Customer reviews page:70

We used private tour company during our one day stop in Turkey, from our Celebrity Ephesus Breeze cruise - https://ephesusbreeze.com. We booked it from the UK, a lovely English speaking tour guide, Selda, greeted us as we came off the ship and took us to our private mini van, complete with driver for the day. She took us to the Virgin Mary's house, the amazing archaelogical site at Ephesus, complete with the terraced houses, then to a carpet making business for a wonderful lunch and a demonstration of how turkish rugs and silk are made - very interesting, and no pressure to buy, then to the Ephesus museum. We had such an interesting and memorable day - Selda was very knowledgeable, it was a day we will never forget in Turkey, and Selda made it such fun for us. Highly recommended you use this company, for excellent quality and value tour.

My wife and I book a private tour for July 14, 2011 with About Ephesus. We arrived on a cruise ship and were met at the end of gangway by Selda holding up a sign with our name on it. She took us to our waiting vehicle. The vehicle was a private van with our own driver and Selda our tour guide. Instead of the tourist type tour we requested a tour of areas that would give a flavor of local life. It was a great tour. Both my wife and I felt we got a feel for the country. We visited local markets, Virgin Mary's homestead drove through the countryside and villages. We did the tourist thing and went to the rug factory for lunch and a got a hard sell for a carpet. We did overspend on a small carpet, but it was fun. Included was a wonderful lunch under a tree. The highlight of the entire experience was Seida. A truly delightful young woman who is destined to serve as an Ambassador of Turkey. If you use this great Company for a private tour be sure to ask for Seida. The cost of the entire day including lunch was $150.00. A real bargain.

Excursion organized by Istemihan Teleri: https://ephesusbreeze.com For $ 224, a beautiful car with driver and English speaking guide Ergül Kocamaz was waiting for us at the exit of the port.We chose to pay ourselves the entrances and parking during our tour to remain free to choose our route from 7:30 to 16:00.Ergül made us discover the "house" of the Virgin Mary, then Ephesus, then the tiny remains of one of the ancient wonders of the world: the Temple of Artemis with its storks. Basilica of St. John is just a ruin. Stop to enjoy and buy some excellent but quite expensive Turkish delight, then regional meal in a nice garden to finish with explanations on the creation of silk and carpet making. Their goal is to sell carpets ... for us Swiss, we were uncomfortable to buy nothing after so much effort.With the heat, we chose to spend 2 hours at a beach, then she took us into a Migros (What a surprise that it exists in Turkey!) before going back on the boat. Thanks for this wonderful day.

I booked with About Ephesus Tours (part of Osman Tourism) for a half day shore excursion trip at Ephesus. We were greeted in the morning by Regina and the driver, who drove us around on a luxurious Mercedes van. We were also presented with some 'presents' in the morning, which included a guide booklet, pens and turkish delights! Within the 5 hours there, we pretty much covered every historical site in Ephesus such as the Ephesus ruins, Terraced houses (which is not included in cruise shore excursions), Temple of Artemis, Mary's House & St. John's Basilica! Regina was very warm and friendly, and extremely knowledgeable about the historical facts. We also visited a leather factory and a carpet weaving outlet and although we were highly pushed to buy some of the expensive items, the experience was really interesting especially seeing the silk thread being extracted from the silk worms. The trip also included a tasty 3 course traditional meal. We had a thoroughly enjoyable trip and with all the entrance fees at the historical sites, the high petrol costs in Turkey and the lunch, a charge of $80 per person seems a bargain! We highly recommend this trip and Regina Girgin, and I doubt you could find a cheaper and better alternative. Dr. Rachel ThomasUK

We had a wonderful day with this tour and this stop in Kusadasi/Ephesus was the highlight of our 10 day Mediterranean cruise. Selda was a wonderful tour guide. She was extremely pleasant and cheerful for the whole day. You get the sense that she's very proud of her area and really enjoys her job. We were very glad to take this private tour for our family of four rather than to take an excursion through the cruise - what an amazing deal! We started at the Kusadasi port at 7:30am and returned to the market to shop by 2:30pm, so it was a full day. The new Mercedes air conditioned van was a real treat and the driver was very pleasant.We started with the tour of Ephesus and included the tour through the Terrace Houses, which was definitely worth it and was a nice break from the hot sun. You can see that they are making a lot of progress in excavating the ruins and if you go back in 5 years it will be quite different.We then went to the House of the Virgin Mary which was nice to see but very busy. After that we went to the Temple of Artemis ruin which unfortunately was not very remarkable as there isn't much rebuilt except for a single column. We then went to the rug factory and enjoyed a very nice lunch prior to the tour of the factor. The demonstration of the silk spinning and tieing of rugs was very informative and interactive. We were in the market for a rug and although we hadn't done a lot of research, we felt comfortable buying a few rugs for our house - one larger and two small. They're not too high pressure so it wouldn't be an issue if you walked out without a rug. Selda took us to a few more photo ops along the way and then took us to a reputable dealer in the Kusadasi market for some pashmina scarves. It was a long day but didn't feel that way since we had the van and a casual lunch to break the heat. We highly recommend bringing an umbrella to help protect from the sun, especially in Ephesus.Good luck with you wedding and new apartment in Kusadasi, Selda!

I booked online with About Ephesus Tours as an alternative to the cruise ship sponsored excursions for a one day tour for myself and my two teenage sons. Booking was simple. We paid a small deposit via paypal, and then the balance in cash in US dollars at the end of the tour. The fee included all entrances. We were met by our guide, Regina, and a driver who took us around in a spacious white van. First stop was the Mary House, which is a busy pilgrimage site. Regina gave us all the background, which was interesting combination of historic inference and tradition. The house itself is a tiny two room structure. There was a long line to get in, but it was an in and out thing. We hit the rest rooms, and were on our way to the incredible ruins at Ephesus. Regina took us through, and narrated history the entire way. She was good at pacing us to noteworthy stops between big crowds, which helped with photo ops. I had been to Ephesus once before, and knew what to expect, but on that trip missed the terrace houses, which she guided us through, and which were in my view a highlight. After seeing Ephesus, we were taken on the obligatory stop at the rug place . . . which was irksome, as it was just the three of us and there was nowhere to hide. (This must be some requirement of licensed tour guides, or I don't know why they'd do it!) Warning: be firm bordering on rude if you're not interested, and get out FAST! Politeness will buy you a rug show and a visit with the high pressure sales boss if you so much as smile at a rug. At any rate, we then had lunch, which was decent, and then went to see the lone column at the site of the Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians, Afterwards, we were returned to the cruise port in Kusadasi. The trip would have been excellent if we had been able to stop at the Ephesus Museum, which I had seen on the prior trip, and which is worth it. I hadn't asked for it when I set the trip up, but I'd have gladly swapped out the Mary House for it in retrospect. The price was quite reasonable for this trip, and we parted company happily. Regina left us with some glossy brochures for "Osman Tourism" which seems to be an umbrella organization with many different itineraries for travel in Turkey. Based on this experience, I'd check them out if I were looking to do something like that in the future.

My family and I went on a cruise and had a one day stop in Turkey. After doing a lot of research and reading reviews, I decided to book a full day tour with About Ephesus and the entire day went beyond my expectations. In fact, it was probably my favorite excursion of the entire cruise. Our tour guide, Muge Yesildag was absolutely wonderful. She was so informative and friendly, and paced the tour exactly to our needs. We stopped at the House of Virgin Mary and Ephesus. Ephesus was an amazing site to visit and it was great to get some context and understand what we were actually looking at. We also stopped by a local carpet making store, which was really interesting to see. The tour was very reasonably priced, especially compared to any excursion that I might have booked through the cruise line. I would highly recommend getting a tour of Ephesus, and particularly Muge as our tour guide.

Wishing to avoid the high costs charged by a cruise line for a visit to the ancient sites of Ephesus and having read previous Trip Advisor reviews, we e-mailed Osman Tourism to arrange a private tour. The response was instant and informative. They were happy to organise the programme that we wanted, met us exactly as promised on arrival and the guide that they provided us with (Burak Deger) was excellent, amusing, well informed with fluent English. He made our visit to Ephesus everthing that we had hoped for. Our recommendation - book through Osman and ask for Burak!

We had a great experience on About Tours. It was better, and less expensive, than traveling with a large group of people on a tour bus all day. Our guide, Elcin Yilmaz, was great. We felt safe and comfortable. The only thing I would change were the stops at the "tourist trap" pottery shop, rug factories and jewelry stores. Although the demonstrations are interesting and they sell the stops as a "cultural experience," I would rather spend the time seeing sites than feeling pressure to purchase one of their handicrafts. I would tell the tour guide from the start that you do not want to stop at any of these places!

We were on a cruise that stopped at the Kusadasi port in Turkey and decided to book a private tour of Ephesus with About Ephesus (https://ephesusbreeze.com) instead of booking with the cruise ship. We read all of the great reviews for this company so we felt confident in our choice and we were not disappointed. There were 7 of us in our group and the full day tour cost 420 USD (60 USD per person), which included all entrance fees as well as lunch. This was a lot cheaper than the tour offered by the cruise ship, and it was much nicer to have a private tour for just our group rather than being on a huge bus.Ali was our tour guide and he was waiting for us at the Kusadasi Port with a sign with our name on it when we got off the ship. The minibus for the tour was very nice and air conditioned, a must as it was extremely hot in Turkey. Everything went very smoothly and we got to see everything as well as have a very nice authentic Turkish lunch. Ali provided a lot of historical information while we were touring Ephesus and the Terrace houses, the Virgin Mary's house and lots more, but he did have a strong accent that you had to listen very carefully to understand what he was saying. When we asked Ali where we could get some olive oil, he made a special stop at a store for us to purchase olive oil as well as some authentic Turkish Delights. We had a full day and they got us back to the port in plenty of time to get back on our cruise ship.We only had to pay a $20 USD deposit (using PayPal) when booking the tour. The rest of the cost was paid (with credit card or cash) after we completed the tour.I highly recommend this tour company!