Istanbul & kusadasi, need tour guide recommendations

[Alg63]

Arriving on cruise ship, looking for reliable, reasonably priced tour company. We are a group of 12 mostly senior. We need an operator with a minibus, someone who you used in the last 6-8 months.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

[TMLAalum]

Arriving on cruise ship, looking for reliable, reasonably priced tour company. We are a group of 12 mostly senior. We need an operator with a minibus, someone who you used in the last 6-8 months.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

 

We went with Kagan Kosagen's company-www.tourguidesinturkey.com/ with Taner as our guide. I highly recommend Taner, and per our roll call friends who booked the other Ephesus guides, Yelda & Tamer, can say they were exellent too!

 

All three of these guides were booked about 10 months prior to our port day in Kusadasi.

 

This company does have more guides available for Istanbul. Good Luck!

[Cornishpastyman1]

Kagan Kosagan took us around the Topkapi Palace and Haren in Istanbul this July. There are a few glimpses of him in this

He was excellent and I spoke to several others on our ship who toured with his wife Lale and were equally pleased. All the best, Tony

 

PS By the way, if you do meet him, his name is pronounced 'Carn'

[wantocruisemore]

Hvae not been to Istanbul yet but we used Kosagan tours and had the wonderful Yelda for our Kusadasi tour that went to Ephesus. She arranged a private tour with van for our group of 9 that was wonderful, and right to our specifications. She recommended a great place for lunch and helped us order, that everyone loved. I can highly recommend his company and I know it has guides from Istanbul and Kusadasi.

[Alg63]

Thanks all :)

[Alg63]

With regards to Kusadasi, is this a small town like Mykonos which is easy to go from port into town and wonder around?

Or would you recommend a guide/bus?

[wantocruisemore]

With regards to Kusadasi, is this a small town like Mykonos which is easy to go from port into town and wonder around?

Or would you recommend a guide/bus?

 

 

The ship docks right at the bazaar/little shopping area of town. There is also a little beach a little further down. But the real draw for Kusadasi is the ancient city of Ephesus. For that you need a tour, or rental or taxi. There are also other sites there as well. Just research a little. Also, Terry in Ohio has some breathtaking photos that were done in that area.

[fabnfortysomething]

we used Kagan Kosagen tours for Ephesus and Istanbul

 

Agree with rave reviews of Taner for Ephesus

 

however we were less impressed with our guide in Istanbul and another party who used the same company had the same issues

 

Basically many guides will take you to their friends cafes/stalls/rug making factories and expect you to spend money.There is no concept of window shopping.

 

If you have no interest in the above be very firm from the outset-i thought I had made it clear in our pre trip emails but our guide had obviously not read them which caused some frustration

[sue in florida]

My 3 friends and I just got back from a Med cruise where we booked Ekol tours for Istanbul and Kusadasi. Both tours were excellent

Our guide in Istanbul was Semih (we called him Sammy) .Very nice young man and gave a great tour.

In Ephesus we had Mithat as our guide. Again a wonderful tour.

Valentina was very prompt replying to my e-mails and answered all my questions.

We said we did not want to go to a rug factory and there was no pressure.

Sammy took us to a place in the Spice Bazaar to get fresh Turkish Delight, not prepackaged.

We would definitley recommend this company.

The four of us were seniors and managed the tours well but there is alot of walking. Wear comfortable shoes.

Sue

[Nebr.cruiser]

We used Ephesus Deluxe for both Istanbul and Ephesus-they were great and the price was very reasonable.

[leg]

We just returned from a Med Cruise and took a tour with Eko Travel and our guide Fulya Tamer. We took a full day tour and visited the amazing Ephesus and the Terrace Houses as well visited a carpet making company where were had a traditional lunch in their gardens. Although at first our group of 15 seniors did not want to do the carpet making tour we all found it an amazing demonstation starting with the silk worm spinning and were trully appreciated of how the carpets were made. Our guide was so proud of her country and we found Turkey to be one of the cleanest our ship visiteed. We enjoy the private tours rather than the ships tour as it is more personal and does not waste alot of time loading people on & off the bus. The tour was a lot less expensive than the ships and we all felt it was one of our most interesting ports.

[Kellie Poodle]

We used Ephesus Deluxe for both Istanbul and Ephesus-they were great and the price was very reasonable.

 

We just used Ephesus Deluxe for Kusadasi three weeks ago. Our cruise did not go to Istanbul. We were very pleased with our guide and driver. The driver would not even take a gratuity.

 

My DH has some mobility issues and the guide and driver made sure that they parked as close as possible. We also went at our own pace through Ephesus. If he needed a rest, we took one.

[wimborne]

Our guide was Emre. From the moment we met Emre at Kusadasi port to the time we were dropped back at the ship nothing was too much trouble for him or the driver. Emre explained the background to all the sights in sufficient detail but did not swamp us with too much detail or uninteresting information. He also gave us the background on Turkey in modern times and its current situation; this too was perfect and helpful. We had missed this on our day in Istanbul.

 

We requested a typical Turkish meal at lunchtime and he found the perfect place in the co-operative (rug) establishment. We had an overview about silk manufacture and the different way each rug is made - at our request; no selling involved. Emre also ensured that other places were visited in response to our requests.

 

Emre had a wonderful sense of humour and we had very interesting conversations about ancient and modern lives of people in Turkey which we found very educational and enabled us to not feel as tourists

 

We would have no hesitation in recommending the Ephesus Shuttle company (http://www.ephesusshuttle.com), this trip and Emre to anyone visiting Kusadasi as good value for money, interesting and worth doing for anyone who wants to get a very good overview of Ephesus ( the Temple of Hadrian, The Grand Theatre and the House of Virgin Mary were the most impressive buildings we visited) and the sites around Kusadasi.

[texancruzer]

I think people need to also be aware that the guides in Kusadasi are contracted by the various tour companies.

 

This means that they work for all of them (or at least most of them)

 

We have used Ekol twice. Our last visit (Nov. 2011) we also had Emre. We did Sirince and Ephesus w/terrace houses. We then asked for a late lunch and he took us to a wonderful restaurant with gorgeous sea views. The owner brought out a platter that was a work of art....... and yummy food.

 

As a side note: What was funny was while we were at Ephesus we ran into our guide from our first visit in 2009 and he recognized us !!!!!!