When looking at how we were going to travel around Türkiye, we knew we wanted to prioritise budget. There are a large amount of airports around the country but flying is expensive. Türkiye also has a decent train system including high speed, mainline and local trains. However they are limited in where they go. As we had two weeks to travel the country, we opted for the slower but cheaper bus option. There are heaps of different companies but for ease we chose to book with Kâmil Koç buses.

We saw a lot of mixed reviews online about this company, so after taking five Kâmil Koç buses around Türkiye, we thought we’d write this post with our honest review. That way you’ll have everything you need to know so you can decide if they’re right for you and your trip.

In this post:

1. Booking a Kâmil Koç Bus
2. The Buses
3. The Journey
4. Bus Attendants
5. Istanbul Esenler Station
6. Our Honest Review

The main reason we ended up booking with Kâmil Koç for our trip around Türkiye is because of how easy it was to book with them. You book them through Flixbus, a company we have booked with and used many times before. Kâmil Koç go to heaps of locations around Türkiye, so they will almost certainly be going where you want to go. They’re cheap for how long they are, and easy to book online.

Here are some things to note when booking on Flixbus. Firstly, buses in Türkiye often leave from bus stations out of the city centre, so make sure to double check the outgoing and incoming station locations before you book.

Secondly, seat selection on Kâmil Koç is free if you’re happy to sit next to someone. For us this worked super well as we could sit next to each other for free! Or only €6 if you’d like to sit alone. Seats are also gendered, meaning if you’re a single female, a male cannot choose the seat next to you.

Third, the times aren’t the most convenient and often leave early in the morning or arrive at night. Also, as Türkiye is quite large, many of the routes are 7 hours or more, so just make sure to book in advance to get the best time for your trip.

Lastly, not every journey goes every day, especially in the off season. Just remember to look at the bus trips before you book any accommodation so you’re not caught out!

The actual buses are nice and have more room than your average coach. Each row is only three seats across, with one seat on one side of the isle and two on the other. Because of this they definitely feel roomier than other Flixbuses we’ve been on in Europe. All the seats recline, and most have seat pouches and foot rests too. Above the seats, there is also overhead storage and under the bus there is ample room for big bags.

In terms of the on board amenities, some buses have TVs in the back of the seats, and some don’t. However, we never actually used them, so we can’t vouch for the entertainment provided. All buses we travelled on had chargers between the seats. Some are USB ports but some have spots for the actual wall charger, so make sure to bring your adaptors on the bus.

There’s wifi on some buses, but you need a Turkish phone number to connect so we were never able to use it. None of the buses had toilets on board, but they do make toilet stops so keep that in mind. From our research, much of this is the same no matter which coach company you travel with.

We also wanted to mention that out of the five different buses we took, all five were different. They all had a similar layout inside but some were definitely newer and therefore nicer than others.

When the bus arrives, some will have signs on them saying where they’re going, some won’t. It’s important to double check with the bus driver or the bus attendant to make sure it’s going where you need. They’ll check your ticket and put a tag on your luggage to go under the bus before giving you a corresponding ticket. Keep this with you on the bus because you give it in when you collect your luggage at the end.

On the bus, most seats will be allocated before your journey so your seats should be empty. Most of our buses left roughly on time, but don’t be surprised if it leaves a bit late. Our first Kâmil Koç bus left almost half an hour late, so it does happen!

The bus will stop multiple times throughout the journey, every couple of hours. This is on top of the stops to pick people up, which are usually too quick to jump off. The quality and type of stop really varies. Sometimes we stopped for 10 minutes at a rest stop just to let people go to the bathroom. Sometimes we stopped for 30 minutes at a rest stop with a buffet where we had time to get food. Also important to note that some of the rest stops had free bathrooms, but some were paid and only took cash. Luckily, all the rest stops we visited had at least one western toilet.

The best thing about Kâmil Koç buses is the bus attendants! They walk up the isle every couple of hours with a free snack trolley. On this trolley is a variety of sweet and savoury snacks, as well as drinks. The attendant will offer you a plastic cup with a drink of your choice and a snack each.

They also walk up and down the isle multiple times a journey with cups of water and hand sanitiser. You can ask the bus attendant any questions you have during your journey. However, we found that there was definitely a language barrier between us and the attendants. Make sure you have a translator app ready to go if you need to talk to them.

We thought we would quickly discuss the Istanbul bus station, as most readers will be going either to or from it at some point. If you want to read more in depth or learn how to catch public transport in Istanbul, we’ve got a full blog post about it.

When booking on Flixbus, it will come up with a couple of different stations for Istanbul. You want “Esenler” as it’s the one closest to Istanbul’s city centre and is on the European side. It’s a major train station as well as having the Otogari (bus station) and is easy to get to from Sultanahmet. From Aksaray in the city, just hop on the M1A or M1B trains heading towards “Otogar”. Once you get off at Otogar, just exit the station and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a diamond shaped complex. All around the outside are bus companies, and you’ll find the bus stops here.

The confusing thing about this station as there are two Kâmil Koç bus buildings. One of them says “Kâmil Koç Flixbus” and has bus stops up to a certain number. The other just says “Kâmil Koç” and has different numbers. To find which stop your bus goes from, it should say on the Flixbus app if that’s where you booked. Once you know, or even if you don’t know which stop you need, head to the Flixbus building. They should be able to point you in the right direction. Just allow for extra time when leaving from Istanbul Esenler because it is a huge station, and you might need to wander around for a bit before you find your bus stop!

After reading a lot of online reviews about Kâmil Koç buses, we really didn’t know what to expect. However, we personally thought they were really good, and absolutely worth the money. The buses were reasonably nice and clean, mostly on time and none of ours were rescheduled or cancelled. The snacks on our buses were also good and we always had enough rest stops. The seats were comfortable, the USB chargers were good and the other passengers were respectful. Overall we enjoyed our bus ride with Kâmil Koç, some of which were over 11 hours long.

We did just want to mention one downside that we experienced on most of our buses. We noticed that smoking is very common in Türkiye, and it’s really hard to get away from it anywhere. While smoking is not technically allowed on the bus, the bus itself smells like smoke as people smoke near it at every rest stop. Also on at least of three of our buses, the bus driver smoked while driving. They did open a window while doing so so most of the smoke went out the window, but it was still unpleasant for non-smokers.

Obviously as we only travelled on Kâmil Koç we can’t confirm if you’d be able to avoid this with other bus companies. However based on how many people we saw smoking in Türkiye, it’d definitely be hard to find somewhere that didn’t at least smell like smoke. We’d just recommend taking masks on the bus if it’s going to bother you during the journey.

Overall, despite the smoking issue, we still thought Kâmil Koç buses in Türkiye were worth it. The amount of places they service on direct buses for such cheap prices was great for us budget travellers. The buses were also comfortable and we loved having the bus attendants there if we needed help. Of course we brought heaps of snacks on the bus with us, but we also enjoyed the on board snacks too.

We also think the fact that single travellers of different genders can not sit next to each other would make solo female travellers feel safe too. It really is a great and easy way to get around Türkiye and we’d recommend this company for anyone considering it.