Istanbul Airport to Bursa: Distance, Time, Ferry or Road, and 2026 Costs

There are two ways to cover the distance, and the faster one is the road. By motorway over the Osmangazi Bridge it is 125 km and about 1 hour 30 minutes from Sabiha Gökçen, or 197 km and about 2 hours 15 minutes from Istanbul Airport. By sea you cross the Gulf of Izmit or the Marmara on a ferry and then drive the rest, which adds an interchange at each end and in practice costs you an extra hour or more.

There is no rail link. No train or metro runs from either Istanbul airport to Bursa, and there is no useful flight either. Bursa does have its own airport, Yenişehir (YEI), 53 km from the city centre, but it handles only a handful of scheduled domestic routes, so almost nobody arrives in Bursa by air.

That leaves four practical choices: a private transfer, a hire car, a ferry plus onward road leg, or an intercity coach to Bursa's bus terminal. The rest of this guide takes them in turn, with the numbers behind each one. Fixed prices for the two airport routes are on www.get4s.com/en/transfers/istanbul-bursa-transfer and www.get4s.com/en/transfers/sabiha-gokcen-bursa-transfer.

Sabiha Gökçen is clearly closer: 125 km and roughly 1 hour 30 minutes, against 197 km and roughly 2 hours 15 minutes from Istanbul Airport. The reason is geography rather than traffic. SAW sits at Kurtköy on the Asian side, close to where the motorway towards the Osmangazi Bridge begins, so the drive leaves the city almost immediately. IST sits north west of the city on the European side, so a car has to cross the whole metropolis, or loop it on the O-7 North Marmara Motorway, before it even reaches the bridge road.

In practical terms the difference is about 45 minutes of driving and 44 euros on the transfer price. If your itinerary lets you pick an Istanbul airport for a Bursa trip, pick SAW.

SAW has a second advantage for anyone considering the ferry: the Pendik ferry terminal is only 8 km from the terminal building, about 15 minutes by road. From Istanbul Airport the nearest İDO pier, Yenikapı, is 51 km away and takes about an hour in city traffic.

If you are travelling on to Istanbul itself rather than Bursa, the city routes are priced separately on www.get4s.com/en/transfers/istanbul-transfer and www.get4s.com/en/transfers/sabiha-gokcen-transfer.

From Sabiha Gökçen the route is simple: join the motorway eastwards, pass Gebze, take the O-5 Gebze to Orhangazi and Izmir motorway, cross the Osmangazi Bridge, continue past Orhangazi and join the Bursa ring road. From Istanbul Airport you first run east along the O-7 North Marmara Motorway, then pick up exactly the same O-5.

The bridge is the whole point of this route. According to the General Directorate of Highways, crossing this stretch of the gulf used to take 1 hour 30 minutes by the old land road or 45 to 60 minutes by ferry. Over the bridge it takes about 6 minutes.

Tolls are charged on the bridge and on the motorway sections. For the bridge itself, under the tariff in force since 1 July 2026, a class 1 car pays 1,170 TL, a class 2 vehicle pays 1,870 TL and a class 3 vehicle pays 2,225 TL. A Mercedes Vito counts as class 2 because of its height, so 1,870 TL is the figure that applies to a VIP transfer vehicle.

With GET4S that is already handled. A private transfer is from 173 euros from Istanbul Airport and from 129 euros from Sabiha Gökçen, per VIP Mercedes Vito for up to 6 passengers, and the bridge toll is included in the price and shown as a separate line on the vehicle card, so you can see exactly what you are paying for rather than being asked for it at the barrier.

Two operators run across the water, and neither one lands you in Bursa city centre.

İDO runs fast ferries that carry cars. Pendik to Yalova takes 45 minutes at sea and ran roughly hourly between about 07:00 and 21:00 on the timetable published at ido.com.tr on 22 October 2026. Yenikapı to Yalova takes 1 hour 25 minutes and ran every two hours from 07:45 to 21:45. From the Yalova pier it is another 72 km to central Bursa, about an hour by road. İDO also runs a passenger sea bus from Kabataş and Kadıköy direct to Bursa (Güzelyalı), about three sailings a day, between 2 hours 45 minutes and 3 hours 5 minutes at sea.

BUDO runs a passenger sea bus from Kabataş to Mudanya. BUDO's own FAQ gives the crossing as 1 hour 50 minutes. On the winter timetable published on budo.burulas.com.tr on 22 October 2026 there were four sailings on weekdays and Saturday, at 08:00, 11:30, 16:30 and 19:30, and five on Friday and Sunday, at 08:00, 10:30, 14:00, 17:00 and 19:30. The listed adult one way fare was 1,440 TL with a campaign price of 720 TL; students aged 6 to 27 and children were 1,000 TL with a campaign price of 500 TL. Two things to know before you plan around it: BUDO carries passengers only, with no car deck, and BUDO states in its FAQ that it runs no shuttle bus from either pier, so the 28 km from Mudanya to central Bursa is on you. The Istanbul end is Kabataş Transfer Merkezi, block D; the old Eminönü and Sirkeci pier closed on 1 January 2026.

Ferry timetables change with the season and sailings are cancelled in bad weather, which is why BUDO keeps a cancelled sailings page on its site. İDO sells on a dynamic tariff, so the fare depends on the sailing and how full it is. Check the operator's own site for the times and the price on your date before you commit a flight to a ferry.

Yes from Sabiha Gökçen, and it is the cheapest option if you are travelling light. Coaches connect SAW with Bursa's intercity bus terminal; since April 2026 the line has been operated by Havaist, after Burulaş ended its own BBBUS service, with departures from the Bursa terminal calling at Gemlik and Orhangazi on the way. Times and fares change, so check the operator's own site rather than a third party listing.

The catch is where a coach leaves you. Bursa Şehirlerarası Otobüs Terminali is about 10 km north west of the centre, so the bus is never the last leg: you still need a taxi or the BursaRay metro to reach the hotel, with your luggage, after a flight. From Istanbul Airport there is no equally convenient direct coach, and most options route through the city first, which is why the 197 km drive usually beats them comfortably.

So the honest split is this. One traveller with a cabin bag and no deadline will spend the least by coach or by ferry. A family, a group, anyone arriving at night and anyone whose hotel is in the thermal district will get to the door faster and with far less handling by taking a car straight through.

The table puts the realistic door to door figures side by side. Ferry totals include the drive to the pier, the crossing, the drive at the far end and a conservative allowance for check in and waiting.

Read across and the pattern is clear: the road is faster from both airports, by about an hour in each case. The ferry is not a shortcut, it is a different kind of journey, and a pleasant one in good weather.

On price the comparison depends entirely on how many of you there are. For one or two people travelling light, a ferry ticket plus a bus at each end is the cheapest way to Bursa, comfortably. A transfer is priced per vehicle rather than per seat, so the cost per head falls fast: one Vito from SAW at 129 euros is 32.25 euros each for four and 21.50 euros each for six, with the toll and the meeting included and no interchanges at all. Add the two local legs a ferry still needs at each end and the car is usually the better buy from about three passengers upward.

After about 21:00 the sea closes and the road is the only option. On the timetables we checked, the last Pendik to Yalova sailing left at 21:00, the last Yenikapı sailing at 21:45, and the last BUDO sea bus from Kabataş at 19:30. A flight landing at 23:30 therefore has one route to Bursa, over the bridge.

In one way that is good news. The motorway is at its emptiest after midnight and the Sabiha Gökçen to Bursa drive can come in under 1 hour 20 minutes, faster than it ever is at 18:00. In another way it is a trap, because the coaches thin out after midnight too, and a 125 km fare negotiated with a taxi at the kerb at 01:00 is the most expensive way anyone makes this trip.

So book the car before you fly. GET4S drivers meet every flight, including the first and the last of the day, with a name board in arrivals. The booking carries your flight number, so a delay simply moves the pickup, the first 60 minutes of waiting after landing are free, and there is no night surcharge on either Bursa route. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before pickup, and you can pay online by card or in cash to the driver. Booking takes a few minutes at www.get4s.com/en/booking.

Most people flying into Istanbul for Bursa are heading to one of three places, and the address matters more than the city name.

The thermal hotels are concentrated in Çekirge, about 5 km west of the centre, where the hot springs are. A transfer to a Çekirge hotel is the same booking as a transfer to central Bursa, and the driver takes you to the door. The historic city, with the Grand Mosque, the Koza Han silk bazaar and the Green Tomb, sits in and around Heykel in the centre, within walking distance of itself.

Uludağ is the exception and needs its own booking. The hotel zone is high on the mountain, about 31 km of climbing road above the city, roughly 35 to 40 minutes in dry conditions and noticeably longer once there is snow on the upper section. GET4S prices it as a separate route at www.get4s.com/en/transfers/bursa-uludag-transfer. In winter, ask your hotel what the road is doing that week before you fix a pickup time.

Two last practical points. Hotels in the old centre sit on steep, narrow streets where a coach cannot reach the door but a Vito usually can; where even that fails, the driver stops at the nearest accessible point and helps with the bags. And if you are going on to İznik, Mudanya or the Marmara coast after Bursa, say so when you book, because GET4S quotes those as fixed price intercity routes rather than leaving you to find a car locally.