I cannot recommend Ephesus Tours more highly if you are wanting an excellent day
trip from the Ports of Kusadasi or Izmer in Turkey. I booked Ephesus Tours (ET)
because our friends back home in Australia who have their own travel company
assured us that ET offers very good value for money. I had originally booked our
tour for 6 people, paid a €40 deposit when booking & paid the balance at the
end of the tour. The cost of the tour was €200 though this did not include
entrance fees and the optional Turkish lunch which was another €30 each.


I am currently on a 7 day Norwegian Eastern Mediterranean cruise with
my husband, our two two teenage daughters and their friend and this morning we
docked at the Port of Izmer for 9 hours. We were promptly met at the port by our
most delightful and friendly tour guide, Yesim Kulak. As we walked towards the
car park my husband pointed to a luxury Mercedes Benz people mover, hoping that
it was our vehicle for the day....and sure enough, it was. Our young driver
Selmet was a perfect gentleman and almost ran from the driver's seat to open our
door and help us out of the vehicle on many occasions. Ephesus is a good 50
minute drive from the Port of Izmer & we really appreciated the air
conditioned, comfortable van for our trip.

From the minute we stepped into the van, Yesim assured us that she would give us a
wonderful day that was tailor-made just for us. Her promise was realised and very much
exceeded our expectations. The drive from the port and up the mountain to the House
of the Virgin Mary was beautiful and Yesim talked to us the whole trip, giving us so
much detailed information about her country. She speaks fluent English and
informed us of many details about her culture and her own life, growing up in a
Turkish village. We were also interested to hear her talk about the Turkish
marriage customs, education, health, economy, agriculture, tourism and religion.
Yesim really shared from her heart with a smile on her face the whole time. She
clearly loves her job and had attended university in Turkey and the US to become
as proficient as possible.

We spent about 2 hours at the Ephesus site, which is huge and very impressive.
The day was hot and Yesim made sure the pace was slow and we kept as much
as possible in the shade. After leaving Ephesus, we went to Carpetarium, a
community carpet weaving centre in Selcuk sponsored by the Turkish
Government. We had a delicious Turkish lunch, followed by a demonstration of
carpet weaving by some Turkish ladies. Our daughters enjoyed trying their hand
at the loom. Afterwards, we were shown dozens of quality hand woven carpets
and though we did not expect to purchase a carpet that day, the sale was not hard
sell though there was an expectation that we would buy.

From Carpetarium, Yesim took us to Emelda, the most amazing
Turkish leather factory outlet store. She had arranged a fashion parade of the
stunning lamb skin leather jackets just for us, and our daughters and their
friend found themselves strutting the catwalk draped in leather at the end of
the show. We all had a lot of fun and are sure that the carpets and jackets
would have been more than twice the price back home in Australia.
When we arrived at the port at the end of the day, we were all sad to say goodbye to
Yesim and were so thankful for the warm and personable manner in which she
shared her country with us. Ephesus Tours offers truly outstanding value for
money.

Mr. Benjamin Esquinazi's tour review on toursbylocals:
Denizhan not only deserved 5 star, but a lot more. He was an incredible guide
and his knowledge let us know understand a lot of the Husadasi old times. The
breakfast was amazing, we really enjoy this tour and we have no doubt that this
was one of the best two tours we have in all our trip. Thank you Denizhan again.
Beny