How to go from Kusadasi Cruise Port to Ephesus?

To catch a bus to Ephesus’s main inter-county bus stop, you will need to walk approximately 4 minutes from the Kusadasi Cruise Port premises to the first bus stop. Exit from the Scala Nuova Shopping Centre and walk straight ahead until you see the sign “D” indicating the bus stop. Once you reach the bus stop, wait for the “Number 5” bus to arrive.
Prior to leaving the port premises, you can access ATMs and restrooms for your convenience. Additionally, there is an exchange office near the bus stop where you will be waiting, providing the opportunity to obtain Turkish Lira to pay the minibus fee.

Here it comes our Number 5 Minibus, which is supposed to take us to the Main Town Center Bus Stop where inter-county busses are located. We get into Number 5 and say ‘cellchouck’ (sounding – meaning ‘SELCUK’ in Turkish) is the name of the town we should be going to for Ephesus. So our driver on Number 5 knows where he is dropping us off. The ride from Kusadasi Cruise Port to the town’s center must take 10 minutes. And we pay straight to the driver; it should cost 50C. euros. Don’t worry if you do not carry Turkish Lira; you can pay minibus drivers in Euros.

Once Minibus Number 5 drops us off at the roundabout where the inter-county Bus stop is, we need to locate our second minibus with ‘SELCUK’ written on its front. We must cross the street to get to the buses bound for Selcuk. In winter, minibusses to Selcuk run every 20-25 minutes, while in summer, they run almost every 10-15 minutes. However, there might be some confusion as several lines also stop at the same location. To avoid any confusion, we must look for the minibus with ‘SELCUK’ written on it. Once we find the right minibus, we can board it for our journey from Kusadasi Town Center to Selcuk, which should take approximately 20 minutes. The minibus will make stops at some of the hotels on the coast just outside Kusadasi. We should prepare around 1.5 Euros to hand over to the driver and say ‘EPHESUS’ or ‘EFES’ to indicate our destination.

When the driver arrives at the Efes stop, he will shout, “Ephesus”. We have to get off the minibus at this stop. When we get off the minibus, we will see a taxi stand. Ephesus has a total of two gates, the lower and upper gates. The lower gate is about 12 minutes away on foot, while the upper gate takes 43 minutes. You can walk to the lower gate or take a taxi from your stop. Here we can continue our step, assuming that you will walk to the nearest gate, the lower gate.

From here, you can walk approximately 12 minutes to the lower entrance gate of Ephesus from the side of the road.

After reaching the lower gate, you can enter Ephesus by passing through the security control and toll booths. You can pay the Ephesus Archeological Site entrance fee of 700 TL (2023) with cash or a credit card. Since there is no toilet in Ephesus, you can use the public toilets after entering. Have a nice trip!