Your Ephesus day, question by question

Yes. The company is Gezginol Tourism, a TÜRSAB-licensed Turkish travel agency, License No. 15746, based in Kuşadası, and every guide who works with us holds a Ministry of Culture and Tourism guide license.

A licensed private guide, an air-conditioned car with a professional driver, hotel or port pickup and drop-off, parking, and all taxes — one per-person price, your group only. Entrance tickets, gratuities and personal drinks are paid separately, and lunch is included on any tour that visits Ephesus.

Yes, freely. Nothing is paid in advance — you write to us, a guide plans the day, and nothing is charged until the day itself — so changing your mind or your date costs nothing.

It depends on the tour: at your Kuşadası or Selçuk hotel for a private day, at the Kuşadası cruise port exit with your name on a paper card for a ship day, or at the Ephesus gate you choose if you have booked guiding only. We send exact instructions with your confirmation.

We track your ship's actual position, not the printed schedule, and replan around it. The site is close to the port, so a delayed start compresses the day rather than cancelling any of it.

There is no booking engine, card payment or account to manage — you write, a guide writes back with a plan, and on the day your guide already has your name and your plan when you meet.

Yes. Every tour is private — your party only, in your own car, at your own pace. No joining a bus, no other families added to fill seats.

From about two and a half hours for the opening-hour walk to a full day on the longer routes; the standard private day runs about four hours on site. The tours page lists the length of each one.

English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian and German. Tell us which one when you write, and for anything else we'll tell you honestly whether a licensed guide who speaks it is free on your date.

No — the ticket itself is paid separately, at the exact official Ministry price, with nothing added by us. What is included is the queue: we buy the tickets ahead with our agency priority pass, so you walk in through the fast lane instead of the ticket window.

Not for your ticket. Gezginol holds a travel-agency priority pass and buys your entrance tickets in advance, so your guide walks you through the fast lane instead of the ticket window — twenty to forty minutes saved on a busy summer morning. That skips the ticket line, not the security check, which everyone passes through the same way, and it can't create space at a site the Ministry has closed or capped for the day; nobody can promise that.

Often, yes, if you tell us in advance. The lower third of Ephesus — the lower gate, the Great Theatre forecourt and the roughly 500 meters of Harbor Street up to the Library of Celsus courtyard — is broad, level ground. The climb starts above the Library, on cambered ancient marble, and the Terrace Houses are reached by steel stairs with no lift, so they do not suit everyone. Say so when you write and we rebuild the route and the pace around your group, entering and turning back at the lower gate if that suits you better. Our full notes on wheelchair and mobility access at Ephesus go stretch by stretch.

The full route is about 1.5 kilometers from the upper gate to the lower gate, almost entirely downhill, and takes three to four hours at a normal pace with stops. Shorter and longer versions exist — see how long to visit Ephesus for the honest breakdown.

Closed shoes with a real tread (the marble is genuinely slippery), a hat and sunglasses from April to October, and more water than seems necessary in summer. There is no dress code at the ruins themselves; shoulders and knees only need covering if the House of the Virgin Mary is on your day.

It is genuinely optional — no licensed guide's income depends on it. Guests who were happy typically leave €10–20 per group for a half day or €20–40 for a full day; our full note on tipping a guide at Ephesus has the detail, including what large-group tours give.

Your guide sees you back to your car, your hotel or the port, and the day ends the way it started — a handshake, not a checkout screen. If anything about the plan needs sorting afterward, the same guide who wrote to you is who you write back to.

Any time — write to us the same way, whether it is a different corner of Ephesus, Şirince, Selçuk, or one of the other 141 Journeys sites in Istanbul or Cappadocia.