Customer reviews page:32

Our party of 6 really enjoyed our day in Ephesus thanks to our excellent guide, Gonca. I can't say enough about her enthusiasm and knowledge. The day was very well planned out and we saw everything we had requested, Despite my skepticism about the the carpet cultural experience, it was very interesting and one of us did end up buying a rug that she is very pleased with. We had a very nice lunch at a local restaurant, eating Gozleme (Turkish Nomad pancakes), sitting on cushions on the ground - it was like a movie set. Definitely request Gonca - she was excellent!

We had great hopes of seeing some wonderful historical sites, but our tour with Gonca was incredibly fun and memorable! She has trained well as a guide, and her English is excellent. She may be young, but the history she knows is amazing and she shares it in a delightful way, with such excitement and enthusiasm. Gonca also was very considerate of my elderly parents who were along on the tour, helping my mother up and down steps when the occasion called for it -- genuinely kind! She adjusted our tour so that we would see the sites we were interested in, and the luncheon place she took us to was lovely and the food was abundant and fantastic! We had some trepidation about the required rug-weaving demonstration, but it fascinated us with the incredible beauty and detail in this true art-form. Afterwards, she took us to someplace she had always wanted to go, but never had the opportunity: camel wrestling!!! Amazing! Gonca's child-like excitement had us all excited, too! Even though we could enjoy it for only a little while before heading back to the ship, it was truly a not-to-be-missed experience. Gonca shared her love of her native Turkey with us, and we are truly grateful for this highlight of our vacation!

My family of three adults stopped in Ephesus during the course of a Mediterranean cruise. We had booked with About Ephesus (https://ephesusbreeze.com) based on Tripadvisor reviews, and are very glad we did! We travelled by private car with our private tour guide, Arzu, and had a truly enriching experience.Arzu was our favorite tour guide of our 5-week trip. Her English was always perfectly understandable, she was extremely knowledgeable and, very importantly, she seemed to really enjoy spending time with us. As a licensed tour guide in Turkey, Arzu had taken a full university course in tourism, including extensive history; she is a true professional.Our tour included Ephesus, the Virgin Mary's house, and a Turkish rug factory. Ephesus was an amazing site to visit; it will be forever held in our minds as the one place where we were able to really feel what it might have been like to among the ancients in this beautiful city. The details Arzu provided really brought it to life for us. If we had it to do over again, we would have skipped Mary’s house. We are not religious people, and it was not meaningful to us.The rug factory was very interesting. We had a elicious fresh lunch on the lovely garden patio and then were shown a few things about the spinning, dying, and weaving techniques. We had been planning to buy a rug and we did (2 actually!). If I had this to do over again, I would have studied more about rugs before going so I would have been better prepared to know what I was looking for. That being said, we are very pleased with our purchases.We highly recommend About Ephesus and Arzu!

In mid November (sorry its taken so long)we were a family group of 5 adults on an Oceania Cruise and booked this excursion to Ephesus a week prior to our departure from the UK through Osman Travel - About Ephesus Tours. I was immediately impressed with the speed in which my email enquiry was responded to; literary within the hour I had all the details I needed to plan our tour. A small deposit was required in advance and on the tour day upon disembarking at Kusadasi we immediately met our guide, Selda at the port. The vehicle we were provided with was extremely spacious and luxurious and just what we needed on a long day ahead of us. Our driver also was very good. We were immediately drawn to Selda's lovely warm and friendly personality as she explained how the day would progress patiently taking into account our needs and priorities along the way, but we wisely deferred to her advice as to where we should go first to avoid the crowds. Her knowledge of the area was excellent and clearly explained. She took us to the House of the Virgin Mary first, followed by Ephesus itself and the fascinating terrace houses, stopping during the day at an extremely interesting pottery business and carpet making enterprise. We purchased some lovely pottery but couldn't stretch to the carpet but having seen how much intensive work goes into making them the cost is clearly worth it. Yes, the owners were keen for you to make a purchase but remained polite and friendly when we explained this was not possible. However their delight and enthusiasm in simply wanting to share and explain how the products were made ensured that it was a pleasure to listen to them. An excellent lunch was included in the tour at a restaurant nearby with Selda who by now felt like one of our family, so relaxed we felt in her company. Ephesus itself was truly amazing and we couldn't get over its size and colourful history. Selda kept us entertained with her sharing of unusual and intriguing facts about the history of this incredible site. Certainly worth going again when further excavations have taken place. We all agreed at the end of our cruise that this was the most interesting and enjoyable day of our cruise which without doubt was due largely to our lovely guide, Selda whose knowledge, humour and enthusiasm kept us enthralled throughout the day. No hesitation in using this company again when visiting the area in the future

We are so happy that we choose About Ephesus (Osman Tourism)! Our cruise ship stopped in Izmir where we met our wonderful guide Canan Tunckanat. Our stops included Ephesus, the Terrace Houses, the Temple of Artemis, and lunch at a carpet shop. Definately pay the extra to stop and the amazingly preserved Terrace Houses. You will not regret it. Canan was a fantastic guide who was very knowledgeable about the area. It was a real delight to speak with her about the history of Ephesus. Don't even consider the cruise ship excursions. You can't beat About Ephesus' prices and the experience of having an attentive personal guide. I highly recommend About Ephesus, Osman Tourism, and Canan.

We booked our tour through Osman Tourism for our day stay during our cruise stop at Kusadasi. Our time with our personal guide, Hulya was wonderful; she was lovely in every respect. She made our visit very special and we felt privileged to have had her all to ourselves. We were treated with the utmost courtesy and her knowledge of the region in general and Ephesus in particular was appreciated by us. The fact that she works as a volunteer on the Terrace Houses project meant we had a special insight into what was going on with that excavation.and restoration. We also loved the lunch in the lovely private outdoor setting with its beautiful food and attentive but discreet service. We often talk about our time with Hulya with fondness and pleasure at the recollection. We were happy with the itinerary and felt safe with our driver and the transport.Terry & Lynda, NZ

We were on the Norwegian jade and ported in Izmir. I had contacted About Ephesus Tours myself before starting the cruise. It was easy to book and the guide was waiting at the ship for my family of 4. Our guide was named Ichya. She was lovely, funny, knowledgeable and patient. She had been an archeologist at Ephesus for 3 years, supervising the excavations, so she knew the city extremely well! She took us to the terrace houses, where she did most of her work. She showed us where they found graffiti of gladiators from the children way back when they lived in Ephesus. We also went to the House of the Virgin Mary and a wonderful Turkish lunch. We really enjoyed Ichya.

I spent a couple of hours searching for the Tour company I was going to hire for my tour in Turkey. Sent messages to more than 5 and from all the responses I liked About Ephesus better. Their price was the best for a private tour and their itinerary accommodated some changes i requested. I tried to avoid the Carpet store but in the end agreed to include in the itinerary (it would cost more in case i asked to exclude) and was happy for it. It was very interesting to know and recognize different carpets and techniques used.I was staying in Izmir at the Ibis hotel (standard service and good price) the very well maintained van picked me and my two friends up, took us to Mary's House, Ephesus.Our tour guide Mrs Selda was very knowledgeable, polite, educated in the history of the location and helpful during the whole tour. Totally worth it!

I would like to second all the positive reviews of Ephesus Tours (OSama Tourizm). Mrs. Arzu is a wonderful and helpful guide. She is so warm and friendly and took care of us and especially our kids who absolutely adored her. She made sure she dropped us right until our bus for the next journey not making us feel stranded. The driver was helpful too. Arzu has great knowledge of the places we visited and I'd recommed them any day should you visit Ephesus. The Merc was very comfortable for the long journey too. I sincerely thank them for making our holiday so very special. My heartfelt appreciation for not just the place but the people of Turkey. Natty

I cannot fully express how wonderful our experience was with this company from beginning to end. We were on a cruise that stopped at Kusadasi for one day and we wanted to use our time for a fully private tour of Ephesus for my wife and me. We did extensive research looking for an outstanding company that had both good drivers and top tour guides. We contacted several companies for information on their services and prices. We ultimately went with About Ephesus, the trade name of Osman Tourism, which had gotten great reviews on this site and turned out to have among the most reasonable prices of the many companies we contacted. We dealt by e-mail with Mr. Teleri, who was responsive and informative at every step of the process. In fact, he was the only one who was fully candid about the reasons for the stop at the "rug factory" that every private tour company pushed. He was outstanding to deal with.Based on our research on TripAdvisor, we provided Mr. Teleri a list of guides who we requested. Near the top of our list was a young woman named Filiz. Mr. Teleri came through and she was waiting for us at the pier with a driver and a Mercedes minivan that was stocked with water, maps of the area and other perks. From that moment on, we had a spectacular tour that was the highlight of our cruise. Filiz was almost the perfect tour guide. She spoke perfect English; she was charming, articulate and completely knowledgeable about the history and cultural aspects of Ephesus; and she was fully committed to giving us the best and most personalized day possible. She accommodated our request to bypass the Church of the Virgin Mary, and instead take us to the amazing Terrace Houses, the residences of the wealthy residents of ancient Ephesus. My wife and I were thrilled by the day that Filiz provided. We saw so much more, and got far more personalized attention, than the people who opted for the large cruise group tours. In fact, even the obligatory stop at the rug factory turned out okay. The brief lecture on rug-making turned out to be reasonably informative and the sales person who gave it did not do any hard sell following the free lunch that they provide, all based on the Turkish government's subsidy of these facilities. (Ironically, the lunch was pretty good!)In sum, we could not have been more pleased with this company and Filiz in particular. I strongly recommend them to anyone interested in an outstanding private tour.