Small Group Ephesus Shore Excursion From Kusadasi Port

We visited Kusadasi for just a few hours during our Royal Caribbean cruise, and this tour was honestly one of the highlights of our trip! From the very beginning, Hakan and our driver were incredibly kind, professional, and attentive. They picked us up in a beautiful, comfortable van, and throughout the entire day we felt very well taken care of. We visited several amazing places, but never felt rushed. One of the things that impressed us the most was how well they planned the timing of the visits. Hakan knew exactly when to take us to the House of Mary and Ephesus to avoid the biggest crowds and long lines, which made a huge difference, especially in the summer heat. And Hakan… what an incredible guide! He is extremely knowledgeable, but what made the experience truly special was that he shared part of his own life and personal story with us. His story was fascinating and made the tour feel much more personal and meaningful. And to make it even more special, Hakan is also a singer and he sang for us during the tour. It was such an emotional and unforgettable moment! ❤️ Our driver was also wonderful. He even lent us umbrellas to protect ourselves from the sun while visiting Ephesus, and when I mentioned that I wanted to write down my wishes at the House of Mary, he went out of his way to find white sheets of paper for me. Those little details showed us how much they genuinely cared about making our day special. And we cannot forget the lunch! They took us to an amazing place with an incredible variety of food, and everything was absolutely delicious. After a long day exploring Ephesus, sitting down with a delicious Turkish meal and a cold Turkish beer was absolutely perfect! 🍺🇹🇷 I highly recommend this tour, Hakan, our driver, and VIP Ephesus Tours. Everything was excellent from beginning to end. When I return to Turkey, I will definitely book my tours with Hakan and VIP Ephesus Tours again. Thank you, Hakan, for making our day in Kusadasi so special and unforgettable! ❤️🇹🇷

This tour exceeded all of our expectations, and the biggest reason was our guide HAKAN. From the very beginning, he was incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, and engaging. Every place we visited came alive through his stories, historical insights, and genuine enthusiasm. What truly made the difference, however, was the kind of person he is. He was patient, thoughtful, friendly, and always made sure everyone felt included and comfortable. He went above and beyond to answer every question, share local recommendations, and make the experience personal rather than just informative. You can tell that he genuinely loves what he does, and that passion is contagious. Thanks to him, we didn’t just visit the destination—we truly understood and appreciated it. If you’re considering this tour, don’t hesitate. Having such an exceptional guide transforms a great tour into an unforgettable memory. Thank you for an amazing day—we’ll remember it for a long time! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our tour guide, Mehmet, was excellent. He was very friendly, knowledgeable, and shared a wealth of interesting information about Turkey and all the places we visited, including the House of Mary, Ephesus, the carpet cooperative, and the leather shop. His explanations made the tour much more enjoyable and helped us better appreciate the history and culture of each destination. We truly enjoyed having him as our guide and would highly recommend him. The only downside was that we visited during the hottest season in Turkey, so the weather was extremely warm. If possible, I would recommend visiting during the cooler months for a more comfortable experience.

We have a good guide Mehmet and he explain well and helps control the time

Ishmili was a fantastic guide. He was very thorough and his knowledge, emphasis and the surrounding area. Bus driver, Leo got us safely around the countryside. We enjoyed our lunch stop as the Turkish rug factory We booked through Project Expedition . We visited the Virgin Mary house, ancient Ephesus , Terrace houses, and Basilica of St John. Pick up at the cruise port was very easy and close.

This entire experience was excellent. From the moment of pickup until drop off. I truly felt like I was experiencing the real Turkey…as a VIP. This made the trip very smooth especially when traveling with kids. The Ephesus museum was amazing thanks to our wonderful tour guide Emina. I would name all of the other parts of the tour but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise. Lunch was held outdoors in one of the local villages. Wow. All I have to say is the food was so fresh. The peaches were divine. I 100% recommend this tour.

Great food, great experience, 10/10

Tour was great! Very informative. Our guide Emine was amazing. Very sweet and knowledgeable. Food at lunch was authentic Turkish food... so good!

had a great time! the tour guide was very nice!

She knew a lot about the experience

We had a wonderful experience on our tour in Turkey. Emime was friendly, knowledgeable, and made the day enjoyable for everyone. She shared interesting information about the places we visited and kept everything organized and on schedule. Thank you for a great tour—we would definitely recommend it!

Great tour with Deniz as our guide :)

Our guide was extremely friendly and knowledgeable, as well as flexible to our time. Would recommend and book again!

We opted for a private tour to get a more intimate and personal experience… and this didn’t disappoint! Booking was super easy and our guide Emine met us right outside the port. Great tour and lunch included, which was delicious. Can totally recommend this tour.

Emine is the best!! Very polite and knowledgeable! A great experience overall.

Emine was great! The tour was a perfect length and the lunch was really good.

Excellent service. Communication very good. Tour guide spoke very well and clear. Went at our pace. Could not have been any better. Transfer was very good, a/c & water offered on route.

The tour was very informative. Our tour guide (Blue Sky) was gracious and friendly. She made the small group feel comfortable. The luncheon was delicious and very relaxing on a very hot day.

Oscar is very knowledgeable about the history of turkey. He did an excellent job at condensing the stories so that we can gain an appreciation of what we were looking at. He is very kind and I’m happy he was our tour guide.

Absolutely incredible experience, our tour guide Oscar was very knowledgeable about all of the locations and history, and we were able to see beautiful sights and eat delicious food!

Oskar was very friendly, nice and knowledgeable about the history and made the tour so enjoyable. I really recomendé it

Excellent experience and much better than a lage group excursion! It was great having a private guide and private driver. Our guide, Selçuk, was a great source of information about Ephasus and the village of Sirince. Also loved the stop for lunch at the carpet cooperative where we were able to see women hand-making rugs. Fascinating!

The tourist guide and driver were excellent.

We had a wonderful tour guide, he was very knowledgeable about the area. The mini van was spacious and clean. The driver was great! Enjoyed out tour and would highly recommend.

Ismail was an amazing guide. Our trip to the house of the Virgin Mary, Ephesus, carpet store and farm house lunch was awesome. I would highly recommend this tour and guide

This excursion provided much more than we knew to ask for. From the easy pick up - due to their excellent communication. To front of the line service at Ephesus. Our guide was so knowledgeable and patient! He answered all of our questions and filled in many cultural and historical perspectives. We had a separate professional driver. He gave us front door service every time and even kept the van cool while we visited various sites. We loved our lunch and the carefully selected demonstrations and shops. This tour was top notch! We saw everything we wanted to see and so much more! Many thanks to Mr Ercüment Özden! We’re so glad to have met you!

Our tour guides name was OZ, he was fantastic ! Very knowledgeable, his passion was in the history and architecture . Our tour was very reasonably priced, the cost to see Ephesus was rich, but worth every penny. I highly recommend this tour .

Guide met us at the port. Highly recommend tour with very knowledgeable guide. Highlight was ruins of ancient city of Ephasus

Fun, knowledgeable guide. Very interesting Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary and castle tour. Guide has very good English.

Great day touring Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis! Emine did a great job explaining everything as we walked through the sites! This tour is a total recommend!!

Excellent tour guide. Emine was very knowledge about the history of all the ancient sights we were seeing. Her English was easy to understand. She had a very lovely personality and we enjoyed learning about her life as well Definitely would recommend this tour.

Absolute perfect trip from Kusadasi, we traveled with 2 teenage kids. The car (big, new and with AC) waited us in the port. Yusuf is an excellent driver, calm and accurate. Ismail, the guide is very informative, helpful and dedicated. The tickets to Virgin Mary' house and Ephesos are included and we stopped at Artemis temple. The included (3-course) lunch was delicious and had wide options. Our son is autistic and selectice eater, and Ismail arranged the special meal for him already at the begining of the trip. This day was the best in our whole cruise-holiday, thank You!

Very enjoyable trip up the Bosphorus. Guide very interesting and witty. Excellent way to see the different parts of Istanbul

Professionals running the tour (guide and driver) will always be the distinguishing factor between this and other experiences. Urjumant and Kazem were attentive to our needs as we always tailored the experience and tour to our liking. Wonderful tour and lucky to have had this combo !

This experience was outstanding. Our guide was fantastic, his knowledge of not just about Ephesus but the history and it's relationship to biblical times was superb. I could not recommend this highly enough, 10 out of 10.

Mehmet was an excellent tour guide. It ended up being a tour with just the two of us in a nice air conditioned van. Mehmet was very knowledgeable and the driver was excellent. We dis not feel pressured to purchase a rug but also were firm about it. The lunch was a delicious fare of local foods. I’d highly recommend this tour.

Our guide Gokhan was excellent. He was hospitable, courteous and extremely knowledgeable about all things Turkey. The ride was comfortable in the Mercedes Sprinter van, and lunch was very good. His knowledge of the history of the Ephesians ruins was fascinating. Two thumbs up!

We had a wonderful time. Our tour guide, Chef, was great. He knew so much about the area and the topic. The gave us so much interesting information and pointed out so many things on the drive to and from the main sites. At the sites, we stopped at the main areas and he went through the history of the place and how things were back when the city was alive. The home of the Virgin Mary was also amazing, so reverent and inspiring. We also had a great lunch and learned a lot about carpet weaving and even ended up buying a carpet! On the way back to the ship, we stopped at the tour company and met Chef's wife to settle some bills and she was also delightful. Overall, a 5-star tour I would heartily recommend!

Our tour guide Deniz was very knowledgeable and happy to answer any questions!!! We loved the tour!!! The lunch was a pleasant addition to the tour with a taste of Turkish cuisine. We loved everything about the tour!!!

Seeing and hearing all of the history of Ephesus. Our tour guide was incredible and did an excellent job!

While this tour itinerary was as advertised, there is no way that it could take 7 hours, even on a generous estimate. That is OK as we were cruise passengers and we didn't have 7 hours anyway, but just something to be aware of. The guide and the driver we had were excellent (sorry, I don't recall their names) and the luxury mini-van was indeed excellent transportation and practically brand new. The guide gave us a good overview of Turkey generally and was very informative for our tour through House of Mary and Ephesus. Due to heavy rain we only looked at the Temple of Artemis through the van window. On the more negative side, I was not at all interested in the House of Mary or the "cultural experience" of being taken through the ceramic and rug showrooms (the dread of every tourist!), but unfortunately there was no itinerary on offer that didn't include those elements. Also, be aware that the price quoted and charged of $US13 and $US27 for the House of Mary and Ephesus respectively were way over the actual price, which is more like $US8.50 and $US23.50 respectively (US dollars and euro price are the same). Do your homework and buy your own entrance tickets - we were there in November, which is not a busy season and there was no need to "skip the line" at all.

This tour was short and simple. We started early and managed to beat the crowd. The guide is very kind and knowledgeable. I had a good time.

Great tour. Well organised. Guide was waiting for us with our name as soon as we got off our Cruise ship. It was on a small minibus with only 8 people. Way better than going on one of the cruise ship organised huge buses. Guide was so knowledgeable and informative. Highly recommend.

We had an exceptional Small Group Biblical tour with SmartTurkeyTours from our Cruise Ship. The company is very easy to work with, promptly answered all our questions. Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable and it was a delight to spend the day with him.

The tour guide was very knowledgeable and it was nice to have a small group in a new full size van which was very comfortable. Picked up right at the cruise ship exit. With a small group, the guide customized our experience and let us stay at each place as long or short as we wanted.

Amazing day spent here in Turkey highly recommend viator and our tour guide was so knowledgeable thank you for a great day Serdar!!!

Seljuk was an extremely knowledgeable guide. He spoke eloquently of the history of Ephesus and Turkey’s history and contributions to the world. The lunch site was beautiful and soothing. The food was special and tasty. Lunch was at rug training facility. This was very smart. I bought beautiful rug to be shipped to my home! The tour cost me $11000 more than I had budgeted (ie rug)! I am very happy with my investment.

Chef was waiting at the port for us, no problems, easy to find despite us being about 20 mins early. He whisked us away from the crowds as we started our adventure. Driver was excellent and always waiting for us on time. Chef was very knowledge and made our short stay in Turkey memorable. So nice to get away from the crowds and have a more intimate visit. Highly recommend!!

We took this tour from the cruise port. Taner was our tour guide and he was excellent! I have taken many tours in the past and he was by far one of the most informative guides I’ve ever had. Communication was excellent leading up to the tour and they were very flexible during the tour to make sure we were accommodated. I would highly recommend this tour in the future, especially with Taner as a guide!