Ephesus Tour Reviews

The guide was resourceful and knowledgeable. We also went to St. Johns tomb and Marys house. It was extremely crowded, so be ready for that. Also Bathrooms are scarce, as we found everywhere in Europe. There is a lot to see. The streets are uneven and rough, so where sturdy shoes

My husband and I along with my cousins loved our tour with Ephesus Tours. Their guide was fabulous. Even though he is not used to doing French tours he spoke French extremely well and he came prepared with notes he had taken in case he forgot something.It was so much better to have our private guide than to follow a group of more than 25 people. Our guide was always close and could answer any questions we had. We were also able to visit the Terrace Houses which is not easy to visit as a large group and still be able to hear all of the descriptions. The Terrace Houses were beautiful and a definite must see. It depicts so well how they lived during this period.

My husband, 14 year-old son and myself took a private tour guided by Filiz Capraz and my parents took a private tour guided by Selda Akygit Tutkun. My parents decided to do a half day tour (approx. 4 hours) and we did a full day tour (approx. 6 hours). We were on a Disney Magic cruise of the Mediterranean and visiting Kusadasi and Ephesus was one of the highlights of the magical trip. Filiz and Selda were both waiting for us when we stepped off the boat promptly at 8am. We traveled in a fancy van where the seats faced each other with a Turkish carpet on the floor. The seating arrangement was great for conversation. We were presented with gifts –book about Turkey, magnet, bracelet, snow globe and a fan. My father reports “Selda competence and professionalism was beyond the call of duty. We are truly grateful and highly recommend her as a guide and the firm of Osman Tourism.” My parents do not like too much sun or too much walking but Selda took great care of them and went at a pace that worked well for them. She was extremely warm and friendly and they loved her enthusiasm for her country. My parents said that she was the best tour guide they have ever had. My family’s tour guide, Filiz, was also fantastic. She had a rich knowledge and spoke just the right amount, not too much that you were overwhelmed with facts but enough to satisfy your interest and make you want to see more. We had a lovely meal at Turkish carpet school and we were presented with carpets but when we declined purchase they accepted it very gracefully. I felt no pressure. Don't skip the carpet school, the demonstration is very interesting and worth the visit. The ruins at Ephesus are amazing and it is incredible that you can be so close to them. We ended our tour at the Bazaar and had a great time shopping for gifts to bring home to friends and family. We paid by credit card which was very nice since most tours in other countries desire cash which we do not like to carry it around in great quantities.

Some friends and I recently took a cruise and booked a private day tour. We got even more than we expected. Our day in Ephesus was the highlight of a two week trip. Our guide Canan Tunckanat did an amazing job. Her knowledge and enthusiasm were contagious and she added so much to our experience. We didn't just experience Ephesus, we walked in the footsteps of Cleopatra. She made the ruins come alive for us and shared her Turkish culture and hospitality. A truly memorable day.

My dad and I took an all day private tour booked through "About Ephesus." An air conditioned van picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the sites. The tour guide Canan Tunckanat was amazing. She is extremely knowledgable and one of the best tour guides we had on our trip throughout Turkey. I would definitely recommend this tour of the Ephesus ruins and if possible, ask for Canan as the tour guide!

My husband and I have traveled all over the World and seen many ruins and were getting tired of seeing ruins, but the ruins of Ephesus are not to be missed. Our private tour and driver arranged by this group was excellent, OUr Guide Ms. Canon was excellent, fun and very knowledgable. THe driver was also excellent, This was one of our favorite ports, on our Celebrity Cruise aboard the Reflection ship and not to be missed!

We booked a day tour for late June with About Ephesus based on Trip Advisor comments and were not disappointed. Our Tour Guide was Ms. Canan and we had a separate driver. While I did not write down his name he was an excellent driver. First I must say that my husband was a little nervous about the protesting going on in Turkey at the time of our visit and I am happy to say he quickly got over his nervousness and we all really enjoyed the day. We felt safe the entire time and thoroughly enjoyed the lovely country of Turkey. We were also very glad to learn that our guide worked to ensure we made it back to the boat on time for departure in the afternoon. Matter of fact, our family of five all agreed that Turkey was the most beautiful, clean and gracious country we visited on our Cruise. Ms. Canan was very knowledgably and was able to answer all of our questions. She had very good English and an excellent send of humor. It was clear that she loved her country and wanted to share its history with us. We visited the House of Mary, Ephesus and local co-up farm that specialized in Turkish Rugs and we are still kicking ourselves that we didn’t at least purchase a small one. My husband wanted to visit a leather shop and his wish was granted where he got a very nice coat made of lambskin (very soft!). Overall our day was a wonderful experience and I recommend this tour company to anyone wishing to have a day free from large crowns and huge buses. One last thing to note: My husband is on medication that makes him cranky if he doesn’t eat and our Guide handled him beautifully when he started getting cranky. She remained calm, cool and kept a sense of humor.

We loved our tour of Ephesus while docked in Izmir with our cruise. Our guide, Gonca, was so fun and gave us a great background to help us appreciate the sites we would see. Gonca has a really fun personality and it made our time with her delightful. We especially appreciated learning about her family and culture in a personal way. It made our tour all the better.We also appreciated the clean Mercedes bus and great driver we got from About Tours. They even gave us gift bags with souvineers from Turkey! What a great company. I highly recommend them. Wished we would have used them in our tour of Istanbul as well. They are top notch!One thing to be aware of, they will take you to a carpet factory as part of your Ephesus tour. It ended up being a good experience (they fed us an excellent lunch and weren't pushy) but I never like getting trapped inside something I didn't know was coming.All in all, we would definitely use About Ephesus for tours in Turkey again. We loved our visit and can't wait to go back!

We booked our private tour online at "About Ephesus Tours" for our day in port at Izmir. Cem, our guide, was waiting for us as we left the ship and gave us a fascinating history lesson of the area on our way to The House of the Virgin Mary. Then it was to the ruins of Ephesus which words cannot describe! We had a nice lunch consisting of Turkish food and then a short rug making demonstration and soon it was time to go back to the ship. Everyone associated with Ephesus Tours was very friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. We saved a bunch of money by going private over the ship shore excursion and in chatting with other cruisers I feel that we had a far superior experience.

This was our second cruise ship visit to Kusadasi and we had had an excellent experience with aboutephesus.com in 2010 for a private Ephesus tour (Mary's House, Ancient Ephesus, Selcuk highlights briefly, and meal and polite sales pitch at a rug-making co-op -- we didn't buy, but very polite). Our expectations for this second tour with aboutephesus.com were therefore very high. Ms. Arzu Altun met AND exceeded those high expectations for our "PMD tour" of Priene, Miletus, and Didyma.We found Ms. Arzu with ease upon leaving the port terminal after arriving on the Celebrity Reflection. She presented herself in both a friendly and professional manner, characteristics of hers present the entire day. The driver and car picked us up promptly. The driver was very polite and professional, coordinating his efforts with our guide seamlessly and skillfully gliding us through traffic and down highways as smoothly as silk thread. The vehicle was clean, luxurious, and crisply cool -- especially appreciated by us through the long and hottest part of the day.Ms. Arzu was well-spoken, very understandable, articulate, and expansive in answering questions from my wife and I on both the history of the three ancient sites we visited and helping immerse us in Turkey's proud, diverse culture with her youthful exuberance. She described everything in rich, comprehensive detail without talking our ears off (she never tried to overly impress us with the volume of what she knew, rather focusing on what we would want to hear -- a fine art in her profession as a professional tourist guide); made excellent use of our time; was respectful of our pace and capabilities in the day's sunny, hot, dry weather; and was nicely cordial (read patient) in ensuring we had good photo opportunities throughout the day.Priene was a tall climb but worth it. Regal without the big crowds of Ancient Ephesus. The discreet driveway approach to Miletus with its mountainous arena in its center was jaw-dropping.The Didyma stop included our meal at a local restaurant. The choice of meal location -- within easy sight of the ancient ruins across the street -- was an excellent one by our guide. The food was fresh and delicious and impressed us as a very local representation of cuisine and social setting with good, friendly service.The Didyma temple ruins were very cool to see; unrushed, we were able to appreciate the historic and religious details we would have missed had we not been escorted by Ms. Arzu. This helped reinforce to me and my wife the real value of their personal tour service. Our trip to Kusadasi was made wonderfully memorable by Ms. Arzu. I look forward to opportunities in the future (like those we had when we first returned to the ship) to tell other travelers how great their services are... again and again. Like I'm doing now with you, my fellow TripAdvisor community neighbors.Thank you, Ms. Arzu Altun. You have a great future with good referrals like this one, I hope. Thank you, Mrs. Kizilhan, the operations manager, and Mr. Teleri, the owner, for running such a good organization: from website (much better than the rest of the field)... to a smooth, simple AND HONEST reservations process at almost the last moment (just weeks before we left for Europe)... to reassuring pre-trip communications... to delivering on the promise for good service at a reasonable cost. I was truly impressed. Thank you, Osman Tourism, too: you made it happen for my wife and I. And thank you again, aboutephesus.com!