Leaving Istanbul for your flight: when to set off from the hotel

Every departure plan in Istanbul has the same three ingredients. Get each one right and the morning of your flight is calm.

1. 01The airline's bufferAirlines usually want you at the airport about two hours before a flight within Europe and about three hours before a long-haul departure. Your own airline's advice always takes priority, so check your booking.
2. 02The driveEach route page on this site shows the measured drive from a district to IST or SAW on an empty road. That figure is the floor, not the plan.
3. 03The traffic marginOn top of the empty-road time, allow for traffic. We plan with a range of roughly 1.3 to 1.8 times the free-flow drive, and use the upper end when the flight cannot be missed.

Add the three together and round up to the next quarter hour. That is the time to be in the car, which means the bags should be at reception a few minutes earlier.

The planner on this page does the arithmetic for you. Choose your airport, your district or hotel and the type of flight, enter the departure time, and it suggests a time to leave the hotel.

• It uses the measured drive for your place, so the figure is the same one shown on the route pages.
• It adds the traffic margin as an estimate, labelled as such, not as a promise about the roads on the day.
• From the result you can book the ride with the date and time already filled in.

Istanbul is among the most congested cities in the world on the TomTom Traffic Index (tomtom.com), and the airport legs feel it. A few factors are worth thinking about when you pick the time.

• Crossing the Bosphorus: leaving a Kadıköy hotel for IST, or a Sultanahmet hotel for SAW, means a bridge or the tunnel, and those approaches queue at busy hours.
• Weekday rush hours and Friday evenings are the slowest times to be on the road.
• Holidays: the days before public and religious holidays can bring heavy traffic out of the city.
• Events: a few days a year, races and public events close bridges. Tell us your flight and we plan around it.

Early-morning and late-night departures usually meet lighter traffic, but the airline buffer still applies in full. A 06:00 flight with a three-hour buffer means being at the terminal by 03:00.

Numbers are easier to picture with real trips, so here is how the planning works for two typical departures. The drive figures come from the route pages; the sum is what matters.

1. 01A noon flight to London from IST, hotel in BeşiktaşSame side, so no crossing. Take the airline's two-hour buffer, add the measured drive with the traffic margin on top for a late-morning road, round up, and you have the time to be in the car.
2. 02An evening long-haul flight from IST, hotel in KadıköyThis one crosses the Bosphorus at the start of the evening rush, so the margin matters more. Start from the three-hour buffer, use the upper end of the traffic range, and expect to leave in the early afternoon.

In both cases, being early at the terminal is the cheap mistake and being late is the expensive one. When in doubt, choose the earlier pick-up.

For the ride to the airport, the driver comes to your hotel entrance at the agreed time. If the hotel stands on a lane closed to cars, as some do in the Old City, agree a nearby corner with reception and add it to the booking.

• Check out before the pick-up time, so the bill does not hold you up at the desk.
• Have the passports and the departure flight number ready; the driver needs to know whether you are flying domestically or internationally.
• If you are running late, send a WhatsApp message to +90 551 464 26 32 rather than hoping to make up the time on the road.

The fare is the same as on the way in: per vehicle, one way, fixed when you book. You pay the driver at the airport in EUR, GBP or lira cash, or by Visa or Mastercard.

At Istanbul Airport, cars drop departing travellers at the departures level of the terminal. The building is large, so allow a few minutes to walk to your airline's check-in area.

At Sabiha Gökçen, the airport directs domestic travellers to the east entrance and international travellers to the west entrance. Tell the driver which kind of flight you are taking and you are set down at the right one.

You can book the return when you book the arrival, or later from Istanbul by WhatsApp. A return trip costs twice the one-way fare, with nothing paid until each ride is over.

• Same side as the airport: €50 in the Eco Van, €60 in the Vito, €65 in the V-Class and €80 in the Sprinter.
• Across the Bosphorus: €70, €80, €85 and €100.
• Details to send: the hotel, the date, the pick-up time or the flight time, the departure flight number, and the number of people and suitcases.

If you send only the flight time, dispatch suggests a pick-up time with the buffer and traffic margin built in. Cancelling is free at any time if your plans change.