The guide has beautiful pictures, but I found it a little lacking in content, especially for the Ephesus area. If you are going on a cruise and stopping in Kusadasi as we did, we wanted information on the Kusadasi and Ephesus areas, including how to navigate ourselves through town, what the highlights are (where to focus our time) and how to get there, as well as some historical and background information. The little information this book did provide on Ephesus was not helpful but more of a history lesson. The book was so unhelpful, we had to "wing it" when we got off the ship. Ephesus is filled with turkish "salesmen" who will follow you, negotiate with you and generally bother you if you are prepared for it. It is quite daunting to have these men selling to you as soon as you get off the ship and it would have been more helpful if the book pointed you in the right direction about what to do so that we didn't feel like we were going to get ripped off. For example, the drive out to Ephesus is about 45 minutes and it would have been nice to have a tour book tell us the best way to get there. What is the safest bet? a bus, taxi (spelled taksi) or tour company? How much do these cost in general? When we had a taxi quote us a fee, it seemed very expensive, so it would have been good if the tour book told us what the general going rate is.
BTW, we ended up finding 2 other couples to share the cost of a van. The van waited for us to take us back to the downtown area. The downtown area is right off the ship, walking distance. You will get acosted by salesmen, so be prepared. It's an interesting salesmenship...they expect to "host" you with drinks and seats. they will then bring items to you. It would feel luxurious to be waited on and hosted if they weren't pressuring you to buy. They do accept no as an answer though...eventually So, once we settled into the concept, we realized it was part of the culture and learned to handle the stalking and haggling and constant pressure. The same thing that makes them sales oriented also make them customer service oriented in their restaurants-this was nice.
BTW, we ended up finding 2 other couples to share the cost of a van. The van waited for us to take us back to the downtown area. The downtown area is right off the ship, walking distance. You will get acosted by salesmen, so be prepared. It's an interesting salesmenship...they expect to "host" you with drinks and seats. they will then bring items to you. It would feel luxurious to be waited on and hosted if they weren't pressuring you to buy. They do accept no as an answer though...eventually So, once we settled into the concept, we realized it was part of the culture and learned to handle the stalking and haggling and constant pressure. The same thing that makes them sales oriented also make them customer service oriented in their restaurants-this was nice.
