KUŞADASI · TURKEY
Ephesus by morning, the Aegean by afternoon.
Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary, Şirince’s hill-village wine and the white terraces of Pamukkale, boat days on the blue Aegean and the bazaar back in town. Every good day around Kuşadası, and every road inland.
Only here
Three days you can only have on this coast.
Boat trips and beach clubs line every Aegean resort. Walking Ephesus before the coaches arrive, standing in the House of the Virgin Mary, and drinking fruit wine in the lanes of Şirince do not.
The ancient city
Walk Ephesus
One of the greatest cities of the ancient world, twenty minutes inland. The marble length of Curetes Street runs down to the soaring two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus, past a theatre cut into the hillside that once held twenty-five thousand. You don’t so much visit Ephesus as walk straight into Rome.
- 1 FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time Return
- 2 Top Choice For Cruisers: Ephesus, Mary’s House WITH TICKETS+LUNCH
- 3 PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR FOR CRUISERS: On-time Return and Skip-Line
A place of pilgrimage
The House of the Virgin Mary
On the wooded slope of Bülbül Dağı stands the small stone house where Mary is believed to have spent her final years. Popes have made the journey; people of every faith line up to tie a wish to the wall below the spring. Quiet, shaded and unlike anywhere else on the coast.
- 1 Top Choice For Cruisers: Ephesus, Mary’s House WITH TICKETS+LUNCH
- 2 PRIVATE NO HIDDEN FEES Ephesus, Mary’s House Guided Tour /GRP OPT
- 3 ALL INCLUDED: Ephesus Ruins, Mary’s House Tour incl ENTRY TICKETS
The wine village
Şirince in the Hills
A former Greek village of crooked lanes and tumbling bougainvillea, high above Selçuk. The little cellars pour fruit wines you’ll find nowhere else (peach, pomegranate, blackberry) and the lunch tables look out over olive groves and orchards. The Aegean’s slow afternoon, bottled.
- 1 Private Ephesus and Sirince Village Tour from Kusadasi port only
- 2 Private Ephesus and Sirince Village Tour from Kusadasi Port/Lunch
- 3 From Istanbul: Ephesus & Şirince Day Trip w/ Wine Tasting
Start here
The tour almost every ship books.
More days around Kuşadası are built around this one run to Ephesus than anything else on the coast.
The classics
Kuşadası’s Most Popular Tours
Ephesus and Mary’s House, the Pamukkale terraces, a boat day on the bay. The days most travellers step off the ship for.
Where to begin
The days a Kuşadası trip is built around.
Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary, the Pamukkale terraces, the old town of Selçuk, the wine lanes of Şirince and the steam of a Turkish bath. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Off the ship
How to see Ephesus on a cruise stop.
Kuşadası is the Aegean’s busiest cruise port, and the clock is the whole game, because the ship will not wait. Three ways to reach Ephesus and be back aboard in time, depending on how you like to travel.
The hamam
End the day flat out on warm marble.
The Turkish bath is older than the resorts and better than any spa. You sweat on a heated marble slab under a domed ceiling pricked with starlight, then an attendant works you over with a coarse mitt and a cloud of olive-oil foam until you walk out loose and gleaming. A few of Kuşadası’s hamams have been doing this for centuries.
Read the guide: the best Turkish baths in Kuşadası →On the water
The coast is better from a boat.
The bays south of Kuşadası only really open up from the water. Day boats run from the marina to quiet swimming coves, along the pine-backed shore of the Dilek Peninsula, and out toward the Greek island of Samos on the horizon. Lunch aboard, a dozen stops in the blue, and the town shrinking behind you.
See the Aegean boat trips →The icon
Where the ancient world still stands.
The two-storey façade of the Library of Celsus has faced the same Aegean light for nineteen centuries. Come early, before the coaches, and the marble main street is almost yours: columns, carvings, and a great theatre climbing the hillside above. This is why the ships dock at Kuşadası.
Ephesus tours & tickets →Pamukkale day trip
The cotton castle, and a Roman spa town above it.
Three hours inland, mineral water has spilled down a hillside for millennia and frozen it white: terrace after terrace of travertine pools you wade through barefoot. Above them spread the ruins of Hierapolis and a thermal pool you can still swim in among fallen columns. A long day from the coast, and worth every minute of the drive.
- 1 Pamukkale Small Group Tour from Kusadasi Port/Hotels
- 2 Pamukkale Small Group Tour From Kusadasi or Selcuk Hotels
- 3 From Antalya Pamukkale Hot Air Balloon Flight with Lunch
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Kuşadası is a base. Stay in town for the beach and the bazaar, run twenty minutes inland for Ephesus and Şirince, or give a full day to the Pamukkale terraces.
In town
Stay in Kuşadası.Pigeon Island and its little fortress, the marina and the long sand at Ladies’ Beach, the bazaar lanes and a fish lunch on the harbour. Days you never leave the bay.
Half a day inland
Out to Ephesus.Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary and the Temple of Artemis sit close together twenty minutes away, with Şirince’s wine lanes just up the hill. Gone after breakfast, back for a swim.
A full day there and back
Up to Pamukkale.The white travertine terraces and the ruins of Hierapolis, three hours inland. The big day out that needs an early start and gives back a UNESCO wonder.
Off-road
The hills behind the resorts, at speed.
Behind the beach, the Dilek Peninsula climbs into pine forest and dirt track. Jeep convoys and quad safaris bash up through the hills to mountain villages and viewpoints over the gulf, usually with a foam-soaked water fight and a long village lunch thrown in. Loud, dusty, and the most fun you will have off the sand.
See all 28 safari tours →By place
The bay, and the roads inland.
Kuşadası for the marina and the beach. Ephesus for the marble ruins. Selçuk for the old town and Mary’s House. Şirince for the wine. Pamukkale for the white terraces. The Aegean for a day on the water.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Ephesus if you came for the ruins. A boat if you want the blue water. Pamukkale if you want the white terraces. A hamam if you want to do nothing at all but steam.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Kuşadası? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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