had been nothing special but now we got mountains and rivers.
The mountains stayed all the way to Erzurum which is at 2000m and is itself surrounded by mountains.
It was the end of May but there was plenty of ice still on the mountain tops.
Our carriage was the last one so we could look out the back at the railway line.
With a backdrop of snowy mountains that was something very special.
The back windows were a bit dirty so the photos we took don’t do it justice.
