Ephesus, Turkey

Can anyone recommend a good English speaking private driver for a tour in Ephesus?

If you scroll down through a few months of posts you will find quite a few different recommendations for excellent local tour companies in Kusadasi. We ourselves have had excellent experiences using EKOL (you can Google them and find out about their tour options and prices). Ekol provides you with a an airconditioned vehicle (my wife and I had a nice van for just the 2 of us) with a professional driver (who speaks some English) plus a professional English speaking guide. This is important when you go to Ephesus since the norm is to drop the tourists and guide at the upper main entrance. You then walk through the ruins and get your tour working your way downhill to the main exit which is quite a distance from the entrance. When you get to the bottom your van/driver will be waiting :).

Hank

If you scroll down through a few months of posts you will find ......

Hank

Or, to avoid trawling through reams of irrelevant threads, return to the "other Mediterranean ports" forum by scrolling to the bottom of this page & clicking on "go" at "Forum Jump".

On that page, above the list of questions & announcements, click on the brown "search this forum" & in the drop-down box type Ephesus. This will bring up all threads that mention the place, Do the same using Kusadasi.

The search facitity is spelling-sensitive, so check your spelling.

If you click the arrow at Forum Jump, it opens up all the other forums on Cruise Critic. Amongst other forums, you can navigate your way to the "Roll Call" for your particular cruise where you can introduce yourself to others on your cruise - and mebbe fix up a tour-share.

If you ever get lost on Cruise Critic, just click on your name, top right of any page. Then you casn find your posts in the various forums.

Cruise Critic is a superb site, stax of information & contacts.

Takes a bit of getting used-to - well it dioes for technophobes like me :rolleyes:, but well worth the effort.

JB :)

We had an excellent day with Kusadasi Tours. We were met at the port by a very knowledgable young woman guide and a driver in a comfortable, air-conditioned car.. She took us to Sirince village, Ephesus and a wonderful Turkish lunch after. Everything went exactly as planned and we were totally satisfied with the tour. I also liked that they didn't expect any payment in advance. We paid cash at the end of the tour. Ephesus is definately not to be missed!

We used Ephesus Tours and it was great. Their website is ephesus tours dot biz. I arranged the tour for a group of nine of us from our roll call. They can work with small groups of up to 14. They picked us up from the ship and we went to Ephesus. I would suggest seeing the Terraced Houses. It is an additional charge within Ephesus ($10 per person I think) but worth every penny. We also saw the Virgin Mary House and visited a rug co-op. It was interesting and there was not any hard sell. The tour also included lunch in a shaded open air setting with wine, Turkish meze, and more. It was the best lunch of our cruise.

Enjoy your trip!

We used Hello Ephesus. They were good. Our guide Bill did like feeding the cats at the ruins, but whatever. He took us to lunch at the carpet factory and then we did the tour. It was pretty interesting and I must say the food was terrific.

Ddi someone say cats?

We did our tour a few years ago and went with Ekol and had a great English guide named Ali.

We used Hello Ephesus. They were good. Our guide Bill did like feeding the cats at the ruins, but whatever. He took us to lunch at the carpet factory and then we did the tour. It was pretty interesting and I must say the food was terrific.

We just returned from our cruise which included Ephesus. We had a private tour with Ephesus Deluxe. We arranged the tour over the internet and did not have to pay until the tour was complete and we could pay in US dollars, euros. or Turkish lira. Our guide was a wonderful young woman named Amy who is an archeologist and has worked in the diggings at Ephesus. Two pieces that she found are in the Ephesus Archeological Museum, which was included in the tour. She is also a certified teacher of English. The web site is http://www.ephesusdeluxe.com. They offer many options for your tour.

We just returned from our cruise which included Ephesus. We had a private tour with Ephesus Deluxe. We arranged the tour over the internet and did not have to pay until the tour was complete and we could pay in US dollars, euros. or Turkish lira. Our guide was a wonderful young woman named Amy who is an archeologist and has worked in the diggings at Ephesus. Two pieces that she found are in the Ephesus Archeological Museum, which was included in the tour. She is also a certified teacher of English. The web site is www.ephesusdeluxe.com. They offer many options for your tour.

We have a private tour with Ephesus Deluxe in June. I'm glad to hear you had a good tour.

If you scroll down through a few months of posts you will find quite a few different recommendations for excellent local tour companies in Kusadasi. We ourselves have had excellent experiences using EKOL (you can Google them and find out about their tour options and prices). Ekol provides you with a an airconditioned vehicle (my wife and I had a nice van for just the 2 of us) with a professional driver (who speaks some English) plus a professional English speaking guide. This is important when you go to Ephesus since the norm is to drop the tourists and guide at the upper main entrance. You then walk through the ruins and get your tour working your way downhill to the main exit which is quite a distance from the entrance. When you get to the bottom your van/driver will be waiting :).

 

Hank

We also used EKOL tours and they were wonderful. I highly recommend the Terraced House as well. Although the places we went were full of people, it was amazing to see the sights and this was one of my favorite places to visit. We included St. John's which was probably overkill and made for a very long day. Turkey is a lovely country!

We have a private tour with Ephesus Deluxe in June. I'm glad to hear you had a good tour.

I just sent an email for a tour too. We have a group of 11. Judy when are you in Ephesus? We are there Jun 13.

I just sent an email for a tour too. We have a group of 11. Judy when are you in Ephesus? We are there Jun 13.

June 7.

We just returned from a Med cruise on Celebrity where we visited both Istanbul and Kusadasi. I worked with Deniz of EphesusDeluxe.com to put together tours in both ports for 18 people. We did the Duo - Istanbul and Ephesus tours. Deniz arranged 2 vehicles for the group in each city, each with a wonderful guide, so that we could tour in smaller groups which worked out perfectly. I was also able to make changes to the itinerary to suit the needs of the group with no problem. We were promptly met at the pier in each port and returned at the end of the day with plenty of time to spare so as not to miss the ship. No money was required up front and was paid at the end of the second day which is also a huge plus in my book. Many people commented afterwards that they thought the price we paid per person would have been worth it just for our day in Istanbul, let alone for both days!

I know several others from our Roll Call also booked with Ephesus Deluxe and I didn't hear any negative reports from anyone.

I highly recommend Deniz and Ephesus Deluxe and will use this company again should we return to Turkey some day.

Just returned from Turkey in August 2014. Our extended family group of 15 took a full day tour with Ephesus Deluxe to see Miletus, Didyma, The Ancient City of Ephesus & The Terrace Houses plus the Temple of Artemis. Had no idea there was a "government run" carpet factory scheduled too. We had a lovely time- until the carpet factory. Lunch was delicious but we were Pounced on when we entered the walls of the carpet factory. We were segregated from each other as couples and assured that we had time, although we did NOT. We missed much of Ephesus- the Basilica of St John, the large theater, the Stadium and didn't have time to enter the Celsius Library Because we were being strong armed into buying carpets at $1000 each. We had no idea and NEVER Intended on buying a carpet that day, let alone such an expensive carpet. The Carpet Salesmen were running after us as we approached the van we came in- as we tried to leave. I just kept saying- "We Don't have TIME for this." And We Didn't have time. So sad we missed part of Ephesus and had to spend valuable time fighting off the carpet salemen. The Carpet Salemen were worse than used car salesmen. So BE WARE!!!