Bodrum: Full-Day Jeep Safari with Lunch and Hotel Transfer

I booked this tour, as described, to see the "real Bodrum, the villages". The pick up at the hotel was nicely arranged and well communicated with actual time a day ahead. The driver did his best to explain some things during the stops. However, no actual tour guide was present. At the start a professional photographer was present, but upon learning that no one wanted their pictures taken, he disappeared at the first rest stop. I enjoyed the ride in the jeep, being outdoors and passing by local houses. The stops itself were not quite memorable, nothing worth seeing, filled with "tourist demonstrations". The highlight was a good lunch at a lovely restaurant in Etrim village. At the first stop you can do a zipline. But what felt a bit off was the mudbath and foamparty at the final stop. So, yeah a bit underwhelmed with what we actually saw and learned, but overall enjoyed the ride outside.

Meeting and pickup Pickup point Akkan Beach Hotel, Kumbahce Mahallesi Pasatarlasi Caddesi No:5, Bodrum City 48400 Turkiye, Bodrum City 48400 (ph: +90 252 313 29 29) Start time 9:30 AM Additional details Pick-up from hotel security gate ********************** The above was our reservation. We disembarked from our ship and caught a taxi to the Akkan Beach Hotel as Jeep Safari had recommended we do yesterday when we booked. We arrived at 9:25. The hotel proprietor told us Jeep Safari had come at 9:00 to pick us up. When I contacted Jeep Safari using the hotel WIFI, they said they had been trying to contact me through WhatsApp. But because of international calling and connectivity issues, the calls did not come through to me. Regardless, they never communicated that the pick up was at 9:00 instead of 9:30, and we wouldn't have agreed to 9:00 a.m. because we weren't even able to disembark until that time. So I tried to call on WIFI calling 3 times and got no answer. I texted to try to arrange something/anything with them, and they said they could not do anything for us until tomorrow (and, of course, our ship leaves port tonight). Below is the conversation: *************** [9/24, 10:44 AM] +90 541 606 12 40: The vehicle came to your hotel but couldn't find you. We've been trying to reach you since last night, but we couldn't. [9/24, 10:45 AM] +90 541 606 12 40: Yes, the tour start time is written there. [9/24, 10:45 AM] ME: 9:30 at the Akkan Hotel and we were at the Akkan Hotel at 9:25 [9/24, 10:46 AM] +90 541 606 12 40: 09:30 is the start time of our tour [9/24, 10:48 AM] ME: Yes, and we made it from the ship to the Akkan Hotel by 9:30. So I am confused. ************ They said no refund because they came a 9:00 a.m. and we were not there, even though our reservation was 9:30. After the above communication, they stopped responding to me. I'm sure it would have been a fun trip. But they do not handle miscommunication and such well. Not returning our money seems like a rip off.

We were really excited for this ‘safari’ however it was so random and we didn’t actually see anything… It started off in a village where the guide said it was home to 8 people and had a reservoir… the next stop was for a drink… we then walked up into a farm to find a camel chilling in a barn with poo all over the floor…. Then we went through the forest off roading.. then stopped at a random ‘lake’ where there were meant to be turtles.. there weren’t any. Then we had lunch. The lunch was sooooo good, but again, a bit random as it felt like we were just in someone’s garden. We then went to an olive oil and honey factory where we bought the goods from the lady who made it. This was interesting to see and there was a lovely dog there! We didn’t go to the beach as it was thunder storms. All in all, it wasn’t worth €50. There was no real attraction. The guide was incredibly funny and brought personality to the trip but it definitely wasn’t a ‘tour’. We did see the real Turkey with the villages, but I just didn’t understand it.. I wouldn’t recommend.