Private Shore Excursion from Kuşadasi Port
Most visitors see Ephesus in a group of forty, on someone else's clock. This private Ephesus tour from Kusadasi is the other version: your own licensed guide, your own vehicle, and a day that moves at your speed.
We start at the House of the Virgin Mary before the coaches reach it, so the chapel is quiet. Then we enter Ephesus through the upper gate and walk downhill along the marble streets while the group tours climb them in the sun, with your driver waiting at the lower gate. You stop where something interests you and move on where it does not.
This Kusadasi shore excursion suits you if you are arriving by cruise ship and do not want to gamble on a ship timetable, if you are traveling with family who need a slower pace, or if you have simply been on enough coach tours. Your guide is licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture, a legal requirement for guiding inside Ephesus. The site is 20 minutes from the pier, and we plan the day backwards from your ship's departure time.
** Larger groups of over 20 participants can be accommodated on request through our tailor-made tours.
Pick-up from Kuşadası Port
- Your private guide meets you at Kuşadası port or your hotel, holding a sign with your name, at the time that suits you. This private Ephesus tour from Kuşadası starts with a 20 minute drive, and for cruise passengers we plan the shore excursion backwards from your ship's departure time.
House of the Virgin Mary
- We begin in the hills above Ephesus, at the small stone chapel where tradition holds that Mary spent her final years. Identified in 1891 and visited by three Popes, it has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. We come here first because the chapel holds very few people at a time and the coach groups arrive from mid morning onwards. Please note that shoulders and knees should be covered, as this is an active religious site.
Ancient City of Ephesus
- Your Ephesus tour continues to one of the most important archaeological sites in Turkey, once a major city of the Ionian League and the commercial center of Roman Asia Minor. We enter through the upper gate so you walk downhill along the marble streets rather than climbing them, with the vehicle waiting at the lower gate. You will see the Library of Celsus, the Temple of Hadrian, the Baths of Scholastica, the Fountain of Trajan, and the Grand Theatre, which held around 25,000 spectators.
Temple of Artemis
- One reassembled column is all that stands of a building the ancient world counted among its Seven Wonders. The stop is short but the view is worth it: the column, the Byzantine basilica of Saint John on the hill behind, and a mosque beyond, three religious eras in a single photograph.
Carpet Workshop stop
- On the way back to Kuşadası you may choose to see a local weaving workshop, where the looms and the silk knotting are genuinely worth watching. There is no obligation to buy anything, and if you would rather skip it, we simply drive on.
Terrace Houses - Optional visit
- These sit within the archaeological site itself, on the slope of Bülbüldağ directly opposite the Temple of Hadrian, so no extra travel is involved. They were the homes of the wealthiest families of Ephesus, and the mosaic floors and painted wall frescoes are the finest domestic interiors surviving anywhere in the Roman world. A protective roof covers the whole complex, and you view it from raised metal walkways that climb and descend between the six house levels. Please note this involves a considerable number of steps, more than anywhere else in Ephesus. It requires a separate ticket and adds around forty minutes to your Ephesus tour. Wonderful if you are comfortable on stairs, and easily skipped if not. Visit with additional cost
InternetMarketing.gr
