Ephesus VIP: Your Private Ancient World Odyssey & Discovery

The tour was incredible! The mere historic significance of the site and where Mary was prior to her death leaves you in a state of amazement. Our guide was attentive, very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor. His passion for the historical sites was exactly what you want in a guide! There would be 5 stars, however, the rug and jewelry store were so off-putting. They were pushy and made you feel you were being scammed. I'm a shopper. Never had I not wanted to buy something more. When we got home, the paperwork they gave us was not what they said. It was a fancy receipt and, papers of authenticity were missing. Also, we found that the price we paid for jewelry was so overpriced, but at the time, we were made to believe it was a deal. When asking to look for something less expensive, my attendant simply walked away in a huff. It would have been beneficial to know ahead of time that we could get something similar at a much lower price that included taxes and shipping in the area getting into the boat before we shopped.

Starting from the pick up, excursions and lunch. The guide was very knowledgeable, friendly and accommodating to our big group. We highly recommend!

This tour was fabulous. Parents and two teenaged daughters. I highly suggest the private tour because you get exactly what you want for a very reasonable price. Eleyna and our driver picked us up at the cruise port in an air conditioned vehicle. They took us right to Ephesus and she gave us a private tour of the site. She was very kind. My daughter was not feeling well and had a headache (turned out to be horrible tooth pain) and she was kind and accommodated what she could do in the heat. After this we went to a lovely included lunch with Turkish specialities. From there we could decide what else we wanted to do. We chose to skip the Mary house and went to another site. Then we chose the pottery place. Yes, I know it is a ploy to get you to buy things but it was so cool and we got the VIP treatment. We had Turkish coffee and got it all do the pottery wheel and watch the demonstration. It was a lot of fun. After that we still had time, but my daughter didn’t feel well so we declined the rug making factory and the leather factory. my family returned to the ship, and I decided to stay at the port and do some shopping. This was one of my favorite ports and the tour was perfect for us. The price we paid was so reasonable and the tour was what we wanted it to be. This was a cruise that stopped in Naples, Santorini, and Mykonos and this was my favorite port.

We were so happy to have Orkan guide us through the local sites of Kusadasi. With my 78 year old mother, we needed to customize the experience to meet her abilities. He quickly navigated us to have the optimum time to visit Mary’s house, ahead of the crowds, then told us all about the local history. We wanted to try some local Greek olive oil and he knew just the place. We were in port on a holiday and he and our driver knew the perfect way to navigate the crowds to get us back to our ship quickly. And bonus - when my husband left his expensive sunglasses in the van, he was so sad. He knew we would never get them back. He contacted Viator and the driver swung back to the port to drop them off. We are SO thankful! We will use Viator again and again. Thank you to Orkan for making our stay so educational and enjoyable!

For a small port town, Ilknur was a great guide. She did her absolute best to ensure we saw the Virgin Mary home and Ephesus. She was fun and knowledgeable.

Nedjet our guide was wonderful and very knowledgeable. He made sure we were comfortable, took his time in explaining the sites. He even took our pictures. we enjoyed Ephesus and specially the tour of the Virgin Mary’s house which was very special to us. He also took us to the temple of Artemis. Nedjet catered to our needs and he seem to really enjoy his job wonderful and very knowledgeable. He made sure we were comfortable to his time explaining the sides even took her pictures. We enjoyed emphasis and specially that through the Virgin Mary, which was special to us. He also took us to the temple of artemis which we enjoyed as well.

My friend and I flew into Izmir for a cruise we were leaving for the following day out of Kusadasi. We wanted both a transfer to Kusadasi from the Izmir airport and a tour of Ephesus. We were having a hard time finding something that combined the two that wasn’t round trip. I found an option for a customizable tour and messaged the company. They were willing to accommodate the one-way transfer with the Ephesus tour for an increase in price, which I was completely fine with. We were trying to reduce the hours in the car, not the price. Zeynep was our tour guide and she was fantastic! She met us at the airport and was helpful when we went to the wrong place for our bags. She provided instructions so we could find her and included a picture so we knew who to expect. When we got in the vehicle she checked in with us to see how we were feeling and if we needed to eat since we had been on a long flight. She used a map to describe the different areas of Turkey so we knew why the area we were in was unique and what it was known for. She referred back to this several times during the tour and it was so helpful to stay oriented as we moved around. We visited the House of the Virgin Mary and the ancient city of Ephesus. Zeynep was so knowledgeable about the city and the history. She stopped often, but not too much and provided detail that was interesting and truly enhanced our visit. She is clearly passionate about what she does and it made the tour fun as we learned. We ended the day with a trip to a restaurant called Agora Restaurant and it was delicious. Zeynep joined us and picked items out for us. The food was fantastic! Another thing that stood out was she helped us book a hammam at our hotel. It was last minute at a popular hotel spa and she helped arrange with the hotel for them to open early for us. This was unexpected and so appreciated so that we were able to experience this the next day before boarding our ship. Definitely one of the best tour guides we have. We highly recommend Zeynep!

We had an unforgettable day touring Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary with our guide, Nejdet and our driver Efe. From start to finish, Nejdet was professional, friendly, and incredibly knowledgeable. His passion for history and Turkish culture made every stop come alive. And Efe drove us safely from start to finish. The visit to the House of St. Mary was peaceful and moving, and walking through the ancient ruins of Ephesus felt like stepping back in time thanks to Nejdet’s detailed explanations. We also enjoyed a delicious local lunch and ended the day learning about the beautiful art of Turkish rug weaving, such an amazing and intricate process! If you’re visiting Ephesus, I can’t recommend Nejdet enough. He made our experience both educational and memorable. Absolutely one of the highlights of our trip!

Nejdet was very thorough, very kind and very informative. It was a nice tour. The driver was kind the bus was very comfortable

Simply excellent. More than the places we visited (which were great), Ms Zeynep (tour guide) and Mr Cahit (driver) were super helpful and kind. My dad has issues walking long distances - so they not only customised the trip, but also helped every step of the way. Big thanks to them both!