Izmir Shore Excursion: Day Trip to Ephesus and House of Virgin Mary

A wonderful tour of Ephesus and St Mary's house. Elif is an excellent tour guide who has in-depth knowledge of the history, culture and social life of Ephesus. Also my wife had an ankle ligament issue - hence Elif was very patient and took extra time not to rush the tour. We felt very comfortable and endeared by her honesty, integrity and friendliness. Thank you.

I could not recommend this tour enough! We have an amazing day from start to finish. Our tour guide Zafer was phenomenal and really made sure our day was full of history and Turkish experiences. We got picked up from our hotel and ended up having a private tour just ourselves and Zafer. if you are looking for a tour which is great value for money and filled with amazing experiences including visiting Ephesus, Virgin Mary’s house, learning about the production of local Turkish carpets, authentic Turkish lunch and much more you should book this now. I will definitely use this company again and contact Zafer Bozoglu at +30 542 2676081 for any other future tours!

<p>The Tour guide spoke good English , was at the port on time and very professional . Would highly recommend it . The only thing is the a/c on the bus was not working well .</p>

<p>This excursion was amazing. Visiting Ephesus wouldn't have been the same without our tour guide. She was able to give us so many insider bits that would have been overlooked otherwise. The lunch at the rug making school was incredible. Simply the best meal of our entire trip. The only negative would be after we watched the women work they took us into a room to sell us a rug. Showed us one for $450. My husband and I were really interested in purchasing one so one man took us to a back room showed us the one I was interested in and turned out to be $5000. Clearly out of our budget and not wanting to negotiate due to the simple fact that the rug was completely worth the money just out of our budget. So we tried to leave. The man kept trying to negotiate with us and wouldn't let us leave. Then he started getting hostile asking me why I was being so difficult etc. this put a slight damper on the whole experience, but as we were 1 of 3 other couples in the group it only happened to us so I'd assume this isn't common. Everything we saw made us want to go back. I'd definitely recommend this trip.</p>

<p>The Tour was excellent. The House of the Virgin Mary was impressive and Ephesus' ruins are really majestic. The guide was excellent in both places and very respectul of the first place, as she was not Catholic.<br/> Forcing the tourists to go to the rugs' factory is of very poor taste. Even though it is called "voluntary" you are forced to go, hear the explanation and resist the factory's employees pressure to buy a rug.</p>

<p>This tour was rushed, we had to pick up someone from the airport after being picked up at the cruise port. The House of the Virgin Mary was amazing to walk through. Bring coins to make a donation to get candles to light also bring a pen and paper to write your prayer request and place on the wall. We then headed to Ephesus which was huge with a lot of history! If you have difficulty walking this is not the tour for you! Our tour guide was very knowledgeable was very rushed and would often walk off without us! We then spent about 20 min at the burial site of John the Baptist then off to lunch at Carpet Factory. The lunch was very good, drinks not included, then spent probably an hour learning about how handmade carpets are made then taken in for the sales pitch and given free drinks then. Be prepared for the sales pitch and beautiful carpets that keep on coming. Leaving to go back to the cruise ship halfway there we dropped off our guide then dropped one of our people at the airport and continued on.</p>

<p>The itinery was as advertised and there were only 4 of us on the tour. Our guide did an excellent job of explaining the sites. She was also informative about certain customs and nuances of Turkey and spoke very good English. Our lunch was also very good at our stopping place at Turkeman carpets ; however it was quite expensive because my wife Anne purshased handmade silk carpet !! Oh well, you can't take it with you!! All said, it was a greatly satisfying experience and we would definitely recommend it to anyone...Tom/Anne Winn</p>

<p>The best excursion we have done in a long time. The guide was amazing, food was great, and all of the spots visited were worth seeing...although I don't know how we were able to do so much in just one day!!! We arrived in port and 2 people did not show so we waited an extra 20 mins for them. Our guide felt very bad that we had to leave and then later received a call from them...she made the right choice. This left us with a virtually private tour of 7 people for a much lower price then Carnival. The next port we scheduled a Carnival excursion and it was cancelled due to low interest...the "only" had 12 or 14 people according to the Carnival Excursions desk...I think I will be booking all excursions with Viator from now on.</p>

<p>The tour itself was very good, but everything else was so-so. First of all, it took some time for our tour operator to pick up us from the port. She was not late, but all other tour operators arrived much earlier to greet their guests than she did. Second, this trip supposed to include lunch. We arrived to a farm (outdoor restaurant) where we were greeted by restaurant staff. Then, they started to bring family style dishes that we had to share with the rest of our group. During first 10 minutes or so, they asked what kind of drink we want with our lunch without bring us any menu, or explaining that drinks are not part of our lunch. Most of us asked for beer and wine. We had wine that was served in a small glass, and wine was not up to our taste. At the end of our lunch they requested 5 euro per each wine glass. It was outrages. First of all, they (restaurant staff or tour guide) had to tell us beforehand that wine and beer are not part of free lunch, secondary; they had to serve wine in real wine; show us wine bottle and allow testing of wine to at least one person. We all felt that both restaurant or tour operators ripped us off and our afternoon was somewhat spoiled.</p>

<p>This was a trip of a lifetime. Our guide had a way of presenting historical, archeological and social information in a wonderful weave so that we could understand the times and places visited. She answered any questions we posed. The traditional Turkish meal served at noon between sites was excellent. We are still there in our minds.</p>