Istanbul to Ephesus Full Day Guided Tour, Flight and Lunch incl.
Recommended by 93% of travelers
Badge of Excellence
Istanbul, Turkey
- 14 to 17 hours (approx.)
- Pickup offered
- Group discounts
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Experience Ephesus from Istanbul in a day on this group tour. Fly from Istanbul to Izmire and travel comfortably onward in an air-conditioned vehicle. In the company of a guide, visit Ephesus and learn about its history. Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant and visit the mountainside village of Sirince.
- Hassle-free hotel pickup
- Travel by plane and air-conditioned vehicle
- Learn about Ephesus from your guide
- Tuck into lunch at a local restaurant
What's Included
- Professional English Speaking Tour Guide.
- Entrance Fees
- Lunch in a local restaurant.
- All Airport transfers
- Flight tickets
- Transfers with a non smoking and air conditioned vehicle.
- Local Taxes.
- % 100 Satisfaction
- Personal expenses
- Drinks
- Entrance fee for the Terrace Houses
Meeting and Pickup
You can head directly to the meeting point, or request pickup
Operating hours.4:30 am
Itinerary
Istanbul (Pass By)
Izmir (Pass By)
1
The House of the Virgin Mary
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
2
Ephesus Ancient City
3 hours • Admission Ticket Included
3
The Temple of Artemis
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Free
4
Sirince
2 hours • Admission Ticket Free
Izmir (Pass By)
Istanbul (Pass By)
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Most travelers can participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 6 travelers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveler Photos
Featured review
Eduardo_C
What an AMAZING experience. I’ve traveled to a few places of history, but this has had to be the best so far for me. The tour, the information and best of all out tour guide Nizam I believe is how you spell his name.
Reviews
4.8
based on 68 reviews
Editha_R, Dec 2025
The tour operator did not send the e-ticket and info regarding pick up. I have to call the operator to email me the e-ticket. There was lack of communication. The tour guide was knowledgeable and very helpful, she even helped me guide through the unpaved road at the ruins.
David_C, Nov 2025
This FULL day tour from Istanbul packs a punch. I was picked up right on time from my hotel at 4:30 and driven to the airport. After a wonderful flight with Turkish Air, I was promptly picked up by a friendly driver in Izmir and proceeded to join the others awaiting me. We then made our way to the House of the Blessed Virgin Mary which was very moving to me. We next spent several fascinating hours exploring the ruins at Ephesus with a funny and knowledgeable guide. After a quick stop at the Temple of Artemis, we headed to a lunch filled with traditional Turkish dishes. I had asked my guide about what was left of the Basilica of Saint John. He gave me the option, which I gladly took, to be dropped there (admission on my own) while the rest explored the local village. My driver returned me to the airport where I caught a Pegasus flight back to Istanbul. The only confusion came with where to meet my driver who was taking me back to my hotel. I will suggest that if a visit to Ephesus is your top itinerary item for visiting Turkey, don’t wait until the last day because my earlier booking was canceled by the company the night before.
Hany_F, Oct 2025
Very nice tour that takes you back two thousand years
Our tour guide (Nezam) was very nice knowledgeable and courteous
Recommend this activity for every person
Eduardo_C, Sep 2025
What an AMAZING experience. I’ve traveled to a few places of history, but this has had to be the best so far for me. The tour, the information and best of all out tour guide Nizam I believe is how you spell his name.
Jeff_H, Aug 2025
We were lucky to get this tour on a day when the tourism was light so we had no lines anywhere. We had time to both reflect and wonder in awe at the magnitude of what Ephesus once was. Truly amazing! Our guide was excellent and clearly took great pride in the culture and community. I know that others complained about stopping but some of the local shops in their reviews but we very much appreciated getting immersed in the local culture.
Stephanie_Q, Jul 2025
Guide and driver were great. Guide was very informative and knowledgeable. Ephesus and the other places we visited on the tour were very interesting and enjoyable. A side trip to a leather place was a bit obnoxious. Because the employees were very aggressive. The travel company didn’t keep in touch with me. I had to contact them to send me plane tickets. They never sent me info on where to meet my drivers until I contacted them for info. They were quick to respond, but I don’t think I should have had to ask. Otherwise it was a very enjoyable day.
Irma_Q, Jun 2025
Did not got the chance of doing it because lost of flight due to a previous trip delayed. May be next time
Karen_W, Jun 2025
We had a wonderful experience. Our guide, Nizam, was an absolute delight. He was born in the area and his knowledge and love for it shows. His humor and excitement was amazing, considering he does this daily. The sites themselves are spectacular, and worth the trip alone. Definitely worth the cost to get a guide like Nizam who made everything easy. The only thing to note was that there is not a lot of communication with the tour company itself. It would have been nice to receive notice with more advance on things like confirming the driver will be there to pick you up, where to meet the next driver when you land in Izmir, and where to meet the last driver back to the hotel. Those were all details that were given last minute after landing, so there was a little worry there. But the drivers were all there, so the trip itself was smooth. Highly recommend!
Vonnie_R, Apr 2025
The Ephesus Excursion is amazing. I had a private tour guide that made the whole experience come alive with his knowledge and appreciation of the history of this site. It was incredible to be walking on roads and seeing ruins that were thriving in BC and AD.
Anika_S, Apr 2025
The experience was amazing! Our tour guide Hakam (not sure if I spelled it correctly) was quite fun, knowledgeable, and attentive. Ephesus was a bucket list place for me, and I was not disappointed at all. Virgin Mary’s place and the temple of Artemis were great to explore as well. Lunch was tasty. The carpet weaving and leather making demonstrations were unexpectedly good and I learnt quite a lot. We had some rain during the trip to the village, which didn’t hamper the experience much. Pickup and drop off to my hotel were included and went without a hitch. The travel agency was very good at contacting and updating info for the trip. Overall, couldn’t ask for better service!
Yesenia_H, Feb 2025
When you come to Turkey, you must take the trip to Ephesus. It is a most beautiful place, one of the wonders of the ancient world... the history, the farmlands surrounding it, the mountains, the quaint town of Şirince nestled in the mountains with its cobblestone narrow roads and beautiful local craftsman people, fresh ocean air. I am so happy I did this!
I went with my son who had just had a hair transplant and he was not feeling well, (plus the jetlag from flying from the USA two nights before) and was not a happy camper, but Nizamettin, our guide, was so friendly and kept engaging my son that by the end of the day he was feeling better. He was Excellent, he was knowledgeable, friendly and very patient with our constant stops at the shops. He was privileged to have been born and raised in that gorgeous part of Turkey so he really knows everything about the area and it's people.
The pickups at the hotel and airport were punctual and seamless.
It is an all day affair, please wear comfortable clothes and shoes and "just do it". It is worth it!
🇹🇷 💚✈️
Nam_H, Dec 2024
Had a great time on the tour. Everything went smoothly. Our driver was punctual and courteous. Our tour guide, Mel (Melike), was terrific. She is witty, friendly, friendly and extremely knowledgeable of the tour. It’s so refreshing when your tour guide did her “homework”, if you will, and is prepare to make the best experience possible for her group.
Highly recommend this tour if she’s your tour guide.
Kimberly_M, Dec 2024
This was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for me...it just never happened. I wrote to them two days before the tour to confirm pickup time and location and heard nothing back. The morning before the tour I wrote them again for confirmation and heard nothing. I had just gotten into bed at 9 pm (as I was going to be picked up at 430 am for the trip) and got a cancellation via viator email that it was canceled due to weather. About 45 mins later they finally wrote me back in the app and just said "this trip has been canceled". I do not believe it had anything to do with weather as the day of the trip was the most beautiful and clear day in Turkey all week. Their lack of responsiveness leading up to the event also makes me feel they perhaps didn't have enough people to make the trip worth it for them. Needless to say, they left me scrambling to find something else to do for my last day and very disheartened as this was supposed to be the most important part of my trip. Insult to injury, they never canceled the trip via viator and I had to connect with viator support to get a refund. Regardless of the reason for their cancellation, it was handled with 0 customer support or service. If you do book this, be wary and make sure you have a backup plan.
Saima_M, Nov 2024
Guide Nazem was really good and passionate. The driver was really good and on time. Everything was seamlessly carried through fron airport to tour and back to Istanbul.
Colette_d, Sep 2024
Seamless travel to an ancient place. Walking amongst the ruins and learning about their historical context was a once in a lifetime experience.
Christina_G, Sep 2024
We had a great time in Ephesus. Our tour guide was a lady named “Gul” (not sure how to spell her name) but she was very knowledgeable. My only critique was the communication with this tour planner was not good. On our way back from the tour, no one reached out to give us any instructions. When I kept texting through the Viator app I wasn’t getting any response on where to meet our driver for our hotel drop off. I had to call Viator and Viator had to reach out to the tour planners to inform them of my issue which meant I had to sit at the airport for an hour after my flight landed at 9pm (after doing a 13 hour tour) trying to figure out where our driver was. That made the second half of the experience distasteful. Secondly, there were a couple of stops during this tour at a leather clothing store and a carpet factory. Both had you sit through a presentation and then offer to sell things. Didn’t like that this was not disclosed. Felt like an unnecessary trap after already a long day of touring Ephesus.
Nick_L, Jun 2024
Our guide, Nizam, was fantastic. Very knowledgeable about site, area, culture, and history. Highly recommended. But make sure you bring your passport for the flight!! Long day, but the right amount of time.
Patie_F, May 2024
An awesome experience and worth the guided tour
The ruins are so vast that the tour is necessary. It means you have a clear picture of the city and its populace by the end
Gonzalo_R, Jan 2024
This one of the best tour I have had, They guide Nisam was great, he knows al lot and share it in a very frinedly way, also super intersting way to explain for each person what, why and how, so defenelty a gerat tour guide with some Archeological experience. Also the dirver we got were all on time, the fligth was easy and on time, so even as it was a low season tour, all good. Actually we were very lucky, because teh weather wa snot so bad, and it was not as cold as Istambul, so was good to have a day out.
Maria_R, Oct 2023
the best part was the part we paid extra for where we saw the aristocrat homes.
it was not included in the tour but it should be included.it was very interesting
Mamet was a great guide. very pleasent an knowledgable.
Christopher_H, Aug 2023
My wife and I wanted to get to the fabulous and Biblical site of Ephesus, but starting our hours away by car in Instanbul presented a challenge when booking other excursions.
Enter Apasus Travel
We booked this all-inclusive day trip with door to door service from Istanbul to Ephesus and back. This tour included pickup at our hotel very early, a trip to the airport for prebooked commercial flights to Izmir, pickup and transport to Ephesus, and two other quick stops with an excellent guide in a small group bus. Our lunch was an incredible private place....think a simpler version of Tavern on the Green, and this would be it. Our guide told me that guides fight over it for booking.
The tour was excellent, our guide engaging, and Ephesus delivered. I wouldn't change a thing, and couldn't be happier.
A special shout out to Eyup at Apasas Travel who fixed a last minute flight complication, and got us to where we need to go! Thank you Eyup!
George_A, Sep 2022
Our tour guide was a professional. Trained in giving tours, he seemed to enjoy his work, and it showed. He was knowledgeable and funny as well as helpful when dealing with the market vendors that I got myself engaged with when buying stuff.
Shakil_C, May 2022
The tour was awesome including picking and dropping from Istanbul hotel. All the transfers were perfect. The tour guide Nizam was extremely knowledgeable and friendly. He made everything very smooth and full of fun.
Jose_R, Jan 2026
Nice walk. Ephesus is a show very well worth it. The perfect tour structure: guide, driver and translator.
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Silvana_S, Apr 2025
A visita à Casa de Maria e a Éfeso foi muito interessante. O nosso motorista e o nosso guia Nisan foram muito atenciosos. Entretanto fomos levados a vários pontos comerciais - o que tomou grande parte do tempo do passeio -, nos quais nos sentimos pressionados a comprar. Não era esse o nosso objetivo ao escolher essa excursão.
No quesito organização, a empresa deixou muito a desejar. A comunicação com ela era difícil e, em alguns momentos importantes, inexistente. Em Istambul, durante a ida para o Aeroporto de Sabiha, houve troca de motorista sem nenhuma explicação - o que quase nos fez atrasar para pegar o voo. Fomos deixados no aeroporto apenas com o número de reserva do voo da ida. Não sabíamos nada sobre o voo da volta. Quanto ao ponto de encontro com os motoristas, ou não nos foram dadas as devidas orientações, ou elas nos foram dadas de maneira confusa. A empresa deveria fornecer um roteiro com as informações necessárias.
YUTAKA_N, Mar 2025
イスタンブールからの日帰りで心配でしたが、予約してよかったです。感動の体験でした！ 早朝のピックアップから帰りの送迎まで、とても誠実で確実な運営でした。あえて言えば、帰りのお迎え場所の連絡が前日だったらよかったと思います。
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Istanbul to Ephesus Full Day Guided Tour, Flight and Lunch incl.
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