Izmir travel guides & articles
All 28 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Izmir — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Walking the Marble Streets of Ephesus Downhill from Izmir
How to walk Ephesus the easy way, downhill from the Upper Gate, plus which add-on tickets earn their money and which ten minutes you can skip.
Tours & tickets
Walking Sardis from Izmir, Where Coins Were Invented
The Lydian capital 92 km east of Izmir has two gates, one shared €3 ticket and a stream that paid for the world's first coinage. Here is how to do it properly, on a coach or on your own.
Tours & tickets
Climbing Pergamon's Acropolis in a Day from Izmir
What is still standing on the hilltop terraces above Bergama, what the cable car costs, and how to build the rest of the day around them.
Tours & tickets
Early Hours at the House of the Virgin Mary near Izmir
The shrine on Bülbül Dağı opens at 08:00 and sits five minutes above the Upper Gate at Ephesus. Bring a card, because the turnstile takes nothing else.
Tours & tickets
Inside the Ephesus Terrace Houses on an Izmir day trip
Most people walk past the Terrace Houses at Ephesus, the only place on the site where you can look into rooms people lived in. They cost an extra ticket at their own gate, and the time of day you go changes what you get for it.
Three Days in Izmir Without a Car
A tested three-day route through Izmir on foot, by public ferry and on the tram, with opening hours, real prices and the bookings you have to make before you fly.
Markets, Wetlands and Village Theatre Beyond Izmir's Centre
A week of İzmir organised by what the city already runs on: market days, ferry crossings, match nights and the villages behind Urla.
İzmir's August Concert Week: 11–16 August 2026
From a tree-shaded garden in Urla to a converted gasworks and a beach club in Alaçatı, İzmir's 11–16 August run is the region's densest concert stretch of the summer — here's how to plan around it.
Salt, Rakı and the Sea: How Izmir Eats the Aegean
From sweating rakı glasses on the Kordon to a Michelin open-fire above Urla, the honest 2026 guide to eating the Aegean in İzmir — who each table is really for, and what it costs.
Izmir in Late September When the Heat Finally Breaks
A two-week window when the Aegean is still warm enough to swim, Ephesus can be walked after dark, and Izmir's evenings are comfortable again.
Walking Şirince, the Izmir hill village of lace and wine
Walk the sloping bazaar lane, the two free Greek Orthodox churches and the hillside campus where strangers teach mathematics for nothing, and you can be done before the coaches land at 10:00.
The Longest Breakfast: Inside Izmir's Serpme Kahvaltı Ritual
A working guide to Izmir's serpme kahvaltı tables in Alsancak, Bostanlı and Karşıyaka — who they suit, what to book, and what to skip.
Kadifekale and the walk down into old İzmir
A free hilltop fortress, a rock-cut Byzantine cistern, a Roman theatre coming out of the slope, and the walk down into Kemeraltı for köfte, söğüş and şambali.
Izmir's Boyoz Trail: Where the City Breakfasts First
Eleven bakeries, one Sephardic pastry, and the honest door-by-door guide to eating boyoz the way Izmir actually eats it.
Walking Basmane, Izmir's quarter below Kadifekale
An ordered walk through Izmir's station quarter: the 1866 train shed, the marble columns of Smyrna, a 24-hour bakery and a meyhane from the 1950s.
Walking Izmir's Kemeraltı bazaar from Konak to Basmane
A caravanserai of 1744, nine synagogues behind the fishmongers and a Roman agora, walked in the order they open.
The Weekend West of Izmir in Çeşme and Alaçatı
An hour's drive west of Izmir buys flat-water wind, two Michelin-listed kitchens, free coves and a 25-minute crossing to Greece. Here is how to order the days.
Çeşme, the castle town on the Izmir peninsula
A fortress from 1508, a bazaar selling mastic, the thermal shallows at Ilıca and two Michelin-listed kitchens, all within walking distance in one Aegean town.
What to do in Balçova and İnciraltı, Izmir's thermal shore
The cable car is 200 ₺, the thermal pools run at 34 to 41°C, two forests sit on the water, and the fish houses are on İnciraltı Cad. Hours and closed days are for 2026.
Tours & tickets
The Single Column That Was the Temple of Artemis Near Izmir
One re-stacked column in a wet field is all that is left of a Wonder of the Ancient World. The site takes about fifteen minutes, and the three stops around it are what make the trip worth doing.
Eski Foça, Izmir's old harbour town, walked end to end
Eski Foça has castle walls, the Değirmentepe windmills, a 580 BC rock shrine and the fish quay at Küçükdeniz, and this guide gives the hours, prices and phone numbers for each.
Göztepe and Güzelyalı, Izmir's seaward side on foot
A calm walk down İzmir's south shore, from the Göztepe ferry pier to the İnciraltı submarine. The hours, the fares and the fish-house bookings decide what order you do it in.
Alaçatı in Izmir, from the windmills to the lagoon
Windmills, Thursday artichokes, a knee-deep lagoon and the Hacımemiş bars, plus the bookings and prayer times that set the order of the trip.
Inside the castle walls at Sığacık, Izmir's fishing village
People still live inside the walled Ottoman sea-fort, the fishing quay still works, the Sunday market admits only Seferihisar producers, and ancient Teos is five kilometres down the lane.
Urla, the Izmir town of olive presses and starred tables
One Izmir district holds four Michelin-starred kitchens and the reconstructed ancient press at Klazomenai. It also has a quarantine island you can enter only by appointment.
The Lifts and Stairways That Get You Up Izmir
Two working cable cars, one well-known elevator and a free fortress at the top. Then there is the hill nobody ever mechanised, which explains the rest.
Walking Izmir's Kordon Before the City Wakes
An unhurried, hour-by-hour walk along Izmir's seafront: the wood-fired ovens at 06:30, the 07:00 ferry, and the fish auction working across the bay.
The Agora of Smyrna: Walking Izmir's Ancient Heart in a Modern City
In Izmir's Namazgah district, a 2nd-century Roman marketplace still shares its ground with the neighbourhood that grew up around it — here's how to walk it, and what else nearby earns a place on the itinerary.