Meander Travel for Ephesus (Kusadasi)?

[anniebj90290]

Hello,

 

We are considering using Meander Travel for a half-day tour of Ephesus, Temple of Artemis and the Terrace Houses. They quoted us price that was substantially lower than the cruise ship's excursion, which made me both happy and a little nervous. Has anyone used them and can share first-hand knowledge of their reliability and skill? I tried doing a search on this board and didn't find that many reviews -- good, bad or otherwise. Everyone seems to use Ekol.

 

We are family of 4 with two children, ages 6 and 9. I suspect my kids will get bored and I just figured having our own driver and guide would give us more freedom. That and I melt in the hot sun after awhile myself....

 

Ann

[Summertimescallingme]

Anne, we just arrived home tonight from our Greek Isles, Egypt, Turkey tour. I will write more later as we are exhausted now, but wanted to let you know our experinece with Meander Tours for Ephesus. I was unfortunately very disappointed with our guide. I had heard good reviews of two guides in particular from Meander and requested either of them, but the girl who was waiting for us that day was not either of the ones requested. That would have been fine, but (and I keep saying "that girl" because she NEVER introduced herself to us the entire day. I asked her name twice, but she said it so quickly I could not understand her) she was not a good guide and thus the money was not well spent. In a nutshell, she was hard to understand, she wanted only to tell us what she was interested in, not what we wanted to learn more about (example the Terrace Houses), and hurried us through the House of Virgin Mary and Ephesus, to then take us through a rug factory, which we DID NOT request, where we spent almost 2 hours getting a demonstration and sales pitch. We were on a private tour with our two children ages 14 and 9 (they were being well behaved), to whom she was not very friendly. After our return to the ship, I wondered if I was judging her too harshly, but after the guide we had for the next two days in Istanbul, who was incredible, I know "that girl" did a poor job. The guide we used in Istanbul does do tours for Ephesus. I have no idea of his price, but wish I had known of him prior and would have gladly paid whatever it cost to have him show us Ephesus. If he had been our guide I feel we truly would have learned a great deal and enjoyed the tour. Hope this helps, feel free to ask me any more specific questions and I'll try to answer promptly.

[wsdwsd]

We just returned from the May 19 Brilliance of the Seas cruise & used Meander travel in Ephesus. Our tour guide, a woman named Emek Evin (her email is emekevin@hotmail.com) was actually very polite and very knowledgeable about the area. She gave an excellent tour and I would recommend her. My only complaint would be that it appears the tour guides get some sort of kickback from sales made to their clients and this sometimes gets in the way. For example, after the Ephesus part of the tour (which was excellent) she took us to a rug factory where we initially ate an outdoor lunch --- which, by the way, was VERY GOOD and only $12 pp total. We then went inside the rug factory for a rug making demo, which was also very interesting. However, then they put us into a large room where they spent at least 30-40 minutes trying to sell us rugs ranging in price from $2500 to $65,000. My wife finally got fed up with this and sort of stormed out with everyone else following behind. We then were taken to a "leather factory" where they tried to sell us leather goods. At the shopping area near the port, she followed us around to multiple shops (I suppose she would get a commission on any sales to her clients) but finally, I paid her and we said our goodbyes. I thought she was a very good guide and I suspect most of not all of the guides get a commission from store owners, rug factories, etc for any sales to their clients....if you know that ahead of time it's not a big deal, just be prepared for possible high pressure sales at the rug factory, keep saying "no thanks" to the rugs, and you'll have a good time.

 

Bill

[PTC]

We just returned from the May 19 Brilliance of the Seas cruise & used Meander travel in Ephesus. Our tour guide, a woman named Emek Evin (her email is emekevin@hotmail.com) was actually very polite and very knowledgeable about the area. She gave an excellent tour and I would recommend her. My only complaint would be that it appears the tour guides get some sort of kickback from sales made to their clients and this sometimes gets in the way. For example, after the Ephesus part of the tour (which was excellent) she took us to a rug factory where we initially ate an outdoor lunch --- which, by the way, was VERY GOOD and only $12 pp total. We then went inside the rug factory for a rug making demo, which was also very interesting. However, then they put us into a large room where they spent at least 30-40 minutes trying to sell us rugs ranging in price from $2500 to $65,000. My wife finally got fed up with this and sort of stormed out with everyone else following behind. We then were taken to a "leather factory" where they tried to sell us leather goods. At the shopping area near the port, she followed us around to multiple shops (I suppose she would get a commission on any sales to her clients) but finally, I paid her and we said our goodbyes. I thought she was a very good guide and I suspect most of not all of the guides get a commission from store owners, rug factories, etc for any sales to their clients....if you know that ahead of time it's not a big deal, just be prepared for possible high pressure sales at the rug factory, keep saying "no thanks" to the rugs, and you'll have a good time.

 

Bill

 

Your right in that all companies are part of this show them the rugs and try to sell but it's up to the "clients" to be sure they communicate to the company ahead of time "NO sales pitch". Okay to show us how they are made but we don't want to waste our touring time being given a sales pitch.

It's a shame your wife walked "stormed out" out as this is very bad manners in a foreign country. Who ever organized the tour should have made sure the guide knew the boundaries. Obviously, this was not discussed ahead of time with everyone or if it was, someone didn't pay attention.

 

PTC

[coop2]

Used Ekol last month. Very good.

[anniebj90290]

Thanks for your input. We've been to China twice and done the silk factory, Pearl Market and jade factory tours where they basically won't let you leave until you buy something (and the guide gets a kickback, yes). In China, salesgirls literally followed me around the store -- very discerning for me and cut down on what I bought. But I think it's a cultural difference as much as anything else.

 

My secret weapon is my 6 year old son. He has no patience for shopping (feel my pain...). When he's had enough, he'll meltdown and it will be time for us to leave -- unless the Turkish rug merchant would prefer that we stay and my kid drives off every other customer in a three-mile radius. (BTW, am happy to loan him to anyone else who wants a sales pressure-free experience-- joking!)

 

The ability to set our touring to my children's pace is precisely the reason why I want a private tour instead of the larger ship's excursion.

[wsdwsd]

Your right in that all companies are part of this show them the rugs and try to sell but it's up to the "clients" to be sure they communicate to the company ahead of time "NO sales pitch". Okay to show us how they are made but we don't want to waste our touring time being given a sales pitch.

It's a shame your wife walked "stormed out" out as this is very bad manners in a foreign country. Who ever organized the tour should have made sure the guide knew the boundaries. Obviously, this was not discussed ahead of time with everyone or if it was, someone didn't pay attention.

 

With all due respect, what actually was bad manners was the way in which the guides collaborate with the rug factories and allow them to use persistent, high pressure sales tactics to sell their wares to visitors to their countries who are paying their hard-earned money to see the sights, not to be badgered into buying a rug---and to top it off, the guides get a commission. We made it abundantly clear after 30 or so minutes of seeing up to $65,000 rugs that we were not interested in buying a rug, yet even then they persisted in pulling out one more rug after another. THAT is bad manners in ANY country. The people at the rug factory and our guide were the ones not paying attention to us when we said we did not want to buy a rug and yet they persisted in showing more of them. If my wife had not walked out, we likely would have been stuck in that room another 30 minutes looking at rugs we were not interested in.

 

Bottom line --- unless you are seriously interested in expensive rugs, tell your guide to SKIP THE RUG FACTORY TOUR. You will be glad you did.

[TNTLAMB]

Used Ekol 2 weeks ago and was very satisfied. At our option we were offered several "shopping" opportunities. Frankly we found both we did (ceramics and rugs) very intresting and none overbearing. The only dissapointment and we were warned was the Temple of Artemis which is a single column in a field. It was less than 5 minutes of the day however. BTW we did a full day which included Virgin Mary House, Epesus, Terrace houses, Temple of Artemouus, and Sirance. We had a driver and guide for 4 at $90.00 US per person. Beware of friendly merchants in the Market area offering free booze and refreshments in their show rooms. I am the proud owner of a leather Jacket (beautiful I might add) that I had no intention of buying. Several beers later however.... I paid $95.00 for a coat they were asking $550.00 for

[Summertimescallingme]

I agree with TNTLAMB regarding the Temple of Artemis, there is not much to it, but we really did want to see it for ourselves. Instead, my issue is that I had to ask 4 times for our guide to stop there, and when we stopped, it was after the 2 hour rug sales event and we were told we did not have time to get out of the van, because it was close to time of our tour being over. So we have pictures of a single column from the van window. What a shame. I actually did find the rug making demonstration interesting, but that only took 15 minutes. WE should have insisted that we would not stay for the sales pitch, but you are in a foreign country and feel it rude to insist on leaving. In retrospect, I feel we were taken advantage of considering the loss money and our time on our one day to see Ephesus. In the many tours we have taken, both ships tours and private, this guide was the worst. From her lack of interest in teaching us and the fact that we were hurried through our pre-planned tour stops, being given one half hour for the House of Virgin Mary and one and a half hours for Ephesus and then spent just as long looking at rugs we did not want to see. I felt cheated, when I thought hiring a private tour should (and would)mean we determined where to go and how long we stayed at each stop. If we had not prepaid by credit card (as requested by Meander unless we wanted to carry $400.00 in cash off the ship with us to pay), I would have felt we had more bargaining power to get what we expected out of the tour. Just be careful and forewarned, and I would not pay ahead of time so you have some control over your day.

[Pacific Sandy]

Hi - We used Meander Travel and had such an excellent day, I'm surprised to read the above comments.

 

Our guide was a very nice young girl who worked very hard to make sure we got the most out of our day. Sorry, can't remember her name.

 

We actually enjoyed the rug factory. We were only there about 1/2 hour and enjoyed seeing the beautiful rugs they were selling. After all, "when in Turkey....".

 

We paid $65.00 US each for a full day tour which included all of the admissions to the exhibits. We never felt rushed. It was the best tour we have ever taken.

 

As for "storming out of the room", I would never-ever do that. The more respect you give people and the kinder you are, the more you get back in return.

[anniebj90290]

Thanks all for your helpful replies. I think we're going to just book with Ekol. Meander was a bit cheaper, but it sounds like they have guides of inconsistent quality. We had a simply awful guide when we went to Petra and while we wound up having no idea what we were looking at for two hours (our guide was tired and decided to take a nap... told us to go on without him. For real.) -- it did become one of our trip highlights because we just thought it was funny. We still laugh hysterically when we think about it. The guy was snoring, people had to step over him... I kept thinking we should wake him up and tell him to put on some sunscreen.....too funny. We wound up leaving him and just heading back to our car and driver (who had hired him for us).

[ilovemed]

I have been readind comments about tour companies. I have been travelling throug Europe for many years.

 

I can tell you one thing only. If you can get the names of the best guides of that country you are travelling ,it would be the best solution. Those guides know what to plan, what to do.

 

The key to success in any business is to know your customer. I don't think any of those tour companies had known their customers. Ekol and Meander sound to me iffy. Google more companies and guides please!

[PTC]

I have been readind comments about tour companies. I have been travelling throug Europe for many years.

 

I can tell you one thing only. If you can get the names of the best guides of that country you are travelling ,it would be the best solution. Those guides know what to plan, what to do.

 

 

I'm sure you have your favorites and recommendations but perhaps someone else thinks they are not so good. For every good post, surely there will be a negative due to poor planning and expectations. Doesn't matter how much you travel, it's the communication in what your expectations are prior to the tour that either makes it a great day or a miserable one. JMHO.

Same with hotels, rental car companies, airlines, cruiselines, etc etc.

Best to clearly understand what was really wrong with the persons experience rather than leap with no basis.

 

 

PTC