We haven't been to Kusadasi yet, but if you go to the Ports of Call Board at www.cruisecritic.com, there have been recommendations for tour guides there. If you prefer to share the cost, you can find fellow passengers on your sailing on the Roll Call Board and make a small group. I have no affiliation with Cruise Critic other than to have benefitted from information I've found there.

Thanks, I did go to Cruise Critic and found out about Paul in Athens (a taxi driver) and also Rhodes Private Tours. It's an excellent source!

1/2 days is all the time you need. Take a cab if you don't want to do ships tour, ask driver to drop you at top so you stroll down, passing the terrace houses (worth the extra) then on down to the library and out the gate. Best angle for shot of the theater is from the path leading to the exit and taxies, it rises above it and it has a great direct shot.

We used Ekol Travel and six of us did a private tour. Very reasonable. www.ekoltravel.com A good company and I've recommended to others. We did the 5 hour tour which was fine.

Thanks!

We will be in Kusadasi on October 25, and contacted a tour
agency, Byzastours, that will give us a tour in Istanbul, and
in Ephesus, taking us to visit the House of Virgin Mary, and the Ancient city of Ephesus and the Village of Sirince, also
the Isabey Mosque . We are 4 persons.

We did a half day tour with Samyeli Travel Turkey [mehmet@samyelitravel.com]. Our tour guide, Tanner, was terrific and the tour was tailored to our interests. the fee, $65/person X4, was far less than the ship's tour. Do not miss the newly opened painted houses in Ephesus.

Re: Samyeli travel. I also have used them for day tours in and around Turkey and the guides were always great as were the tours. Great value for the money, IMHO.

We just returned from a 10 day cruise on Solstice in November 2009. In Kusadasi, we arranged a private tour with Fatma Acar who owns her own independent travel agency. Fatma arranged for a driver, late model minibus, and arranged for our visit to Mary's house, Ephesus with Terrace Houses, Temple of Artemis, local kebab lunch and open market visit in Kusadasi. Since our tour was custom, when she learned that some of us wanted a late afternoon snack of baklava, ouzo and turkish coffee, we visited a restaurant that specialized in baklava before returning to the ship. The Terrace houses is not-t0-be-missed with its amazing frescoes and mosaics. Her tour included all entrance fees for 60E each, lunch was 15E. Of our 4 private tours on our cruise, Fatma was the most passionate, enjoyable, knowledgeable and fun tour guide. We highly recommend her services! She can be reached at Fatma Acar [fatmaacar@ttmail.com].