Testimonials

" Excellent "

We were a group of 11, traveling from Cape Town, South Africa. We received great service from Celsus Travel from the beginning. Mr Burak was great and provided us a great private service for our complicated itinerary. Airport transfer from Izmir, Full Ephesus and Pamukkale tour was great. The van was large and comfortable. Our guide was knowledgable, very polite and accommodating, as was the driver. Highlight of the trip was 4 days Blue Tour from Fethiye to Kas. We ended up getting the Gulet for our own and had an amazing time on the boat. I can highly recommend Celsus Travel anybody travelling around Kusadasi.

ArdaD - Cape Town
Reviewed August 1, 2012

" Ephesus and beyond "

As many cruise passangers we decided to have a private tour from Kusadasi. Apart from the must-see Ephesus we wanted to explore Didima which proved to hide the most impressive ancient Greek temple we have ever seen, and Priene - rarely visited site with a fantastic view over Menderes valley. We chose Celsus Travel based on the reviews in Tripadvisor and were not disappointed. Greeted by Burak and then guided by Mehmet Cibikci we enjoyed our tour visiting all planned sites, listening to the story of every place enthusiastically told by Mehmet despite the temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. The trip should be greatly recommended for parents with kids like our (5 and 7 years old). We could stop with them for a while to look at lizards or cats walking the ancient stones instead of running to follow the group. We even stopped in one of the villages to buy ... waterpistols for the kids. The driver and the car (Mercedes) was also fine. It was the best off shore excursion of our 11 day Mediterranean cruise.

Wojtek333 - Warsaw, Poland
Reviewed August 1, 2012

" Great service "

Burak is a great enthusiastic and straightforward point person and willing to work with a customized itinerary, unlike some of the local agencies who seem more concerned with protracting the tour of a single venue to an entire day. I got a fair price for a pick-up at Izmir airport for a trip through Ephesus stopping at St. John's basilica and then to Priene, Miletus, and Didyma before dropping of a hotel through Bodrum. It's a long day in the heat and not something they usually do. The guide, Yavuz, was very well-educated about what we were seeing and was reasonably upbeat and had a good sense of humor, given the long day in the unrelenting sun, as was the driver. He has a soft voice though, and sometimes it was hard to hear. Everyone should wear a hat and stop to buy water to take with them through all these locations.

Priene is definitely worth seeing, btw. The surprise at Miletus is how interesting the bath complex is. Didyma is interesting for the different column carvings and primitive air conditioning, but by then I think everyone was pretty worn out. There was no question of being brought to a carpet "demonstration" given the strenuous itinerary.

Amanda C - Los Angeles, California
Reviewed July 17, 2012

" Fantastic personal tour "

This is a belated review as we travelled to Turkey in 2011. This company provided a great private service from our cruise ship. We travelled around Kusadasi and Ephesus to see everything on our wish list. Our guide was polite, very knowledgable and accommodating, as was the driver. The car was a new Opal Astra and was most comfortable. The itinerary was fantastic and our slight variations were easy to include. This made it one of the best days of our holiday. The price was extremely good and I would recommend this tour company for anyone.

Monash196 - Melbourne, Australia
Reviewed July 15, 2012

" Great tour of Ephesus - definitely recommend "

We were a group of 8 Australians travelling on a Mediterranean Cruise deciding on a private tour of Ephesus with Celsus Travel instead of the cruise line’s shore excursion. Our tour guide was Oscar who was waiting for us when we disembarked at Kusadasi and there was also a driver who did a great job. Oscar’s knowledge was very extensive and combining this with a good sense of humour made the day very enjoyable and interesting. He explained everything so well and spoke perfect English. The van was larger than expected and very comfortable, which gave us more room to spread out. Our first stop was The House of the Virgin Mary. The house was set in very pretty and peaceful surroundings. We were all very happy to have gone there. There was a prayer wall where people could write private prayers on notepaper and attach them to the wall.

After this we went on to ancient Ephesus and the fantastic Terrace Houses. Oscar gave us a very extensive tour of the ancient site. My husband accidently dropped his sunglasses from a height and they fell into no man’s land where the public wasn’t allowed but Oscar managed to retrieve them for him. Thanks Oscar! We had all decided beforehand that we didn't want to go to a carpet demonstration and had no pressure to do so.

Ephesus and the Terrace Houses are a must for anyone visiting Kusadasi and I can highly recommend Celsus Travel.

jane56 - Sydney, Australia
Reviewed July 6, 2012

" Perfect Service for an exciting experience "

Wonderful. Following reviews from other contributors about Celsus Travel, we chose a private tour of Ancient Ephesus when visiting on our cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. In Athens due to the financial difficulty we choose a tour arranged by the shipping company. It was well done, but 100's of people on and off busses and no chance to discuss subjects with the tour guide. Celsus provided a private car with driver (Cheiftain) and guide (Mahmet). Both were real gentlemen, they even opened the car door for us! Mahmet spoke excellent English, very knowledgeable and courteous. We were collected at the cruise terminal and paid cash US$ on our return. Our only negative comment, just be sure of your price. Despite the email clearly stating the price was for two adults, it was actually the price for one. I am certain this was just a communication error with no malicious intent, but do check the price carefully first. Once again, this is the way to tour without a doubt. Thanks Guys.

DavidBK
Reviewed June 10, 2012

" Excellent Experiences With Celsus Travel in Turkey "

I am Tony from Washington DC, USA. My wife and I went on a 12-day cruise to the Mediterranean on April 30 to May 11. Our ship, the Celebrity Equinox, docked in Istanbul, Turkey for one and a half day and Kusadasi, Turkey for one day. We booked two shore excursions with Celsus Travel based on the Tripadvisor reviews. The two shore excursions were the Istanbul Tour and Ephesus Tour. Our travel group included eight of our cruise critics’ friends. We organized the shore excursions prior to our cruise. The shore excursions with Celsus Travel were booked via the internet which was a very simple process. Our contact was the tour manager Mr. Burak Ocal; he handled our bookings professionally and promptly. Everybody in our travel group enjoyed the private shore excursions. The size of the group was just right, not too small and yet not too large and intimidating like the cruise sponsored excursions. Our shore excursions were fabulous and the tour guides were excellent. I don’t think we will ever want to take another cruise sponsored excursions again. These full day 8 hour excursions are more flexible and yet cost only half of what we would have paid on the cruise’s excursions. Here are the summaries of our excursions:

Our tour guide in Istanbul was Mr. Serhan who picked us up at the cruise terminal with a luxury brand new Mercedes van. He prefaced the trip with an introduction detailing where to visit first to avoid the rush of crowds, and managed the rush hour traffic well by getting us there in a timely manner. We visited the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, and the Grand Bazaar toward the end of our tour. Our tour started at 8:30 am and ended at 6:30 pm. We did not feel rush or push into buying anything at the Grand Bazaar. The shop keepers were very nice. We made some small purchases, and sampled apple tea and a lot of turkish sweets. Since our ship docked in Istanbul overnight, we walked back to the Spice Bazaar and Grand Bazaar the next morning. It was just a 20 minute walk. We also saw the set of the new James Bond movie, the Sky Fall, outside the Spice Bazaar; however, we did not have time to wait for the filming because our ship was leaving at 1 pm.

Our second tour started in Kusadasi. We were greeted not only by our tour guide Mr. Hasan but also the Celsus tour manager, Mr. Burak Ocal at the cruise terminal which was a pleasant surprise. Mr. Hasan detailed our tour plans in very good English. We visited the Ephesus Ancient City, which is a must see in Turkey. We also visited the Terrace Houses and the Temple of Artemis. We then had lunch at the beautiful village of Sirince with picturesque setting of olive trees, sampled the local wines and did some shopping. Our last stop was to visit the Basilica of St. John before returning to our ship.

Overall, the tours were excellent and I would definitely recommend Celsus Travel for your next visit to Istanbul or the Ephesus in Kusadasi.

Tony_Cruisealot - Washington DC, District of Columbia
Reviewed May 27, 2012

" Excellent Tour of Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey "

I booked this tour after reading reviews on Trip Advisor. At the pier the guide was there to meet me with a large sign. They confirmed at the collection point if we wanted to pay by Credit card or cash, to avoid confusion later. There were 6 in our group, and we had a driver and guide, and an airconditioned van that seated about 11. The guide was excellent, very knowledgeable, patient, professional and pleasant. He took us to see the sites we had asked for, mainly being Ephesus and the Terraced Houses. When I booked I had read reviews that the Terraced houses were a must see.. but I had no idea what they were, I thought was posh homes. They are actually excavated houses in Ephesus, but you have to book into these separately, so if you want to see them, which is a must do, make sure you request it. I had mentioned in my email that I didn't want to go to the rug factory, as all the reviews mentioned the hard sell. Ephesus was really unknown to me, and after being in Rome & Athens I found that the ruins there are so much better than Athens, and so much more to see, and as good as some in Rome. This is definitely a hidden treasure. We also thought Kusadasi was very clean and tidy. We were very surprised, no graffiti like there is all over Greece and Italy and no street beggers either. This was the stop I wasn't really excited about, and now I want to go back and discover more of Turkey.

The guide confirmed that this was not requested, but asked if we did want to go. Unfortunately the 2 people I was with decided this would be great. I didn't want to go due to having read the reviews, and had warned them, but they decided that they wanted to see how rugs were made (so not the guide's fault.. it would of course be promoted by them, but not compulsory). We went to the rug factory, and had one on one time with a salesman. We watched briefly the rugs being made and were then taken into a private room. The man offered us his hospitality of food and drinks and one of my friends said that would be great. I immediately said that we didn't want any, as knew that this would mean we are accepting this and that we are interested in buying a rug. My husband and the friend who was so keen to see the rugs disappeared and left me and my kids and friend there in the room with the salesman and another man. This other man ran around the room bringing out rug after rug after rug. I didn't know how to stop him. It certainly was full on sales pitch. My daughter (only 15) then had the guts to say that he might want to stop. I said I had no intention of buying any rugs, and didn't want to waste his time. He said something about how we should see things from his point of view, but I had had enough and wanted out. My friend did want a small rug and asked about the price of one. For a very small patch was about EU600.

So, overall the trip was excellent. It was spoiled by having to go to the rug factory that I didn't want to go to, but, as I mentioned, this was NOT pushed on us at all, just my friends not having done any investigation and not accepting my advice that it would be a full on sales pitch. I would definitely recommend Celsus Travel for tours.

If you are interested in the rugs.. go ahead.. just not my thing.

Sharon a - Brisbane, Australia
Reviewed May 24, 2012

" A must do!!! "

My family took a private tour with Hal and Celsus Travel. We had the best time in Istanbul as we had on our entire cruise. We saw everything, ate, and shopped. The trip was perfect and we would not have change anything. Celsus travel was ver professional and took care of all questions immediately. The tour was worth every penny!

We will use this travel service again.

LisapGermay
Reviewed April 18, 2012

" Turkey was awesome "

If there was a catagory above excellent, I would choose it for our wonderful experience in Turkey! Our guide, Murat, met us as soon as we got off our cruise ship in Izmir. We had a very comfortable van and a driver, so Murat was free to give us his undivided attention. By the time we arrived in Ephesus, we knew so much about the history and culture of this fascinating country. It really enhanced our tour of the site.

Murat was polite, charming, and so accomodating. He took us everywhere we wanted to go, and we had the best day. Murat made us feel like we were friends instead of just clients. We can not wait to go back to Turkey!!

Sally B - The Woodlands, Texas
Reviewed March 20, 2012