AŞTİ – Main Bus Terminal, Ankara

Ankara's main bus terminal, AŞTİ, is a mammoth building southwest of the city center (), with hundreds of buses roaring in and out every hour on routes to all cities and large towns in Turkey.

AŞTİ is an acronym for Ankara Şehirlerarası Terminal İşletmesi (Ankara Intercity Terminal Administration)—so you can see why everyone prefers to call it AŞTİ (AHSH-tee; or Terminal, TEHR-mee-NAHL).

Here's how to buy bus tickets in Turkey.

Here's how to travel between Ankara and Cappadocia.

Services at AŞTİ include ticket offices (yazıhane), snack stands, restaurants, pastry shops, book stalls, telephone stations, bank ATMs, toilets, showers, Internet cafés, amusements, a mescit (small mosque), and two Emanetçi (Left Luggage/Baggage Check) counters (on the lower level).

AŞTİ has its own Ankaray metro/underground train station, with a covered passage connecting the terminal and the station.

Dozens of companies operate frequent buses to Istanbul. Here are Turkey's top bus companies. For buses to Cappadocia, go to ticket office No. 50 (Nevşehir Turizm).

The airport bus from Esenboğa Airport begins and ends its route at AŞTİ, passing the Ankara Gar (railway station) on the way to and from the airport.

The AŞTİ website shows you many pretty pictures of the bus terminal, but is fairly dysfunctional and only in Turkish. Mostly, it tells you to call a telephone number (in Turkish).

—by Tom Brosnahan