Ephesus Doable?

[Jfultz81]

We are taking an Eastern Med cruise next year and will either be leaving from Istanbul or Venice. If we leave from Istanbul, we are only in Kusadasi from 1-6 p.m. If we leave from Venice, its 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

 

Are either of these long enough to see Ephesus and Terrace Houses? Should we try a private tour or with such a small amount of time, would the ships excursion be better (I'm sure not cheaper though!)?

 

Kind of upsetting because the rest of the cruise is perfect except this port!

[lambs2]

Last I researched very few ships offer a Terrace House option with their tours to Ephesus. Perhaps some of the smaller ships, but not the big ones as they limit the amount of visitors to the Terrace Houses each day. Contact one of the private tour companies mentioned on CC and give them the time frame you will have. They will know what kind of tour is feasible.

[Hlitner]

Its very doable in a half day. As many have said here, your best bet would be to book with one of the reputable local tour companies or guides.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

Last I researched very few ships offer a Terrace House option with their tours to Ephesus. Perhaps some of the smaller ships, but not the big ones as they limit the amount of visitors to the Terrace Houses each day. Contact one of the private tour companies mentioned on CC and give them the time frame you will have. They will know what kind of tour is feasible.

 

 

Princess offers the Terrace Houses on at least one of their tours.

 

We only had a half day in Kusadasi and it was enough time to see Ephesus and the Terrace Houses with a brief stop at St. John's Basilica as well. There was no time for shopping in the bazaar though.....:eek:

[Jfultz81]

We are planning on booking through Oceania and they do offer the Terrace Houses, but when you look at their shore excursions and it says "priced based on sailing" that kind of scares me!

 

Ekol tours says a minimum of 3 1/2 hours for both, but then you still have travel time, plus getting back to the ship on time.. its very close! I thought the whole point of booking a smaller ship was more port time (esp. at their prices!!!).

[eh2zed]

Ekol will get you back in time. You will be their only passengers and they will make it work. Definitely do the Terrace Houses. Very doable and probably something else in as well.

[Jfultz81]

Thanks! I will definitely try Ekol.. their prices for even just the 2 of us are so cheap (relatively speaking), compared to what we paid for a group of 8 in Florence, Rome, and Naples!

[chipmaster]

We are taking an Eastern Med cruise next year and will either be leaving from Istanbul or Venice. If we leave from Istanbul, we are only in Kusadasi from 1-6 p.m. If we leave from Venice, its 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.

 

Are either of these long enough to see Ephesus and Terrace Houses? Should we try a private tour or with such a small amount of time, would the ships excursion be better (I'm sure not cheaper though!)?

 

Kind of upsetting because the rest of the cruise is perfect except this port!

 

 

If this is summer remember it will be incredibly hot in Ephesus. I personally would pick the 8am-2pm. We did the morning and for about an hour it was enjoayble and by 10 it was brutally hot. Like Pompeii, Ephesus has little shade and lots of walking among the barren rocks :D I can't imagine enjoying as much starting in the heat of the afternoon :eek:

 

A 1/2 day is just enough to do a decent tour and not much else. To be able to do it justice you'll have to give up on the other attractions; Mary's House and others, but this is well worth it.

 

By the way we used EKOL and the guide Ali. They offer a very reasonable priced tour, far better then the big bus/expensive Ship sponsored ones. Turkey is one of the cheaper places to tour privately compared to Italy or Greece. If you can you should ask for Ali, as he was great and efficient, we made the mistake of not doing the Terrace Houses and selecting Temple of Artemus which is nothing but a single pillar.

Enjoy

[Dem920]

We used shoretrips last Summer and they did a wonderful job: The tour was very personalized and one of our best excursions ever. We would use them again in a minute. They were right there to pick us up. They have other options, but this is the one we did.

 

https://secure.shoretrips.com/common/search4.asp?rcode=EUR&lcode=KUD&tcode=014190

 

Teresa

[rebeccalouise]

Yes- it is a half day adventure. I did the ship's tour which left at 8AM and was back on the ship by 1PM.

 

If you only are in port until 2PM- then I would do the ship tour incase you couldn't get back in time.

 

Another factor is that it does get quite hot at Ephesus and I would do a morning tour if possible.

 

The terrace houses are a must see and I booked the ship tour that included these tickets. I must say, I was a bit bored on the tour and met up with our guide at the Terrace Houses and then met her at the bus at the allocated time. I had the same experience in Pompeii and in Pompeii I would definitely just take a taxi and do your own tour of Pompeii. When you are with a group- it is alot of standing and not alot of walking. I like to keep things moving. But that's just me.

[tally10]

We did a half day to Ephesus and the Terrace Houses while cruising on the Carnival Freedom this past Oct./Nov. It was a ship's tour and it was wonderful! The Terrace Houses are not to be missed-that was the highlight for us. I like the poster's suggestion for going in the morning as it did get quite warm as the day progressed (and this was Oct./Nov.). It was also VERY crowded. We enjoyed it much more than Pompeii. Hope you decide to see it as it was the highlight of our Eastern Mediterranean cruise.:)

[nparmelee]

Jen, on the O website, if you click the link for the cruises the excursions are offered on, you can select various cruises and compare the prices of the excursions on the different cruises. On the Istanbul to Venice in October 2009 that shore excursion is $109/person and they say its 4 hours. Since you are looking at 5-6 hours in port for Kusadasi depending on which direction you go, I'd probably be tempted to go with the ship excursion in this case.

[Jfultz81]

Jen, on the O website, if you click the link for the cruises the excursions are offered on, you can select various cruises and compare the prices of the excursions on the different cruises. On the Istanbul to Venice in October 2009 that shore excursion is $109/person and they say its 4 hours. Since you are looking at 5-6 hours in port for Kusadasi depending on which direction you go, I'd probably be tempted to go with the ship excursion in this case.

 

 

Thanks! I didn't even think of that. $109 is cheaper than I thought it would be.. $50 or so is worth it to not miss the ship!!!

 

Are the O excursions done pretty well since there are fewer people overall?

[nparmelee]

Sorry, we only took one ship excursion last trip, a Bosphorous river cruise in Istanbul, we usually do private or on our own. The one we did do was pretty good. Definitely not crowded! I would think this excursion could be pretty popular on your cruise. I would talk to some of the private excursions for comparison, make sure you tell them about your time constraints. The private ones like to make a shopping stop since they get a commission, if you go private, try to push to NOT do that unless you really want to.

[CintiPam]

I agree with Hank that it is very doable in half a day. Go with the private tour, Ekol does a great job, and don't worry about missing the ship. This is not a high-traffic place and its less than 30 minutes to Ephesus from the dock. You'll have plenty of time, and don't worry about missing the Kusadasi shopping. Istanbul will have plenty.

 

BTW, we were on Oceania Nautica's Istanbul to Athens "Aegean Adventure" last September, our first-ever cruise, and it was fantastic.

[CruisinEurope]

A group from my CC Roll call used http://www.ephesusexcursions.com and LOVED them. We told them how long we were in port, what we wanted to see, and they were able to arrange a great trip for us.

 

One word of advice for the Ephesus Museum & Terrace houses - make sure your guide will be going in WITH you. To have our guide, Hazan, with us to give us the history of what we were looking at, the stories of how it was discovered, and the stories of WHY it was there like that now - were just amazing. I know that it would have been "just another old town" if Hazan wasn't with us.

 

(He's an archologist by trade, so his insight was priceless!)

 

 

Enjoy Ephesus & the Terrace houses - they are amazing!