Ephesus tours, shuttles and excursions

What kinds of Ephesus tour are there?

A shore excursion from the Kuşadası cruise port

For most people arriving by sea, Ephesus is the reason to go ashore. The cruise port is about 19 km by road from the Lower Gate and 23 km from the Upper Gate¹, so a shuttle or excursion spends far less of the day on the road than in the ruins. Kuşadası is one of Turkey’s busiest cruise ports, and a day with several ships in can crowd the site². Which gate to start from, and how to time the visit around the ships, is covered in our guide to Ephesus from the Kuşadası cruise port.

A day trip from İzmir

From central İzmir it is about 79 km to the Lower Gate, and about 62 km from the airport, roughly an hour’s drive³. A private driver or small-group tour saves the train, which reaches Selçuk only after a change at Tepeköy⁴; the road and rail options are compared side by side in getting to Ephesus.

A tour from Istanbul

Ephesus is a long way from Istanbul, so any tour from the city involves a flight or a long road journey before the sightseeing starts. Before booking, check what the price includes: travel, transfers, the entrance ticket, and whether a night nearby is part of it. With our ticket guide to hand, you can see which of those costs a package has already covered.

Private and small-group tours

A private guide sets the pace and the order, and can meet you at the Upper Gate so the walk runs downhill to the Library of Celsus; the site map shows that route from gate to gate. The Terrace Houses need their own ticket on top of the main one⁵, so ask whether a tour includes them.

Biblical and pilgrimage tours

Tours built around early Christianity usually add the House of the Virgin Mary and the Basilica of St John to the ancient city. The House of the Virgin Mary has no public transport⁶, so a tour or a driver is the practical way to reach it. What each of these places is, and how much of its story is tradition, is set out in Sacred Ephesus.

Villages and the countryside

Şirince, in the hills behind Selçuk, is about 10 km by road from the Lower Gate⁷, close enough to pair with the ruins in a single day. The town of Selçuk and the sites beyond the city walls have a page of their own: around Ephesus.

Working with ephesus.net

For now ephesus.net is purely informational. It already reaches thousands of people planning a visit to Ephesus, and over the coming months we plan to work with a few of the businesses that look after them.

If you run a tour company, a transfer or shuttle service, a guiding business or a hotel near Ephesus, we would like to hear from you. Tell us briefly what you offer and we will reply.