Ephesus Travel Forum

Hello:
I have been looking through many travel guides and it seems quite a challenge to get to Ephesus and Troy without taking a pre-packaged tour. Planing a trip on your own and trying to locate dependable bus information from which to plan a vacation in Turkey is proving harder than Agamemnon and Menaleus winning the Trojan war. It seems to require both bus and car. Are there tour companies locally in Istanbul that offer tours to Ephesus and Troy, for example, around the Sultanamet area with hotel accomodations and bus transportation?
Thank you in advance.

If you're starting out in Istanbul it's easy. Go into any travel agency and they will book you on a bus to Canakkale, which is very near to Ancient Troy. From Canakkale you can take a local minibus out to the site. When you're ready to go to Ephesus just catch a bus in Canakkale down to Selcuk. From Selcuk you can find local transportation out to Ephesus. The public bus system in Turkey is very efficient, and the buses are for the most part new and have A/C and an attendant aboard to serve you water and some small snacks and offer scented water to refresh your hands. It's quite pleasant. Take along some toilet tissue 'just in case'.

I completely agree, the buses in Turkey are efficient and plenty. But finding information on the web, particularly in English can be challenging. Rest assured that you can get from anywhere to anywhere on a bus, but you will likely have to go to a travel agent or the station to book tickets.

Common routes have buses maybe as frequently as every 30 minutes, but most likely every hour.

From Instanbul you can take a bus the whole way. Or you take a ferry to Bandarma or Yalova, then bus the rest of the way. Bandarma would be the straightest line as the crow flies. But if you go through Yalova, you would have an opportunity to visit Bursa on the way. Bursa is a large city and bus service from there reaches every corner of Turkey.

www.turkeytravelplanner.com
will give you information about everything you seach

Thanks for all the prompt and useful replies everyone:)