Everything You Wondered About Van Lake Express

Van Lake Express, Our train line, which goes back and forth between Ankara and Tatvan, and which promises a journey of approximately 27 hours in the middle of Anatolia, coveted the throne of the Eastern Express. Eastern Express When it became popular, eyes turned to other train journeys in our country and Van Lake Express took the first place.

I wanted to share my Van Lake Express experience, which I set off on the last day of February 2019 and completed on March 1, as soon as I returned. Come on, let's take a look at what I'm going through step by step.

How to Buy Van Lake Express Ticket?

TCDD's website is the easiest way to purchase Van Lake Express tickets. You can buy your train ticket by specifying the date and route you want with TCDD's website or the mobile application you can download to your phone.

If you are one of those who say that I am not good with the Internet, you can buy tickets from the ticket offices of TCDD at the train stations, the call center at 444 82 33 or the PTT Branches.

TCDD Mobile Application E-Ticket

Since there is no easy place for trains and it is necessary to constantly monitor vacant places, I definitely recommend you to download the mobile application.

It doesn't matter if you are an Android or Ios user, if you search for "TCDD" in your phone's app store, you will see an application that says "E-ticket". By downloading this application to your phone, you can buy train tickets, view the tickets you have purchased, and convert your reservations into tickets.

• 

• 

• 

Van Lake Express Ticket Purchase Process

Van Lake Express ticket purchase process, Buying an Orient Express ticket exactly the same as the process. You can take a look at that article, but I will give a short summary.

Van Lake Express tickets go on sale 30 days before the travel date. Finding a Van Lake Express ticket is as difficult as finding a Eastern Express ticket. For this reason, it is necessary to follow closely and act quickly from the date the tickets go on sale.

We started looking for tickets as soon as the tickets went on sale, but we could not find a place in the sleeping and covered bunks. For this reason, we started to look for places from the website and/or mobile application every day, even several times a day.

10 days before our trip, 20 beds suddenly opened in the sleeping and covered bunks where there was no place. The source of these mass openings is tours. They hold a place for 20 people, but they cancel the tour because they can't fill it, so 20 seats are left open.

After we bought tickets, an additional wagon was placed so that those who bought tickets after us could easily find a place. In other words, even if you have 1 week-10 days left for your journey, do not give up hope that there is no ticket. A place can be made at any time with both incoming cancellations and additional wagons.

Traveling Tip: I will have another tip, usually there is no room in the bunk and sleeping car, but there is room in the pulman. If you absolutely want to take the train, buy your ticket from Pulman, when you get on the train, tell the conductor that you want to pass if there is a place in the sleeping or couchette car. There are last-minute cancellations or those who don't show up even though they bought the ticket, they spend you paying the price difference to those empty places.

Van Lake Express Ticket / Wagon Types

I mentioned the types of wagons above, it may not be meaningful for those who will get on such trains for the first time, so let me explain the types of wagons and tickets.

• Pullman: Train wagons with double seats, such as bus seats, are called pulman. Although there are much wider and more comfortable seats on the buses, you are traveling in the same wagon with 100 people, for long periods such as 27 hours, it can be a bit tiring. The seats recline quite a bit but it's still not a bed.
• Covered Bunks: Wagons for 4 people, where opposite seats can be used as beds, and a tiny table by the window. Generally, those who travel in groups prefer this type of wagons. Or, 2 people prefer this type to close the 4-person compartment and travel widely. Here, there is a mutual sitting situation, that is, 4 people out of 2 sit and lie against the direction of the train, not everyone may be happy with this situation.
• Bed: If you are a little more self-conscious like me, this is the best option for me. You have a refrigerator and a sink in these compartments, which have 2 beds, one on the top and one on the bottom. You have quite a large area, a large area above the refrigerator that you can use as a table. The refrigerator was very useful for us as the trip was very long and we took a lot of food with us.

Apart from these, there is also a dining car on the train.

Van Lake Express Ticket Prices 2019

Van Lake Express ticket prices are determined according to the type of wagon. Below you will see the ticket prices per person according to the type of wagon:

Wagon Type	Ticket Price
Pullman	48 TL
Covered Bunks	64 TL
Twin	117 TL

If you want to stay in the sleeping compartment for one person instead of 2 people, you can close the room for 187 TL.

The price list above is valid if you get on from the first stop and get off at the last stop. If you are going to get on and off at the intermediate stops, the prices vary accordingly.

TCDD Train Ticket Discount Applications

Regardless of which train of TCDD is, anyone who meets the conditions can benefit from the following discounts:

• % 20 to round trip ticket holders: It is applied for round-trip travels with trains open for sale between the same exit - arrival stations.
• Young 20%: Young people between the ages of 13-26 can benefit.
• Teacher% 20: All teachers (including Principal, Deputy Principal) currently working at all grades and types of public and private schools affiliated with or approved by the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education Institutions (universities, faculties, institutes, colleges, conservatories, vocational schools, practice and research centers to all teaching staff, teachers of Turkish nationality and teachers working in foreign countries,
• Military passengers 20%: Officers, non-commissioned officers and military officers still working in the Turkish Armed Forces, NATO military officers, specialists, extended sergeants, corporals and privates (for their travels with a dispatch ticket),
• Group passengers of at least 12 people 20%: Passengers who want to travel in groups provided that they are at least 12 persons or pay a fee, regardless of their qualifications,
• Passengers aged 60 and over 20%,
• Domestic and foreign Press Card holders% 20: Cards issued by the Prime Ministry General Directorate of Press and Information to local and foreign press card holders are valid.
• Employee TCDD staff, wife, retired and spouse with children TCDD% 20
• 65 Passengers age and older% 50,
• Child (7-12 years old) 50% discount is made. (Children 0-6 years old can travel free of charge, provided that a separate place is not requested.)

For age-based discounts (Young, 65 Age, etc.), the day and month are not taken into account when calculating the age, the year of birth is taken as a basis.

The source for the discounts is the TCDD website.

Van Lake Express Stops and Van Express Route

My route was by plane to Kars, from Kars to Doğubeyazıt, from Doğubeyazıt to Van, from Van to Tatvan and from Tatvan to Ankara by Van Lake Express, and from there to Istanbul. If you wish, you can come directly to Van by plane. Things to do in Van You can see it and then return by train.

Van Lake Express operates between Ankara-Tatvan-Ankara. Although its name is Lake Van, it is worth remembering that it did not continue until Van.

There are flights from Ankara on Tuesdays and Sundays, and from Tatvan on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can see the transit times from the main stops in the table below.

It departs from Ankara at 11:00 on Tuesdays and Sundays and reaches Tatvan at 11.16 the next day. According to the information given by TCDD, however, I have not heard of anyone arriving without delay. Considering that it will take an average of 27 hours, it would be ideal to plan.

Ankara Departure: 11.00:XNUMX→	Kayseri Departure: 17.50	Sivas Departure: 21.25	Malatya Departure: 01.54	Elazig Departure: 04.39	Tatvan Arrival: 11.16
Tatvan Get off: 07.55→	Elazig Departure: 14.01	Malatya Departure: 16.45	Sivas Departure: 20.52	Kayseri Departure: 00.29	Ankara Arrival: 07.22

Every Tuesday and Thursday, the train departs from Tatvan at 07:55 and reaches Ankara the next day.

My advice for the direction of boarding the Van Lake Express; You should take this train in the direction of Tatvan-Ankara, because you can see most of the road in daylight and you can witness the magnificent views of the East for long hours.

The fact that the Van Lake Express is only on certain days of the week makes it a bit challenging when planning a trip. If you are going to take the Van Lake Express with permission, even if you want to combine it with the weekend, you take the train in the morning on Tuesday, you will be in Ankara by noon on Wednesday, at best, you need to take 3 days off. Maybe if the demand increases, they will increase the number of expedition days, who knows?

You can come to Van by plane on Saturday morning and spend your time to the fullest with a Van sightseeing route as follows;

• Van breakfast on Saturday, central Van, Muradiye Waterfall, Cat House,
• Dogubeyazit İshakpaşa Palace and places to visit in Doğubeyazıt on Sunday,
• Akdamar Island on Monday, and arrival in Tatvan in the evening, eating Büryan kebab before it's too late, accommodation in Tatvan,
• Return to Ankara by train on Tuesday morning.

How Many Hours Does the Van Lake Express Take?

Although the Van Lake Express seems to take about 24 hours according to the official statement of TCDD, there are constant delays on the road. In general, what I observed from those who went took around 27 hours, our journey took exactly 27 hours. However, there may be situations such as train breakdowns or minor accidents and delays of up to 10-12 hours can be seen, so if you have planned according to the arrival time, it is useful to consider the possibility of delay.

We had not bought our Ankara-Istanbul return ticket, when we landed in Ankara around 11:00, we immediately went to Aşti bus station and found a place on the first bus. The distance between Ankara Train Station and Aşti Bus Station is only 3,5 km, a taxi costs 21 TL.

If you want to return to Istanbul by YHT (High Speed ​​​​Train), a suburban train runs between the two train stations, you can get on the suburbs free of charge by showing your train ticket.

Transportation from Van to Tatvan

You have many public transportation options to reach Tatvan from the center of Van. You can go to Tatvan from Van bus station either by big intercity buses or by small minibuses.

There is actually a ferry that departs from Van and should be connected to the train line in Tatvan. However, we did not consider this option, considering that the ferry took more than 5 hours to cross Lake Van and the train was early in the morning.

After having Van Breakfast in Van, we went to Akdamar Island. There are minibuses departing from Van bus station to Akdamar Island as they fill up. A 1-hour journey is only 7 TL per person. When you say you are going to Akdamar, they drop you off right in front of the motor pier.

It takes 20-25 minutes to go to Akdamar Island, I recommend spending at least 1-1,5 hours on the island. The return takes 20-25 minutes. It would be beneficial to allocate a time such as 2-2,5 hours here. During the winter period, the motors depart when 10 people gather and the most crowded one is between 12:00-14:00 in the afternoon.

On the way back to Akdamar Island, when we told the captain Tatvan, who was using the engine, that we would pass, Best Van called the bus company, the bus waited for us by the roadside. Tatvan takes about 2 hours from Akdamar Island motor pier. They charged 30 TL per person, I guess we got screwed there.

Where to Stay in Van?

Van is a very large and developed city, many hotel chains have hotels in Van. Since we wanted to have affordable accommodation, we first searched for Teachers' Houses in the center of Van. Şişli Teacher's House in Van city center and Iskele Teacher's House on the lake shore were full on the dates we went, so we stayed at Van Backpackers Hostel, which is the only hostel in Van, and paid 50 TL per person for a room with a shared bathroom.

• Van Şişli Teacher's House Telephone: 0 (432) 216 46 58
• Van Iskele Teacher's House Telephone: 0 (432) 222 02 15
• Van Backpackers Hostel Phone: (0432) 215 59 97

Where to Stay in Tatvan?

We did not look for many places to stay in Tatvan, there is a very big Teacher's House in Tatvan city center, we were lucky about it. We found a place in Tatvan Teacher's House, we paid 35 TL per person in a shared room.

• Tatvan Teachers' House Phone: (0434) 827 24 11

If you plan to catch the train in the morning by staying in Tatvan city center (we did), the train station is about 2 km from the city center, and taxis take you to a fixed 20 TL. They don't turn on the taximeter.

Best Time for Van Lake Express?

Although everyone says May or June is the best time for the Van Lake Express, I am very happy that I went at the end of February. At the end of February, the whole road from Tatvan to Kayseri was covered with snow. I couldn't get enough of watching those snow scenes.

The reason why Van Lake Express is called the best period for May and June is because all the trees are in bloom, nature is awakened, the scenery is beautiful, and if you want to visit Van, the weather is more suitable.

Muradiye Waterfall, which is among the places to visit in Van, freezes during the winter months, and if you come during the winter months, seeing the frozen waterfall is much more impressive than seeing the normal flowing state. I had the chance to see Akdamar Island both in the spring and in the winter, it looked much more beautiful under the snow, you don't have to wait for the spring months for must-see places like Van city center and Cat House.

If you come only in May, you will coincide with the migration time of the pearl mullet living in Lake Van and you can watch the migration of these fish flowing against the water.

In summary, winter is beautiful, spring is beautiful, the choice is yours 🙂

Sensitive Topics on the Trend

Train workers suffer a little from those who, like us, get on express trains on a whim and often disrupt the order. That's why I wanted to write this part specifically:

• The signs that were removed from their places were falling because they were not installed properly, and the thought was that the employees were responsible. That's why they have to check after each photograph is taken to see if the sign is properly attached.
• Those who opened the doors and took photos while the train was in motion caused many accidents 😔 That's why they lock all the doors while they are on the road.
• The lighted decorations in the compartments were the wagons that had to spend 24-27 hours without electricity/light because the electric stoves had blown the fuses of the wagons.
• The uncontrolled use of the stoves brought for cooking causes fires, and I saw with my own eyes the images of a wagon that had come out of the fire.

I have heard many stories from the conductors that I cannot write here yet. Why did I write all this? While making this enjoyable journey, it is possible to have a great time without leaving the employees in a difficult situation and without missing the dose of entertainment.

Eating and Drinking on the Train

TCDD's long-distance trains all have a food car. You can find simple meals and hot/cold, soft drinks in the food car, and the prices are not bad. However, the road is long, so it is best to take food/drinks with you to mingle with other passengers on the train and to eat and drink whatever you want.

We did quite a lot of shopping from the center of Tatvan. All kinds of food we needed for 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 1 dinner were with us. We had a fridge as we were staying in the sleeping car. We had a small camp stove, we could make tea/coffee or hot water whenever we wanted, we even cooked pasta. You cannot get hot water from the dining car.

We bought our cheese for breakfast from Kars and carried it with us here. We boiled our eggs the night we stayed in Tatvan, and when we bought tomatoes and olives from the market, our rich and healthy breakfast was ready. Our walnuts and figs are from Burdur and Aydın. You can also buy kete from Van or Tatvan for breakfast, we loved it 🙂

For dinner and lunch, we prepared easy-to-prepare meals such as canned kidney beans, tuna fish, roasted eggplant, salad, yoghurt and pasta. Of course, together with the camping stove, we also had camping forks, knives, plates and cookware with us.

Of course, there is no alcohol in the dining car on the train, not in the open area, but you can have your drink in your own compartment, no problem.

Cleanliness and Hygiene Status on the Train

The most frequently asked questions to me on train journeys: Is the train clean? Are the bed linen provided on the train clean? Are the toilets clean?

Bed-Sheets on the Train

Beds, sheets and pillowcases were all clean on all the sleeper trains I've taken so far. However, if you are very obsessed with hygiene, I have a few suggestions;

• You can carry pillowcases and sheets with you. I don't carry it alive 🙂
• I have an ultra light type sleeping bag that I take with me on my travels, it takes up very little space. If I'm worried about the hygiene of the place I will stay, I lay the sleeping bag on or on the bed and sleep in it, but I don't think it's necessary on trains. I still recommend it to sensitive people.
• If you are one of those who say that the pillowcase touches my face, put a clean t-shirt on the pillow and sleep soundly.

Toilet on the Train

As for the toilet on the train, my expectation was that the toilets would be much dirtier, considering the number of people traveling on the train and the duration of the journey. However, our luck was that we were in the penultimate wagon, the number of people using the toilet on our side was much less than in the middle wagons. Let's not take offense to the train employees, the toilets were cleaned frequently, the toilet paper and towels were replenished as they ran out.

We still took toilet paper and wet wipes with us just in case, so you should too. You may not be as lucky as us 🙂

Other Express Train Routes in Turkey

Although the Eastern Express storm started in Turkey, followed by the Van Lake Express fashion, there are actually many express train routes in our country. The most popular ones are;

• Pamukkale Express: When I was a student, I used to get on from Burdur and get off at Istanbul Haydarpaşa. Now it only works between Denizli and Eskişehir. There is only the pulman wagon.
• Taurus Express: It operates between Adana-Konya-Adana. There is only the pulman wagon.
• Southern Kurtalan Express: Ankara-Kurtalan-Ankara operates 5 days a week. They have pullers, covered bunks, dining and sleeping cars.
• Euphrates Express: Between Elazig-Adana-Elazig operates every day, there is only a pulman wagon.
• Erciyes Express: Between Kayseri-Adana-Kayseri operates every day, there are only pulman wagons.

All Van Travel Articles

• What I call the city of beautiful people Things to do in Van Check out my post too.
• Starting from Tatvan and continuing to Ankara Lake Van Express You may also be interested in my article.
• I also prepared a nice Van Lake Express video for those who like to watch videos instead of reading articles: Van Lake Express video
• In order not to be hungry when you go to Van What to eat and where to eat in Van Check out my post!
• For all the details about Akdamar Island, which must be seen while in Van; Akdamar Island and Akdamar Church
• If you think of going to Iran while you are in Van; Van-Tabriz Train Schedules

My Train Route Articles

• If you want to experience the Eastern Express, which runs between Ankara and Kars, Turkey's most iconic railway route; How to Buy Eastern Express Ticket?
• If you want to experience traveling outside of Turkey by train to nearby places, you can go to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Sofia Express train
• High speed train (YHT) serving between Istanbul and Ankara: Istanbul-Ankara YHT
• If you think of going to Iran while you are in Van; Van-Tabriz Train Schedules
• If you have a plan to visit Italy by train; Train Journey in Italy

Stay on the Road!