Semi-Private Tour to Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Laodicea with Lunch

Avoid! I'm writing this stranded in the airport because of these people! I bought tickets long in advance, set up the pickup location (Denizli airport, recommended by Viator), got up in Istanbul at 3 am for the flight, arrived at the meeting point outside Denizli airport on time... and they didn't show up. They claimed that I bought the wrong package, although the package I bought explicitly told me to be at the airport (Denizli) at 930. It seems that they expected me to be in an entirely different location from what was on my ticket (photo enclosed). They didn't tell me they weren't coming until 9:45, when they issued a refund! I'm currently stranded in the airport - all counters are closed, there are no Ubers or public transportation, and the local police had to help me find a taxi (that will take an hour to get here)! I'm writing this very review under the baking sun outside the exit of the airport - adding a picture for posterity. To add insult to injury, when I contacted them on WhatsApp, they made fun of me with responses like "haha." Because they didn't cancel until after the start time, none of the other tour companies were available to help. This has been an absolute nightmare scenario that nobody should have to go through. I've been on hundreds of trips and tours in my life, and this has easily been the worst - avoid these folks like the plague.

Laodicea, Hieropolis and Pamukkale. We enjoyed all three, but didn't really have enough time. One needs a full day to do them properly. Laodicea was fascinating - the remains of a huge agora, chariot wheel marks in the stone, the cockerals, and we also enjoyed walking on the glass which covers the remains of the ruins below. Hieropolis is where it is believed that the apostle Philip was martyred. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go right up the hill to the view the monument. The theatre was impressive. The Pamukkale antique bath (thermal) was quite full (it was the weekend), but we enjoyed it. Rather hot though!

Overall had a great trip. The tour was well managed from start to finish, with pickup at our hotel in Istanbul by private van, a good flight out to Denizli, and then easy pickup at the airport for our day of touring. The tour guide (Enver) was knowledgable and knew the area very well (he was local to the city). His English was great and he was able to answer our many questions. The lunch midway through the day was delicious and there were many places to stop and purchase snacks and drinks throughout the day (not included). Since our tour group was small (only 2 of us) we went a little more quickly through the itinerary; Enver was able to add a little shopping stop (with no pressure to buy anything), which was nice to get out of the heat and into the air conditioning. A highlight was seeing the newly excavated fountain at Laodicea and taking a dip in the Cleopatra Pool (200 turkish lira extra well spent). My one complaint was that we were booked on the last plane back out of Denizli to Istanbul and then the plane got delayed. Obviously that is out of the control of the tour coordinator, but I wish we could have been booked on a slightly earlier flight. Also it was a long walk from the plane to the driver pickup area at Istanbul airport, when we were exhausted from a long day of walking. I would have much preferred to fly into the smaller regional airport (SAW).

Historical cites in both Laodicea and Hierapolis were truly impressive. Unfortunately time to visit for both of these were too short and our tour guide had little information to share. Instead time was spent visiting Salda lake (not part of the original tour description) and two stops for stores other one an outlet style selling clothing items and the other one a local rock/jewelry shop. Buy your own tickets to the pool in Hierapolis otherwise you are paying an inflated price

The Guide and the Driver are carefully and very polite, and the agency realy understand the customer expextation. Thankful for all support.

I took this one day trip from Istanbul to Pamukkale, and I have to say it was really good but unfortunately also really rushed. The one thing that really made this worthwhile was the beauty of Pamukkale and the knowledgable and friendly tour guide, and phone access to the tour office. The flight left Istanbul at 8am which meant that I got picked up at my hotel at 5am. By the time I got was picked up from the airport and made it to Pamukkale it was a bit after 11am. However the departure flight from Pamukkale was at 5:40 and had to leave my tour early to make it back to the airport. This gave me only about 4:30 hours in Pamukkale which is just not enough time. I was also very disappointed that of the included things in the tour I was not able to visit the museum and I did not get to have lunch because of how rushed everything was. Having said that the beauty of Pamukkale's white water pools, the cristal clear water of the antique pools and the historic ruins was really worthwhile. This tour would really benefit from having a later departure time from Pamukkale. If you do not mind having to be rushed and possibly missing out on lunch and museum, then it is worth it. Would i do it over again? Yes 👍

It was a great tour! However, a day trip is very short. Rather than allocating time for the ruins and the pools/terrace that I bought the tour for we had two stops at what I call “tourist traps.” They happen on lots of tours, but they’re places simply to shop because the tours get a commission of what you buy. One was simply an outlet store. Another was under the guise of learning about locals, but once again- just for shopping. We wasted between an hour and two at these places. This made other things quite rushed. Specifically we only had 10 minutes at the famous Pamukkale terrace, one of the main hilights of the tour. I understood the day would be rushed, but so much time could be saved if they did not try to make a further profit off of us when we had already paid a lot for the tour. The transfers from hotel to airport, trip, and then back were seamless.