My wife and I are in the process of booking a private tour of Ephesus that will meet us at our cruise ship in Kusadasi. The group will be just the two of us for a full day tour. It looks like most of the tours, even the private tours seem to stop at either a carpet shop/school and/or a leather factory where there is the obvious high pressure sales pitch along with your "free lunch". Whats the best tactic to ensure that we spend our time at the sites and not shopping. Do you tell the guide up front? Do you tell the tour operator when you book online? I'm even willing to buy my guide lunch if they take us to great local, non-touristy restaurant. Any suggestions?
Posted by
Fontainebleau, France
893 posts
Ask the tour operator before booking. Be upfront that you don't wan to go. Some of them don't include the stop if you insist you don't want to go. When we went to Ephesus, we booked a tour that did not stop at a carpet factory. Ended up asking to see it anyways, and really enjoyed the stop. My parents made a trip this year and we gifted them a tour with a company that included the carpet stop (because it was less $$). Guess what - they enjoyed the stop. Neither of us felt high pressure to buy. After stating firmly twice, "I'm not going to buy a carpet today," no one bothered us and my parents had the same experience as well. (but they don't bring you a cup of Turkish tea if you aren't debating a purchase)
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3434 posts
Hello Marcus!
You can get the tour you want if you are specific beforehand, when you write about booking a tour... if it is a private tour just for you 2, you can be totally specific about what you want, what you DON't want, and get a written detailed itinerary in advance. Where are you looking for tours? A good organization is http://www.toursbylocals.com/KusadasiEphesusTours This is a VERY reputable company, owned/operated by Canadians in Vancouver. I don't know about Ephesus, but do know this group does good tours in Greek locales. You can even choose a particular guide. Also, for each tour you can click on "ask a question" and "request changes". You can specifically state, NO store/factory stops, NO "group stop" restaurants etc. The website also has contact informationw where you can e-mail their office directly with your concerns, before you even do the above http://www.toursbylocals.com/contact I'm sure u will be happy with them and avoid the "rug stop". I enjoyed Ephesus, but hated the rug stop!!
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3434 posts
FOrgot to say, the advantage of no "rug stop" is that you are not rushed away from the Ephesus site before you are ready ... we wanted to see the amphitheatre but that was not on our tour's agenda. Also, you can choose whether you want to see the purported "house of the Virgin Mary" a site which is revered solely on legendary grounds, no historical evidence.
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
106 posts
I gave you the name of the tour company we used in the other thread - www.ephesusshuttle.com. We set up our itinerary beforehad and were not pressured to go to the carpet shop or leather factory. We ended up having some extra time, so we did end up stopping at the carpet shop on the way back to the port. As someone else mentioned, I did find it very interesting. The high pressure sales tactics were a bit annoying, but we just had fun with it and walked out without making a purchase.
Posted by
Fontainebleau, France
893 posts
Although I've only had one experience with ToursByLocals, it was in Turkey and I can back up Janet's recommendation. We needed a guide for a city that isn't usually a tourist destination. However, I did some looking at that website for other locations, and found most of the guides to be more expensive than what you could get through the more popular tour operators.