Testimonials

" Fantastic Ephesus Tour! "

My brother and I recently traveled the Mediterranean via cruise line and had the opportunity to visit Ephesus Turkey. We diverted from the ship day excursions and decided to go with Celsus Travel. A great decision on our part as we were able to see all the sites within Ephesus Turkey and then some. Our travel guide, Yesim, was prompt to pick us up, professional, knowledgeable and had a wonderful sense of humor! I highly recommend this company. We were able to individually tailor our site visits and hit every major destination. We will use them again!

Patrick S - Dallas, Texas
Reviewed December 27, 2011

" Excellent tour to a fascinating site "

My wife and I were on the Norwegian Jade in mid-November and we had a one day stop at Izmir...roughly an hour from Ephesus. Not being much for bus tours, we booked a private excursion through Celsus Travel. It was all handled via the internet, and taken care of very professionally. The price for the full day, including the driver and guide picking us up from Izmir, taking us to the House of the Virgin Mary, then to Ephesus including the Terrace Houses was about $226. This is actually LESS than the two of us would have paid to pile onto a bus with 50 other people.

Our guide was Yesmin and our driver was Sharif (sp?). We were met RIGHT on time and whisked off to our comfortable car and off we went. Beautiful drive through the charming countryside. We went to the House of the Virgin Mary first. When we arrived, there was almost no one else there, because we had beat the busses. We only spent a short time there...and as we were headed out, the busses from the ship arrived and suddenly there was a LONG line. But we missed it! That alone was reason enough to have the private tour. (By the way, this site is really something to see ONLY if it has some religious signficance for you...there isn't much there, although it is in a beautiful mountain location.)

Then we went on to Ephesus, and had a GREAT time. We spent easily a couple - 3 hours wandering around. Yesmin would stop us and present info at various spots, then would give us some time on our own to wander, take photos, etc. and she was always patiently waiting for us. We take a fair amount of photos and like to really look...so she had to be patient with us, and she was. A little past midway, we went into the Terrace Houses...something the bus tours did not get to do. There is NO WAY to fully appreciate this site without seeing them. This took the day from being very good to great...the excavated homes are jaw-dropping in how great a look they give you at past history. Ephesus is the best ancient site I've seen for really making it easy to imagine what life might have been like at the place. REALLY a great site. And Yesmin was so friendly and helpful.

After this, we had a brief lunch in Selcuk (the village nearest to Ephesus). We avoided the "tourist" spots and grabbed an authentic bite to eat at a little hole-in-the-wall that was really quaint and tasty. Also, it was only 3 euros each! (Oh, and we also made a 5 minute stop at the sight of the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. There is literally next to nothing left...but we were able to say we saw it. Didn't cost any more and was on the road into Selcuk anyway...so it was a quick, unexpected treat.)

We had expressed moderate interest in lamb leather products, and Yesmin also asked if we'd mind visiting a carpet factory. We knew this was the time for the hard sell...but we'd had such a nice time so far, that we were pushovers regarding the carpet. But, we actually enjoyed seeing the silk harvesting, and the sell on the carpets was not very hard. We even found a very small piece that we thought was lovely...and spent some money! We surprised ourselves, but were very pleased with what we acquired. The leather store was just way out of our price range, and not quite what we expected. Lovely items...but we just couldn't afford. If I had one quibble about the trip, I think Yesmin could have told us the kind of place she was thinking of taking us and letting us know about the prices. We would have saved her and us the time.

But our visit to Turkey was a delightful surprise. The tiny portion of it we saw was lovely. The people were super friendly (and spoke better English than people we met in Athens the day before). Prices were reasonable. And Celsus Travel did a great job. Yesmin was fun, knowledgible, spoke eagerly of the great Turkish culture and was a delight to get to know. Our driver Sharif, who spoke little English, was a real gentleman and when he heard we wanted to visit a Starbucks to get a city mug for a relative who collects them, jumped on the phone to try and find us one. By the end of the day, I felt we had made a nice little foursome. I know that it is their job, but Yesmin and Sharif made us feel right at home and my wife and I were just gushing about our visit as we went over the day and looked at photos.

I'd read good things on Tripadvisor about Celsus, so I was expecting good things. They really delivered. FANTASTIC value for the money, and a great, informative, fun time. What more could you want? (And if you don't want the shopping, I don't think Yesmin would have pushed back too hard...frankly, we were just in such a good mood, we were ready to be open to anything).

RMurray847 - Albuquerque
Reviewed November 28, 2011

" highly recommend Celsus Travel "

We booked Celsus Travel for a half day tour of Ephesus and we were very pleased. Murat met us upon departing from our cruise ship, we were impressed with his vast knowledge of history and passion for his country. We appreciated the fact that we got a driver and a tour guide, so Murat could focus on us and not the road. It was a great tour and so much history to take in. We were also impressed with how clean and beautiful Turkey is.

luvtobeach - Arvada, CO
Reviewed November 4, 2011

" Fantastic Day with Celsus Travel! "

I arranged a full-day tour of Ephesus and other historical sites on October 4, 2011 for 12 of us visiting Kusadasi while aboard the Celebrity Constellation. Email communications were handled quickly by Didem and she was very accomodating in setting up a tour that met our needs. We were met at the pier by our guide, "Oscar," and he guided us back to a nice, Mercedes Sprinter van where our driver was waiting. Our tour day consisted of visits to Ephesus (including the Terrace Houses), Virgin Mary's House, Ephesus Museum, and Basilica of St. John. Note: Don't miss the Terrace Houses which are a great way to get away from the crowds and are beautifully restored. While the sites were impressive, what made the day truly special was Oscar's encyclopedic knowlege. His stories brought Ephesus to life and we learned so much more about the city's history than did the large tour groups being herded around. We have have been on countless shore excusions over the years and Oscar was perhaps the best tour guide we've ever had. He was consistently polite, knowledgeable, and spoke great English. Additionally, when we opted out of a Carpet Factory visit, he got on his cell plone and quickly made arrangements for us to enjoy a nice buffet lunch for only $8 per person. I chose Celsus Travel based on TA reviews and felt compelled to write a review to confirm that their #1 rating is well deserved. Our tour price included admissions to all of the sites and we paid a fraction of what fellow cruise passengers spent to see a lot less! I highly recommend Celsus, and if Oscar is your guide you are in for a real treat.

GAGuy - Lawrenceville, Georgia
Reviewed November 3, 2011

" Wonderful day in Ephesus with local guide Murat Kuccuk "

During a Black Sea cruise we visited Kusadasi. I booked a tour with Celsus Travel for a guide and driver to take us (my husband and I) to the House of the Virgin Mary and Ephasus. Our guide Murat Kuccuk was excellent. He was very knowledgeable and kept us entertained. I have difficulty keeping up with the cruise ship tours as I use a walking trolley and very often by the time I have caught up with a group of 50 people, the guide has finished their talk and are moving on - so we miss out on a lot of information. Murat was very patient and let us take as long as we wanted so we saw a lot more of Ephasus than we would have done on a cruise tour. The cost for this private tour was $200 which included the guide, a really nice car and driver for about 6 hours plus all entrance fees. I would certainly recommend Celsus Travel.

Pat250343 - Chesterfield United Kingdom
Reviewed October 28, 2011

" Awesome Tour "

Celsus Travel is a fantastic company to deal with. I arranged for a private tour for my 2 sisters and myself. They customized the tour to exactly where we wanted to visit. The communication was terrific. All my questions and concerns were answered quickly. We had arranged a tour to visit Ephesus, Temple of Artemis, Terrace houses and the House of the Virgin Mary. Our tour guide Haluk was waiting at the port with our name. He is a very friendly tour guide and made us feel very welcome. He was very informative and was able to answer any questions that we had at all the sites that we visited. He also asked us if we wanted to visit a place where they make hand-made rugs. We certainly didn't feel pressured. We were actually very interested. Only my one sister made a rug purchase. I think that she got a wonderful buy on a hand-made silk rug. Of course they are not cheap but a well worth investment. I would love to go back when I can afford one. Of all the sites that we visited, we were just in awe of Ephesus. This is a site that should be visited at least once in a lifetime and I wouldn't hesitate in the least to book with Celsus Travel.

NVAtraveler - Northern Virginia
Reviewed October 25, 2011

" Perfect day "

First I have to say how wonderful my contact, Didem Senturk, was. She emailed back and forth and made sure I got the tour I wanted (we did everything!!) Didem strongly urged us to be the first off the ship since we had such a busy day planned.

We (3 couples ranging from 43-65) were immediately met by our guide, Murat, and driver. We went to Mary's house first, and we were the only people there. You cannot imagine how special that was. As we were leaving the tour buses started to show up. Then we were off to the rest of the tour. When I say we saw everything, I mean everything. And we did not have to pay anything additional for entrance fees (it was all included in the very reasonable price). Murat was very charming and really knew his stuff. We saw so much that day, but he kept our interest by his humorous personality. We asked him to suggest an authentic place for lunch and we got it. We ordered a ton of local food having no idea what our bill would be. And Turkish baklava may even be better than Greek baklava. We got our bill and lunch (food & drinks) cost $4 per person!

It was truly a great day made possible by Didem, Murat and our driver. My only suggestion would be to make sure you wear comfortable shoes. We had no idea how much walking we would be doing and a lot was up & down steep hills.

If we ever get back to Turkey (and I hope we do because it was amazing), we will book again with Celsus Travel.

jesolen - Archbald
Reviewed October 8, 2011

" Highlight of the Trip "

Based on reviews we read here at Trip Advisor, we booked a tour of Ephesus with Celsus Travel. It was the highlight of the trip for our kids. Coordination coming off the cruise ship was great. The van we had for our family of six was very comfortable, big and clean. Ozgur, our tour guide, was outstanding! He adjusted the tour to our needs and schedule and was great with making it interesting for our kids. Definitely be sure to see the Terrace Houses while at Ephesus (it costs extra). By booking directly with Celsus we were able to save a lot of money off the cruise ship prices and got personal attention for our family and total flexibility for the day. If you go to buy carpets, do your research. We had a blast getting the tour of how the carpets are made and going through the sales process (what we thought would be boring for our kids turned out to be something they still laugh about), but we probably overpaid a little on the one we bought. Overall a great tour. Ephesus was fantastic and the tour with Celsus was great.

Paul S - Phoenix, Arizona
Reviewed October 5, 2011

" Yesim was a marvelous guide to see Ephesus "

I used Trip Advisor to book this excursion instead of using the ship excursion. It was wonderful! My husband and I got off the ship at 7 am --ahead of our agreed upon meeting time and she was there waiting for us. We beat the crowds of people at all of the sites. Yasim was well informed and very pleasant---offering to take our pictures often.

We will use this travel service again.

judyTucson - Tucson
Reviewed September 29, 2011

" Great tour of Ephesus "

We arranged a private tour from Kusadasi during a stop on a cruise. Great decision to book directly through Celsus and skip the Holland America shore excursions. We were met at the port exit by our guide Yeshim and taken to our van. There were four of us, so we had plenty of room. Our driver turned out to be Yeshim's husband. We went first to the Virgin Mary's house to beat the big tour buses filled with cruise boat passengers from three ships in port. The crowds were manageable thanks to Yeshim's direction. She even pointed out the less crowded ladies bathroom. From there we went to Ephesus. Yeshim led us through the ancient city and described all we were seeing. Since we were a small group, we were able to make our way through the crowds easily. Comparing costs to the HAL shore excursion, we saved money and had a more enjoyable tour. We highly recommend Celsus and especially Yeshim's.

Mexico1949 - Ajijic, Mexico
Reviewed September 27, 2011