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Bucuresti - Istanbul (or any city to Istanbul) - How to book?

  • 29 June 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 198 views
G

Greetings,

Used tickets.oebb.at to get by night train all the way from Zurich, through Budapest (Hungary), to Bucuresti (Romania) with the goal to reach Istanbul.  

However, having issues trying to figure out how to get to Istanbul from Bucuresti.  Would love to take a night train from anywhere (Sofia to Istanbul, etc), however if not an option a day and multi-day trains are absolutely welcome.  We love trains so do not mind an adventure (have wife and kid with us so sleeping in a hotel/motel, train station probably no go).. 

Any suggestions how to book? 
Any cities to which Istanbul trains are confirmed to run? 
Any problems booking in person at the train station (if the only option) and return trip back from Istanbul?
Any other advise, links, etc?  

I’ll search in the meantime as it appears the topic is popular - no luck so far though getting an answer.  Eurail.com does not appear to work to search for Istanbul train tickets..

 

Thanks!
George

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Best answer by MartinM 29 June 2022, 08:47

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M
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You could have saved the time to write this all by reading other same posts_ONLY in summer (end date still unknown) there is 1 ´through´ car (couchette) from TCDD from BUC shunted into the ´main´ (2 or 3 cars) train Sof-IST/Halkali-a suburban stop-that can ONLY be booked at RO counters. All reports tell (last one yesterday) plenty of space on the day. It leaves BUC already around noon-arr next morning early

This is also the only option to reach IST over rails-backward.

Motels are very, very rare here in EUR-they are mostly called motorwayhotels. Why a HTL close to a station would not fit escapes me-in fact I currently stay in such. There are 2 lower budget such next to Gara Nord in BUC; 1 is an Ibis-a world wide chain.

The answers here are from a few dedicated and rather experienced train suers (I´ve done 12 InterRails through the yrs)-service is overburdened with work and understaffed. The style of fone USA are used to will not happen here-other countries-other customs.

G

What are RO counters?  Rail Office?   Where can we find them (train station I presume)?

Style of fone :)?  Ohh hehe we are very well aware and love customs of different countries.  Wife from Mexico, I am from Europe.. :)

 

Thanks,

George

G

Sorry what is TCDD and what is BUC?  

Will read the other posts as well..  

G

Read more posts and this one.

 

Appears we can get tickets in Bucarest (no other way to get tickets in advance it seems?) and take the train to Istanbul directly from there.

How to travel by train from London to Istanbul (Turkey) (seat61.com) appeasr to explain this all...  

If this is correct, please let me know - if I misunderstood, please also let me know.  

M
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Userlevel 7
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Read more posts and this one.

 

Appears we can get tickets in Bucarest (no other way to get tickets in advance it seems?) and take the train to Istanbul directly from there.

How to travel by train from London to Istanbul (Turkey) (seat61.com) appeasr to explain this all...  

If this is correct, please let me know - if I misunderstood, please also let me know.  

Yeah, get the ticket in Istanbul. It will be to 99% no problem, even on day of travel. Reservation for couchette should be 70 RON per person.

Usually occupancy of this carriage is low.

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