In normal times, there are regular group tours departing from Pamukkale to Aphrodisias. Though I asked at several different tour agencies, they all told me there were no tours due to the pandemic. (This didn’t stop every other person from offering me paragliding tours, however!)
I spoke with a couple of private drivers as well, and the quotes ranged from 350-500 TL for the return trip.
I ultimately decide to get there myself using public transport. While I succeeded, it was a long and difficult journey.
Despite a direct car trip only taking around 90 minutes, the bus journey between Denizli and Aphrodisias requires multiple transfers. You will, at least, save a lot of money. All of my bus trips throughout the day added up to 78 TL – a fraction of what a private driver or tour costs.
Here’s what to do:
If you’re staying in the village of Pamukkale, you will first need to take one of the regular minibuses to the Denizli bus terminal.
In the lower level of the terminal, look for a bus to the town of Nazilli, about 80 kilometers to the west.
(Looking at the map, it seems a lot quicker to first head southeast to Tavas. And this is what you should do if you’re renting a car. But my hotel manager recommended starting with Nazilli, as many more buses head to and from there.)
In my case, the journey from Denizli to Nazilli took nearly two hours. The driver stopped frequently, and he veered down many village side streets to pick up passengers.
Arriving at the Nazilli bus terminal, you then need to find a bus taking you southeast. This is a fairly large terminal, and many of the destinations are written on signs above each bus. But while I’d read that one should find a bus bound for Tavas (past Aphrodisias), no such buses seem to exist anymore.
If you can’t find a Tavas-bound bus, you’ll need to find a bus headed for Karacasu. While Karacasu is in the direction of Aphrodisias, it’s located about 13 kilometers before it.
At Karacasu, you will then need to transfer to yet another minibus taking you further southeast.
The driver drove me right up to Aphrodisias, and I arrived there around 12:20. This was after leaving my hotel at 8:20 that morning!
Unfortunately, the return trip isn’t much easier. There is a bus timetable posted at Aphrodisias, and also at a bus stand along the highway. But during my visit, the timetables were wrong, as no buses appeared at all.
Knowing I could take a bus toward Tavas in the opposite direction, I even stood in the middle of the highway and looked both ways. But no bus appeared at all for over an hour.
Eventually, a friendly driver stopped and gave me a ride to the Karacasu bus terminal. And once there, I only had to wait about 10 minutes for the Nazilli-bound bus to depart.
The return trip was then fairly straightforward, but the ride took ages due to rush hour traffic. I finally made it back to Pamukkale around 7:30 PM. In total, it was an 11-hour journey for just a few hours at the ruins.
But as Aphrodisias is one of the best sites in Turkey, it was, of course, worth it.
Looking back, I don’t think there was much I could’ve done differently coming from Denizli.
One thing I could’ve done, though, was booking a night at a hotel in Nazilli by the bus terminal. That way, I would’ve had an easy return trip from the ruins and then a shorter onward journey to Selçuk the following day.