Saints, Sultans & Flavors — The Most Complete 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.

Nine places, in this order: the Virgin Mary statue at the Upper Gate, with the whole ancient city below you; 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 the lane outside; the old houses of Selçuk; a full guided tour of the Ephesus Archaeological Museum; the site of the Temple of Artemis; and lunch cooked by local women at their cooperative, with a visit to local artisans. Every ticket on that route and the lunch are already in your price.

As long as you need. Because the day is private it stretches or shrinks around you: leisurely if you like, or brisk enough to fit a cruise call, planned around your ship’s all-aboard time. Your pickup time is agreed when you book and confirmed in writing.

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. Pickup from an İzmir hotel is priced privately for your group — ask us for your quote.

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 inquire and we will plan — and quote — for them.

About two kilometers across the whole day: a few steps at each viewpoint, level lanes and museum floors, and one short, easy downhill stroll 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.

Coverage, and one price. A standard Ephesus day is one site: the marble streets of the archaeological city, walked end to end. That is a glorious day and we run it too. This one takes the same day and spends it on nine places instead — the ancient city from two viewpoints, John's hill, a living mosque, the Turkish town, the museum room by room, a Wonder of the Ancient World and lunch at the women's cooperative — with every entrance ticket and the meal already inside the price.

No, and that is the trade that makes the day so complete. The walk down the marble streets takes a morning on its own; leaving it out is precisely what buys the nine other places. You see the whole ancient city laid out below you from the Mary viewpoint, stand at its Magnesian Gate, then meet it piece by piece in the museum where its statues, its kitchens and its gladiators ended up. Guests who want the marble streets as well 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 “flavors” 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.

More than any other day we run. Nine places between the pickup and the drop-off: two viewpoints over the ancient city, the hill where St John is buried, a living mosque, a second mosque with its old Turkish bath, the lanes of the old town, the Ephesus Museum in full, a Wonder of the Ancient World and the lunch table. What it does not include is the walk down the marble streets inside the archaeological site — that is the one trade the day makes, and it is what buys everything else.

It is the same day, under a fuller name. We used to call it our easy Ephesus tour because the walking is short, the pace is gentle and half the day is out of the sun, and all of that is still true. We renamed it because that only described how the day feels, not how much it holds: nine places across Ephesus and Selçuk, with every entrance ticket and the lunch in one price.