Bodrum Warnings and Dangers

We must make EVERYONE aware of a scam involving tours to Ephesus and Pamukkale. We booked a two-day tour to the two destinations and were left shocked with the treatment we received by the tour agent, Tesla Travel, operating under the web address of bodrumbrochure.com - located at GÜMBET MAH., PLAJ SOKAK, NO: 14/C-2, and the tour operator Turgutreis Tours. Firstly, we were sold the overnight trip to Ephesus and Pamukkale by the agent called Jimmy at Tesla Travel. He first told us the tour departed on the Thursday-Friday so we packed our bags and organised other tours around this. We then had a call from Jimmy that he got the dates wrong and our tour was to be on saturday to sunday. This caused us a massive inconvenience as we had to go to various other operators to reorganise tours, this took a full day to sort out, a massive inconvenience. Jimmy said we would stay in a gorgeous 5* hotel in Pamukkale, this turned out to be a hotel classed as a 4* and just about. But what really frustrated us with the tour was the amount of stops we made to places we were not told about. Before Ephesus, we visited a massive gold shop. You had to take an exit route which took you upstairs and through more shops. This delay took us 45 minutes. We didn't mind this but we didn't know there was more to come. After Ephesus on the long drive to Pamukkale, we were herded into another shop, this time for leather jackets! There was even a fashion show to entice us to buy some more goods. This was another hour delay. Without these delays, we could have relaxed in the hotel in Pamukkale earlier than 730 at night after a 13hour day.

We told the tour guide with Turgutries Tours about our displeasure with the diversions to these shops, he agreed with us. After our time at Pamukkale, we had to leave at 12 for lunch. We were told it was a three and a half hour drive home yet we wouldn't get home until 8pm. The guide didn't elaborate further to what the extended delay was for. Straight after lunch, more shops, firstly a Onyx shop where we stayed an hour and then a carpet shop, where we stayed for an hour and a half. We stayed outside for this in a mini protest. The tour guide didn't even stop for us to get a drink of water when we passed at least 300 shops on the road to the carpet shop. We did arrive back at 8pm thanks to our unexpected delays which we were told NOTHING about until literally when we pulled up to the shops. We were fuming at this and we felt like we had been taken hostage by Turgutries Tours.

We were absolutely gutted about these delays which we simply were NOT told would happen. When we spent more time in the Tesla Travel office to complain about our treatment, their attitude was dismissive and 'we have your money so screw you' sort of attitude. They seemed to poke fun at us and not take our complaints seriously. Alas I think no agent will tell their customers about the impromptu stops and keep this to themselves, but it's a massive inconvenience to something I have never seen in visiting countries all over the world. Please be aware of this scam, the agent will get a cut from all items bought on these shopping trips, and you will not be told that a half day of your precious holiday time will be taken by visiting places where you simply don't want to go and aren't told about.

Prefering the restaurants at your resort or hotel will be right way for a stomach friendly holiday. Cheaper restaurants (mostly fast food) along Gumbet and Bodrum main streets could not be healthy. In fact Aegean Region is famous because of its healthy diet mainly consist of wild and farm vegetables, herbs, fish and other seafood. Try to eat vegetable dishes served with olive oil-elixir of Gods. This will make your holiday relaxing and enjoyable.

We were two girls, 27, blonde, Canadian. We had men really agressively persuing us. EVERYONE wants to chat. They would ask to even walk with us down the stree. We had tons of free drinks, but all these "free" things come with a assumption that you "owe" them. The one tour guide we had was all over my friend the moment I left her for a trip to the lou and kissed her even. Totally inappropriate, but she didn't freak out because he was our ride home, had just bought us 3 drinks each and had taken us to a special place, outside of our tour. The one guy who was all over me was married. Just not good situations.

We found all the Turkish men we met were total braggers as well. They were probably all lying we figured since it was just obnoxious. One guy had a fortune of over $600,000, the other didn't work, just spent money and drove around Ferrari's, the other was a "doctor" in Belgium and his family had a huge fortune. Honestly, just take what you hear with a grain of salt (for non-english - be weary).

By the last day, we were so happy to go home just not to be bothered anymore.

At the end of your holiday, make sure you bring minerals, food and toilet paper to the airport with you. A can of coke is €5.00 and a packet of Maltesers €3.50, in the totally ridiculously priced shop there. The toilets were filthy and without paper. Also, if you intend purchasing cosmetics and alcohol, purchase them in your departure airport as the duty free in Bodrum airport is pretty small and basic and I could get nothing that I wanted in it, plus there isn’t room to swing a cat in it. Also beware that when you exit the bus that drops you to the airport, you have to queue to actually be searched before you enter the airport. Therefore you are waiting outside on the path in the baking sun while you queue with your bags. Nothing much you can do except be prepared for it.