By plane

1 Denizli Çardak Airport (DNZ IATA), ☏ +90 258 846 1139. This has daily flights from Istanbul (both IST and SAW) by Turkish Airlines and Pegasus. Occasional seasonal flights are from Tehran, and Medina during the hadj pilgrimage. The airport is 65 km east of Denizli so you need to have onward transport set up - buses no longer run to town, and a taxi will cost you an arm and a leg. (updated Oct 2023)

İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport (ADB IATA) has more international flights. It's 260 km west of Denizli, a 4 hour drive.

Antalya (AYT IATA) may work better, as it has budget flights from across Europe. It's 225 km southeast, a 3 hour drive.

By bus

Buses from Istanbul take 10-11 hr via Gebze, Bursa, Izmir, Aydin and Nazilli. They run hourly daytime and every couple of hours through the night, for a fare in 2023 of 620 TL.

Buses run hourly from Ankara (7 hr), Izmir (3½ hr) and Antalya (4 hr). Others are from Isparta (3 hr), Konya (6 hr), Göreme (for Cappadocia; 10 hr overnight) and Adana (12 hr overnight).

Bus lines on these routes are Pamukkale, Metro Turizm and Flixbus.

2 Denizli Bus Terminal (Otogar). This is central: Denizli doesn't have a bypass, so it hasn't built an edge-of-town station like other cities. It's spacious enough for the number of passengers it serves, reasonably clean, and has ticket kiosks, toilets and left luggage. Inter-city buses are on the upper level, downstairs are local services including to Pamukkale - this runs from Platform 76 every 20 min and costs 24 TL. (updated Oct 2023)

By train

Pamukkale Ekspresi trundles once a day from Eskişehir, taking 8 hours 20 min via Kütahya, Afyon and Çardak. It sets off after 11:00 to arrive around 19:30; the return train departs at 09:45 to reach Eskişehir by 18:15. Eskişehir has fast YHT trains from Istanbul, Ankara and Konya, but you'll struggle to make a same-day connection.

Göller Ekspresi typifies what's wrong with Turkish railways. It runs overnight, leaving Izmir Basmane station at 23:00 to reach the airport at 23:30, Selçuk at 00:40, Aydın at 01:45, Denizli at 04:10, Çardak at 05:15 and Isparta at 07:40. The westbound return leaves Isparta at 22:00, reaching Denizli at 02:00 and Izmir at 07:00. Thus it serves a large city, two airports and several major tourist destinations, at a time of night that renders it useless. It just has standard seating, no couchettes. The bus covers the distance in half the time at a convenient hour of day.

Denizli railway station is across the road from the bus station. Few facilities here.