Recommend an Ephesus tour?

[Emom]

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

 

Hi Julia,

 

Which Meander tour did you take? I see several listed on their website for Ephesus. Did they stop at a leather or ceramic store (hopefully not)?

 

Would appreciate any additional information you (or anyone else) can give.

 

Thanks!

 

Emom

[normancruzer]

We were there last week while on our Splendour of the Seas cruise. I had set up a tour with EKOL a couple of months ago that included all of the Ephesus sites including Virgin Mary House and the Terrace Houses. The total cost was $75/pp which included the entrance fees.

 

We were extremely pleased with this tour. We were greeted outside the port by our narrator Allie, and our driver also named allie. The four of us set out in their air conditioned car and stayed busy for alsmost six hours. Allie carried a bag with all of his books including a bible which he read from on several occasions when it pertained to a particular site that we were visiting.

[2sightseers]

We returned from Galaxy E. Med cruise on 9/14 and used Sammy's Travel for day in Istanbul and day in Ephesus. We were very satisfied with both guides. We e-mailed mehmetatsammy'straveldotcom. He provided us with excellent itineraries for both days. The guides were very flexible and we enjoyed the tours. The official website with more info and comments is www.*****************

[Juliadlf]

Hi Julia,

 

Which Meander tour did you take? I see several listed on their website for Ephesus. Did they stop at a leather or ceramic store (hopefully not)?

 

Would appreciate any additional information you (or anyone else) can give.

 

Thanks!

 

Emom

 

Here's the information from our trip review as to which sites we saw. It was a full day tour. Not sure which tour this matches to on their website. The cost for us was $42pp/lunch & entrance tickets included. The cost is based on number of participants we had sharing the tour with us. We had 12 of us and it worked out great. Nice clean minibus. They are very easy to communicate with via email.

Whatever company you decide on, it will be a great port stop for the day.

Julia

 

Port: Kusadasi – Arranged a private tour through Meander Travel (www.meandertravel.com). I can’t begin to describe what a great tour this is and the company was just wonderful. Our guide for the day was Rika Akyuz who took us to all the sites and described for us what we definitely would not have gotten from any book we bought. We shared this tour with 5 couples from the roll call. The tour included Ephesus, Ephesus Museum, Basilica of St John, House of the Virgin Mary and the Terrace Houses. Note: Terrace houses for those with walking issues may want to skip this as the steps inside the site do have hand rails but when you exit the excavation site you have to walk down (no other way to exit) many steep stone steps where there are no hand rails. The guide had warned the group before she purchased the entrance tickets that this may be an issue and if anyone wished to wait outside for the group to return. A couple of people opted to wait and not go in. If your tour does not separate out the cost for entrance to the Terrace Houses you may wish to request they do this as it would save some money for those who decide they can’t do the stairs.

We had lunch included with our tour which was at a rug company. Don’t worry, there was no pressure to buy a carpet but you will find the demonstration on how they make carpets interesting. Food was very good and a great selection to try. Drinks other than bottled water were extra.

[2sightseers]

We returned from Galaxy E. Med cruise on 9/14 and used Sammy's Travel for day in Istanbul and day in Ephesus. We were very satisfied with both guides. We e-mailed mehmetatsammy'straveldotcom. He provided us with excellent itineraries for both days. The guides were very flexible and we enjoyed the tours. The official website with more info and comments is www.*****************

Sammy's website is wwwdotsammystraveldotcom

[kem]

We just got back and used Kagan Kosagan in Ephesus and Istanbul. Loved Hale his sil! Had Kagan for one day in Istanbul and he is fantastic as well. Our ship arrived 2 hours late to Istanbul and Deniz did a good job of making sure we didn't miss any of our scheduled stops. If you get 6 people, it makes it reasonable.