Excursão a Éfeso de Izmir

We really enjoyed our day trip to Ephesus. Everything ran very smoothly. We were picked up right on time and made to feel welcome. The two guides worked very well together with one taking the non English speaking group and the other taking us English speaking. Both were quite small groups so that also made it nicer. Our guide didn't talk too much which a lot of guides unfortunately do and even though he had done this same tour almost 300 times we didn't feel like it was done by rote. The ruins of Ephesus were just incredible. We hadn't expected the area to be so big and it really felt like you were walking through an ancient city!

The tour was great and everything went smoothly. Vehicle (van) is nice and has good air conditioning. Alperen was an amazing guide, very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, doing a good job at keeping the group engaged while allowing time for pictures and walking around. The food is not the best, standard cheap buffet. Considering that turkey has such amazing food it was pretty disappointing, The people were very nice, though.

Our family has been on a lot of tours, but this was one of the best! Why? The main reason is that our guide, Alperen, was simply excellent. Fluent in English (I would have guessed he studied abroad), extremely knowledgeable, and a very skilled storyteller. While other guides come across as boring or pretentious, Alpi was interesting and captivating. He was also flexible and accommodating when certain guests wanted to see landmarks not included in the tour (eg. St Peter's Cathedral), he would arrange to drop them off while the rest of us went to lunch. The pacing throughout the entire day was perfect... neither too fast nor too slow. Included in the tour was a pretty good lunch buffet, a visit to a pottery store, and a visit to a Turkish delight store. Pretty standard stops for an all-day tour. Usually I would be impatient at being "marketed at", but they had delicious samples at the Turkish delight store, so all was good! ;) The tour in total took about 9 hours... pick up at 8am, drop off around 5:30. We paid around $115 per person, which was great value for what you get. (We paid even more for a 2.5 hour tour to Topkapi palace in Istanbul, which was not even half as good.) Overall, we would highly recommend this tour, and make sure you get Alpheren as your guide!

Alpie and the driver were great! Alpie was very nice and informative, the price is really worth the experience as they pick you up and drop you off plus admission is included with lunch. Would definitely recommend super worth it! Got picked up at 7:30am and dropped off 4:00pm. Good crowd size and great van with good AC :)

Ephesus and our guide Alpi were incredible! I really appreciate how knowledgeable he was about his country’s history and Ephesus in particular. We were at Ephesus for over 2 and a half hours , and at the Virgin Mary House for one, as advertised. Lunch was great, the driver was great -EVERYTHING was great!! Thank you Alpi for making this excursion the highlight of my trip!

Although the weather is very hot, people are also a lot, but the guide took us to the whole course, introducing some important history and architecture, is a very nice experience

Passionate and super friendly tour guide.

We had a great experience on this Ephesus tour from Izmir. One thing we really appreciated was that pickup was arranged from the area where we were staying, even though we weren’t at one of the larger downtown hotels. Our street was too narrow for the bus to access directly, but this was sorted out the day before with Erman, who communicated clearly and provided a nearby meeting point. We booked at the last minute, so the proactive communication was especially appreciated. The group was small - only about 10 people - which made the experience much more enjoyable than being on a packed bus. Erman was an excellent guide: knowledgeable, organized, and flexible. The group was given the option to visit the House of the Virgin Mary, and about half of us chose to go. The schedule accommodated this well without feeling rushed. One thing to note is that admission to the House of the Virgin Mary was not included in the tour price and cost €20 per person, payable in cash. We covered all the major highlights of Ephesus, the Temple of Artemis, and the surrounding area. While we didn’t get to walk through the Basilica of St. John, we did drive past it and were able to see it from the Temple of Artemis site. As an unexpected bonus, we also got to see the famous “Garfield of Ephesus” lounging among the ruins - a local cat celebrity that apparently has quite the Instagram following. Overall, this was a well-organized tour with great communication, a comfortable group size, and an excellent guide. I’d happily recommend it to anyone visiting Izmir and wanting to see Ephesus.

The tour started with a ceramics shop tour that was pretty off-putting-- it was more an excuse to bring tourists into a store than to actually look at the pottery. However! Ephesus was wonderful. Our guide Alpi was incredibly knowledgable, made sure we could stand in the shade, could answer all of our questions, and catered information for each guest based on their interest (e.g. biblical history, archaeology, etc.). The lunch was mediocre but after walking in the sun all morning you'll eat just about anything. The trip to the Temple of Artemis was just long enough to appreciate it without being bored. The last shop you go to was, again, not a pleasant experience, but I'll put up with the salesmen for the ease of getting picked up at my hotel.

It was a great tour. The guide was excellent, kind and very informative. Perfect tour to visit Ephesus in one day.