Ephesus Tour FAQ: Straight Answers, Stage by Stage

Send the booking form: the tour, your date, how many adults and children are coming, the guide language and where to pick you up. It takes about two minutes. You can also write to info@ephesustoursbylocals.com. A licensed local guide reads every request personally and replies within 24 hours.

For a cruise call, as soon as you know your date in port: private guides do get fully booked in high season. Last-minute requests are still worth sending. If we can make it happen, we will.

Private, always: your group only, never pooled with strangers, and every group has its own licensed guide and its own vehicle with a driver. There is no limit on group size: see the next answer.

Yes. Any group size: we run tours for groups of 1 to 52 people in one coach, and for larger groups we arrange several guides and coaches. We once ran a week-long tour around Turkey for 200 people in five buses at the same time. Small or large, your group is simple and easy for us. The one practical note: the walkways inside the Terrace Houses are narrow, so your guide takes a big group through them at a calm pace.

English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian and German. Choose the language on the booking form, and the guide who meets you will speak it.

Yes. Every tour is private and flexible, and the Create Your Own Ephesus Tour starts from a blank page: you choose the sites, the pace, the pickup point and the lunch table. Mobility needs, special interests or a celebration go in the notes box of the booking form.

Of course. Children aged 7 and under enter Ephesus and the other Ministry sites free (bring their passports, because the ticket office checks ages), and the booking form asks how many children under 12 are coming. The Ephesus Tour for Children is paced for younger legs.

Each tour page shows its price. Our daily Ephesus tours from Kusadasi, Selcuk and the cruise port start from €33 per person for groups of 8 or more, the village tours from €37 and the all-inclusive Selcuk old town tour from €39 with tickets included; tours that start in Izmir, Bodrum or Istanbul start from €44 per person for groups of 8 or more, and the Kusadasi food walk from €33 per person for groups of 4 or more. Smaller groups get a private quote, and multi-site, multi-day and special-interest days are priced privately. The price covers your private licensed guide, the vehicle with a driver and, on every tour that visits Ephesus, lunch and priority entrance. Entrance tickets are separate, bought for you at the Ministry's gate price with no mark-up, except on our all-inclusive tours, where they are part of the price.

At the terminal exit, where the pier meets the town. Every passenger leaves through it, whichever berth the ship uses, and your guide stands there with a sign showing your name. The spot is marked on an aerial photo on our Kusadasi cruise port page.

A different pier changes nothing: Kusadasi has one cruise terminal, and all its piers lead to the same exit, where your guide waits. Tender days are rare here. If your ship anchors in the bay, let us know, because the boat ride ashore adds time to your morning and we plan the start around it.

We follow your ship's real position, not the printed schedule, and your guide adjusts to the actual arrival time. That is part of the service.

Wherever your day starts: your hotel in Kusadasi or Selcuk, a hotel in Izmir, the Izmir cruise port or Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport, where your guide waits at arrivals with a name sign. Give us the hotel, the ship or the flight number on the booking form.

Not at the ticket window. We buy your tickets in advance at the Ministry's gate price, with no mark-up, so your guide walks you past the ticket queue to the turnstiles. We skip the ticket queue, not the security check, which everyone passes. The whole routine is in skip the line at Ephesus, explained.

Yes, with the right route. The main walk is about 1.5 km downhill from the upper gate to the lower gate, taken over two to three hours, and nearly all of its roughly 40 m drop comes between Domitian Square and the Library of Celsus. The marble is polished smooth, so wear shoes that grip. Climbing into the Great Theater's seating or up the steps of the Library of Celsus is optional; both can be enjoyed from the level ground in front. The Terrace Houses are stairs and steel walkways, and they are not wheelchair accessible. For a wheelchair the gentlest route is in through the Lower Gate and back out through the Lower Gate, seeing the lower city. Our Ephesus Tour for Elder Travelers is planned around this, and the Ephesus Panoramic Tour is seen mostly from the coach.

Yes, on every tour we run that visits Ephesus: whatever is local and fresh that day, cooked by local chefs, usually at a local artisan center. On the shortest itineraries it comes at the end, if your time allows. Dietary wishes go in the notes box of the booking form.

Most of our days include a visit to a local artisan center, often with lunch, where masters of traditional Turkish handcrafts work while you watch. Browsing is welcome, and nobody has to buy anything. If crafts are your thing, the Ephesus and Shopping Tour gives them a whole afternoon.

Yes, on any tour that walks through Ephesus. They add 30 to 45 minutes of guided time and need their own ticket, €15 in 2026, which we buy in advance with the others. The roof over the frescoed villas is also the one big patch of shade on the route.

Yes. Every tour is led by an official professional guide licensed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and every tour runs under Gezginol, a travel agency registered with TÜRSAB, the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (No. 15746).

Comfortable shoes with grip, a hat, sunscreen and water. There is no dress code at the ruins; only the House of the Virgin Mary, an active shrine, asks visitors to cover shoulders and knees, so a light scarf helps. In winter, bring a raincoat.

In July and August the average afternoon high in Selcuk is about 94 °F (35 °C), and the marble throws the heat back at you. Most of the route is open to the sun, so early morning is the kindest time to walk it: the site opens at 08:00.

Both gates have toilets, and it is worth using them before you go in, because inside the ruins there are few. There are no drinking fountains along the route and only one small stand, near the Library of Celsus, so buy water before you start. We also keep cold water in the vehicle.

Yes, photography is part of the day at Ephesus. The place to put the camera away is the chapel at the House of the Virgin Mary, where visitors are asked not to take photos inside.

Back where you need to be: your hotel, the cruise port or the airport. Drop-off is part of our tours just like the pickup, and cruise guests finish at the port.

No. Gratuities are optional and always appreciated, but never expected.

Gladly. From the same base we run Ephesus with Pamukkale, with Pergamon or with Didyma and Miletus, a village breakfast day and a three-day Seven Churches of Revelation tour: see all our private tours. Our agency also guides in Istanbul and Cappadocia, with the same priority entrance.