By plane

1 Ankara Esenboğa Airport (ESB IATA), Özal Blv, ☏ +90 312 590 4000. This has few international flights, but Sun Express has direct flights from German-speaking cities with large Turkish expat communities, such as Munich. There are also flights from Jeddah and Medina, the Gulf States, Baghdad, Tehran and Almaty. Most other routes involve a change in Istanbul at IST or SAW airports. Both have hourly flights to Ankara, taking an hour, by Turkish Airlines or Pegasus. Ankara has flights from most Turkish cities: from the beach resorts and Ercan in Northern Cyprus these connect with the direct flights into Europe. The airport has the usual facilities including baggage storage and car hire. See Sleep for hotels in or near the airport. (updated Apr 2023)

Transport is the major shortcoming of this airport. It's 30 km north of the centre, along a congested main road; there are no plans to extend the Metro here.

Belko Air bus runs downtown every 30 min 05:30-22:00 and overnight according to flight times. It runs via the railway station and Kızılay to AŞTİ bus terminal, which is on the Metro. With luck this takes an hour, traffic permitting. But belki is Turkish for "maybe" so the recurring joke is inevitable; the bus gets held up in city traffic.

Local public transportation -EGO- bus Route 442 runs from the airport (arrivals level, watch for a crowd on the very far end of the dropoff lane on the arrivals level) and takes 40-50 minutes to the train station.

By train

Wikivoyage has an article on Rail travel in Turkey

Ankara is on the YHT high-speed rail network, with trains:

- from Istanbul taking 4½ hours, 13 daily via Pendik (for Sabiha Gokcen airport), Gebze, Izmit, Arifiye (for Adapazarı), Eskişehir (for Bursa) and Eryaman (for west Ankara suburbs). In April 2023 the fare is 248 TL economy, 372 TL business. The temporary terminus for Istanbul is Söğütlüçeşme, pending the interminable reconstruction of Haydarpaşa, but check for updates.

- from Konya taking 90 min, five daily. Two per day start from Karaman, with connections from Adana and Cyprus.

- from Sivas taking 2½ hours.

Other mainline trains (anahat trenler) are slow and scenic, with the emphasis on slow, but are called "Express" to compensate.

- Ankara Ekspresi departs from Istanbul Halkali station at 22:00, picking up at Söğütlüçeşme, Bostanci and Pendik plus nine other intermediate stations, reaching Ankara before 07:00. The return service has similar times, taking nine hours, and there are seats and sleepers plus a dining car.

- Izmir Mavi departs from Izmir Basmane station at 18:00 and takes 14 hrs overnight via Kütahya and Eskişehir; the return departs Ankara at 19:00.

- Destinations east of Ankara are served by overnight trains. The main services are from Kurtulan and Diyarbakir (Güney Kurtalan Ekspresi), from Kars and Erzurum (Doğu Ekspresi), and from Tatvan (Van Gölü Ekspresi), linked by dolmus or ferry to Van. Van has a train twice a week from Tehran and Tabriz in Iran.

Some of these trains have tourist versions, though all remain suspended in 2023. For instance the Turistik Doğu Ekspresi runs from Ankara to Kars with long stops for sightseeing eastbound at İliç (for Kemaliye), Erzincan and Erzurum; the westbound train makes long stops at Divriği and Bostankaya. Journey time each way is 30 hours.

For timetables and tickets see TCDD, Turkish Republic State Railways.

Local trains (bölgesel trenler) run five times a day to Polatlı. These can't be booked.

The railway from Azerbaijan and Georgia was completed in 2017 and passenger trains have been promised ever since, but to date the line only carries freight. Trains from Syria and Iraq are all suspended indefinitely and the tracks are ruined.

2 Ankara railway station, Hipodrom Cd. The north side is the original 1930s Art Deco station for slow trains and Başkentray suburban lines, and quickest accessed off Hipodrom Cd. South side is the modern station for YHT trains, quickest accessed off Celal Bayar Blv: this is gleaming steel and glass, with a shopping mall and hotel to complete the resemblance to an airport. The nearest metro station is Ulus 500 m northeast. (updated Apr 2023)

Eryaman is a station in the west suburbs of Ankara where YHT trains also stop, and you can transfer to the cross-town Başkentray train. They no longer stop at Sincan (terminus of the Başkentray line) but slow trains from the west stop there not at Eryaman.

By bus

Buses from Istanbul depart every 15 min round the clock, and take six hours to Ankara non-stop, for a fare in 2023 of 250 TL. Slower services may stop at Gebze, Izmit, Adapazarı and Bolu. Many are running through to cities further east, all of which have good connections to Ankara, see individual pages.

Buses from Izmir take 8 hours and from Adana 7 hours, with hourly services. From Bursa is six hours, but the usual method is to take the bus to Eskişehir to join the YHT fast train. Similarly from Antalya you join the train at Konya.

The main bus operators are Metro Turizm, Pamukkale and Flixbus, who took over Kamil Koç. Buses are clean and comfortable, see Turkey#Get around for tips on using them and buying tickets.

3 Ankara Intercity Terminal (AŞTİ, Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmeleri), Mevlana Blv ( AŞTİ), ☏ +90 312 207 1000, info@asti.com.tr. AŞTİ (pronounced ash-tee) is a huge two-storey building with extended wings. Normally buses arrive on the lower floor and depart from the upper floor, but this varies for buses running through with Ankara as an interim stop. The building is modern, and easy to navigate when the departure screens are working. It has ticket kiosks, left-luggage lockers (15 TL for 12 hr), cafes, shops and toilets. Two hotels are 500 m south, see sleep. AŞTİ is best reached by metro with changing at Kızılay station. Here follow the signs "Ankaray". (updated Apr 2023)