Carpet Factory on 4 Hour Ephesus Tour?

[nusail]

We're planning a half-day private tour of Ephesus and the Terrace Houses in May and I would prefer not to spend any time at a carpet factory. Most of the comments here mention the carpet visit being combined with lunch. Am I right in assuming that on a 4 hour tour without lunch such a visit would not be part of the plan?

[cruisemom42]

Why not just specify that you are not interested in the carpet factory stop? That way you have nothing to worry about.

[texancruzer]

I think the key here is you are booking a PRIVATE tour ........ which means you can tell them EXACTLY what you do/or do not want to do. You are paying them for their time but to do and see as you please.......

 

On a 4 hour tour I also would not spend any precious time at a carpet factory. That said, we did an all day tour with EK-- and had a wonderful lunch and visit to the carpet factory. It was a nice break from a)the heat and b) all the walking :) We also found it to be interesting and informative and enjoyed watching them extract the silk from the cocoons and watching the weavers do their thing....... oh, and, we almost bought a carpet (or dh almost bought a carpet :eek:)

[maryann ns]

I agree with both of the above. I knew about the carpet making demo in Ephesus and it was excellent. For Antalya I made it clear (and it took a couple emails) that we did not want another one.

 

If you have only a half day, I would avoid it.

[wantocruisemore]

We have our all day Kusadasi/Ephesus private tour set up with Kosagen tours. We have already indicated no carpet demonstration and there has been no problem.

 

While I agree it can be interesting to see the process, for me personally the time is better spent elsewhere. Been there, done that, and have no desire to waste the time. Plus, I know they do a hard sell and I just as son not spend the rest of the day listening to my mother-in-law haggle only to walk out empty handed (also been there, done that, never again to a flea market with her).

[texancruzer]

We have our all day Kusadasi/Ephesus private tour set up with Kosagen tours. We have already indicated no carpet demonstration and there has been no problem.

 

While I agree it can be interesting to see the process, for me personally the time is better spent elsewhere. Been there, done that, and have no desire to waste the time. Plus, I know they do a hard sell and I just as son not spend the rest of the day listening to my mother-in-law haggle only to walk out empty handed (also been there, done that, never again to a flea market with her).

 

Sounds like your mother-in-law ENJOYS the haggle as does my dh....... and I usually let him have one or two pleasures since it is his vacation too :)

[maryann ns]

The demo at the carpet making school had absolutely no hard sell. We saw the carpets and walked out. I did ask the price of one but that was it.

 

On the street and in the markets you will encounter aggressive salesmen.

[rsquare]

Make sure that you make your desires crystal clear, or they will gladly skip the carpet factory and take you instead to a leather workshop for a fashion show. BTW, Turkey does magnificent leather clothing, but definitely at a luxury level of quality and price which is way beyond my lifestyle.

[luvtravelbug]

On our tour, I did not specifically say that I did not want to go to a carpet demonstration. Therefore, we stopped at one on the way back to port. It is incredible to see them make the rugs and I thought there was no way I could ever afford to buy one. However, there was a design that caught my eye and they had one in a small size. There was not any pressure to buy and I haggled them down from $350 to $200 and I am comfortable with haggling at all. Never did I think I would buy one, but now I have a beautiful piece of art (and I do think they are pieces of art) that will forever remind me of my time in Turkey. I would definitely not give up sightseeing time in order to go to a factory, but you may end up with something that you will treasure for many years to come.

[Hlitner]

On our last visit to Ephesus (our third visit) we decided to hire a private guide through Ekol for the two of us. When we e-mailed Ekol to arrange for the guide we told them we wanted a guide that could give us more perspective than on most tours (remember, we had already been to those ruins on two other visits). We got a great guide (he had two college degrees including archeology) and we made the decisions on how long and where we wanted to go....even though the tour did have a spcific itinerary. For example, we spent more time in the ruins at Ephesus because we had some long discussions with our guide and went into a level of detail not found on most tours. We decided not to do any "Carpet Factory" tours but did ask our guide to take us to a good pottery shop (because DW wanted to buy some pottery). The point is that this was a private tour and we set the agenda! You need to be aware that many of the so-called factories are somewhat phony and exist only to serve tours...for which the tour company (and guide) recieves a kick-back.. in fact, in at least one case the tour company owns the factory (which they do not disclose)! If you want to buy a carpet or pottery there are plenty of legit merchants in town or in Istanbul (if that is part of your cruise).

 

Hank