Kusadasi tour guide

[beauwalker]

Does anyone know a good tour guide in Kusadasi Turkey? We are interested in seeing Aphrodisias. We will be there in Oct on HAL's Black Sea Explorer.

 

I posted this on the Mediterranean boards and then saw all the Kusadasi posts here. Thought I'd cover my bases.

[Benita]

We used Ekol travel - http://www.Ekoltravel.com for our Kusadasi and Istanbul stops. Had great guides in both places, with much better prices than the ship's excursions. Best of all - private tours, for just the two of us with a driver and a tour guide in each place.

[onlyparrotlets]

Do you remember your guides names Benita?

[Fblack]

Aphrodisias is an interesting place. But it's over 100 miles from Kusadasi. I used Ekol 2 years ago and we had a nice tour that included Ephesus. We are going to Kusadasi again in October and I am looking for other places to go as well. I will contact Ekol to see what they suggest.

[Benita]

If you go on their website and click on shore excursions, then click on the area you will be docked - Kusadasi, Bodrum, Istanbul, etc. they will list the suggested excursions and prices. The guides we used in Kusadasi was named Haluk.

[beauwalker]

Thanks for the responses. Ekol has a nice website and it's wonderful that they post prices.

[beauwalker]

I didn't realize that Aphrodisias was so far from the port. We'veseen a fair bit of this region--Ephesis,Priene. Miletus, Temple of Artemis,Didyma. Such great ruins, I hate to miss any. If you get any interesting suggestions, would you considering posting them?

[yiayiamz]

I didn't realize that Aphrodisias was so far from the port. We'veseen a fair bit of this region--Ephesis,Priene. Miletus, Temple of Artemis,Didyma. Such great ruins, I hate to miss any. If you get any interesting suggestions, would you considering posting them?

 

Could you tell me about Didyma, Miletus and Priene? Any surrounding villages to visit ? . Have been to Ephesus and Sirince twice and we looking for something new. I know it's doable from Kusadasi.

[beauwalker]

Absolutely, Yia,(who doesn't love to talk about the places they've been!) Didyma is basically a shrine/temple to Apollo. The remains which are there now are from the 4th century BC(BCE) temple. The carvings and reliefs are really astonishing. It is on the sacred road from Miletus.

 

Miletus was a large harbor city in its heyday. Now the principal ruins include a large(15000 person theater and a bouleuterian(seat of the senate). There are baths, temple ruins. It has a sense of space. There is also an early 15th century mosque. The state of preservation is not nearly as good as Ephesus, but it is not a crowd favorite and you can explore it on your own.

 

Priene is beautifully situated. Much smaller than Miletus, but quiet, well-treed and lovely. There is a small , nicely preserved bouleterian and theater. It seems there was once a synogogue.

 

DH and I love scrambling around on ruins. We took a private tour of the 3 cities and scrambled freely. Our tour actually covered the 3 cities and Ephesus. It was all doable in a day,so I guess that the portion devoted to the 3 cites was only a half day. It was a great day. These sites are well worth the trip, which you could probably do in a 1/2 day.

[yiayiamz]

Thank you for such a lovely description. 1/2 day tour would be perfect for us . We have overnight Egypt and Israel after this so we would welcome something not so strenuous. I did notice that some of the tours include it with Ephesus. We have been trying to find something other than Ephesus. I will get in touch with E--- tours. We've used them in the past and we were very happy with them.

Thanks once again.