Getting Around Tarsus
Tarsus is a sprawling city, but happily for visitors its main sights cluster close enough together that you can cover the centre on foot. For anything beyond that core, you'll be relying on road transport: taxis and the local minibuses known as dolmuş.
Walking
Walking is the most practical way to see the heart of Tarsus. The principal attractions sit within walking distance of one another, so a visitor based centrally can plan a day of sightseeing without needing a vehicle. The one notable exception is the Tarsus Waterfall, which lies outside the centre and is not realistically reachable on foot — you'll want a taxi for that trip.
Buses and Dolmuş
Public transport within and around Tarsus is built around the dolmuş, the shared minibus that serves as the region's workhorse. Dolmuş services are the way you connect between the city and its outlying transport hubs, and they also link Tarsus with neighbouring cities.
- Tarsus Otogar (bus station): sits outside the town centre, so arriving or departing by intercity coach means taking a further dolmuş or a taxi between the otogar and the centre.
- Intercity coaches: Tarsus lies on the D400 highway, but long-distance buses now bypass the city to the north on the E982, rushing past rather than stopping in town. To reach Tarsus by coach from the west, change at Mersin; from other directions, change at Adana.
- Airport buses: hourly buses connect Çukurova Airport with both Tarsus and Adana.
Rail, Metro and Tram
Visitors should not plan on trains at present. The Adana–Tarsus–Mersin railway is out of service while a tunnel and a spur to the airport are built, and Adana itself is cut off from the wider rail network by separate engineering work. In short, there is no working rail option for getting around Tarsus or reaching it by train for the time being, and the city has no metro or tram network to fall back on. Plan your movements around road transport instead.
Taxis
Taxis fill the gaps that walking and dolmuş can't. They are the practical choice for reaching the Tarsus Waterfall, and they're also useful for the run out to the otogar if you'd rather not wait for a dolmuş. The source material does not describe ride-hailing apps operating in Tarsus, so treat conventional taxis as your option and arrange them locally.
Getting There from the Airport
Çukurova Airport (COV) is the region's principal airport, lying east of Tarsus, and it replaced Adana's airport when that closed. It handles daily flights from Istanbul on both IST and SAW, plus Ankara, Izmir and other Turkish cities including Ercan in Northern Cyprus, along with seasonal holiday flights mostly from Germany and Russia. The airport has the usual facilities, car hire among them.
- By bus: hourly buses run from the airport to Tarsus, a journey of about 45 minutes, and also to Adana. This is the simplest car-free way into the city.
- By car hire: rental desks at the airport let you drive yourself; note that intercity traffic uses the E982 bypass north of the city rather than the D400 through it.
- By taxi: a straightforward door-to-door alternative if you'd rather not wait for the hourly bus.
Practical Summary
Base yourself centrally, walk the main sights, and use taxis for the waterfall and the otogar. Dolmuş services handle local and regional hops, with Mersin and Adana as the interchange points for longer coach journeys. Fly into Çukurova and take the hourly bus, a taxi or a hire car into town — and don't count on the railway until the engineering work is finished.