Ephesus tour - Our tour guide was Huseyin. He was absolutely amazing, knowledgeable and entertaining. He had a lot of enthusiasm and seemed very excited to be able to show us around. The fact that he accepted a last minute request to be a tour guide shows his virtuosity and excellence. It was a perfect trip and I would highly recommend a trip with Huseyin if possible.

Tour would be better during Sept or October months - Elif, was exceptional!!! She met us right outside the cruise port!!! She walked us directly to the air-conditioned van that was waiting for us!! She was extremely knowledge & very pleasant. Her knowledge of Ephesus and Turkey are AMAZING!!! The month of July is not a great time of year to visit Ephesus because it was extremely HOT but beautiful!!! The history is mind-blowing!!

Great tour! - We love the store and learned so much. We loved the archeological sites. Thank you so much!! We will definitely come back. It was also interesting

Wonderful Experience :) - Burak was very friendly, knowledgeable and enjoyable. He provided water and loads of knowledge about the sites. I think he's the unofficial major of Ephesus.

An amazing Ephesus experience - Had an incredible time, our guide had great historical stories and insights. He made it such a comfortable experience compared to the big cruise group tours. Would highly recommend.

Excellent tour! - Really great tour of the area. Tugba was a great guide! Highly recommend if you’re visiting from a cruise and did not book one of the expensive options from the cruise directly.

Excellent - Our guide, Ozge, was excellent. She’s kind, attentive and informative. I highly recommend her. The lunch was excellent. Our driver was very skilled! Kept the cabin temperature to our liking. The lunch was fun and tasty. Highly recommend this tour.

Great Guide - Our tour guide was amazing. She was very knowledgeable. The Virgin Mary’s house was my favorite. I felt at peace visiting it.

Fantastic Tour! Don't miss it. - This was the best tour of our trip. The guide, Elif, went through strict processes to become a licensed guide. For example, they must travel for one month all throughout Turkey as well as classes and tests. She was knowledgeable and friendly and it felt like being taken around by a good friend. The tour was also very well organized. We were able to spend more or less time as desired, while relying on her expertise to get us everywhere. We never felt rushed or delayed. Always cold water and an air conditioned vehicle waiting for us at each stop. The sites were amazing and the lunch spot was good. Highly recommend this tour especially if you can go with Elif!

Not recommended - I deleted my first review of this tour because the tour guide and the man from the dining establishment that the tour guide brought us to for lunch gave me a laminated page with 2 QR codes. One QR code was for internet and the men placed a little black WiFi box next to my phone. They then pointed to the other QR code and wanted me to write a review during lunch. It was surprising and uncomfortable. I didn’t know if they could somehow see what I was typing/posting? Thus, I deleted the original post I wrote at the lunch table because I wanted to write a new review that didn’t feel coerced. We’ve been traveling for a week now (and I’ve traveled the world for more than 20 years), and no one has ever provided me with a QR code to a link to TripAdvisor and asked me to complete a review in their presence on the spot. I can’t help but agree with some of the other reviews that this tour feels somewhat inauthentic (pretty sure other reviews call this tour a scam). I say this because of the pressure to write a review at lunch, in the presence of the tour guide and the lunch staff, and because lunch was at the Ministry (government) rug making school. My husband was clueless as to what was going on, but I knew from other reviews that we were being funneled into viewing rugs and receiving high pressure sales tactics under the guise of supporting Turkish female rug weavers and protecting the history and culture of Turkish rug making. I support these sentiments and I think we did learn a few things about rug making, but I don’t like the way this was managed. As other reviews noted, our guide was absent during the actual rug presentation, which is done behind closed doors. We were offered tea, coffee, etc. and viewed some beautiful rugs. We did ask for pricing on a few specific styles/sizes but the prices were about 30% higher than what I had paid for similar rugs elsewhere in the past. I don’t know if the Ministry (government prices) were fair or not because I’m not that educated on rugs and/or the current rug market! I’m sure we could’ve asked to leave, but it all felt a little uncomfortable. We’ve NEVER had a tour experience like this. In an effort to balance this out and provide information about the actual tour aspect of this experience, I would like to state that Haluk, our tour guide, seemed knowledgeable about Mary’s House, Ephesus, the region, and history of the region. There was plenty of cold water in our private van, and we felt safe and comfortable with the driver. The van was spacious, modern, clean and comfortable. We were lucky enough to beat the crowds at Mary’s House by arriving around 9:40 AM. My suggestion is to wear supportive, comfortable shoes. My son rolled his ankle while wearing Crocs slides and fell down some steps. Ephesus is amazing and our tour guide had lots of knowledge to share, which I appreciated. However, it was extremely hot and crowded, and 3 of my 4 kids were not sustaining this aspect of the tour very well. The marble road in Ephesus is also extremely slippery in places, so another reason to wear supportive shoes with good grip! Lunch was delicious but it was odd to be taken to a government facility as I already detailed. Overall, I would recommend visiting Mary’s house and Ephesus, but perhaps seek out a different tour company that doesn't include lunch as a preface to taking your time with rug sales. We would’ve preferred to complete the tour and had some time and energy to explore and browse Ephesus on our own. I also was surprised at the price of the Ephesus tour tickets (40 Euro per person). We are a family of 6, and thus paid an ADDITIONAL 240 Euro for entrance into Ephesus. I think I paid around $360-$380 for this tour, but it really cost us closer to $600.00 (probably a little more due to the exchange rate). I also wonder if the reason this tour has so many 5 star reviews is because guests are urged to write a review while at the government lunch/rug facility.