pamukkale turkey, anyone done an excursion?

[VacationLove15]

Hi all, we are planning a Med. Cruise that stops in Kusadasi, Turkey for July 2016. I haven't seen any reviews of the Pamukkale area, which is where the thermal baths are. We would really like to do this but I have read it is 2.5 hrs each way (to and from cruise ship). Has anyone done it and is it worth it? We are traveling with an 8 and 10 year old, plus my husband and myself. There is an excursion with Celebrity Reflection which is how we would do it.

[Ssislandgirl]

Hi there,

We did this trip last September as a private excursion with a taxi. It is a 2.5 hr trip one way, but it was totally worth it for us.

I wrote about it in this thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2162200

 

The cruise lines do not offer excursion there, so you will have to do it on your own

 

Hope this helps

Petra

[VacationLove15]

Hi there,

We did this trip last September as a private excursion with a taxi. It is a 2.5 hr trip one way, but it was totally worth it for us.

I wrote about it in this thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2162200

 

The cruise lines do not offer excursion there, so you will have to do it on your own

 

Hope this helps

Petra

 

Thanks! Love all the photos. It is actually an offered excursion on my upcoming cruise through Celebrity, it may be new since it had no reviews on their site.

[rockdoctor]

We did Pamukkale as part of a land tour last spring. It is magnificent and worth the bus ride. As for the kids, take iPads and they will be OK. The travertine is very slick. Take beach socks with the rubber bottoms and have a great time. If time allows, try to get to Hieropolis. It is on the side of a hill so it will take some effort. The Greek theater is quite nice. I would only take it as a Celebrity excursion, it is a long ride.

[Suzieanna]

Bring your swimming stuff... There is cleopatras pool and it is very good for the skin!

[irenemc]

We did this excursion with Celebrity two years ago and for us it was not worthy. We did it from Kusadasi port and we spent most of the time traveling to/from Pamukkale and very little time there (1 -2 hours max, I can't remember exactly). We had to choose between going to Cleopatra's pool or to the travertine terraces because there wasn't enought time to do both. We went to the terraces and they were so crowded you couldn't walk. The floor is very slippery, muddy and you are not allow to wear any kind of shoes, so people were falling all the time.

There was just around 10 people doing this excursion so Celebrity put us is a mini bus with very bad suspension. The mini bus driver was all the time honking and not stopping on the red lights. A very dangerous situation that should never happened especially in an "oficial" shore excursion. Several people complain in guest relation when we came back to the ship due to that.

All in all, for us it was a big dissapointment since we were really excited to visit Pamukkale and what we found was quite different from the internet pictures (check tripadvisor where people have posted real pictures of Pamukkale)

[sunandsnow]

We recently returned from Pumukkale. We used the same taxi driver as Ssislandgirl. We really enjoyed our day with Yucel. We paid 150E plus tip. Entrance to Pumukkale is 25tl per person. Cleopatra's pool is an extra fee. It was a very long drive but nice to see the countryside of Turkey. You spend more time in the car than at the actual site. We enjoyed Hieropolis a lot. We did not have time to swim in the pool. The "hot springs" were barely warm. It was interesting especially since we had previously been to Ephesus.

 

I would think your kids would be bored because of the long ride. Since you are going in the summer you may want to explore the National Park area near Kusadasi. Our taxi driver had info on that and it looked good but have not been there personally. Seems like that would be closer and might be enjoyable for your family. I would highly recommend Yucel Bor for your transportation needs.