An Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir needs no flight, only a road south and a short sea crossing. This route gives day one to Ephesus, sleeps at Kusadasi, then takes the ferry to Samos. For island trips, open Greece Tours on the homepage.
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How does the road from Izmir to Kusadasi run on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
Roughly 80 kilometres lead to Selcuk on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir. About 20 more lead on to Kusadasi. Day one is a drive south in two legs. The second leg ends at the port, where day two begins.
This route starts in Izmir, a port city on the western shore of Anatolia and the capital of its province. The city occupies the head of the Gulf of Izmir. That gulf opens to the Aegean through an inlet between the Karaburun Peninsula and the mainland near Foca.
Back on the mainland, Turkey tours on the homepage reach Cappadocia, Pamukkale and Istanbul.
Water frames the start of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, yet day one leaves it behind. The Port of Izmir stands on the east side of the gulf and handles cargo and passengers. Uzunada, the fourth largest island of Turkey, lies inside the gulf. Urban ferries serve nine passenger quays around the bay.
Izmir Province has thirty districts, and a law made all of them part of the metropolitan area of the city. Selcuk is one of those districts, so both ends of the first leg lie inside the metropolitan area.
South of the city runs the O-31, the Izmir-Denizli Motorway. Past the Pancar toll plaza it is a toll road. Along the greater part of its route it parallels the D550 and D320 roads. The Belevi exit joins the D550 for Selcuk, so an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir leaves the motorway there.
Roughly 80 kilometres separate the city of Izmir from Selcuk. Drive times for that stretch run from about an hour to an hour and a quarter. That distance is why this route gives the opening hours of day one to the road.
The road crosses the plain of the Kucuk Menderes, which Selcuk and Torbali share. The district of Selcuk covers 317 square kilometres. Torbali lies to its north, Germencik to its east and Kusadasi to its south. Until the second half of the twentieth century, Selcuk was a township inside Kusadasi district.
From Selcuk, a road of roughly 20 kilometres runs south to Kusadasi. This second leg closes the evening of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, once the hours at Ephesus are over. Kusadasi belongs to Aydin Province, so the leg crosses a provincial border.
The district of Kusadasi covers 265 square kilometres. State roads link the town to the districts around it, such as Germencik and Aydin. Shuttle minibuses, called dolmus, serve the town and the places nearby. The one night of this route is spent here.
The name Kusadasi joins two Turkish words, kus for bird and ada for island. In the Byzantine era the town was known as Ephesus Neopolis. Under Frankish rule it carried the name Scala Nova. The car of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir stops at the port.
The clock of day one on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir is easy to read. The road south fills the first part, Ephesus fills the middle, and the drive to Kusadasi closes the evening. Day two swaps the road for the sea, and the road returns only for the way back to Izmir.
What does the Dilek coast give to an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
A national park, the Dilek coast holds Mediterranean shrubland, pine forest, wild animals and sandy or pebbly coves. It lies near the route of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, but it is not a stop.
The park was declared in two stages. The Turkish forestry ministry named the peninsula a national park first. The delta of the Buyuk Menderes joined it later. Ruins fill the plan of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir. This park is the nature beside that plan.
The whole park falls under the Ramsar Convention on wetlands and the Berne Convention on European wildlife and habitats. The Rio Convention on biological diversity and the Barcelona Convention against pollution of the Mediterranean cover it too.
The Council of Europe recognises the peninsula as a flora biogenetic reserve. That status protects plant communities at risk of dying out or losing their genetic variety. Camping, lighting fires and setting up overnight shelters are forbidden inside the park.
The park records 804 plant species, and six of them grow nowhere else on earth. Plants change with height, and the southern side of the peninsula differs from the northern side. Mediterranean maquis shrubs, such as Phoenician juniper, are the commonest and widest-spread plants.
Turkish pine grows in the forests. The plant list of the park also names black pine, laurel, olive, plane and oak species. None of these woods is a stop for an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
A hybrid oak and a branching cypress form small woods on the peninsula. It is the only place where they do so. Chestnut, a tree of northern and western Anatolia, reaches its southern limit here.
The park holds 28 mammal species, 42 reptile species and 45 fish species. Golden jackals and Eurasian lynx live in the forests. Wild boar are native and are found near the beaches, where they feed on scraps left by visitors.
The delta is the wide mouth of the Buyuk Menderes, a wetland of lagoons, salt marshes and mud flats. It holds first-degree natural site status and class A wetland status. Pygmy cormorants, little egrets and white-tailed eagles are among its birds. The park is a key nesting place for Dalmatian pelicans.
The peninsula is about 20 kilometres long and 6 kilometres wide. Named coves line its shore, and Icmeler Cove is the first and easternmost. Its water is the shallowest in the park, and its beaches are sandy. Parts of Kusadasi show along the horizon from there.
Aydinlik Cove lies about 5 kilometres further west. Its shores are pebbly and its water is deeper, so it is more demanding for swimmers. Kavakli Burun and Karasu, the last coves open to the public, look across to Samos. Samos is the island that fills the second day of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
Visitors enter the park from the east, and the coves follow one another westward along the shore. After the gendarmerie checkpoint, a turn leads to a nearby canyon. Forest trails start from that point.
The Dilek coast stays a neighbour of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir. On this route, Ephesus fills day one and the ferry to Samos fills day two.
Which beaches and bays frame the coast during an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
Samos has pebble bays in the north, a small golden cove and a long mixed beach beside Pythagoreion. For an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, the south-west adds a long shore of sand and small pebbles.
This route gives the island one day, and no beach below is named as a stop. The paragraphs describe the shore that an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir crosses the sea to reach. Each one gives the surface, the water and a length or a distance when a source states it.
Tsamadou is a pebble bay on the north coast, about 13 kilometres from Samos Town. The beach measures 380 metres. Pine trees reach down to the sea. A visitor on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir finds small and medium pebbles and clear water. The bay breaks the waves, the seabed drops steeply, and water shoes help.
Kokkari beach is covered with small pebbles, and its water is clear. The beach measures about 800 metres and has facilities along the shore. Waves and wind reach it, which suits windsurfers. A windsurfing school works on the next beach along. This open water contrasts with the sheltered bay of Tsamadou.
Among the shores of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, Livadaki is a small cove, only 55 metres long. Its sand is golden, and the sea is turquoise, shallow and quiet. The cove is sheltered from the wind. The road to it ends in 2.5 kilometres of unpaved track.
Psili Ammos lies east of Pythagoreion and has very fine sand, both above and below the waterline. The sea is shallow and clear, and an adult walks a long way out before it deepens. Tamarisk trees give natural shade, and hotels and restaurants stand around the beach.
Mykali lies in the south-east, east of Pythagoreion, and its pebbles run for about three kilometres. Of the shores around an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, it is the second longest, after Potokaki. The water is crystal clear over a sandy seabed.
Samos comes up again in Ephesus Samos Tour From Ankara.
The beach is organised in the middle of Mykali, where the road from Samos Town and Pythagoreion arrives. Little shade falls on the sand and pebbles. A protected nature area borders the beach.
Potokaki lies about one kilometre west of Pythagoreion town and is the longest beach on the island. The shore is pebbly in the main, with large parts of sand. The sea is clear and quiet, and the bottom slopes gently. A small stream divides it from the beach of Pythagoreion, beside the airport runway.
Votsalakia village lies on the south-west coast, about 35 kilometres west of Pythagoreion. Its shore is sand mixed with small pebbles, and it runs a long way. The water is crystal clear, and the beach has access from more than one point. It is a place on the island, not a stop of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
Surface sorts the beaches. Pebbles cover Tsamadou, Kokkari beach and Mykali, while sand covers Livadaki and Psili Ammos. Potokaki and Votsalakia mix sand with pebbles. The water is clear at all of them. Tsamadou breaks the waves, Livadaki stops the wind, and Kokkari beach takes both.
Where do the paths of Mount Kerkis lead on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
The paths of Mount Kerkis run from mountain villages to trail chapels, a cave and the coast near Marathokambos. An Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir spends one day on the island, so these trails show its walking side.
Samos holds a network of waymarked hiking trails that totals nearly 260 kilometres. Durable wooden posts and direction signs mark the routes. The villages of Kosmadei, Drakei and Marathokambos each sit on the slopes of Kerkis. The walks below start or end in them.
Kosmadei lies at the north-eastern foot of Kerkis and is the third highest village on Samos. The paved road ends at the top of the village, and only a rough dirt road continues from that point.
Samos also features in Ephesus Samos Tour From Istanbul.
Anyone who plans an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir around a walk can start at that last paved spot. The route to the Panagia Chatzimanolisa Monastery covers 4.2 kilometres and takes about an hour and a quarter on foot.
The full route, numbered nine and ten on the island map, needs five hours of walking and climbs 868 metres. The dirt road has branches, and they can mislead walkers on the way back down.
A loop from Kosmadei past a gorge to a cave chapel and the Zoodochos Pigi Monastery measures 6.87 kilometres. It climbs 330 metres and takes about two and a half hours. The route is rated hard and asks for good fitness, sturdy shoes and sure footing. Inside the cave, a headlamp helps.
Drakei sits on the north-western foothills of Kerkis, on rocky, steep slopes with lush vegetation. Drakei and Kallithea are the remotest villages on Samos, and both stayed cut off until a road was built. A dirt road that starts just before Drakei leads on to Kallithea.
Another page that includes Ephesus is Ephesus Chios Tour From Izmir.
A coastal walk of 10 kilometres ends at Drakei and takes about two hours and 45 minutes. Its grade is moderate to strenuous. The paths are narrow and stony, and the walk reaches a height of only 375 metres. Such notes matter to anyone who builds an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir around one day on the island.
A second walk joins Kosmadei with Marathokambos over 10 kilometres in about two and a half hours. It is graded moderate and suits experienced walkers only. Route-finding is difficult on one stretch, and the same section carries a danger of vertigo. These figures help anyone who compares an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir with a longer stay.
Marathokambos lies to the south-east, at the foot of Kerkis, on the hillside called Fterias. The bay of Marathokambos opens in the south-west of the island, 4.5 kilometres from the village.
Tradition links a cave on the slopes of Kerkis with Pythagoras. The story says he took refuge there to think and to teach. The ancient work On the Pythagorean Life tells it, and nobody can confirm that this is the same cave. A chapel of the Birth of the Virgin stands at the entrance.
Byzantine monks built that chapel in the eleventh century. From Marathokambos, 5.1 kilometres of paved road reach a parking place. A short path climbs on from there, steep at the end, and a rope helps over one rock. This route gives Samos one day, so the paths of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir stay features, not stops.
On Kerkis itself, the chapel of Prophet Elias has no historical or architectural interest. It is still a reference point for all walkers on the mountain.
What do the monasteries and chapels add to a stop on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
Samos holds four church places: Megali Panagia, Timios Stavros, Vrontiani and Panagia Spiliani. They give an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir old frescoes, carved wooden screens and a cave chapel. The three monasteries were founded or rebuilt in the sixteenth century.
This route gives day two to Samos and names no fixed church stop. The monasteries below stand on the island itself, inland and on hillsides. Treat them as church heritage to know about, not as promised visits within an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
A related page on Ephesus: Ephesus Pamukkale Tour From Izmir.
The Monastery of Megali Panagia lies about two kilometres southeast of the village of Koumaradei, in the south of Samos. The monastery honours the Dormition of the Virgin. Its other name, Panagia of the Five Houses, recalls five local chapels whose monks formed its core.
Two monks, Neilos and Dionysios, founded it in the sixteenth century. They came from the area of Miletus. The main church in the middle of the courtyard was built in the same century. It follows the Mount Athos style, with an octagonal dome on four columns.
Its wall paintings, by an unknown painter, were finished in the sixteenth century. The gilded wooden screen dates from the eighteenth century. The carved doors and the pulpit come from the seventeenth or eighteenth.
The monastery stands at about 225 metres, above the plain of Chora. It is an active religious site, so a route guide advises covering shoulders and knees. That advice holds for every church visit during an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
The Monastery of the Holy Cross, Timios Stavros, lies near Mavratzei, at about 200 metres above sea level. The monk Nilos founded it in the sixteenth century. He raised a chapel to the Holy Cross where an icon of that name was found. Inside are a large wood-carved iconostasis and wall paintings.
The Monastery of Panagia Vrontiani, also called Vronta, belongs to the Vourliotes area. Two monks, Iakovos and Makarios, rebuilt it in the sixteenth century. They built on the ruins of an older monastery of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. Entry is allowed only in decorous clothing.
Ephesus Aphrodisias Tour From Izmir covers Ephesus too.
The name Vrontiani is traced to the strong thunder of the autumn rains in September. Its feast falls on 8 September. The church is a domed basilica, renovated in the nineteenth century, as an inscription at its entrance records. Its carved altarpiece shows scenes from the Old and New Testament.
The cave church of Panagia Spiliani lies northwest of Pythagoreion, on a hill about 125 metres above the sea. A stairway of 95 steps leads down into the large cave. The church inside honours the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. A small chapel of Saint George stands beside the cave.
The year of founding is uncertain, and the chapel inside was probably built in the seventeenth century. Archaeologists believe the cave was a place of worship in ancient times. In Byzantine times it became a Christian church. The cave thus holds two layers of belief for an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
An old icon of the Virgin is set into the rock. Local tradition tells that strangers stole it and that it fell into the sea and cracked. The pieces floated back to Samos. The name Kaliarmenissa, meaning good sailing, recalls this legend. It gives an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir one more local story.
For more on Ephesus, see Sardis and Ephesus Tour From Izmir.
Which scientists and craftsmen came from Samos, as met on an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
Ancient Samos gave the Greek world a Sun-centred astronomer, a star-watching mathematician, a philosopher and two bronze casters. They lived between the sixth and the third century BC. An Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir reaches their home island by morning ferry from Kusadasi on day two.
Aristarchus of Samos was born about 310 BC, which falls in the fourth century BC. He studied under Strato of Lampsacus, who was head of Aristotle’s Lyceum. His birthplace is the island where an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir spends day two. He lived until about 230 BC.
Aristarchus is celebrated as the first to propose a Sun-centred universe. In his model the Sun sits at the centre of the known universe, and the Earth revolves around it. The theory reaches us through a short summary in The Sand-Reckoner, a work by Archimedes.
His only surviving work is On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon. It starts from a half-lit Moon and the angle between the Moon and the Sun. From that angle he worked out that the Sun lies about 20 times as far away as the Moon.
The true figure is about 400 times, and the gap came from poor instruments, not from faulty reasoning. He also answered a puzzle: the fixed stars show no yearly shift. His reply was that they lie very much farther off than the size of Earth’s orbit. That thinker belongs to the island that anchors an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
Conon of Samos was born about 280 BC, in the third century BC. He was a Greek astronomer and mathematician. He was also a lifelong friend of Archimedes, and the two exchanged mathematical ideas. Conon came from the same island that an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir visits.
Readers interested in Ephesus can open Ephesus Pergamon Tour From Izmir.
A story ties Conon to the night sky. Queen Berenice II vowed to give a lock of her hair to a temple. She cut the lock and placed it there. The next day it had vanished. Conon announced that the lock was visible in the stars between Virgo, Leo and Bootes.
Since then the constellation has been known as Coma Berenices. Conon’s work on conic sections also became a basis for the fourth book of the Conics by Apollonius of Perga. Conon himself lived until about 220 BC.
Two craftsmen of Samos worked in bronze in the early sixth century BC. The Greek writer Pausanias names Rhoikos and Theodorus as the first men to melt bronze and cast images. Among the people behind an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir, these two are the metalworkers.
Pausanias credits the pair with the invention of hollow casting. Small solid bronze figures had been cast in Greece since prehistoric times. One art historian judges that hollow casting gave bronze sculpture a great impulse.
Pausanias adds that Theodorus made an emerald signet, a ring with a seal. The ruler of Samos wore it constantly, out of pride in it. In the sixth century BC the island produced a ship called the samaina, with a wide, deep hull. Its ram was shaped like a boar’s head.
More about Ephesus: Izmir Ephesus Tour By Flight From Istanbul.
Melissos of Samos was a philosopher of the fifth century BC, active around 440 BC. He extended the arguments of Parmenides. If what exists is unlimited, Melissos held, it must be one thing, alike all through. Among the island’s thinkers, Melissos gives an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir its philosopher.
Which months, clothes and gear suit an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir?
Plan an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir for April, late spring or October. Daytime highs then stay close to 20 to 25 degrees Celsius on both coasts. Pack a sun hat, water, grippy shoes and a passport for the two days.
Kusadasi, the night stop of this route, has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Summers run hot and dry, while winters turn mild and wet. The average daytime high is 31.8 degrees Celsius in July and 13.7 in January. Those figures frame the weather on day one of an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
Samos shares the same climate type. The airport weather station records July as the hottest and driest month. Its daytime high is 33.0 degrees. February is the coldest month and December the wettest. Humidity falls lowest in summer and peaks at the end of autumn.
Rain decides the wet months. Kusadasi receives about 118 millimetres in January and about 116 in December, with nearly ten rainy days in December. Samos is wetter still, at about 157 millimetres in December. From June to August the island gets almost none: 1.6 millimetres in June, then 0.5 in July and in August.
Ephesus comes up again in Izmir Ephesus Tour By Flight From Ankara.
April, late spring and October hold daytime highs between about 20 and 25 degrees at both ends of the crossing. Midsummer climbs to 33 on Samos. A full day on foot in an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir fits those three months comfortably. Spring, from March to mid-June, also brings long days.
Midsummer asks more of a walker. Ephesus offers little shade, and the heat reflects up off the white stone. The hottest stretch of the day runs from noon to three in the afternoon. Kusadasi logs about 380 hours of sunshine in July, against about 131 in December.
Daylight changes the plan across the year. Midsummer brings close to fourteen hours and forty-five minutes of light. Midwinter brings about nine and a half hours. At midwinter, an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir has the least light for walking. Long walks belong in the morning.
Sun protection comes first from late spring to autumn. Pack a sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen, and carry plenty of water, because the ruins give so little cover. Loose, breathable clothes keep the walk comfortable. Rain on marble calls for the shoe advice below.
Marble paving needs the right soles. Centuries of feet have polished the stone at Ephesus, and it gleams after rain. A rubber sole with real tread grips it, while flip-flops and sandals are far from ideal. Choose these shoes before packing anything else for an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir.
Ephesus Aphrodisias Pamukkale Tour From Izmir covers Ephesus too.
Samos asks for shoes of a different kind. The island has a network of cobbled mule tracks called kalderimia. Cobbles are hard on thin soles. The same closed shoe with a firm sole serves on the island paths and on the marble streets.
Cool months call for a light jacket. From November to April the average night low stays under twelve degrees on both shores. Kusadasi falls to about 6 degrees in January. A jacket covers the early start and the evening road back to Izmir.
Greece refuses entry to anyone without a valid travel document, so the passport rides in the day bag. Pack for one night only. Take a small case for Kusadasi, plus a day bag with water, a swimsuit and a sun hat for Samos. Light luggage keeps an Ephesus Samos tour from Izmir simple.