My daughter and I are flying from Madrid this June to Greece. We were going to cruise the Greek islands and had hoped to see Ephesus and another Turkish port but there are no cruises that we like (very few to Ephesus). It seems we will see more of what we want in Greece if we just do it on our own. Is there a way to get to Turkish ports without flying in to Istanbul? I was hoping to find a short cruise or other type of boat to see Ephesus. Any suggestions?
Travel from Greece to Turkey
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The nearest town to Ephesus is Kusadasi and I know that there are ferries from the Greek Island of Samos to there. More info about tickets and about Samos in general here - http://www.samosguide.com/listingview.php?listingID=83
Have you looked at Azamara, Oceania, Holland America, Princess cruises? They all have itineraries with Kusadasi.
The port of Vathy on Samos is your connection to Kusadasi, where you go so see Ephesus. If you are planning to do some island hopping on your own, ferries between Piraeus and Samos usually stop at Syros in the Cyclades en route.
Syros also has ferry connections to Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Naxos, and many others in the Cyclades, so is a good point to begin island hopping before returning to Athens.
Samos has ferries to other islands in the Dodecanese and NE Aegean if you wish to island hop in that area.
If you wish to get there quickly direct from Athens, Samos also has an airport.
Excellent comments. All ideas greatly appreciated. I'm so excited that it will work this way. I hated to go all the way to Greece and miss Ephesus. Thanks for your responses!
I tried to find ferries from Piraeus to Samos and came up with nothing, am I doing something wrong? It is very inexpensive to fly from Athens which I think is a good option, but I am also not finding any ferries from Samos to the other islands we are wanting to visit (Mykonos and Santorini) or even to Syros. Any suggestions how to go about island hopping after visiting Ephesus?
kpflumm-
Last June the Aegeon Pelagos ferry company's "Ierapetra" did travel between Piraeus and Samos but it remains to be seen whether or not they will do so this year. In all likelihood they will but you'll have to be patient and wait for the summer schedules to be released, probably at the end of March or sometime in early-April. http://www.gtp.gr
In the past another company, Hellenic Seaways, also provided service from Piraeus to Samos.
You most likely will NOT find service from Samos to Santorini or Mykonos, although HS has stopped at Mykonos in the past.
No, you aren't doing anything wrong, the schedules for June haven't been posted yet. Go to www.gtp.gr, type in Piraeus for origin and Samos for destination, but leave day and month on "Any". Then you will get all the currently scheduled sailings to Samos. There will be ferries in June, the islanders depend upon them for their lifeline with the mainland. There won't necessarily be daily ferries, though, so if you have a particular date in mind it would be better to book a flight.