Not crazy about the stop to the rug store...felt very pressured to purchase. Other than that, good tour.
Review by: PAM, December 2016
Alex was absolutely amazing! We were treated like royalty and enjoyed every minute. He was extremely knowledgeable. More than we expected! We saw Ephesus, had a fantastic lunch, toured rug making facility and still had time for shopping! It was great! Highly recommend.
Review by: HAROLD S, September 2016
Emore,our guide, was wonderful. He was very well informed and did his best to accommodate us
Review by: sbclark@ameritech.net, June 2016
Alex was a great tour guide. Even though the house of the Virgin Mary was crowded, it was beautiful to see. We especially enjoyed the Ancient City of Ephesus. The ruins are impressive and Alex told us about their advancements in engineering for such an old city. Lunch at a small Turkish restaurant was delicious and served family style. It was inexpensive but very good. Our final stop was to see how Turkish rugs are made. We enjoyed the demonstration and even purchased a Turkish rug!
Review by: BRADLEY D, October 2015
Tour guide seemed to be just doing his job, Not all that into the tour. He did answer all questions and made time to stop at a carpet making location. This was a great experience but was also an attempt to get us to buy a rather expensive hand made carpet.
Review by: JOAN S, October 2015
Absolutely fantastic! Our guide was exceptional and I would recommend this tour to my friends and I NEVER say that :- I wouldn't mind having skipped the carpet tour at the end. While very interesting, the heavy sales pitch wasn't. Again - loved the guide!
Review by: William B, September 2015
Excellent tour with knowledgeable guide to Ephesus, Basilica of St. John and Temple of the Virgin Mary and history of the region. Guide had excellent recommendations on restaurants and shops.
Review by: Vito C, September 2015
Alex was knowledgeable and had a history degree for this area. He took us to our requested places. He was very reserved.
Review by: KsSunshine, September 2015
Our tour was very good and our tour guide was very knowledgeable. This was in June, so it was very hot. While hats helped, I had an umbrella which provided more protection from the sun. The only down side was the last stop in which we were shown how Turkish rugs were made with ample pressure to purchase a rug. This was not on the published itinerary. If this happens, you have to be persistent in your refusal.
Review by: Susan S, August 2015
Our family loved the personal tour. Our guide, Alex, was well informed, very considerate and his English was flawless. We were impressed by Viator and the tours they provided. Would definitely use their services again.
Review by: Jane S, June 2015
Absolutely great tour with our guide Emri. He met us at the port as scheduled. Driver was friendly, bus was clean, AC worked great. We circumvented the crowds by taking the tour backwards from the cruise people. Emri new his stuff. Wonderful lunch at Agora. Highly recommend.
Review by: pawel h, October 2014
It was one great experience,and our guide EMRE was awesome.The driver VEYSI too.The tour was so amazing ,we felt like we were getting a special treatment.We would recommend it to everyone.
Review by: jbuhlman, October 2014
Our guide was great. I wish we would have had more time in this port. The tour was the best.
Review by: Alan A, October 2014
This tour was excellent and well worth the time and money. Our tour guide, Emre, was knowledgeable and a pleasure to be with. It was very busy the day we went and it was quite convenient that Emre was able to get all our entrance passes in the tour guide lines. He also brought us to a wonderful out doors resaurant for lunch.
Review by: Weldon S, September 2014
Our tour guide was very knowledgeable; however, the experience was completely ruined when he took us to the place where they made rugs. We were escorted into a room and asked to sit on a bench in the back. We were each given a small plate of "special freshly baked cheese rolls" that he had "arranged" for them to give us, fruit, and a "special" beverage. Then, three men rolled out countless rugs at our feet, and the hard sell began. We had not asked to see them, and we felt extremely pressured by their words and their actions to buy a very expensive rug. Our traveling companion asked if he could wait until after he got home to properly measure, then submit his order. They said he could not--that he had to buy the rug then and there. After about 45 minutes, we got up to leave, and our guide seemed a bit annoyed with us. He then took us to a shop where they sold some of their silk scarves. My friend and I were ushered upstairs to a room where they sat us down and showed us dozens of scarves, one by one. The showed us some that were labeled "100% silk", but told us that this was not true, and only the ones that they showed us were 100% silk. After about 30 minutes, I got up to leave, and they were not pleased. We feel as though we were pressured into doing something that we had not asked for, and we did not appreciate the "hard sell" tactics. We were paying for a sightseeing tour, and a portion of our time was completely wasted. It was an extremely uncomfortable experience, and we did not feel that we were in a position to argue with the tour guide. Because of this, I would not recommend this tour or this port.
Review by: Barbara Edwards E, September 2014
Our guide Emre was superb, as was the driver. Emre was very knowledgeable about not just Ephesus but the area generally. He listened to us and asked us questions and was able to answer all of our questions too. We were able to meet earlier as we were first off the ship and this meant that we got to our first stop, Mary's house, before the main crowds._br/_
This is our second experience of private tours as opposed to tours from the ship- well worth the cost._br/_
Thank you Emre for a wonderful experience.
Review by: Sylvia L, August 2014
Emre was our guide. He was a wonderful guide and I would recommend you ask for Emre if you book this tour. On time, courteous and very informative. He also gave us time to ourselves at various the various sites which was very good as sometimes you just need time to explore the site yourself a bit more without the ongoing lecture. But his knowledge of Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary was very useful. We were a family of 4 (two teenagers 16 and 13) and we booked this as a shore excursion as we were only in Kusadasi for the day. Ephesus is well worth the trip to make. The ruins are spectacular especially the library. On par with the Roman Forum and Palantine Hill. Much better (in my humble opinion) than Athen's Acropolis. We felt obliged to stop off at either a carpet making or leather factory. We chose the leather factory and was given a 'private' fashion show which was pretty entertaining (when in Turkey ....). Aside from that the rest of the trip was top notch and I would not hesitate to recommend it.
Review by: BRIAN R, July 2014
Our guide Emre was phenomenal. We had our two small children with us and he took his time and was extremely patient with them. His knowledge of the history of the area was excellent. I had been to Ephesus before on other tours, but Emre was leaps and bounds better than pervious guides.
Review by: allan s, July 2014
This private tour to Kusadasi and Ephesus was one of the highlights of our Mediterrean Cruise_br/_
our guide Emery was excellent his knowledge and explanation was both interesting and entertaining so much history! .. I thoroughly recommend Emery and Viator. There was extra time for shopping and he took us to a fashion leather factory and warehouse, to our suprise the sales manager organised a fashion show just for the two of us. it was amazing! _br/_
10 out of 10 for this private tour. ( AS and BS Sydney Australia June 2014_br/_
... AS and BS Sydney Australia June 2014
Review by: BETH F, January 2014
Wonderful tour of Ephesus and surrounding areas. Very informative and interesting.
RSS Feed