Ephesus

We took a day trip from Izmir to Ephesus and saved a ton of money by taking public transportation rather than renting a car or paying for a tour. We took a very comfortable train ride from Izmir to Selcuk (sell-shook) and then the Dolmus (public taxi van) to Ephesus. In total this way costs about $3 per person! The train schedule you find online is most likely not correct and we recommend that you visit the station the day before to purchase your ticket. We arrived right after the train left so we had to wait of the next train and as a result of that- we only had 3 hours in Ephesus. 3 hours is NOT ENOUGH TIME!!! We wish we had at least 4 hours if not 5 or 6. Ephesus is the best preserved ancient city in the world and it truly is something to marvel at.

Another thing we wish we would have done was actually stayed in the town of Selcuk as it has a real local feel to it- it seemed like most people did what we did and take a day trip here sometimes skipping the town all together. We stopped to have a glass of tea after we got off the train and the scenery was….. well we felt like we were dropped into some kind of Turkish movie! Tables and chairs were set up in front of local restaurants and they were filled with old Turkish men playing some kind of domino game, drinking tea and chain smoking cigarettes. This may not sound appealing as I’m writing this but being there was so cool! There had to have been close to 100 men conversing and throwing back endless amounts of Cay (Turkish Tea). The town was walkable and filled with affordable restaurants- nothing fancy as this this town is a bit more local.

If you want to read more about Ephesus you can click here. I am not here to give you a history lesson but I am here to share our story and add in some tips. The city itself, in our opinion, deserves 4-6 hours and maybe even longer. There is so much to see here! We did purchase the audio guide and soon discovered that we did not need it as everything we read was printed on a sign in front of whatever you were looking at. Unless you are a true history buff then it’s probably worth it because the audio guide gives a lot more details. We paid 90 Turkish Lira which is about $5 and not worth it to us.

There’s not much shade here so wear a hat and bring sunscreen because it gets hot! Also bring water bottles with you. The food and drink located outside of the ancient city isn’t too badly overpriced but you can get it cheaper in Selcuk. Because the place is so big you don’t really notice how many people are there until you walk out into the parking lot and see all of the busses and cars.

Overall, we think it’s worth it to take a day trip but if we did it over again we would have stayed in Selcuk and then gone early when it opened so it was less busy and the temps were lower.

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