Ephesus & the Aegean
Private Ephesus tours, the House of the Virgin Mary, Şirince, Pamukkale, and cruise shore excursions from Kuşadası and İzmir.
Private Tours
Your own guide. Your own pace.
Every tour we run is private: your group, your guide, your day. Nobody else joins, you set the timetable, and nothing happens on the day that you did not choose yourself.
A private tour at a glance
- Who joins
- Your group only. The guide and the vehicle are yours for the day.
- Group size
- Any size: 1 to 52 people in one coach, several guides and coaches for larger groups
- Guide languages
- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Italian, German
- Pickup
- Hotel lobby, cruise pier or airport
- Entry
- Skip-the-line: we buy your entrance tickets in advance
- Tickets
- Exactly the Ministry of Culture and Tourism price, nothing added, billed separately from the guiding
- Price
- A clear price in writing before you book; each regional website publishes its own prices
- Operator
- Gezginol Tours, TÜRSAB license 15746
What a private day looks like
A licensed guide meets you where you are — hotel lobby, cruise pier, airport — with a vehicle and a plan you have already agreed by email. From there the day belongs to you. If the light is good at the Library of Celsus you stay longer; if the children have had enough of ruins by noon, you go and eat instead.
Private guiding is not a luxury add-on in Türkiye so much as the difference between seeing a site and understanding it. With a guide of your own, you can ask your specific question — about Artemis, about Paul, about the plumbing — and Ephesus becomes a different city entirely.
Skip the line — priority entrance is part of the day
Our operating agency, Gezginol Tours, holds a priority pass and buys every client's entrance tickets in advance. That means skip-the-line entry at the ticket gates — no queue in the August sun at Ephesus, no scramble for a timed slot at Topkapı. Fast-pass, priority entrance, skip the line: the same thing, and it is standard on every tour from every one of our eleven websites. Our Ephesus team explains how priority entrance works at Ephesus step by step.
Two honest caveats. We add nothing to the ticket price — you pay exactly what the Ministry of Culture and Tourism charges at the gate, and the ticket is billed separately from the guiding, so no cost is hidden inside a package. And priority entrance is about the ticket queue, not about security screening or a site's daily capacity, which are not ours to control.
How to book a private tour in Turkey with a licensed guide
- Pick the 141 Journeys website that covers your region.Each one covers a single region in depth, with its own itineraries and prices.
- Send your dates and group size through its form.Or write to us here, and we will point you to the right guide.
- A licensed guide replies with a clear price in writing.Skip-the-line entry included, entrance tickets billed separately at the Ministry price. A person answers, usually within a few hours.
Where we guide
Because each of our websites covers one region in depth, the tours themselves live on those sites, with their own itineraries and prices.
Istanbul
Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar and the Bosphorus — tailor-made by the day.
Cappadocia
Göreme's cave churches, the underground cities, the valleys — and the balloon morning everyone comes for.
Biblical & pilgrimage
The footsteps of St Paul and St John, the House of the Virgin Mary, and the Seven Churches of Revelation from Ephesus to Laodicea.
In depth: Ephesus
Not a tour site so much as an encyclopedia — every gate, street and building of the ancient city, explained before you go.
En español
Éfeso con guías locales de habla hispana — excursiones desde el puerto, guías prácticas y rutas según tu punto de salida.
Private tours — frequently asked
What does “private tour” actually mean?
It means the guide and the vehicle are yours for the day. Nobody else joins. You set the start time, the pace and how long you linger, and if you want to skip something you skip it. The opposite is a seat-in-coach tour, where forty people share one guide and one fixed timetable.
How much does a private tour in Türkiye cost?
It depends on the destination, the vehicle and the number of people — a private day at Ephesus is priced very differently from a multi-day Seven Churches route. Because our sites cover different regions, each publishes its own prices. Tell us your dates and group size and you will get a clear price in writing before you book.
Can you collect us from a cruise ship?
Yes — cruise shore excursions are a large part of what we do, particularly at Kuşadası for Ephesus. Guides meet you at the pier with a sign, and getting you back to the ship in good time is the single non-negotiable of the day. Details are on ephesustoursbylocals.com.
Do your tours include skip-the-line entry?
Yes. Gezginol Tours holds a priority pass and buys your entrance tickets in advance, so you walk in past the ticket queue at every site we visit — Ephesus, Topkapı, Cappadocia's museums. We add nothing on the fast-pass tickets: you pay exactly the price the Ministry of Culture and Tourism charges at the gate. The ticket cost is still billed separately from the guiding, so nothing is buried inside a package price.
Do you take single travelers and small families?
Yes. A private tour for one or two people is perfectly normal — you simply have the guide to yourself.
Can you take large groups?
Yes. Any group size: we run tours for groups of 1 to 52 people in one coach, and for larger groups we arrange several guides and coaches. We once ran a week-long tour around Turkey for 200 people in five buses at the same time. Small or large, your group is simple and easy for us.
Will you take us to carpet shops?
Gladly, whenever you would like to. Carpet-weaving, ceramics, leather and jewelry are among the loveliest crafts in Türkiye, and we visit established, fully insured workshops of the kind the cruise lines recommend. You are welcome to watch, ask questions and enjoy the tea for as long as you like — there is never any hurry and never any obligation to buy. And if you would rather give the whole day to the sights, that is entirely your call.