Ephesus, Kusadasi tour recommendations

[getawaygirl]

Hi there, we will be arriving in Ephesus late May. We're trying to decide on which tour to take. Not really interested in 'Mary's House" but would like to see the other ruins and the "Terrace Houses." We've been looking at Viator tours (much less expensive than RCCL) however, according to reviews, they all seem to end up at a rug factory. Are there any tours that don't end up at the rug factory? Or any recommendations for other tours? Thanks for any info.

[bellaone]

I would suggest contacting Levent Solmaz at levent.slmz@gmail.com. A wonderful and fairly priced tour guide who you can customize with. I've used him twice and have him booked already for next years cruise.

 

PS-Terrace Houses are a must 

[edinburgher]

21 hours ago, getawaygirl said:

Or any recommendations for other tours? Thanks for any info.

There have been many many recommendations for Ehpesus tours in the past, and it might be helpful for you to read at least some of the past threads for ideas and information.

 

Choose from these:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=ephesus&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=149

 

There may also be more under Kusadasi, so choose from these:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=kusadasi&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=149

 

And you could check your Roll Call in case some fellow passengers have already booked a tour and are looking for others like yourself to join the small group.

 

And are you aware that Viator is not a tour operator, but a middleman which books you on to tours run by other companies, so you won't actually know which company you will tour with.

 

 

Edited April 24 by edinburgher

[getawaygirl]

Thanks for the info!

[Milhouse]

We've used Ephesus Shuttle a few times during previous cruises that had a stop in Kusadasi/Ephesus; most recently last year and would recommend them.  Our experience has been that the groups are fairly small with transport in a minibus with lots of room.  IIRC, our most recent tour only had four couples including us.  It's obviously kind of random what kind of guide you get but all of our previous Ephesus Shuttle guides have been pretty friendly, helpful (eg photos) and laid back, not pushy.  My only complaint about our most recent guide was that he was a bit too chatty for my taste.  I find they do ask the group if you want to do any shopping (so you are kind of at the mercy of a group decision) but my experience is also that most of the people doing Ephesus Shuttle tours are pretty independent so everyone typically declines.  So we have never made a shopping/rug stop with Ephesus Shuttle.

[getawaygirl]

Thanks for the recommendation!