Hello Ephesus

[Ainhoa]

I'm wondering if that is perhaps a typo, since Ekol's 5-hour tour is only $100 per person; I can't figure why they'd charge nearly twice as much for an extra hour. At any rate, I'd contact them directly to see what they offer. After all, the other company doesn't seem to be answering emails -- not a great recommendation to me!

 

 

I'm not so sure it is a typo.... however, I have taken your advice and emailed Nur to check it out. I thought it was very steep.

[BOGOman]

I finally did get an email response from Hello Ephesus. It essentially confirmed the price on their website but was a little more $70 instead of $60 for Ephesus, the Terrace Houses and an add-on to the Ephesus Museum. We're weighing the idea of going to the museum given all the other walking but leaning strongly toward Hello Ephesus as our first choice. We looked at Ekol and found their prices much higher. Also looked at Meander and while their price was comparable to Hello Ephesus, they offered it only for four people or more (far higher for the two of us). We'll be there on the Prinsendam on October 20 and willing to group up if anyone here is interested. Please reply promptly as we need to finalize our plans. ~ Bill

[Ainhoa]

I'm wondering if that is perhaps a typo, since Ekol's 5-hour tour is only $100 per person; I can't figure why they'd charge nearly twice as much for an extra hour. At any rate, I'd contact them directly to see what they offer. After all, the other company doesn't seem to be answering emails -- not a great recommendation to me!

 

Nur confirms the price is per their website. If there are only two or three of you, the price is US$ 195 each for a six hour trip. That makes even the cruise company´s tour prices look like a bargain. Perhaps this is what happens when companies get so many recommendations on here and on Tripadvisor.

[cruisemom42]

Nur confirms the price is per their website. If there are only two or three of you, the price is US$ 195 each for a six hour trip. That makes even the cruise company´s tour prices look like a bargain. Perhaps this is what happens when companies get so many recommendations on here and on Tripadvisor.

 

Wow, I'm honestly surprised. I've had good experience with Ekol in the past and have booked them again for an excursion later this month. The prices we were quoted for our tour were nothing like that. I agree that it would certainly make me look at other options.

 

I don't mean to sound too questioning, it's just that my experience was so different -- are you completely sure the cost isn't $195 total rather than for each person? IME that is generally how they charge. Could just be a communication gap......?

[Ainhoa]

Wow, I'm honestly surprised. I've had good experience with Ekol in the past and have booked them again for an excursion later this month. The prices we were quoted for our tour were nothing like that. I agree that it would certainly make me look at other options.

 

I don't mean to sound too questioning, it's just that my experience was so different -- are you completely sure the cost isn't $195 total rather than for each person? IME that is generally how they charge. Could just be a communication gap......?

 

 

Well, the information on their webpage is very clear that the price is PER PERSON (and that fits as if there are 4 or 5 in the group, the price is $100 each, and they aren´t charging $25 per person). I was clear to stress in my email to her that I thought $195 was a bit expensive (LOL) for each person. The Terrace Houses would be $15 per person extra and as far as I can tell, that doesn´t include lunch unlike some of the other companies. If you want to take a three and a half hour trip just to Sirince, that will cost you $174 each (if there are only two or three of you) which is very strange as a simple three hour visit to Ephesus for two is only $72. This is so far above the cruise company price that I am surprised. Perhaps they have something agains Sirince.

[cruisemom42]

Well, the information on their webpage is very clear that the price is PER PERSON (and that fits as if there are 4 or 5 in the group, the price is $100 each, and they aren´t charging $25 per person). I was clear to stress in my email to her that I thought $195 was a bit expensive (LOL) for each person. The Terrace Houses would be $15 per person extra and as far as I can tell, that doesn´t include lunch unlike some of the other companies. If you want to take a three and a half hour trip just to Sirince, that will cost you $174 each (if there are only two or three of you) which is very strange as a simple three hour visit to Ephesus for two is only $72. This is so far above the cruise company price that I am surprised. Perhaps they have something agains Sirince.

 

You are definitely correct; I just emailed Nur and she confirmed the price is per person. Hmmm........

 

I haven't been to Sirince, is it a distance away? Perhaps that accounts for the cost. Personally I wouldn't pay any extra to go there, it sounds rather touristy to me although some love it.

[MercedMike]

I haven't been to Sirince, is it a distance away? Perhaps that accounts for the cost. Personally I wouldn't pay any extra to go there, it sounds rather touristy to me although some love it.

 

Yep, we love Srince Village.

 

The ruins at Ephesus are touristy. Mary's House is definitely touristy. Srince village is exactly the opposite. It is as close to an unspoiled mountain village as you are going to get on a tour bus or van. It is about a half hour drive from Kusadasi, maybe a bit more, winding up the hills through olive groves and vineyards. We love wandering the little streets, stopping at the little stands where an old woman is selling vegetables and trying to figure out what they are, sitting in the shade at an outdoor bar drinking pomegranate juice and watching the old men play some mysterious card game, and buying fresh bread just out of the oven to munch as we wander the winding lanes. Is that touristy?

 

Now of course there are streets with souvenir stands and jewellery stores, and lots of wine shops offering wine tastings. We loved the wine tastings too. Is that what you mean as touristy?

 

I highly recommend Srince. Our last time there we went with Ekol and had a great tour. We told our guide we already bought a carpet last time we were there, after a very interesting demonstration at the carpet place. So --- he suggested we visit a ceramic factory instead ;);) That was also very interesting and the ceramics are beautiful. We made a small purchase and enjoy using it at home.

 

Check out our trip report and pictures at http://www.bully4.us/med.html, http://www.bully4.us/holyland.html and http://www.bully4.us/blacksea2.html

 

In fact, in our travels around the world we have found that all of these "factory visits" and "shopping opportunities" are usually very interesting. In Morocco we were served mint tea as we visited a brass factory, and got from the balcony of a leather factory were able to see and smell the tanning pits. In Egypt we saw how papyrus was made and I purchased a beautiful calligraphy of the Koran, and we visited a factory where alabaster was carved. In the Caribbean we visited an aloe factory, and in Marseilles a soap factory. In Switzerland it was a cuckoo clock factory. We even visited the rum factory in Puerto Rico!!

 

The fact is that I highly recommend the factory tours almost anyplace, and especially the carpet tours in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco or anyplace else you have a chance to see it. It really is a very interesting process and the carpets are beautiful, whether you plan to buy or not.

 

HMMMMM, I seem to have covered two topics in one post... hope you can sort them out.

[cruisemom42]

Yep, we love Srince Village.

 

The ruins at Ephesus are touristy. Mary's House is definitely touristy. Srince village is exactly the opposite. It is as close to an unspoiled mountain village as you are going to get on a tour bus or van. It is about a half hour drive from Kusadasi, maybe a bit more, winding up the hills through olive groves and vineyards. We love wandering the little streets, stopping at the little stands where an old woman is selling vegetables and trying to figure out what they are, sitting in the shade at an outdoor bar drinking pomegranate juice and watching the old men play some mysterious card game, and buying fresh bread just out of the oven to munch as we wander the winding lanes. Is that touristy?

 

Now of course there are streets with souvenir stands and jewellery stores, and lots of wine shops offering wine tastings. We loved the wine tastings too. Is that what you mean as touristy?

 

I highly recommend Srince. Our last time there we went with Ekol and had a great tour. We told our guide we already bought a carpet last time we were there, after a very interesting demonstration at the carpet place. So --- he suggested we visit a ceramic factory instead ;);) That was also very interesting and the ceramics are beautiful. We made a small purchase and enjoy using it at home.

 

Check out our trip report and pictures at http://www.bully4.us/med.html, http://www.bully4.us/holyland.html and http://www.bully4.us/blacksea2.html

 

In fact, in our travels around the world we have found that all of these "factory visits" and "shopping opportunities" are usually very interesting. In Morocco we were served mint tea as we visited a brass factory, and got from the balcony of a leather factory were able to see and smell the tanning pits. In Egypt we saw how papyrus was made and I purchased a beautiful calligraphy of the Koran, and we visited a factory where alabaster was carved. In the Caribbean we visited an aloe factory, and in Marseilles a soap factory. In Switzerland it was a cuckoo clock factory. We even visited the rum factory in Puerto Rico!!

 

The fact is that I highly recommend the factory tours almost anyplace, and especially the carpet tours in Turkey, Egypt, Morocco or anyplace else you have a chance to see it. It really is a very interesting process and the carpets are beautiful, whether you plan to buy or not.

 

HMMMMM, I seem to have covered two topics in one post... hope you can sort them out.

 

 

When I say "touristy" I do not mean "full of tourists"; clearly by that definition, any site visited on a cruise would be considered touristy. :D

 

What I do mean is that -- from what I have read and from photos I have seen -- Sirince seems to be purposely kept in a state of (perhaps faux) rusticity in an attempt to give tourists the opportunity to visit an "authentic" Turkish village. Now, I have been to some authentic Turkish villages that are not on the beaten track, on my way to Cappadocia and Ankara, and I just have my doubts as to how authentic Sirince really is. (For one thing, these tiny villages did not have a lot of souvenir stands or offer wine tastings. One is lucky to be perhaps offered a chance to buy some ayran and warm fresh-baked bread, and that's about it.....)

 

Not having been there, I of course can't say definitively, but I can voice my suspicions and I'm not the only one to say so.

 

And no, I'm not a big fan of the souvenir shops and wine tastings, and rug/ceramic/cameo/leather/papyrus/perfume/anything else factories. They are for tourists, pure and simple. It's fine if you are interested and you want to shop. But when you are in many places for only a day, you have to make choices and in my case, this would almost always be at the absolute bottom of my list. ;)

[MercedMike]

When I say "touristy" I do not mean "full of tourists"; clearly by that definition, any site visited on a cruise would be considered touristy. :D

 

What I do mean is that -- from what I have read and from photos I have seen -- Sirince seems to be purposely kept in a state of (perhaps faux) rusticity in an attempt to give tourists the opportunity to visit an "authentic" Turkish village. Now, I have been to some authentic Turkish villages that are not on the beaten track, on my way to Cappadocia and Ankara, and I just have my doubts as to how authentic Sirince really is. (For one thing, these tiny villages did not have a lot of souvenir stands or offer wine tastings. One is lucky to be perhaps offered a chance to buy some ayran and warm fresh-baked bread, and that's about it.....)

 

Not having been there, I of course can't say definitively, but I can voice my suspicions and I'm not the only one to say so.

 

And no, I'm not a big fan of the souvenir shops and wine tastings, and rug/ceramic/cameo/leather/papyrus/perfume/anything else factories. They are for tourists, pure and simple. It's fine if you are interested and you want to shop. But when you are in many places for only a day, you have to make choices and in my case, this would almost always be at the absolute bottom of my list. ;)

 

LOL -- well, you see, when I pay thousands for a cruise and hundreds for a tour of a country ... a TOUR of a country ... that sort of makes me, by definition, a TOURIST, doesn't it?? And what I want to do is to go to the places that have a reputation as tourist places because TOURISTS like to go to them!!

 

Now, I live in a small town on the way to Yosemite National Park. It really would not make sense to me if tourists in the area thought that stopping in my town and visiting some of the local bars would give them the real "experience" of California without being "touristy." My advice to them would be to go on to Yosemite for the famous TOURIST attractions, and stop at El Portal, which is a tourist village, for a bit of "local color." (And incidentally even El Portal, like Srince, has flush toilets ... an amenity I enjoy anywhere in the world ...)

 

I know others like to do it other ways. What works for me might not work for you. So I put my ideas up here, and readers and lurkers can figure out whether they apply to them.

 

Then if they really want it done their way, they book a private tour. And if the guide tries to take you someplace you don't want to go, you simply say NO. If he really gets persistent you just say that it is coming out of his tip, and he will do it your way real fast. But if you go with a group, then of course you go where the group wants to go.

[cruisemom42]

LOL -- well, you see, when I pay thousands for a cruise and hundreds for a tour of a country ... a TOUR of a country ... that sort of makes me, by definition, a TOURIST, doesn't it?? And what I want to do is to go to the places that have a reputation as tourist places because TOURISTS like to go to them!!

 

Now, I live in a small town on the way to Yosemite National Park. It really would not make sense to me if tourists in the area thought that stopping in my town and visiting some of the local bars would give them the real "experience" of California without being "touristy." My advice to them would be to go on to Yosemite for the famous TOURIST attractions, and stop at El Portal, which is a tourist village, for a bit of "local color." (And incidentally even El Portal, like Srince, has flush toilets ... an amenity I enjoy anywhere in the world ...)

 

I know others like to do it other ways. What works for me might not work for you. So I put my ideas up here, and readers and lurkers can figure out whether they apply to them.

 

Then if they really want it done their way, they book a private tour. And if the guide tries to take you someplace you don't want to go, you simply say NO. If he really gets persistent you just say that it is coming out of his tip, and he will do it your way real fast. But if you go with a group, then of course you go where the group wants to go.

 

Which is why I try really hard when I travel NOT to go with a group tour! ;)

 

If one could define a tourist as someone who takes a tour, I would hope that definition wouldn't fit me, as I rarely take an organized tour. I don't want to bring up the tired old argument about the difference between a traveler and a tourist, but the term "tourist" is often used pejoritively and I don't consider myself one in that sense of the word.

 

To get back to the primary discussion at hand, one has only to read this post to see why many people are keen to avoid thinly-disguised "forced shopping" stops on private tours...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=25939843&postcount=7

 

I maintain that villages like Sirince are sort of the "Disney World" equivalent of a real Turkish village. If that suits you, great. I always found something a little creepy about the forced perfection and plasticity of Disney World myself.....

[MercedMike]

I maintain that villages like Sirince are sort of the "Disney World" equivalent of a real Turkish village. If that suits you, great. I always found something a little creepy about the forced perfection and plasticity of Disney World myself.....

 

LOL I LOVE Disney World! (and it has great flush toilets...)

 

;)

 

Have fun doing it your way.

[BOGOman]

I know there is some discussion of Hello Ephesus tour company included in connection with the Ephesus Deluxe post. I am hoping that returning travelers who have just toured with Hello Ephesus in the past few weeks will read this thread and please let us know about the quality of your tour with Hello Ephesus. We are booked with them for our upcoming cruise, and really want to know if the quality of tours with this company is still excellent, as reported in past travel seasons.

Don't know the particulars of problems within Hello Ephesus, but based on the strong recommendations that some have made of this group on these boards, we inquired. We were initially interested because of their [terse] offer to suit our needs via email, but then wondered about their credibility when they later backed off from their own offer. We then wrote for a clarification, and they stopped responding. Based on this troubling, inconclusive correspondence with Hello Ephesus, we're looking elsewhere. ~ Bill

[Ainhoa]

Don't know the particulars of problems within Hello Ephesus, but based on the strong recommendations that some have made of this group on these boards, we inquired. We were initially interested because of their [terse] offer to suit our needs via email, but then wondered about their credibility when they later backed off from their own offer. We then wrote for a clarification, and they stopped responding. Based on this troubling, inconclusive correspondence with Hello Ephesus, we're looking elsewhere. ~ Bill

 

They never even bothered to reply to me thought I made two attempts to contact them. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I mentioned we didn't want to go to a carpet/leather/ceramic factory:D

[cruisemom42]

I've had my suspicions that some of these agencies in Ephesus that have sprung up in the last couple of years are actually owned by local merchants, given their persistence in routing you to their store.

 

As Hank (Hlitner) would say, the Turks are born merchants and make it as easy as possible to part you from your money. I think they've realized it's easier to sell to American tourists with a soft sell (lunch and a "demonstration") than a hard sell in the bazaar....:rolleyes:

[Hlitner]

We feel compelled to again raise some issues regarding private tours to Ephesus. Many of you who have seen my posts over the years know that we are generally anti-tour and will go to great lengths to help folks who want to do their own thing. But Ephesus is one of our few exceptions to the rule because we love those ruins and the surrounding region (have been there 5 times). As we have also previously posted, we have visited Ephesus on a Princess cruise lines excursion, on our own by using the local van/bus plus our feet, and with a private tour when we (just two of us) hired a private guide (through EKOL). On another trip we hired a taxi for 5 hours and drove over 100 miles in the region visiting several other ruins. So, I again offer this advice. Do arrange for a private tour in advance of your visit! Make sure this tour includes a visit the Terrace Houses (generally not visited on cruise line tours). Be careful to use a reputable local tour company or a guide who has lots of references. And lastly, do not get too cheap and book with an unknown or questionable company to save a few dollars. You have spent big bucks to get to Kusadasi and spending an extra few dollars is well worth it if you get a good tour/guide. DW and I have been blessed to have traveled to more than 75 countries (nothing compared to some we have met) and happen to love seeing ruins and understanding the underlying history. We consider Epehsus to be one of the great archeological sites in the world and look forward to visiting this place at least once every 5 years to keep up with new excavations.

 

Hank

[BOGOman]

Hank ~ Thanks for the information and great advice. We're checked with a few of the tour agencies in that area, in fact some of the ones members of these boards thought most reputable, and are learning that promises and low costs are of dubious value. The most responsible companies suffer from those that indulge in bait-and-switch promotions, half-hearted operations, or other scams that tremendously disappoint tourists who long to understand and value those lands and countries. ~ Bill