2-Day Ephesus and Pamukkale Tour from Marmaris

Your 2-day tour includes overnight accommodation at a 3-star hotel in Pamukkale, meals and round-trip travel in an air-conditioned coach.

Day 1: Marmaris — Ephesus — Pamukkale (B, L, D)Start your tour with a pickup from your centrally located hotel in Marmaris in the early morning. Relax in your air-conditioned coach and drive toward Ephesus, the best-preserved ancient city in the eastern Mediterranean.

Stop for an included buffet breakfast of olives, cheese, egg, salad and bread, served with tea and coffee. Then, continue your journey and enjoy the views of rural Turkey as your guide shares stories about Ephesus and its history.

Stop at a Turkish delight center to see how Turkey's favorite sweets are made. Then, when you near Ephesus — depending on your preference on the day — visit either St Mary’s House, a stone house built on the site where the Virgin Mary may have lived out her last days, or Ephesus Museum, home to monuments excavated from the city.

Afterward, enjoy a buffet lunch of salads, main dishes and desserts. Drinks are also available at your own expense. Then, arrive at Ephesus, where the relics of this Greco-Roman city lie in a fertile valley.

Enjoy a 2.5-hour walking tour as an expert guide tells you more about the city during its heyday in the 2nd century BC. Amble the marble-paved streets to see shops, statues and temples, and admire the Roman bathhouse, Agora, Fountain of Trajan and Temple of Hadrian. Linger at the two showpieces — the magnificent Library of Celsus, built facing east to enable reading in the morning light, and the 25,000-seater Great Theatre.

After your tour and a stop at a ceramic workshop, travel to Pamukkale and check in to your hotel. This evening, enjoy an included dinner and belly dancing show at the hotel.

Overnight: 3-star hotel in Pamukkale
Day 2: Pamukkale — Marmaris (B, L)After breakfast, continue your sightseeing forays at Pamukkale. Formed over the millennia, this UNESCO-listed hillside consists of snow- white terraces, pools and basins created by calcium-rich hot springs flowing down its 656-foot (200m) slopes.

Hear from your guide how the terraces were formed, and about Hierapolis, the Greco-Roman spa city built above them in the 2nd century BC. Ogle the brilliant terraces and basins, and explore Hierapolis’ ruins, seeing its vast Roman theater, colonnaded street and necropolis, a cemetery of 1,200 tombs.

Perhaps put on your swimwear for a dip in Cleopatra’s Pool (own expense), a Roman-built thermal pool littered with tumbled pillars. After your swim, return to your coach and end your morning with a visit to an onyx factory.

Following an included buffet lunch similar to the one on Day 1, visit a carpet-weaving center to see how Turkish carpets are hand-woven. Then, sit back and relax on your drive to Marmaris, where your tour ends with a hotel drop-off in the early evening.