Personalized trips to Greece
for independent travelers

The location of this hotel was great. It was easy to walk to various things, and there was a nice view. The breakfast buffet was nice. But our room had a tiny bathroom and the second set of stairs to the room were steep with a low handrail. It had maybe just a little too much "character" for us.

The only reason to stay at this hotel is because it's a short walk across one street to get inside the airport. We had a very early morning flight so this was convenient. They did make us box breakfasts since we were leaving our rooms at 4:00am, which was nice. They had a pool and a spa but there is nothing around the hotel to do. It's between a highway and the airport building.

This hotel seems like it's a destination all in itself. They have a fantastic breakfast buffet with lots of locally harvested items. There are two swimming pools, walking trails, horses, bee keeping, grapes (wine), olive and fig trees on the property. There are multiple activities each day. For us, since we were going to other locations for tours, we didn't take advantage of all the options at the hotel.

The staff was great. The breakfasts were lovely. We ate out on a terrace with a nice view. Each room was very different. Ours was huge with a view of the sea and a small private terrace.

Great location, good rooms, nice breakfast. It was nice to be able to walk out the door and be in the heart of Athens. We were able to walk to many of our activities here.

We did get to see several sites that were too far to walk. We did end up riding on some busy streets, which may be impossible to avoid, but that was a bit unsettling. We enjoyed seeing the changing of the guards at the presidential palace, which included an additional parade and more pageantry because apparently Amal Clooney was visiting the president that day.

We missed having a guide while touring this town. It turns out that our hotel could have given us a guided tour if we had known to arrange it in advance. The town was interesting, and we hiked to the church at the top of the hill, but we really didn't know the significance of what we were looking at. It started to rain so we ended up getting a quick bite in a cafe and then taking a taxi back to the hotel.

I really enjoyed this tour. We walked through a residential neighborhood of Athens. Our guide told us about the history of that region, and then we ate at a local restaurant. The food was great, and it was nice to be outside of the touristy parts of town.

We enjoyed this tour but because of the schedule we were pretty tired when we started. This was our fault - we should have talked to the guide right away about what we needed. As it was, we walked around Kalamata more than we probably should have. The spice shop was interesting, and our olive oil tasting was really good - i found it very interesting. But the coffee shop was lost on us because most of our group doesn't drink coffee, and the rest didn't want strong coffee at the end of the day. When it was time everyone was too tired to go eat the meal that was scheduled. We felt bad about that - we should have talked to the guide about moving things up. The guide did help us get taxis back to our hotel at the end of the tour.

This was less interesting than some of our other activities. We walked along the coast to an old church where we had a small picnic. We had the same guide as the day before but this day he spent a lot of time on the phone and seemed less interactive with us.

We ended up going to a different location but it was more interesting than what was scheduled. We had an interesting discussion about politics and history with our guide, which we really enjoyed. The e-bikes were very nice and worked well. We did go to the castle but I feel like we missed some of the more interesting parts of it. Our tour of the place was done by another guide and it seemed pretty cursory.

We walked through vineyards and olive orchards. Our guide was a 4th generation local and she was great. We really enjoyed hearing about the history of the region and about the ages and different varieties of olive trees. The wine tasting was nice and the meal afterwards was delicious.

The weather (and a local event) precluded us going to the beach but we did an alternative e-bike tour that was great. We biked around Messene. on small roads among olive trees, ate fresh figs, visited an old monastery that was lovely (Andromonástēro), and saw the ruins of an ancient sports complex that a guy made his life's work to excavate. Our guide was knowledgeable and brought a picnic to end our bike tour with.

The tour of the old city was very interesting, and the restaurant for lunch was great. Apparently the big hall had been closed for years going restoration and was open now. It was well done with a large display of fantastic costumes from the period. The room itself was huge and impressive. The other buildings were interesting to see. We started at the top and walked down amongst the ruins. The restaurant afterwards was great. We got to eat outside in a glass room with nice views that stayed warm - completely outside would have been a bit cool. We had a really nice meal there. The only scheduling issue was that Sparta was quite a drive from Monemvasia. We spent quite a while in the van. But I wouldn't have wanted to miss this tour.

I took the funicular to the top, while a couple of our folks walked up. It turns out there are no views from the car because it's underground. I ended up walking down with the others in our group and it wasn't that far. The views from the top were nice, but there wasn't much to do other than eat at the restaurants which we didn't do because we had other meals planned. The walk to and from our hotel to the base of the hill was a workout in itself. The only minor complaint was that on the original itinerary this was listed as a morning activity, but we had an e-bike tour at 10:00 am so there wasn't time to do it after breakfast and before the tour. Some of us skipped this, and some of us did this in the afternoon between other activities.

Our driver was knowledgeable and interesting, but there was a lot of driving. I thought we might have stopped at several of the villages to look around, but we only stopped at the furthest one and then retraced our path back to Kalamata. The region was interesting with a rich history and the views were pretty, but it was a lot of driving.

This class was really well done. Everything tasted great. The recipes were things that we think we will actually make when we are home -- not too complex and no strange ingredients. We really enjoyed the chef. We also got some great restaurant recommendations from him. We ate at one of them the next night and had a great meal.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. He gave us an interesting tour which we really enjoyed. We saw the main highlights of Athens this day, walking the whole way. We ended up at "the best Gyro place" in Athens which really was very good.

A large resort hotel. It was off season, so there were not many guests. It has a huge breakfast buffet with lots of choices.

This hotel was conveniently located in old town Nafplio. It had a nice breakfast buffet. Other than that the rooms were small, and I didn’t think it had much charm.

This is a big modern hotel, which is not really my style. The food is kind of expensive compared with what we had gotten used to. If you have any early morning flight the location is great. Otherwise why would you stay here.

This hotel is located in an old building outside Kalamata. The staff was great, and they had a great breakfast. The rooms were very large, but being old they lacked somewhat in warmth. The one downside of this hotel is that it is located a ways from Kalamata. There are two tavernas that you can walk to for dinner, but other than that you need a car or need to call a taxi.

A nice hotel centrally located in the old part of Athens near the acropolis, shops, and many restaurants. The breakfast buffet was good. The rooms were clean and comfortable.

The gorge was very impressive. It was harder than I expected.with some scrambling over large rocks.

This didn’t include any famous historical sites, but we met some interesting local people, and ended with a nice dinner.

We didn’t actually go to the beach or the waterfall, but the alternative things we saw were great.

An interesting tour of the city. We had seen some of the sites the day before, but there were new sites as well.

The olive oil tasting was good, but by the time it was over we decided to skip the meal because it was getting so late.

This was just a long walk along an empty beach.

We learned a lot about different kinds of olives and grapes. We had a nice wine tasting, and then a great meal.

I didn’t do this activity. After a long morning I decided to rest.

A very interesting site. We had a great lunch after.

Monemvasia was very interesting. We felt that it would have been nice to have a guide to learn more of its history and provide transport. We called the resort to call a taxi for us to get back.

This was a great experience.

This tour was mostly riding in the van for a long time. The guide was interesting and informative, but I was expecting more time to actually explore some of the villages. We did have a little time to explore Areopolis on our own. This was probably my least favorite activity.

This was maybe my favorite activity. Our guide was great, and we learned a lot about Greek history.