Izmir Travel Forum

I will be in Izmir for 1 hort day and want to make the most of it. I am arriving via cruise ship.
We like to walk and wonder can we walk from the port to the sites?
What currency should I bring with me to spend?

thanks-cant wait to get there

Forget Izmir, take a rental car or taxi immediately to Ephesus!

He is right, you may go to Ephesus first. (You may find minibuses from bus terminal(otogar)) Later you may walk at Kordon. You may visit Kizlaragasi bazaar. You can look to castle from there. :-)) You may take a ferry for Karsiyaka etc. I don't know how far that port. You may bring Euro, dollar but you must change it to Turkish liras. (Now I euro is about 2190 TL, 1 US is 1550 TL. )
Have a good day.

it is likely your cruise ship will offer a trip to ephesus, which is the prime location to visit in this region. if you go on a cruise ship outing, it will cost more but the ship will not leave without you. if you go on your own, and don't get back in time, the ship will leave and you will be stuck. having said that, the cruise ship tours tend to be large and impersonal and bypass important sites of interest. the most important principle was exquisitely stated by brotherleelove above. ephesus.

how much would I be looking at to hire a taxi to take me to some of the sights? I want to make sure I am prepared!

thanks

Ekol travel is a wonderful tour guide service. We used them when in Istanbul and Kusadasi and plan to use them when we make port in Izmir in February. They took us to the House of the Virgin Mary and Ephesus and some other places there in a wonderful tour that cost about the same as the ship. But we saw so many different places than the ship did and beat the ship everywhere.