Our top priority is to provide you with a unique best-quality culture-based guided tour in English or any language of your choice without the hassle of being taken to various factory outlets or shopping stops along the way!
Our Ephesus tours from Kusadasi port are personalized for individuals and groups, offer you the flexibility and the comfort as well as the expertise and convenience of a guided tour without the rigidity or crowds of a bus tour and are particularly ideal for cruise ship passengers who come to Kusadasi port.
You will be picked up in Kusadasi by your tour guide and the driver by a comfortable tour vehicle suited to the size of your party. The ride from Kusadasi to Ephesus takes about 20-30 min.
Ephesus has the largest collection of Greek and Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean; it is estimated that only 15-20 per cent of it has been unearthed.
Immerse yourself in the rich and complicated history. Marvel at the the depth of its culture and the spectacular architecture as you stroll down the Marble Street, enjoying highlights such as the Library of Celsus which contained 12,000 scrolls at its prime and the 25,000-seat Great Theatre.
Witness the prosperity of the city first hand by visiting the Terrace Houses, located on the hills as well as many ruins of posh shops along the Curete Street. Picture yourself sitting on one of the seats of Odeon which was used for both council meetings and concerts and enjoy the atmosphere of democracy.
House of the Virgin Mary, purportedly the last home of Mary, is a Catholic and Muslim shrine located on Mt. Nightingale about 7 Km (4 miles) from Selcuk. Fill up your bottles or directly take some sips from the 3 taps of mountain water representing wealth,health and fertility respectively. If time allows it, a short tour will take you to the ruins of Temple of Artemis, Basilica of St. John’s Church, Isabey Mosque in Selcuk and if you wish, a stop to grab a bite at local eateries.
All pickups and drop offs are included in our tours at your convenience.
Your appreciation and satisfaction with our best-quality Kusadasi Private Tours to Ephesus for.
Just relax and have fun in our exclusive and unique private tours!
Take a Private Full Day Ephesus Tours to the ruins of Ancient city of EphesusVisit the Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary, Temple of Artemis and Basilica of St. John”Transport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine.
Take a half day trip to the ruins of Ancient city of EphesusVisit the Ephesus and Temple of ArtemisTransport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine.
Take a Private Full Day Ephesus Tours to the ruins of Ancient city of EphesusVisit the Ephesus, Terrace Houses, House of Virgin Mary, Temple of Artemis and Basilica of St. John”Transport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Delicious Lunch and Turkish appetizers & Bottle of local wine or any kind of local drinks at lunch.
Take a Private Deluxe Tours to the ruins of Ancient city of EphesusVisit the Ephesus, Terrace Houses and House of Virgin MaryTransport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Delicious Lunch and Turkish appetizers & Bottle of local wine or any kind of local drinks at lunch.
Half private tours to the ruins of Ancient city of Ephesus and House of Virgin MaryVisit the Ephesus and House of Virgin Mary”Transport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine.
Personalized Assistance to the disabled people is provided when requested.Special vans, wheelchairs and assistans are provided upon request in advance. Furthermore, vans are designed with wide aisles and comfortable seats.Technological applications for accessibility are available for disabled persons.
Take a half day trip to the ruins of Ancient city of Ephesus the great cities & Terrace Houses ( Houses of the rich.) used from the 1st century to 7th century AD.Visit the Ephesus and Terrace Houses (Slope Houses) “Transport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine.
Take a Private half day tour to the ruins of Ancient city of EphesusVisit the Ancient city of Ephesus and Sirince VillageTransport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine at Sirince village.Enjoy the one of the most beautiful fruit wine made in Sirince village.
Half Day Private Ephesus and Kirazli Village ToursVisit the Ephesus, Temple of Artemision, Kirazli Village and Steam Train Museum”Transport by Private De-Luxe Cars.Private Local Licensed Guide.Enjoy authentic Turkish cuisine at Kirazli village.
A Private Ephesus tour was the right choice
Having had a bad experience with a private tour in another country, I was very skeptical about taking one again while we stayed in Kusadasi. After some discussion with my family and some search on internet as well as the recommendation by the hotel , we chose Ephesus Tours to handle our half-day Ephesus tour.
The company’s car was a comfortable Mercedes minivan which was great to accommodate my family of 6. We were picked up at the hotel at 8 Am. The driver, Mustafa, even had bottled water and cold fruit juices for us. Our guide, the elegant and beautiful Fatma, spoke perfect English and was extremely knowledgeable. She gave some general info on Ephesus and the House of Virgin Mary on our way there, which we thought was excellent because we then were able to have some free time to pray at the House of Virgin Mary and to take breaks at each stop inside Ephesus for taking pictures and/or taking a short break from long walk. Being in the exact place where St. Paul had preached more than 2ooo years ago was an unforgettable experience for me and my family as we are devout Christians.
This private tour has totally changed my impression about private tours. Thank you Ephesus Tours !
Elaine Crosby
I loved this private Ephesus tour from Kusadasi!
From online travel reviews we found Ephesus Tours and booked a private Ephesus tour. We were picked up at the hotel at 7:15 Am by our guide Yesim and the driver Ahmet.
This tour was absolutely amazing in many aspects. First of all, it was completely customized to our needs which included a Chinese/English speaking tour guide and a wheelchair for my little girl who sprained her ankle at the beginning of this trip. Secondly, it totally satisfied our hunger for detailed information on Ephesus’s long history which was a great challenge by any scale and yet our guide Yesim did a wonderful job fulfilling that. Lastly, although it was a long half-day tour, it was well-organized and well-paced that we were able to visit both the House Virgin Mary and Ephesus ruins without having to struggle with the crowds of tourists from cruise ships.
We just so loved this private Ephesus tour!
Yvonne Wang
A ‘must-do’ if you visit Kusadasi
We and our twins were on Grand Princess Cruise with a stop in Kusadasi. The passengers in the cabin next door told us how wonderful and worthy their previous private tour to Ephesus had been and we opted for one as they recommended. The driver Mustafa and the vehicle were great. But the thing most worth mentioning is the full attention we received from our guide, Mr. Selcuk. He was very observant and paced the whole tour according to our tempo and mood. We so enjoyed his knowledge about the histories of Ephesus, the House of Virgin Mary and many other sights we visited and his personal views on the current situation of the Middle East as well. A late lunch at a local Doner restaurant in the old town Selcuk brought satisfaction to our taste buds!
We knew we had made a right decision for going for a private Ephesus tour. Thank you.
Our absolutely memorable Ephesus Tour
Words are not enough to describe the Private Ephesus Tours from Kusadasi we had. Prior to our stop at Kusadasi Port, we had booked this private Ephesus tour ourselves for its flexibility and convenience. Even though we had already known that this company has a great reputation, the services provided by this tour still exceeded our expectation. To name a few, the excellent performance of our guide Ms. Filiz who was not only knowledgeable but also resourceful when it came to our last-minute changes of program such as to see a local home and she actually made it possible; the very helpful driver Hasan who with a big smile all the time loaded and unloaded the wheel chair for my mother-in-law during our whole tour. And of course the tour of Ephesus itself and other sights like Artemis Temple and the House of Virgin Mary.
Absolutely memorable!
We just loved our private Ephesus tour
Our private Ephesus tour turned out even better than what had been mentioned in many travel critics.
For one, our guide Yesim arranged our whole tour based on our interests. Because of our professions, husband a theater sound designer and I a stage designer, we spent a great amount of time taking pictures and videoing of Grand Amphitheater and Bouleterion(Odeon) which was once covered small theater used for both concerts and council meetings. We were incredibly impressed by the designs made more than two thousands years ago.
Time well spent
Our last-minute decision to take a private Ephesus tour instead of the tour arranged by our Cruise proved to be a right one. Earlier we had contacted the company via emails regarding this private tour and decided to book one. 4 days before our Cruise reached Kusadasi our son got a little bit sick so we decided to stay in. The night before the stop in Kusadasi our son got well, hence we reversed to our previous decision. Our guide Yonca, aware of this little episode of ours, was very attentive during the whole tour and with her excellent guiding we had a great time in Ephesus. Our son particularly enjoyed the story of Evil eye Yonca told us about at Temple of Hadrian.
Many thanks to you!
One behalf of my whole family, I thank this company for our wonderful guide Mr. Selcuk. As experienced travelers, we had seen many ruins in many different countries prior to our trip to Kusadasi. Instead of long and complicated history of each touristic site we were to see, which we could easily find online, our interest was mostly focused on local anecdotes about Ephesus, and its surroundings. Our guide Selcuk totally satisfied our curiosity in this regard during this private Ephesus tours from Kusadasi. One extra plus is that he took us to a local cafe in the town of Selcuk( Yes, our guide was named after this town!) where my husband played two rounds of Backgammon game with a retired carpenter whose mind was sharp and luck was on his side!
Jazmine Torres
A fantastic tour combined fun with cultural adventure
Wife and and I and another 4 pairs of friends were on a Mediterranean trip on SeaDream Yacht. We booked this private Ephesus tours from Kusadasi so that we would have a tour organized and paced according to our preference. Our full-day excursion began at Kusadasi Port where our guide Mr. Selcuk and our driver Hasan greeted us. During our 20-minute ride to Ephesus in a Luxury Mercedes van, we were served cooled drinks and some appetizers while Mr. Selcuk chatted with us in both English and Chinese and told us some histories and anecdotes about the places we were to visit.
To avoid the crowd, we first visited the House of Virgin Mary. On the top of the hill overlooking the whole town of Selcuk, we could see why it was chosen as the last home of Virgin Mary. We each filled our water bottles with the mountain water from 3 taps which represent wealth, health and fertility respectively. Dr. Lin, a Catholic, wrote down her wishes on a piece of paper and tied it on the “wishing wall” outside the shrine.
Our next stop was the famous Ephesus ruins. Entering from Magnesia Gate, Selcuk guided us through the whole Ephesus with excellent illustration. We were absolutely impressed by the city planning, the magnificence of the architecture, the prosperity and the high cultural level of the Old Greek and the Romans. We, 10 adults and Mr. Selcuk, acted like teenagers at the site of Latrine where each of us sat on a “toilet” and chatted just like the Greeks and the Romans had done a couple of thousand years ago. That was really fun!
After our Ephesus tour, we had a great lunch at Aziziye restaurant. There were so many desserts to choose from! Then a short ride after, we were in Sirince where we tried all kinds of local fruit wines. On our way to Sirince, we passed by many carpet and leather factory outlets. Mr. and Mrs. Song were interested in leather so we asked Selcuk to take us to this huge building with beautiful garden after our visit in Sirince. We found out this huge building with beautiful garden was called Kircilar. To our surprise, there was this Taiwanese lady, Stella, greeting us and showing us to the fashion show room. The fashion show was awesome with many new designs for 2013-2014. We then were shown into the leather salon where Stella gave us a short lecture about leather. Mrs. Song’s shopping spree ensued! Her enthusiasm in shopping was contagious and pretty soon all of us were trying on mink furs, leather jackets or coats. We ended up spending 2 hours there and every one left Kircilar with lots of shopping bags in there hands. I have got to admit that the salespersons at Kircilar were great, their language skill was impressive and mostly the atmosphere of the place was entertaining.
This private Ephesus tour is the best private tour we have had. It was well-organized and yet extremely flexible. Our guide Mr. Selcuk made us feel at home in a foreign country.
Thanks!
Charles Chuang
Ephesus: According to tradition, the founder of Ephesus was Androklos, one of the sons of the legendary King Kodros, though Lelegians and Carians inhabited the area earlier. Like the other Ionian settlements, the city must have been colonized by the 10th century B. C. at the latest.
On reaching this spot, the Greeks found that the mother goddess, Kybele, held sway as chief deity, as in almost every part of Anatolia. In order to placate the indigenous peoples, they adopted a policy of syncretism and introduced the worship of Artemis and Kybele in the same deity.
The original settlement is thought to have been established 1,200 m. west of the Artemision, at the port of Koressos. In the beginning, Ephesus was ruled by kings, then by an oligarchy of aristocrats and later by tyrants. During the first half of the 7th century B. C, the Cimmerians seized Ephesus, and it only began to develop about the middle of the same century. Towards the middle of the 6th century, it came under the sovereignty of Lydia. Judging by the columnae caelatae Kroisos presented to the temple, cordial relations existed between Lydia and Ephesus.
However, the Ephesians had to leave their strongly fortified city in the port of Koressos and settle in the neighbourhood of the Artemision. As this second settlement lies below water level today, it has not been possible to excavate any remains except those of the temple of ArtemisAfter the death of Alexander, Ephesus, together with the whole of Ionia, fell into the hands of Lysimachos, who had the foresight to re-establish the city (Fig. 50) on the northern slopes of Mt. Koressos (Bülbüldağ) and on the southern and western slopes of Mt. Pion (Panayırdağ), within a large area, enclosed by a city wall with a height of 10 m. and a perimeter of 9 km. The stretch of wall exhibiting fine stone craftsmanship seen today on the side of Bülbüldağ, i. e., Mt. Koressos, is part of this original city wall. Lysimachos ensured the growth of population in Ephesus by forcing the people of Kolophon and Lebedos to reside there. Indeed, in a short space of time, Ephesus became the most densely populated city in Anatolia. In Hellenistic times, Ephesus was administered by the Seleucids and, after 190 B.C. was governed by the Pergamene kings. Ephesus came under the joint rule of the Kingdom of Pergamon and the Romans until 133 B.C. and, like the other cities in Asia Minor, was heavily taxed during the time of Julius Caesar; but in Augustus’ reign there began a period lasting two hundred years, during which Ephesus passed through its most glorious and happy period.
According to Aristeides, who lived about A. D. 150., Ephesus was the most prosperous commercial centre of that time and controlled the banking affairs of the whole of western Anatolia. The city of Ephesus was referred to as the metropolis of Asia, i.e., of Ionia. After a period famous in ancient history for strife and upheaval, lasting throughout the 3rd century A. D. and subsequently to the middle of the 4th century, Ephesus entered into a second golden age which continued until the Justinian era (A. D. 527-565). With the rapid expansion of Christianity in the area, many important and beautiful buildings came into being. The castle at Ayasoluk and the church of St. John within it, were erected during this period. Ephesus enjoyed a further period of prosperity in the Seljuk era, during the 14th century. In this time, the city occupied the area where the Ayasoluk Castle and the present day town of Selçuk now stand. During the time of the Ottomans, the city declined but now it is again developing well.
The British archaeologist J. T. Wood undertook the first excavation of Ephesus in 1869, when the Artemision was discovered. He was succeeded from 1895-1913 by Austrian scholars, who found remains of the city dating from Hellenistic and Roman times in their extensive investigations on the slopes of Mt. Koressos (Bülbüldağ) and Mt. Pion.
The Austrians continued to uncover this richest and best preserved of the ancient cities of Turkey after the First World War, with Josef Keil in charge of the project, and also following the Second World War, when Franz Miltner and then Fritz Eichler directed operations. Excavations are still progressing favourably with Hermann Vetters as director of a distinguished team of scholars.
Ayasoluk Hill was defended throughout the early Christian, Byzantine and Seljuk periods by a well-fortified castle. The fine ramparts, which still exist, were constructed in the early Christian era and underwent extensive restoration during Seljuk times. The main gateway in the castle wall (I) was built in the 6th century A. D. from stones rifled from Roman constructions, in particular the stadium of the church proper. Six domes formed the roof of the nave and the transept, while galleries stretched in an unbroken line over the aisles from the narthex as far as the apse. St. John’s grave was situated under the most central of the domed sections. Sacred dust rising from the grave through a hole was believed to have healing properties. Throughout the Middle Ages, St. John’s grave was one of the most important shrines in the Christian world to which pilgrimages were made. East of the central chamber and separated from the place where the presbyters sat is a synthronon of semi-elliptical shape.
Excavations have recently been carried out to the east of St. John’s church, under the auspices of the museum authorities, backed financially by George B. Quatman; these have led to the discovery of a centrally domed building, the baptisterium, in the middle of which lies a baptismal pool. Frescoes depicting saints seen in the accompanying chapel probably date from the IOth century A. D.
KUSADASI NIGHTLIFE