Recommend an Ephesus tour?

[slobopolis]

Can you recommend a good Ephesus tour you've taken? We want to mainly see Ephesus and the nearby Temple of Artemis. St. John Basilica is not a must see, but would be nice to see. It appears that the Celebrity ship tour (which only does Ephesus) is only 3h in length, which leaves one rushed at at Ephesus itself. Is there perhaps a tour that is a little longer in Ephesus and would take us for a short tour of St. John? Our ship will be docked from 9:30-6.

 

If you could let me know the cost. I've seen private tours going for about $120 per person, which makes the $50pp ship tour a bit more appealing.

[tjcox9]

http://www.*****.tr/sammystravel/tour_show.asp?id=285

 

We used them for a half day tour. They also have a full day or would probably we willing to customize if asked. Prices very reasonable, excellent guide, prompt email responses.

 

You might want to check with them if this is not one you've already priced. The price goes down per person dependent on the number of participants. With only two of us booked, the price was still less than the comparable HAL tour. We added two more once on board which made it very attractive at the price.

[TheMiz]

Can you recommend a good Ephesus tour you've taken? We want to mainly see Ephesus and the nearby Temple of Artemis. St. John Basilica is not a must see, but would be nice to see. It appears that the Celebrity ship tour (which only does Ephesus) is only 3h in length, which leaves one rushed at at Ephesus itself. Is there perhaps a tour that is a little longer in Ephesus and would take us for a short tour of St. John? Our ship will be docked from 9:30-6.

 

If you could let me know the cost. I've seen private tours going for about $120 per person, which makes the $50pp ship tour a bit more appealing.

 

That seems very high.

We are doing it with http://www.leventsolmaz.com

and it is $55 per person.

[martyap]

We are using Ekol in October. Full day tour, all inclusive (w/o lunch) is $54 per person. We are 8 but I think we could still add a couple and reduce the cost further. That included a driver + a separate guide.

 

Marty

[FRE23]

Could you please post the contact info for Ekol. Thank You. Also, thank you to the others for their info on private guides. Any thoughts how to do Delos without a ship tour?

Sharon

[Mike073]

I would second Levent listed above. We were lucky enough to have him in both Ephesis and Istanbul.

[blossiem]

We used Ekol travel when there in May. For us, they were excellent and for 4 of us worked out cheaper than the ships trip. We dealt with Jack at

ekoltravel dot com

 

We were slightly dubious about visiting Ephesus before we went, but were very impressed. There were 5 ships in Kusadasi that day and a huge number of coaches. Having a private tour enabled us to go at our own speed and see what we wanted. Our guide was very knowledgable.

[martyap]

Ekol Tours.....contact Fevzi Turhan.......ekol@ekoltravel.com

 

or go to: http://www.ekoltravel.com

 

Marty

[bigmjh]

We used Ekol Travel in October ... OUTSTANDING! We were only in port half day. They met us promptly at the time agreed upon ... we had a minibus (for only 7 of us) ... a driver ... a WONDERFUL guide ... and a guide-in-training. We did the Ephesus/Artemis Temple (not much to see)/ and house of the Virgin Mary. On the way back we stopped at a rug weaving school and learned about the entire process of weaving rugs (interesting).

 

Fevzi Turhan was wonderful to work with. I questioned the need to have an advance deposit (1/4 of the amount) ... but they do it for their own protection. They will tie up the resources for the day and sometimes passengers change their mind and don't notify them. We got a very special price ($17 pp) because we also booked them for a tour in Istanbul. Both tours were excellent ... our guide in Kusadasi was the best! She was a cute, young Turkish girl ... getting married the following week ... who was extremely knowledgeable about all the ruins and history, etc.

 

I wouldn't hesitate to use them again anytime we're in Turkey.

[Mike073]

On the way back we stopped to look at leather jackets at a factory on the side of the road. They have the softest leather we have ever touched.

[slobopolis]

Thanks for all the company tips, folks. Do we need a VISA if we do an independent tour of Turkey using one of these companies? I believe that tours taken directly via Celebrity are covered under a blanket VISA.

[NAS-KARR]

We used EKOL in both E and I and they'll do or go wherever you want, in other words customize your tour.

 

Ciao,

[Sandy R]

We used Kagan Kosagan last year... kosagan@yahoo.com.

The website is http://www.tourguidesinturkeydotcom

Both he and his wife are tour guides in Turkey. We were extremely happy with Kagan. He was very knowledgeable about the sites we saw, didn't rush us, took us to a great restaurant for a buffet lunch, and I liked that his price was per auto/van instead of per person. Six of us booked his tour and Kagan did not try to add any other passengers.

[NH Cruiser]

If you are arriving/leaving the port the same day, you do not need a visa. It doesn't matter whether you are on a cruise excursion or a private one.

 

If your cruise starts/ends in Turkey and you stay overnight in a hotel, you require a visa.

[hotspur]

We used Sezgin Demirci at Sardunya Travel on our 2000 Renaissance cruise. He personally showed us Ephesus, Kusadasi, the museum, and several other sites. Sezgin also arranged a private tour of Istanbul for us with a colleague there. We were very pleased. Here's a link:

 

http://www.************.com/

[nosnibor]

Anybody have an opinion out there - yay or nay - on visiting Mary's House? I've heard one opinion it's not worth it, but since we are interested in St John's Temple, just wondering if Mary's House is a must. :confused:

[TheMiz]

Anybody have an opinion out there - yay or nay - on visiting Mary's House? I've heard one opinion it's not worth it, but since we are interested in St John's Temple, just wondering if Mary's House is a must. :confused:

 

IF we go we will visit Mary's House.

I say IF because the guide I hired in May for our Aug 15th sailing has done a disappearing act!

 

Where are you Levent ?

I and a couple others have emailed you for the last week!

[soudersmes]

Can you recommend a good Ephesus tour you've taken? We want to mainly see Ephesus and the nearby Temple of Artemis. St. John Basilica is not a must see, but would be nice to see. It appears that the Celebrity ship tour (which only does Ephesus) is only 3h in length, which leaves one rushed at at Ephesus itself. Is there perhaps a tour that is a little longer in Ephesus and would take us for a short tour of St. John? Our ship will be docked from 9:30-6.

 

If you could let me know the cost. I've seen private tours going for about $120 per person, which makes the $50pp ship tour a bit more appealing.

 

We just returned from a Princess cruise of Greece, Italy and Turkey.

We booked a private tour with Sisan Tours. There were 13 of us and it was $39 each. Also, Meander Tours does the same thing.

 

We had an extensive tour of Ephesus, Virgin Mary and saw St. John. We were at Ephesus for almost 2-3 hours. There is a lot to see there and there were tones of people there. 2 cruise ships were in port that day. We also went to a Mosque had lunch and toured a ceramics and leather factory. That we could have missed.

 

Meander and Sisan are on the internet and will give quotes.

 

Margaret

[TheMiz]

The computer of Levent had crashed and he cannot send and receıve emaıls tıll tuesday.

if it is an urgent matter I may forward your emails to him.

nejat

 

**********@aim.com

 

 

Guess that is good to know.

We were getting worried as it appears he has overbooked and none of us were able to contact him for the past 7 days .

 

Hope he had a back up on his pc , he may have lost all his contacts.

[reachout7000]

how do i find private tour guides for mediterrae cruise sailing next month

[TheMiz]

how do i find private tour guides for mediterrae cruise sailing next month

 

Where are you going on your Mediterranean Cruise ?

[sasue]

We returned on Sept. 17 from an Eastern Med tour aboard the Serena

( which was great!) We had a private tour with driver and guide, Raiefe,

from OTTI tours. The two of us for half day to Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis was $210.00 US. Raiefe was so informative, talked to us all the way to Ephesus about Turkey, answered any questions we had. The driver was so anxious to please. It was a great day! We highly recommend them.

Susan and Hal, San Antonio

[TheMiz]

For Turkey we had Levent Solmaz

He was great and it was our best tour on our Med Cruise last year.

He has a mini bus and we added a few more for our tour which took the cost down to something like $55 USD per person for a full days tour.

[ptricia]

Just returned from Kusadasi and hired EKOL - was not very happy with our particular guide and was told by a guide in Istanbul that the company doesn't pay well and therefore doesn't have the best guides. That being said, I suggest you ask your travel agent to line someone up and whatever you do, don't go on the ship's tours. Only groups of eight or less are allowed to tour the terraced houses and they are the most important site in all of Ephesus along with the House of Mary.

[Juliadlf]

Only groups of eight or less are allowed to tour the terraced houses and they are the most important site in all of Ephesus along with the House of Mary.

 

We used Meander Travel on our recent trip and our guide was excellent.We had no problem with a group of 10 going through the Terrace Houses. Would have had more but some opted to wait outside given the steep stone steps as you exit and come back down from the top.

House of Virgin Mary is okay but not a must see in my opinion as you walk through in about 1 minute. More of a spiritual experience.....

 

Julia