Ephesus and Virgin Marys House in one day from Istanbul

Better guide performance

The transfer and the air transport took place in an excellent way. As for the guide, there was no microphone during the explanations inside the van, making it very difficult to understand. Very little time of stay at Maria's house.

Response from the operator: Thank you very much for taking the time to share your feedback. We are pleased to hear that the transfer and flight arrangements met your expectations and were well organized. At the same time, we sincerely appreciate your comments regarding the guiding experience. We are sorry to learn that the absence of a microphone in the vehicle made it difficult to follow the explanations, and that the time spent at the House of Virgin Mary felt limited. Your feedback is very valuable, and we will certainly review these points with our team to improve the overall experience. Thank you once again for your constructive comments, and we hope to have the opportunity to provide you with an even better experience in the future. Warm regards, Plan Tours – Gray Line Turkey

via Tripadvisor (translated)

Phenomenal locale but select the right tour guide

Let me begin by stating that experiencing Ephesus and the other surrounding historical sites, e.g. the Church (House) of the Virgin Mary, are absolutely worth the effort. If you have only one day to spare away from Istanbul, take the short flight to Izmir and see one of the true wonders of the ancient world. Having said that, be very critical of the travel agency you pick to get you to Ephesus. We selected Plan Tours and, in hindsight, we should have gone with another company. Keep in mind that the company that arranges your intra-Turkish air will most likely not be the tour agency that actually conducts the tour of Ephesus, which in our case was a good thing. Plan Tours picked us up at 5:15 AM and then unbeknownst to us took us to the wrong airport. NOTE: check your travel docs because there are two airports in Istanbul (IST and SAW), and they are, at minimum, an hour apart. We discovered after we attempted to check-in at the gate for our 8:00 AM flight that the driver had taken us to the wrong airport. We tried in vain for almost an hour to get anyone at Plan Tours to answer their phone. The only reply was a voicemail stating that someone would be in the office at 7:30 AM, a mere 30 minutes before our flight. To salvage our trip we acted quickly and booked another regional flight to Izmir at additional cost in hopes making it to Izmir to meet up with the Ephesus tour. We arrived 45 minutes behind schedule. Castle Tours in Izmir did an amazing job of picking us up at the airport and linking us with our tour group, which was already underway. We missed seeing the Temple of Artemis, but we did make it to the city of Ephesus, which was extraordinary. The rest of the day played out as planned. After returning to home to Germany, we engaged Plan Tours about a refund for the plane tickets lost due to the logistical mistake as well as the the plane tickets purchased to offset being sent to the wrong airport. In the end, we had to engage Viator to get Plan Tours to refund 20% of the cost. As we explained to both Viator and Plan Tours, if we hadn't taken the initiative and bought the new airfare to offset being taken to the wrong airport, we would be seeking a full refund for the entire trip. In the end, please heed our warnings and check your itineraries to ensure logistical details, like airport codes, are correct and think about how you might anticipate and/or offset logistical snafu's,, like non-responsive emergency contacts.

via Tripadvisor