From Ercan you can reach all three cities within an hour, but the three roads are nothing alike. Nicosia (Lefkoşa) sits 23 kilometres away at the end of a dual-carriageway ring road. Kyrenia (Girne) is 43-44 kilometres, and because the Kyrenia Mountains (Beşparmak) pass lies in between, the drive takes longer than the map promises. Famagusta (Gazimağusa), meanwhile, is linked by 50 kilometres of straight main road. The Ercan airport transport options also come down to three: the KIBHAS bus, a metered taxi, and a fixed-price transfer arranged in advance. All the figures below are from late August 2026. A taxi fare increase is on the agenda and KIBHAS raised prices over the summer; by the time you travel, the tariff board may sit a little higher.
What Awaits Outside the Terminal?
Step out of the arrivals terminal and the KIBHAS bus is right in front of you; since 2009 it has served the Nicosia, Kyrenia, Famagusta, Morphou (Güzelyurt) and Lefke routes. You buy the ticket from kibhas.org or the app, but a seat guarantee is not a time guarantee: if the vehicle fills early, it does not wait for the timetabled minute. The fare is charged per person, so the bigger your group, the bigger the bill. Does it charge extra for luggage? Generally no: up to two pieces and 30 kilos in total there is no extra payment, and no ticket is required for a child under five not occupying a seat.
At the official T-plate rank right beside it, the daytime meter starts at 112.81 TL plus 43.16 TL per kilometre; after 22.00 the flag fall rises to 136.30 TL and the kilometre to 51.50 TL. A pre-booked private transfer meets you with a name board, charges a fixed price per vehicle, and ends at your hotel door. If you plan to rent a car, several firms have desks in the terminal. At the exit, someone will also sidle up unprompted and quote you a price. Before answering, just look at the number plate. If there is no T on the plate, or the person cannot show a KITSAB certificate, do not get in; if anything goes wrong on the road, your only counterpart is that driver — no policy is in force and there is no institution to complain to.
The Numbers for the Three Routes
The table below puts the three routes and three methods side by side. The fixed transfer column is for a standard sedan or Vito; the upper end of the band belongs to VIP vehicles and minibuses.
| Route | Distance and time | KIBHAS, per person | Daytime meter, per vehicle | Fixed transfer, per vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ercan-Nicosia | 23 km, 25-30 min | 350 TL | 1,100-1,300 TL | 1,800-3,803 TL (sedan at the low end) |
| Ercan-Kyrenia | 43-44 km, around 45 min | 450 TL | 1,840-2,055 TL | 2,300-2,800 TL, VIP up to 3,800 TL |
| Ercan-Famagusta | 50 km, 40-50 min | 450 TL | Around 2,270 TL | 2,600-4,563 TL |
What widens the gap in the table is not the road itself but what the meter is counting. On the bus the meter runs per person; in the taxi and the transfer, per vehicle. A couple heading to Kyrenia leaves 900 TL on the bus, while the same trip by taxi opens a two-thousand-lira tab. The bus's advantage, though, ends at the fourth seat: once the ticket total hits 1,800 TL, a 2,300-2,800 TL fixed transfer no longer looks expensive — and your luggage does not pass through your hands again at a terminal. The Ercan airport transport calculation therefore starts with the head count; the route comes second.
To Nicosia via the Ring Road
On the Ercan airport transport list, Nicosia is the shortest and least troublesome route. The airport road joins the ring road as a dual carriageway and runs straight the whole way; the only things slowing you down are the traffic-light junctions. On no other route is the metered taxi so clearly cheaper than the fixed list, because as the distance shrinks, little accumulates beyond the flag fall. If you are travelling alone or as a pair, the 350 TL bus ticket still beats them all.
The Kyrenia Road Goes Over the Mountain
A vehicle bound for Kyrenia first uses the same ring road, then after the Nicosia exit climbs into the mountain pass on the Beşparmak ridge. The distance is 43-44 kilometres, the time around 45 minutes. On the map this road looks like a straight line; in reality it is not. The bends tighten in the pass and speeds drop naturally at night. A driver new to left-hand traffic should add a 10-15 percent margin. Speed enforcement through the village sections also pulls the average speed down. On a night descent the meter climbs to 2,200-2,450 TL; the daytime bill is 1,840-2,055 TL. If your hotel is not in central Kyrenia, recalculate the time too. Elexus takes 25-40 minutes at 32 kilometres, Lord's Palace ends at 37 kilometres, and Merit Royal, at 65 kilometres, pushes an hour. All three have "Kyrenia" in their address, yet the transfer time can double.
Famagusta, Long Beach and Bafra
The Famagusta road is a 50-kilometre divided main road, done in 40-50 minutes; with no mountain pass like Kyrenia's, nothing throws the timing off. For those heading inside the walls — the historic centre — the KIBHAS terminal is enough. The trouble starts if your hotel is in Iskele or on Long Beach. The bus ends at the Famagusta terminal and does not go to hotel doors; since Long Beach lies 20-25 kilometres north of Famagusta, another metered fare of close to 1,100 TL comes on top from the terminal. Total time from Ercan reaches an hour. For two people, bus plus taxi comes to two thousand lira, while a fixed Ercan-Long Beach transfer does it in one vehicle for 2,600-2,800 TL, with no luggage-hauling. Bafra is further still: around an hour from Ercan, the road narrows to a single lane on the final stretch, and a standard transfer asks 3,600-5,324 TL, with the figure reaching 5,300 TL for a VIP vehicle. If you are coming to a Bafra or Long Beach hotel on a package, the agency arranges the transfer and the cost comes inside the package. Someone buying room only has no such guarantee; that transfer is a separate line item, and if it was not discussed at booking, it does not materialise at the terminal on its own.
Landing Toward Midnight
When the hour gets late, the list of options shortens by itself, and that can put some people in a bind. KIBHAS makes close to sixteen departures a day on the main routes, the first at 00.30 and the last at 22.30. If your flight falls between 22.30 and 00.30, there is no bus. That leaves a taxi or a pre-arranged transfer. The taxi meter switches to the night tariff from 22.00, and the bill runs roughly 20 percent above daytime. On the fixed lists, it is the company that decides when night begins. Some add a surcharge per direction; others start their night at a different hour from the official tariff. So have the quoted figure confirmed by message before getting in the vehicle; nobody enjoys haggling over a verbal price at midnight, standing over their luggage.
Picking Up a Car at Ercan
Can you drive a rental car from the airport to Kyrenia and leave it there? Since the established firms do not rent for under three days, that scenario does not work; renting a car only enters the calculation on a holiday longer than three days. Local firms charge no extra for pick-up at Ercan, most allow dropping the car back at the airport, a new-style Turkish licence is sufficient, and no international permit is required. The steering wheel sits on the right and traffic flows in the left lane. At roundabouts, the vehicle coming from the right has priority and you circle clockwise; the reflexes built up over years of right-hand driving point you the wrong way here, so on the first day most mistakes happen at these junctions.
Fuel sells at the same price at every station, with a litre of 95-octane at 68.12 TL. Ercan to Kyrenia burns about three litres, so roughly 210 TL. You are expected to return the tank at the level you received it. It is lucky that the first leg is the Nicosia ring road; you get used to left-hand traffic on a straight, divided road, and the mountain pass only appears after the Nicosia exit. Still, on most holidays the Ercan airport transport decision comes down to bus versus transfer; the car is for those staying long enough to roam the island end to end.
