Testimonials

" Amazing Guide, amazing tour "

We were in Kusadasi and were fortunate enough to have a private tour with Ozgur (Ozzie). We toured, the ancient city, the terrace houses as well as Sirince village. Ozzie's english was excellent, he was very knowledgeable and had a wonderful sense of humor. We were in Europe for almost a month and this was one of the highlights to our trip.

Celsus Travel was easy to deal with, the prices were very reasonable, but most of all our guide Ozgur could not have been better. I would recommend this Travel Agency, and guide to anyone!

ridercheryl - Dallas, Texas
Reviewed June 25, 2011

" My favorite day "

Just returned from 10 night Med cruise. I want to tell you about my favorite day, spent in Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey. After researching on the web and TripAdvisor, we chose to book a private tour while in Turkey. I chose Celsus Travel based on reviews, itineraries and cost. All my correspondence with this company was thru email. A friendly, knowledgeable, professional woman , Didem Senturk was my contact. She responded to all my questions quickly and with assurance as it is intimidating doing business across the world via email. She is very good at her job and I thank her for the awesome guide she provided us. Haluk Caliskan was waiting for us in port as we walked off the ship. He is very friendly, happy, articulate, knowledgeable and easy to be around...like a friend would be explaining the sights. The van was comfortable, clean and with good air conditioning. We chose a tour day consisting of Ancient Ephesus and then a visit to the mountain village of Sirince. Haluk knows Ephesus and his explainations weren't just textbook memorizations. He kept us interested and involved. When he found out my daughter is starting college as an engineering major , he extended our tour to include a detailed look at the sewer and water system these ancient people had developed. Really fascinating. He also knew how to work us thru the crowds , always keeping us ahead of the bus tours. He pointed out interesting sights during our drive. I especially loved the field of artichokes! Sirince was lovely, away from the the tourist throngs, high on a hilltop. Haluk gave us time to explore on our own as well as guiding us thru the streets, snagging sour plums and other delicious treats from vendors for us to sample. We tried some of the local wines, served up by a very nice young man whom our 18 year olds found quite charming! He lead us to a nice open air restaurant for lunch, I think it was called Can. He pointed out the ovens where the fresh bread is baked, two different kinds, then ordered a selection of foods for us... all delicious as we relaxed and ate amongst the beautiful hill top scenery! Next, we stopped at a Turkish carpet trade post school and saw demonstrations of carpet weaving, including the spinning of the silk from the cocoons, were treated to a cup of Turkish tea, and were shown MANY examples of beautiful carpets. This is an informative, cultural stop and I did not feel pressure to purchase. Tip: if you think you might want to buy a carpet, start budgeting for it months before you leave for your trip. They do ship for free anywhere in the world! Our last stop was thru city center in Kusadasi, a very clean, organized area, and finally a hilltop perch overlooking the water, where we settled the the bill for a wonderful day spent! The cost for this day was $74 per person, lunch was extra, around 12euros for the 4 of us, including a beer! Private tour is the way to go for your most enjoyable cruise port day and I Highly recommend Celsus Travel. Thanks so much, Haluk!

azannie61 - Sahuarita, Arizona
Reviewed June 12, 2011

" Ephesus and surrounding area with Celsus Tours exceeded our expectation. "

We have cruised several times usually using the cruise line's excursion packages. This Mediterranean Cruise we chose to add private excursions, as well. Through thorough use of tripadvisor, I chose Celsus Travel for our private Ephesus experience (Terrace Houses - must see!!, St. Mary's, St. Johns - which has views of Mosque and Temple of Artemas). Oz was our tour guide, he had excellent English and held history/archeology B.S. He and the driver managed to keep us ahead of the throng (thousands!) of people. He also pleasantly acquiesed to our wish of not seeing the rug factory. (Although, I did hear people on the ship say they enjoyed the experience in spite of the high pressure sales pitch.) The cost of the Celsus tour was equal to the cruise ship cattle car tour. We enjoyed a 6 passenger van and personal attention. I will only take private tours from now on (if cost comparable). I HIGHLY recommend Celsus. I was very impressed with their quick and thorough email communications, which is how we made our bookings, 6 months prior to the cruise.

balburns - Wilmington, North Carolina
Reviewed June 4, 2011

" Would totally recommend! "

I booked a day tour with Celsus Travel for our cruise stop in Kusadasi. We found the company to be professional and very responsive. All questions prior to the tour were answered quickly. Our guide, Yesim, was waiting for us when we got off the ship and was very informative about the history and culture of Turkey. The van was extremely comfortable (we had 4 adults, 3 of whom are very tall.) Our tour included the ancient city of Ephesus and the House of Mary and exceeded our expectations. Our tour was approx. 6 hours long and costs half of that of the cruise ship shore excursion plus it was only the four of us. The only thing you should be warned of is that you will be brought to a Turkish rug making business which is interesting at first and then feels a little like being at a car sales lot. That said, you are not required to purchase anything AND even the cruise ship tours made this "unadvertised" stop. I would definitely use this company again and would highly recommend Yesim!

smnSeattle - Seattle
Reviewed May 30, 2011

" Ephesus with Celsus was amazing! "

I was chosen to be the person in our group of 10 to choose our shore excursions in each of our ports for our recent cruise. From our first communication, I knew that Celsus Travel was the right choice. When we disembarked, Haluk Caliskan was waiting right where he said would be. His van was comfortable and clean. He was informative, entertaining, efficient and flexible. All of us agreed that I had made the right decision. We would certainly tour with him again when we return to this part of the world.

Tahoe_Denise - South Lake Tahoe, California
Reviewed May 30, 2011

" Fabulous day tour with Ozgur of Celsus Travel "

We booked our own itinerary for a day trip of Ephesus, the Terrace Houses and the mountain village of Sirince. Ozgur was a fabulous tour guide with amazing knowledge and had a great sense of humor too. There were 6 of us and the van looked new and was spacious and clean..The price was an incredible $60 pp for over 7 hours non stop. Highly recommend Celsus and Ozgur. They get back to you quickly and are terrific. Also advise you not to miss Terrace Houses, which were the residences of the elite and have only been open to the public a year.

toetap - California
Reviewed May 27, 2011

" Celsus Travel tour guides "

Just returned from a Mediterranean cruise with stops in Istanbul and Ephesus. At both ports we (4 couples) hired a licensed tour guide through Celsus Travel, www.celsustravel.com. We were provided a modern, clean mini-van that had seating for 12; an excellent driver and a terrific English-speaking guide, Mr. Kivac Koray. He was very knowledgeable, flexible with our tour itinerary and very personable. We all agreed that we received an excellent tour and would highly recommend Celsus Travel. We also used them for our Ephesus tour with the same satisfaction. The cost of our full-day tour was $70.00 per person (for 8 people). The larger the party, the less per person.

BlufftonGooch - Bluffton, SC
Reviewed May 18, 2011

" Great experience, personal attention! "

I highly recommend Celsus for a private tour in Kusadasi. Our friendly English-speaking guide Ali was eager to please and very knowledgeable; he and our driver made sure that we were able to see all of the sites that we wanted to see – Virgin Mary’s house, Ephesus, St. John’s Basilica, Temple of Artemis and Isabey Mosque, as well as a delicious kebab lunch in a private garden setting and plenty of time left for shopping. They were well aware of the bus tours’ routes and were able to avoid the large crowds at all but Ephesus, which is a large place to visit and we had no trouble with crowds there, either, though there were a lot of people. Having now experienced both the large-group bus tours arranged by our cruise ship and the private guide experience, I highly recommend the licensed private guides, who are very professional and provide a much more comfortable, personal and flexible experience with one-on-one interaction and information at the same or less price than the larger bus tours. Celsus was a perfect choice for us! I wish we had booked them instead of the bus tour for our time in Instanbul, we wasted so much time on that huge bus lumbering around in the tiny streets; I am sure the Celsus private car would have been much more efficient and personal, and probably less expensive, too!

sallyls
Reviewed May 15, 2011

" 2-Day Tour with Yigit and Ferit "

We booked a two-day tour with Celsus Travel in late February, 2011. Yigit was our tour guide and Ferit was our driver. We had a great time with both. Celsus was great to work with in that we told them what we wanted to see and they crafted a tour to fit our needs.

We were a group of four adults and were met at the airport in Izmir by Yigit and Ferit and were driven to Ephesus for a full day tour of Ephesus, the Virgin Mary House, and the ruins of St. John's Basilica before they took us to our B&B; in Sirince. The second day, they met us at our B&B; and took us to see Nysa, Aphrodisias, and Hierapolis and Pamukkale in one, long 13-hour tour. On our third day in the area, Ferit picked us up at our B&B; to return us to the airport in Izmir.

Great outfit to tour with and if you can get Yigit and Ferit to show you around, you'll have a great time.

Jim W - Washington DC, District of Columbia
Reviewed March 2, 2011

" Wonderful tour experience "

We had a tour of Ephesus with Celsus travel and couldn't of been happier with our choice. Great tour company and we highly recommend them.

gemss - Idaho
Reviewed December 28, 2010