Central Anatolia: Tours & Tickets

We were picked up from our hotel in Antalya around 07:15-07:30 a.m. in an air-conditioned van! Then we picked up the other passengers and started on the approximately 3 hour long drive to Pamukkale! Our guide was this young, attractive looking girl Dilber! She was very interactive & informative! On the way we stopped at a gas station for toilet break & buying refreshments! Then we stopped for about an hour at this shop which sells stone & stone products (which was a complete waste of time and should have been avoided)! Then we had buffet lunch at a restaurant, which was good! Then we reached Pamukkale! It is a place which is good for taking pictures for social media! “The Cleopatra Pool” is very dirty and full of algae and can be completely avoided (especially considering you have to pay 50 Turkish Liras to enter it)! Then we started on the journey back to our hotel and reached around 08:00 p.m.! It was a long, tiring day!

Upon arrival we were pleasantly greeted right outside the port by Ahu, our tour guide to Ephesus. We were driven in a private vehicle to Ephesus and were given a thorough tour of Ephesus and the Terrace Houses. It was great to be able to see everything that Ephesus offered along with getting an overall descriptive narrative through Ahu. Ahu was not only a tour guide but she was very easy to speak to and made the tour fun for all of us. She even took us to a runway show which featured leather jackets. They were pricey so we didn’t buy anything but the experience was fun. I could have done without the rug shop but how the rugs were made may interest some. Overall, we had a great experience with Ahu and if we ever visit Turkey again we would be sure to look her up!

I don't know where to start! Everything was extremely well organised. Everyone was very polite, always on time and very pleasant to be with. The local guides were very knowledgeable (and I am an art historian), friendly, polite, genuine. I am a woman in her 60s, I travel solo and never felt lonely or scared. I met wonderful people who shared the same tours. I could not recommend this tour enough. An amazing cultural and human experience.

Tour guide was excellent,mini bus very clean and comfortable, Ephesus visit excellent but the visit to the House of the Virgin Mary not quite believable but interesting. Visit to leather factory and rug factory OK. Lunch very good.

Wasted too much time driving the tiny village roads on the way back, so we spent almost an hour longer to drive back from the site than it took to drive there! Our guide was awesome! Would recommend him to our friends!