In the last week of April this year, I had some friends visiting from England who wanted to see both Ephesus ('Efes') & Pamukkale during their stay. After some consideration we decided not to take one of the many tours offered from Bodrum (although they do seem to be good value), and chose instead to do it by ourselves. Although I cannot directly compare my experience to those of a tour, I wanted to share with people how easily it can be done independently, so long as you do your research before you go.

Firstly, we booked our hotel in Pamukkale the evening before we left - we had been recommended the family-run Venüs Hotel, by some friends that stayed there a few weeks previously. On Friday morning we left our house in Yalıkavak a little after 8am, with the car fully stocked with supplies for the journey. The route to Selçuk (and Efes) was straightforward, and took us past some lovely scenery, in particular Bafa Lake, where we stopped for some photos.

We reached Selçuk at 11am and found Efes is very well signposted. We parked in the South car park which is free. We had been advised that someone would offer us a free shuttle from here which would take us to the other end of the site, so we could walk through ending back at our car, instead of walking both directions. As we were all young and healthy and the weather was so pleasant we declined the offer, but did hear that it was via a carpet or leather factory and could take almost an hour! We enquired about the cost of hiring a guide and were told 80TL per hour for our 4 person group - this was the price before any negotiations, as we had already decided not to have a guide. Two of our party are keen photographers and not so interested in the history, and one is an archaeologist. We also had some old guide books with us including a map of the site, and there are several shops by the entrance selling many types of books in several languages ranging from 10TL to 40TL. We paid our 20TL each entrance fee, and proceeded onto the site, armed with plenty of water and sun cream.

There are toilets outside the South entrance (go before you go in!), and at the North entrance (inside the site) there is also not much shade around the site. There were several tour groups around us but it was not too busy and they didn't seem to hang around very long. We decided not to visit the 'houses on the hill', which was an extra 15TL per person, but we've heard it's worth the extra if you have the time. Overall, we spent about 2 hours ambling around, getting lots of photos, and then returned along the route to our car which only took about 20 minutes. At this time (about 1pm) there were fewer tour groups. We then went into the town of Selçuk for some lunch, and after drove to the Temple of Artemis for some more photos. Again we found this easily, it was fairly quiet and there are some lovely views. There is no entrance fee or car park fee as there is not much to actually see, but it is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World!

                           

We then began our long drive east across to Pamukkale, which took us about 3 hours, and there are plenty of places to stop for supplies etc... Again the route was straightforward and we first followed signs to Aydın then to Denizli, from where we followed the signs for Pamukkale. We arrived at about 5.30pm and managed to park the car at the base of the hill, so we could take in our first sight of the "Cotton Castle". Here there is a lovely picnic area around a small lake, there are also a couple of swimming pools (charged entry), changing rooms, and toilets, and a cafe (none of which were open when we went). The site looked very busy because this is a very popular time to see it, and to watch the effects of the changing sunlight.

Finding the hotel was also simple, and well signposted. After checking into the hotel, and freshening up we then headed back out to watch the sunset at Pamukkale, before returning to the hotel for a delicious Turkish dinner.

The next morning we drove up to the South Gate entrance and parked the car (4TL payable when you leave), at about 9am. There were already several coaches in the car park but once we had entered the site (20TL entrance fee), it seemed fairly quiet. We took our time exploring (and taking more photos) and paddled in the hot water at the top, avoiding the large (colder) man-made pools down the hill (built to hide the tarmac road carved through the middle for access to the - now demolished - hotels). Only two small natural areas are now designated for tourists to enter, and are used alternately as the water is redirected in attempts by UNESCO to protect the travertines that are left (which were largely destroyed by tourism in the 80s and 90s), and restore as much as possible.

If you want to swim/bathe in the thermal waters, there is Cleopatra's pool (used to be part of one of the hotels before UNESCO intervened), located in the centre of the site, which costs 23TL per person for up to 2 hours. With Roman ruins covering the base of the pool it is certainly a wonderful experience, even though it is surrounded by sun loungers and a cafe/bar. There are changing areas and lockers available here. In the morning there were not many people swimming, and the larger tour groups that came into the area with a guide, didn't appear to have the option to swim. The ruins of the ancient Roman city of Heirapolis sits atop Pamukkale and is well worth a look. It is much more spread out than Efes and also quieter. There is a museum next to the pool which houses some of the finds from the city (3TL entrance per person).

We left Pamukkale at about 1pm and had some lunch on our way out of Denizli. The route back to Bodrum was again very simple, and the trip winding through the mountains was a contrast to the previous days' driving. If you haven't seen enough ruins after this trip, you can always take a small detour to Aphrodisias!

In summary, it is a lot of driving (we only had one driver), but it is easily done over two days, and was very enjoyable. I would recommend both sites for people of all ages, especially if you do it yourself as you can do it at your own pace, stay longer if you like or leave after only a short time if need be.

A couple more tips - both Ephesus and Pamukkale only accept cash as payment for entrances and not cards. Neither are particularly close to an ATM, so make sure you have enough cash with you. The town of Pamukkale has a Garanti, and a Ziraat Bank ATM by the main road. The Venus Hotel also does not accept cards for payment. Take plenty of water and suncream with you - even at the end of April! Also take snacks to enable you to have a later lunch than the tour groups!