Katakolon / Izmir Private Tour Recommend ?

[Michelle326]

In fact, we would like to travel by our own, but due to the time limit in Katakolon, so we think it's better to go by a private tour ? Any good recommendation ? Both places (Katakolon & Izmir)

 

Many thanks !

[sea-explorer]

For Katakolon we went with George and I can highly recommend him. Website here.

 

http://www.taxikatakolon.gr/content/view/5/13/lang,en/

 

He speaks very good English & will take to you Olympia, the museum and then onto the village and perhaps the winery..whatever you wish to do. He is not a guide though. Guides in Greece are few and far between but are available if that is what you want.

 

You might also find this website helpful for Olympia..you can print it off & use the map and tour whilst there.

 

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/clas/pathways/olympia/

 

I will leave others to recommend a guide for Izmir. Although we did use one and I must say I was quite happy with our day, the guide we used tends to sidetrack you to another guide if a more lucrative booking (larger group) comes along between your booking and departure, so it can be a bit hit and miss.

[Michelle326]

I just contacted George. Thanks alot for the information from your earlier post, very useful :)

[bob4444]

We just came back from Izmir and had a great tour. Tan Eggen was our guide and great. He can be contacted at tanergen@yanoo.com. The Turkey tours were much cheaper than the Greece (Katakolon) tours. Tan will talk your ear off and has lots of information.

[Belisarius]

We were on the Carnival Freedom back in June and had a wonderful time. In Katakolon, we rented a car and -- aside from stalling out the manual transmission about 25 times -- found that it worked out very well to get to Olympia. Rick Steves and the Michelin green guide took it from there.

 

In Izmir, though, I could not recommend Levent Solmaz (www.leventsolmaz.com) more highly. He was fun, funny, gracious, informed, interesting and just really good. He was the consensus "best guide" on our entire three-week tour. Levent did a wonderful job showing us around Ephesus and I only wish that I'd locked him in for Istanbul as well. If you have the chance, go with Levent. He IS the man!

[ncollins516]

In Izmir we used Ekol Travel. Our guide was Emre Ates, had a great time and would highly recommend him and Ekol travel. Here is the review I posted a week ago.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=16650890&postcount=21