Private Historical Ephesus Tour

We spent a great day (almost 8 hours) touring ancient Ephesus with our wonderful guide Ugur (OO-er) Duman. This was a custom tour for just us two cats, so we were able to choose all the sights that interested us the most. We spent 2 weeks in Greece and Turkiye and this was head and shoulders above any other tour or experience. This was a perfect confluence of the best ruins, best guide, best logistics, and something special that I’ll mention later. Ugur was at the cruise ship port to greet us at 8 AM, just as planned, to begin our day. Without wasting any time, we were quickly ushered into a waiting limo to begin our adventure. This was our only tour that included both a driver and a tour guide. This was key, because the back seat rows faced each other, and we could speak face to face throughout the day. It was also very handy to have our car and driver magically appear at the end of whatever segment of the tour we completed! Our first stop was the “House of Mary”. Going here early was smart, because the road and parking lot gets very crowded. It’s a different experience without large crowds. Ugur’s 30+ years of guiding experience showed here and in many other instances. He seemed to know everyone, everywhere we went. He was savvy enough to know that we were not interested in sales pitches from merchants, but insightful enough to avoid the appearance of slighting them. He also was able to tolerate 8 hours of Mrs. TravelCat’s questions and Mr. TC’s dad jokes. Our next stop was the ancient city of Ephesus. This is likely the best Roman ruin in the world. It’s the only site where I felt that we were walking down actual streets. Midway through touring the city, we also walked up through the Terrace Houses. These are so called because they extend up the side of the hill along the city street. There is a separate ticket for this, but Ugur already had it sorted. These were the best examples in any site that we visited that demonstrated how the wealthy lived. As we exited the uppermost house, we were able to begin our walk to the most unique and special site of our trip. This was the Grotto of St. Paul. It contains a painting, rediscovered in 1995, of St. Paul, thought to be from the late 5th century, making it the oldest known depiction of him. There are several other frescoes, including one of Thecla and Theocleia, a very interesting story in itself! This site is not open to the general public. We were the only ones at the Grotto at the time of our visit. Visiting the site requires permission from the Ephesus Museum management. Few agencies/guides can manage this this, but our guides arranged this for us before our visit. We returned to the street level of Ephesus and completed our visit with a walk through the theater, which was the site of the silversmith riot against the apostle Paul. We then took a short walk to the ruins of the Church of St. Mary. Not many people visit this site, but it known for being the site of the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. We met our driver right around the corner and went to a nice quite tree-shaded restaurant in Selcuk for a Turkish meal. The meal and conversation were equally satisfying. We deftly avoided the carpet and jewelry merchants and scampered to the car. Our next to last stop was the Temple of Diana. Although only a single column remains (with a stork nest on top!) the TravelCats still wanted to see, what at one time, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The last stop was the Basilica of St. John. Notable for containing what was believed to be the tomb of St. John. It was a major pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages. Finally, we were met again by our driver and delivered back to the cruise ship port. The TravelCats recommend all of these sites and Magic Steps Travel, especially Ugur! TravelCats Score Tour Guide: 10/10 paws up Fun Level: 10/10 Uniqueness: 10/10 Value: 10/10 Organizational Quality:10/10 TripAdvisor/Google Score: 5/5