Saints, Sultans & Flavours — The Easy Ephesus Tour

Yes — and on this tour you never see a ticket window at all. Gezginol holds a priority pass, your guide collects every ticket before you arrive, and because all of them are already inside your price there is nothing to pay at any gate. We add nothing to the official ticket prices: you simply do not have to think about them.

Ephesus from its two great viewpoints (the Virgin Mary statue at the Upper Gate and the Magnesian Gate), the Basilica of St John from its panoramic terrace, the inside of the living İsa Bey Mosque of 1374, the Kılıçarslan Mosque and the old Turkish bath from outside, the old houses of Selçuk, a full guided tour of the Ephesus Archaeological Museum, the site of the Temple of Artemis, and a lunch cooked by local women at their cooperative with a visit to local artisans.

About six hours door to door, including lunch. Because the day is private it stretches or shrinks around you — a leisurely seven hours, or a brisk five that fits a cruise call with room to spare. We confirm the timings in writing before you book.

Yes — your group only, with your own licensed guide and your own vehicle and driver. Nobody waits for anyone outside your own party, and the plan bends to whoever is in the car: grandparents, toddlers or both.

Yes and yes. A private air-conditioned vehicle with a professional driver is part of the price, and it takes you to the door of every stop. We collect you at your hotel in Kuşadası, Selçuk or İzmir, or at the gangway inside Kuşadası cruise port with your name on a sign, and return you to the same place.

Yes — every ticket on the route is, the Ephesus Archaeological Museum included, inside the single price we quote you. Gezginol holds a priority pass, so your guide already has the tickets in hand and you never stand at a ticket window. We add nothing to the official ticket prices; on this tour they are simply already inside your price, so there is no gate where anyone asks you for money.

Yes. Lunch is cooked by local women at their cooperative — whatever is local and fresh that day, served with water and tea — and it is included in the price. Tell us about vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free or other needs when you book and the kitchen will cook for them.

It is designed for them. The walking is short, flat and shaded, there is a seat at every stop, the vehicle brings you to the door of each one, and half the day is indoors in the mosque, the museum and at the lunch table. If any part is too much on the day, the guide simply shortens it — that is what a private day is for.

Very much so. Children get statues with stories (a goddess covered in eggs, a cyclops being blinded, gladiators), a real mosque to tiptoe into, cats in the old lanes and a lunch where nobody minds a fussy eater. The walks are short and the day is paced by the youngest person in it. Tell us their ages when you enquire and we will plan — and quote — for them.

About two kilometres across the whole day, spread over six hours: a few steps at each viewpoint, level lanes and museum floors, and one short, easy downhill stroll of around fifteen minutes through the old quarter of Selçuk, with benches on the way. There are no steep climbs and no long marble slopes — the walk through the archaeological site is exactly what this tour leaves out.

Yes — it was half-designed with ship days in mind. Selçuk is about 25 minutes (19 km) from the Kuşadası pier, so even a shorter call has room for the whole day. Your guide meets you at the gangway, keeps one eye on your all-aboard time, and has you back with a margin to spare — guaranteed, as on every tour we run.

No — that is the point of the design. In July and August afternoons at Ephesus regularly reach the mid-thirties Celsius (mid-nineties Fahrenheit), which is why the archaeological site can be punishing. On this tour the two viewpoints are in the shade of the pines, the mosque and the museum are cool and indoors, and lunch is under a roof. It is the day we recommend when the forecast is hot.

A classic Ephesus day is a three-kilometre walk through the ruins on marble, in the sun — glorious, and we run that day too. This one tells the same city’s story from its viewpoints, its museum and its town — the saints, the sultans and the kitchen — with short, shaded walks, half the day indoors, and every ticket and the lunch already in the price.

No — that is what makes it the easy tour. The archaeological site is the long, hot walk, and this day is built around it rather than through it: you see the whole city from the Mary viewpoint, stand at the Magnesian Gate, and meet its finest pieces in the museum you tour in full. Guests who want the marble streets too usually add our half-day highlights tour on another morning.

Yes — it is the heart of the day, and you get a full guided tour rather than a walk-through: both great statues of Artemis of Ephesus, the bronze Egyptian priest, the Odysseus-and-Cyclops fountain group, the sarcophagi, the head of Socrates, the Eros, the gladiator reliefs and the treasures from the Terrace Houses, explained piece by piece.

Yes. We stop at the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. One re-erected column stands where a temple nearly four times the size of the Parthenon once did; with the goddess’s statues fresh from the museum, it is a far more moving place than the guidebooks suggest.

That is the “flavours” in the name. Lunch is cooked by local women at their cooperative, the way it is cooked at home, and eaten during a visit to local artisans at work. Before that you have been inside a working mosque, through the old houses of Selçuk and past a Turkish bath from the centuries of the emirs — the living town, not only the ruins.

Cover shoulders and knees, be ready to slip your shoes off at the threshold, and women will want a light scarf for their hair inside. Beyond that the day asks nothing more than comfortable clothes and shoes that come on and off easily.

Very little: drinks other than the water and tea served with lunch, personal expenses and souvenirs, and gratuities, which are always optional. Every entrance ticket, the lunch, the guide, the vehicle, the pickup and all taxes are in the price.