One Day in Ephesus
 

Hello. We are taking a cruise and we will be in Ephesus from 9am to 7pm. After doing much research we have decided that we would like to see three main tourist attractions (the Ephesus ancient site, House of Virgin Mary and Artamis Temple). There are a lot of tour companies that go to these three places. Should we book a tour or is it totally possible and fairly easy to do this on our own. How is the transportation in Ephesus? Is this a walking city? Taxi's? Buses? The tours are about $80 a person. I am not sure what the admission is to each of these places or how much time you actually need there. Help is appreciated.

Have you signed up on the roll call for your ship on cruisecriiic.com? If not, do so right away. You will find lots of other people on your ship forming their own little groups and booking independent tours.

We didn't even do that. We met a few other people on the ship who had not booked anything. We got off the ship and saw other people also making decisions as to what they wanted to do. We collected up four couples, walked to the taxi/van stand less than a block from the dock and hired a van and driver for $80.00 for the entire day for all of us - $10.00 each. We gave him $100.00. This was four years ago, so I'm sure it would be more now, but sure not $80.00 person.

We left about 10:00 and returned about 5:00. We had about three hours at Ephesus which was fine.

We all paid our own way at the sites. At the site of Ephesus, you can hire a guide if you want - pretty cheap as I recall. but we didn't do it.

Is that the correct website or is there a typo? Sounds interesting.

Sorry. Thanks for the corrections for cruisecritic. That third finger just kept going.

If it's hellishly h-o-t, three hours will seem like an eternity. You can walk down "Marble Street", see the library, the terraces, the amphitheater and ride to the other two atractions where there will be more shade.

Kush-a-desu )(Kusadasi) is a good sized city for walking the narrow streets so you could spend some time there before reboarding. Docks are just across the highway from the city and you coud have a drink or two at Pigeon Cove therein..we were on our own, so walking through Kush-a-desu, wife bought two very colorful, attractive skirts at a small mom and pop carpet-and-dress shop. They had to be shortened, so the owner asked if we would watch the store while he went to his wife's tailor shop. While we sat on orange grates out on the narrow street, a ship had just come in and the streets were soon loaded with passengers from the ship. I mimicked the carpet seller across the way, with a thick accent saying.."want to buy carpet"...you would think I had leprosy the way they jumped away from me. The carpet seller across the way was howling at the whole event, as was my wife.

Off our cruise I had set up a tour with "Hello Ephesus" and 6 of us were very happy with the guide and the tour. "Hello Ephesus" took us to all the places we wanted and supplied lunch. I think it was $35 each..We saw more than the ship's tours offered.. Do not miss the terrace houses..All entrance fees were included. Even the carpet moment was interesting as it was at a gov't run weaving school. You can ask to skip the sales pitches at the end of you want..

Just for your info :

Temple of Artemis is just a few columns and nothing else. Should only take five minutes, since it will be on your route anyway.

However, Saint John's Basilica is rather extensive and more interesting.

Unfortunately Selcuk museum which houses a great many artifacts from Ephesus is currently closed.

OC,
I could not find any info online about the Selcuk museum closure. Do you know how long is supposed to last? We'll be there in Oct. Thanks

Selçuk museum will reopen at the beginning of October 2013.
http://kvmgm.turizm.gov.tr/TR,46782/...-birimler.html

Oh, the Selcuk museum is lovely, a pity you'll be missing it, but do make a stop at St. John's Basilica. We too did a tour with Hello Ephesus and paid something like $30 for a full day tour, with lunch and entrance to the various sites included, think we were 10 of us in a mini bus.

Oh Wow. I just saw the Hello Ephesus website. I think we will book with them. Great prices and you all had great reviews.

Good idea.. You will enjoy this tour group!!!..Also check out comments on Trip Ad. all VG!!!

Croesus,
We'll be in Selcuk on Oct 2, hope that's what they mean by " at the beginning"...

They say 1st October on that website.

Thanks - keeping my fingers crossed.