Kusadasi Port: Private Ephesus Tour with Basilica & Mary’s House

4.94

(216 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We almost missed our pickup at Kusadasi Port because I got distracted by a stray cat weaving between the taxis—our guide Cem just grinned and waved us over. I liked him right away. He handed us cold water (it was already warm, even before 10am) and told us we’d start at the House of the Virgin Mary. The drive up was quiet except for birds and the low hum of Turkish radio. The hills smelled like pine and something sweet I couldn’t place—maybe wild thyme? It felt strange to be somewhere that people have been making pilgrimages to for centuries. Cem said locals call it “Meryemana” and shared a story about his grandmother lighting candles there every year.

I didn’t expect Ephesus itself to feel so… real. Not like a museum, more like someone just stepped out for lunch and left their city behind. We wandered through marble streets under that sharp Aegean sun, Cem pointing out faded Latin inscriptions on stones I’d never have noticed. The Library of Celsus is as grand as everyone says but it was actually the smaller things—the grooves worn into steps, a bit of mosaic peeking through dust—that stuck with me. There were crowds in places but Cem always steered us around them; he seemed to know every shortcut. At one point he laughed when I tried (badly) to say “teşekkürler”—I think my accent made it sound like sneezing.

Lunch was in a carpet workshop outside Selçuk, which wasn’t what I expected at all (I thought we’d get sandwiches). Instead there were bright rugs everywhere, smells of tomato and grilled lamb drifting in from a little kitchen out back. Someone showed us how silk threads are spun—her hands moved so fast—and then we ate together at a long table while she asked about our families back home. Afterward we climbed up to the Basilica of St. John, where the wind whipped around broken columns and you could see all the way down to Ephesus below. For some reason that view made me feel both tiny and lucky at once.