Kusadasi — "Bird Island" — is the resort town on Turkey's Aegean coast where most journeys to Ephesus begin: one of the busiest cruise ports on the Mediterranean circuit, twenty minutes from the ancient city, and the place our team calls home.
The town lives from tourism and does it with gusto. A resident population of about 64,000 swells past half a million in summer, filling the seafront promenade, the old bazaar quarter and an amphitheater's worth of beaches: Ladies Beach with its famous sunsets, the town-center sands, the long strands toward Güzelçamlı, and — the locals' true love — the wild coves of Dilek Peninsula National Park, where boars stroll the picnic grounds and the water is the clearest on the coast.
Between ship and shore
If your Ephesus day leaves margin, Kusadasi rewards a wander. The Öküz Mehmed Pasha Caravanserai by the port has sheltered travelers since 1618. Pigeon Island — the town's postcard — carries a Byzantine-Ottoman castle at the end of its causeway, ringed by tea gardens. The Grand Bazaar quarter above the port trades in everything from genuine leather to genuinely optimistic "genuine" watches; haggling is the local sport and everyone plays.
Since a 2003 renovation, the port receives the largest liners afloat, and the logistics of meeting ships are second nature to every local operator — ourselves first among them, we would immodestly add. Whether you have four hours or four days here, we can fill them well.