Where to stay in Gebze

Gebze, formerly known as Libyssa, Λίβυσσα (in Ancient Greek), is a working-class district and one of the municipalities in Kocaeli Province, Turkey. Its area is 418 km2, and its population is 407,019 (2022).

The settlement is probably thousands of years old but was first documented in 281 BC, when it was known as Dakibyza or Libyssa in the kingdom of Bithynia. That kingdom battled Roman expansion but succumbed in 85 BC, so Gebze was under Roman / Byzantine rule until falling to the Ottomans in 1330. It's on major trade routes, overland from the east and by sea from the west and from the Black Sea regions. In the late 20th century it became not so much a commuter town for Istanbul as an overspill, with population and industry relocating from the congested metropolis.

Many people have extended stays in Gebze for their work, so there's lots of accommodation.

Getting in

Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW) is the closest, and has international and domestic flights. It's connected by Metro to Pendik, although the Metro and mainline railway stations there are 1 km apart. From Pendik take the Marmaray train as below. A taxi from the airport to Gebze might take 20 min. Istanbul Airport (IST) has a global range of flights at competitive fares, but is away west, Europe-side of the Bosphorus. Havalines Bus runs three times a day to Gebze (2 hr, 70 TL), Izmit and Sakarya. Otherwise you have to travel into the metropolis then onward.

Getting around

Bus 416 runs every 10 min between Arapçeşme, Gebze town centre and Eskihisar. For Hereke, either take the regional trains mentioned above or bus 500 running from Darıca via Gebze train station, every 45 min.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.