Jewels of Turkey - 4 Day Trip to Pamukkale Ephesus Cappadocia with Balloon Ride

We hadn't looked into the details of this trip ahead of time, we wanted it to be a surprise... and it was a WONDERFUL one!!! We did a holy land tour with Maranatha tours and a Nile cruise with Viator before coming on this trip near that same region. I can't make up my mind which I liked best. Each was unique and AWESOME, truly!! WE LOVED Turkey!! We had shockingly great tour guides!! Viator had been great in Egypt and so far they were showing the same great colors even though they seemed to be using Lotus tours...not sure why, but they were good. The only problem we had was somehow there was a misunderstanding when picking us up from the airport in Kayseri and getting us to Cappadocia. We found an airport attendant that took up our cause and helped us with the language barrier and phone calls to our company. They made sure to pay us back for that expense when we booked the AMAZING hot air ballon ride. And, though I wasn't real happy with the airport stressor and the loss of a couple of hours, we arrived at our hotel safe and sound! (It was at this point that I wished I had pursued more information with Viator before leaving the states! Probably my bad, and, by the way, every other connection was good and clear and we felt cared for.) Arrival at Cappadocia from the airport was almost magical. The old man running our hotel was sweet. The food everywhere was pretty good. The stay at Lyadia hotel in Kusadasi was so cool as you could see out over the Aegean sea. Gorgeous pictures from their balcony. Ephesus and our tour guide, as well as the one for the travertine pools and Mustafa for underground caves were beautiful, balanced, fascinating and warm, making our trip SO meaningful in the midst of such amazing sights and learning. I LOVED them all!! Thank you guys! I am starting to pray for Turkey as I see what the common people are like as opposed to the government. They are just like us...normal people with needs... and hearts...beautiful ones! We felt safe and secure EVERYWHERE. You'd never know there were problems in Syria several hours away. Will definitely try for future bookings with Viator!!

We had used Viator Tours on many occasions in the past and had a positive experience on all of them. So this qualifies as our most disappointing experience with Viator. The Local contractor used by Viator was poor. For example, the two day tour in Cappadocia was further subcontracted out. It resulted in us being scheduled for the same Green tour on both days because there was no communication between the two sub-Contractors. Vehicles used were on varying standards and some were of distinctly poor quality; for example in Ephesus. The entire vehicle was fully packed, the seats were filthy, two of us had to squeeze in front with the driver, there were no seat belts and windows couldn’t be opened. Not surprisingly, this vehicle broke down halfway and had to be replaced. On another occasion, our ride was delayed because there were too many passengers allocated. A poor couple had to be bumped off after some argument. There are other instances of substandard performance and service, but this gives a flavour of what went wrong with this Viator tour.

Pamukkale, the tour was ok, but was not happy to walk the way back from an slippery path down to meet the guide at the bottom. That was the only path to go down or take a taxi down. Transfer to hotel was 3 hours in a hotel above a club which music was loud till 3.30 - 4 o clock. Transfer was not fully aircondioned. The view of the hotel was great though. We could not see the point of taking us all the way to the end of Kadashari arriving at 20.30 and be picked up again at 8.15. Also the guide was convinced in which hotel we were staying in and left us in the wrong one. Luckily the driver was still there and helped us out. Ephesus: tour was good. The logistics not so much. According to the itinerary we had a full day including lunch, however the flights were booked at 16.10. So half and a bit tour and no lunch. It takes an hour to get to the airport. So we flew from Izmer to Istanbul and there we had to wait for our next flight to Kayseri. So we left Ephesus at 14.00 and arrived at our hotel in Cappadocia at 23.30. I am not sure who did the planning for day 2 but that was definitely no fun ! Again not a fully aircondioned transfer. Cappadocia: Hotel was great and had a fantastic tour Got picked up from the hotel around 10. We had lovely tours and really enjoyed both days.