Pamukkale, ancient ruins, Cleopatra pool, travertine pools and Salda lake - all lovely beautiful places which, in hind sight, I should have visited by myself because my day was completely wasted by the tour organisers. First of all, the programme of the tour was not adhered to - we started at 04:30 in the morning and only arrived to Pamukkale at 13:00 (8h!) because the tour guide took us for shopping - very dodgy shops in the middle of nowhere where he was trying to get us to buy things. This was not mentioned in the programme (and lack of shopping stops was the reason we chose this tour!). He even added an additional stop before Pamukkale at the ATM (!) to encourage people to take out cash. Meanwhile, the part of the tour on the bus was of a very low quality - no historical reference, no interesting facts about our destination, instead, we were encouraged to sing Turkish songs and were played videos from YouTube. 4h on the bus to reach Pamukkale and I still didn’t know anything about the place. We were running late at all stops. When we finally arrived to Pamukkale we spent 3 hours there 1 out of which was ruined by our tour guide who decided to finely speak about history (this could be easily done on the bus!). As a result, we only had about 2h to explore the site, bathe in Cleopatra pool, wash and dress afterwards, have a snack, visit ruins and travertine pools. Afterwards, we headed towards Salda lake but we were late again, this time it was because the driver got a call from his wife to buy some groceries (!). So, we only had about 1h20min at the lake which included time for dinner and were massively late overall. According to the programme the end of the tour (arrival to your hotel) was 21:00 but we only got home at 23:30.
To be fair, the entire tour felt like a con. First of all, additional stops for shopping (which no one wanted but everyone was forced to spend at least 1h at each shop). Then, an absolutely unprofessional tour guide - we don’t even know his name as he never introduced himself. Also, the food - a separate story. Lunch took place in a small dodgy cafe in the middle of nowhere and I was seriously concerned about the safety of our meals (it looked like the food had been on display for some time). Dinner was very similar with a mild improvement on the assortment of food. Drinks were not included all day…The other problem was the languages. When you book the tour the website mentions that tours in English and German are available but in fact what you get is one tour guide repeating everything in English and then in German - as a result, you spend twice as much time on each topic. Final thing, the bus was really not equipped for long journeys - lights did not work so you can’t read anything when it’s dark (in the morning and in the evening), there was no internet and no USB charging points. I found this experience absolutely atrocious and would never recommend it to anyone. Instead, rather rent a car and explore the places on your own.
N7860UFsandral
13 Sep 2022
NOT HAPPY
Booked tour with Seven Seas and it included Karahayit Hot Springs
I have a copy of what it said was included when I booked.
We did not go here on the tour. I asked the guide who said we were not going.
I contacted them on my return home and they said they had sent my ticket and it was not on there as they had taken it off the tour and I should of checked. They did not say to check my ticket so I thought ticket still included it. Why would I think different if they did not say this. They say its my fault for not checking but when I booked it was included. Disappointed as waited all day to go and was looking forward to it.
Rest of our was really amazing but very disappointed not to go here.