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Sirince Village

7/3/2016

Sirince Village

Sirince once was a Greek Orthodox village, 7 Miles away from Ancient city of Ephesus (current Selcuk town) and 20 miles away from Kusadasi. Sirince was once called Cirkince (ugly). The name is especially chosen to disattract people to move to the village.

First foundation of the village dates back to 1st century. Early christians of Ephesus escaped to the village to be protected from prosecutors. The village stayed as a Greek Ortodox Village until the exchange agreement between Rupublic of Turkey and Greece in 1924. During this exchange Greeks living in Turkey were exchanged with Turks living in Greece. This was a forced migration both sides at the post war period of WW1. Turkish families from mainly from Kavala region moved to the area. Greek families who moved from the village founded a new town named as "Nea Efesos" (Νέα Έφεσος)

The official name change of the village was in the early years of the Republic of Turkey. Name of the village changed from Cirkince to Sirince. Until 20 years ago, the main industry of the village was agriculture. Because of its unque historical background, beauty. Since the village name was mentioned many times in novels and travel shows and documentaries, Sirince Village today is a very touristy site.

Today the main industry is tourism. A lot of village home owners, converted their homes into restaurants, hotels and shops. Sirince Village, today is known with olives and peaches grown in july and fruit wines. Fruit wines are seet wines, more like desert wine. The most popular fruit wine from Sirince is black mulberry.

Visitors can also find lots of herbal products such as levander teas, sage, bay leaves, olive oil soap bars, olive oil lotions. Today the village is a perfect synthesis of Turkish-Greek culture. Visitors may enjoy taking pictures of old Greek homes. Most of them today are being restored and turned into small hotels. There is an abandoned Greek Orthodox Church from 19th century.

In the weekends, Sirince becomes so crowded with the Turkish visitors from big cities like Izmir and Aydin. Our recommendation is to visit this village during the weekdays.

For the visitors there are many restaurants and small hotels.

Recommended ones are as follows:

Recommended Restaurants:

Unalìn yeri
Ocakbasi Ali
Dimitros

Recommended hotels to stay in Sirince:

For travelers, coming to Kusadasi and Izmir Ports with cruise ships, we recommend to visit Sirince Village.

For travelers who are overnighting in Sirince Village, we provide private Ephesus Tours and if requested private airport transfers from Izmir Airport to Sirince Village.

For more information, contact us.

Booking.com

Sirince Village

Nea Efesos village in Greece

The narrow streets of Sirince Village

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Private Ephesus Tours from Sirince Hotels

7/3/2016

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Sirince Village

For travelers who are overnighting in Sirince Village. We provide private airport transfers from Izmir Airport and private Ephesus tours.

The main highlights of the area is the ancient city of Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary, Basilica of St. John and the Mosque of Isa Bey. Sirince is located 20 minutes drive from Ephesus ancient city. Our Ephesus tour guide and luxury vehicle will meet you at your hotel in Sirince Village and you will be taken to some of the major highlights of Turkey. At the end of the day you will be dropped back to your hotel in Sirince Village.

Recommended hotels to stay in Sirince:

For more information, contact us.

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Trip to Samos from Kusadasi

7/2/2016

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This week we enkoyed 3 wonderful days at the Greek island of Samos with my wife. This was our first visit and we enjoyed tremendously. Altough it is very close, it is quite different from Kusadasi. Samos is less crowded and less touristy than Kusadasi. It is a quite town you do not see many people walking through the streets and there are no salesman trying to attract you to their shops or restaurants. Samos is a charming island that we recommend travellers who are staying in Kusadasi for an overnight trip to Samos from Kusadasi.

Ferry from Kusadasi to Samos

The ferry takes approximately 1.5 hours to go to Samos. You leave Kusadasi Cruise Port at 9am and arrive Samos at 10.30, you wait a bit at the passport control and ready to explore at 11am. The port for Samos is located in Vathi which is considered as the city center of Samos. There are several hotels you can enjoy. Many of them are not beach hotels. 1.5km distance to the port, there is Gaggou beach. There are some beach resorts there. It may be littfle difficult to walk there, if you have heavy bags. We stayed at a small hotel called Aria Boutique Hotel which was ok. The location was great, but do not have high expectations from the hotel. It was near the bus station so we are able to take the bus to several locations. The hotel costs are much less than Kusadasi.

Samos town has some shops and restaurants. It is very quite during the day. After 9pm, you would see the local people at the main square drinking iced coffee. In Turkey you would see people drinking hot tea and in Samos iced coffee. The restaurants serve almost the same dishes. For non seafood and non fish eaters the choices are not very satisfying after Turkey. There are some beaches in walking distance to the town center. The most welknown one is Gaggou beach. All the beaches are very clean. Gaggou beach there are sunbeds and umbrellas that you can rent for 3 euros.

Next day we took the public bus to Lemonakia Beach. The bus service is not frequent and the buses are full of people and most non airconditioned. (For public bus schedule please click here) We paid 1.5 Euros each for 15 minutes drive to Lemonakia beach. This is one of the best beaches, I have everr been during my travels. Very clean and quite. Once compared to Turkey more civilised. It is a pebble beach. We rented an umbrella and two comfortable sunbeds for 6 Euros. Afterwards we had walk of 10 minutes to Kokkari where we enjoyed a late lunch. With recommendations of our friends in Kusadasi, we dined at Meltemi Restaurant. A family run restaurant. Yannis and Spiros two brothers will serve you. They have also a nice beach in front of the restaurant. Kokkari has a long strip of pebble beach with restaurants and bars. Assuming that this place would be very colourful at nights and full vacationers. Kokkari is more of vacation town. If we would go to Samos for the next time we would stay in Kokkari but would go to beach at Lemonakia.

In our third and last day, we took the bus to Pythagorion. It took us 20 minutes drive with a public bus and costed 1.70 Euros per person. This the birth place of famous mathematician Phythagoras. He lived here at 6th century BC. while Thales of Miletus was living at opposite shores. There are few ruins here but after Ephesus is noncomparable. After Ephesus, this will not satisfy anyone. Several tourist stores. We puchased hand painted magnet from a local artist. By the coast there are two pebble beaches and strip of restaurants and bars. Very quite during the day. Much smaller than Vathi and Kokkari. Must be lively with tourisits at night. Turkish shores are clearly visible from here.

Overall we enjoyed Samos a lot. We recommend travellers staying in Kusadasi to go to Samos But we do not recommend a day trip at least stay an overnight. The return ferry departing at 5pm. If you are seeking for great beaches, we recommend going to Samos. The historical sites will not satisfy you after Turkey. If we go to Samos again, we would have an overnight stay in Kokkari and enjoy Lemonakia during the day and have a nice dinner at Meltemi Restaurant adn return next day.

For travellers, who would enjoy a holidays in Samos, a day trip Kusadasi is a must. Travellers may enjoy a historical tour of Temple of Artemis, Ancient City of Ephesus, House of Virgin Mary and Basilica of St. John. For private tour inquiries, you can contact us.

Here is a little picture gallery of our Samos adventure: