Doğu Ekspresi (Eastern Express)

The Doğu Ekspresi (Eastern Express) is two different trains wearing one famous name, and knowing which one you're booking matters. The regular, year-round service is ordinary long-distance transport: it leaves Ankara around 18:00, runs through Kırıkkale, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzincan and Erzurum, and reaches Kars roughly a day later, with pullman seating and couchette classes rather than proper sleeper cabins. The touristic Doğu Ekspresi is the one behind the photographs - a winter-only service, running a limited December-to-March season, with real sleeper cabins and long scheduled stops (two to four hours) at Erzincan, Erzurum and Kars itself for sightseeing rather than just passing through. What made the touristic train a phenomenon wasn't marketing so much as geography: the route crosses the high Anatolian plateau in the depths of winter, and for hours at a stretch there is nothing outside the window but snow, telegraph poles and the occasional frozen river, broken by small stations that look unchanged from a century ago. Demand has outrun supply for several seasons running now - the 2025-26 touristic season, sixty departures between Ankara and Kars, sold out entirely in advance, which is a genuine practical warning rather than promotional language: book through TCDD's official channels as early as the season calendar allows, not on arrival. The regular service remains a legitimate, far cheaper way to reach Kars if the sleeper cabins and scheduled stops aren't essential to you, and it runs all year rather than only in winter. Either way, dress for real cold before boarding - carriages are heated, but platform stops in Erzurum or Kars at 04:00 in January are not a place to discover your coat isn't warm enough.