Kimkim Trip Reviews for Greece

I recently wrapped up an amazing trip to Greece that Kimkim out together for me. Harris and his team took care of every detail with precision and care. Travelling by myself, it was especially meaningful to feel so taken care of and looked after. The team checked in after each excursion to ensure my satisfaction, handled cancellations due to bad weather, and ensured that my trip went effortlessly. The hotels, the excursions, the transfers; all exceeded my expectations! I will definitely be using Kimkim again and will recommend them whole heartedly to any of my travelling friends. Thank you!

We, a family of four (two adults and two kids, one boy 8 yrs and one girl 11 yrs) had one full week of dream vacation in Greece , thanks to Tasos and his team’s dedicated arrangement! Yes, This is a dream trip that we print out those photos and frame, rather than just post them on social media; a dream trip that turns us into artists, spending hours to record those moments by drawing; a dream trip that could serve as fodder for party conversations for year from now on……..For this, we would like to give a big shout out to Tasos and his team, for helping us develop the most suitable itinerary for our family; for booking most amazing accommodations at each destination; for offering best options/services on means of transportations; for providing 24/7 real-time support and overseeing all details to ensure the perfectness at each stage of the trip.

1) Itinerary
The trip itinerary that Tasos put together for us embraces two types of experiences: immersing ourselves into the world of Greek Mythology and ancient history; living like a local through mountain hiking and farm visiting.

We had spent two days in Athens, visited Sounio (a breathtaking scenery of the Temple of Poseidon at sunset), Temple of Zeus as well as Acropolis through a Mythology tour, Plaka (eating and shopping), Roman Agora (seeing the Tower of the Winds), the Parliament Hill (watching the Changing of the Guard ceremony). Then we drove to Kalabaka, where we had a marvelous mountain hiking with our fantastic tour guide Kris from Meteora Thrones; he took us into the routes where ordinary tourists may not be aware of (thus we could see unique views); we also visited four of the six UNSECO monasteries. The next day we drove south to Delphi Archaeological site (another UNSECO heritage site), where the ancient Greeks considered as the central of the world. Through a private guided tour, we soon understood how those ancient ruins were originally constructed following a holy-path as the Sanctuary of Apollo and the significance of the site of the ancient Oracle in Greece. On the sixth day of this trip, we drove towards the Peloponnese through the impressive suspension bridge of Rio, visited another two UNSECO sites. It was a spring windy day, we thought we saw the best part of the “rich in gold” Mycenaean civilization centre at the Mycenae archaeological sites through the signature Lion Gate and the beautiful “Mask of Agamemnon” (although it is a replica and the real one in National Archeological Museum ); we were also lucky enough to perform in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, where we enjoyed the astonishing acoustics designed by ancient Greeks 2,400 years ago. Then the next day we had an amazing full day with Stavroula's Grecopaths team. We went to an ancient theater performing mimes and dramas with local elementary students; We visited a local farm, getting to know Greek wine, olive trees, orange trees, lemon trees as well as many types of herbs; We had a delicious lunch and pleasant afternoon tea with the farm owner’s family; we also visited a small Greek pyramid (a hidden gem of Nafplio, many visitors may not know of) in the afternoon. With the excellent guide of Stavroula’s team, we were experiencing the real Greeks for one full day, which became the highlight of our one-week Greece trip.

2) Accommodations
The hotels and B&B Tasos booked for us at four destinations are amazing.

The NLH Fix at Athens has the best location you could have (close to everything); the room is spacious and service is fantastica. The Five-stared Grande Meteora Hotel has one of the best locations in the town, we could see the soaring monoliths from our rooms’ balconies and its sublime beauty cannot be conveyed in words or pictures. The Ippoliti Hotel in Nafpolio, sets in a lovely old pink mansion and is located close to the port, restaurants and cafes.

But our favorite is the Ganimede Hotel in Galaxidi, where we stayed in a family suite with two beds in the upper level and one main beds in the lower level. It locates at a very quiet street and nicely decorated. It offered us a wonderful night resting and “the best breakfast in the world”. We really hope we could be able to stay there longer.

3) Transportation
One convenient service Tasos offered is the airport pickup by our friendly driver Lampros, who gave us the warmest welcome and best introduction service to Athens. While in Athens, we walked to all interested sites as all of them are not far away from each other. The rest five days, Tasos helped us rent a car so we drove every destination with freedom and flexibilities. It is a great way to experience Greece by driving yourselves, the views are stunning and the roads (outside of Athens) are very clean and quiet (Maybe March is the low season?)

4) 24/7 Support and 360 Services
Tasos and his team offered us a local cell phone for communication – all destinations are uploaded into google map and linked to the itinerary; which saved us time and efforts so we could focus on experiencing everything in Greece.
During the trip, we could reach him and his team any time by all types of means. For example, we had an emergency on the way from Nafplio to Athens as we would like to see the Corinth Canal but not sure where we could get the best view. So we called Tasos to let him know our problem. Within less than one minute, he sent us the google map location of Corinth Canal and told us which bridge has the pedestrian cross (so its easier to take pictures).
In the same time, Maria from Tasos’ team also reached us regularly to check if everything is on track. When we asked her to recommend some restaurants along the Plaka while we were wondering there, she sent a list of restaurants within five minutes, each of them are highly rated and great choice for travelers. On the day we were going to leave Athens, Maria also called to check if we need the change the vehicle pick-up place from downtown Athens to the airport as Lampros told her that we were a little bit nervous about driving in the crowded downtown Athens. Although we did not take that offer in order to save time, we appreciate their attentiveness and considerations.

All those services helped us create the peace of mind thus we could enjoy every moment while at Greece. By the end, as my kids said, this is an amazing trip which makes them want to visit Greece again and again!

The ease of planning this trip through kimkim was one of the notable highlights of our honeymoon! Harris, our local specialist, suggested some great things for us to do that we wouldn't have been able to coordinate if we were planning the trip on our own, and he was very quick to accommodate any requests we had. Stepping off each plane or ferry to find someone with my name ready to take care of our transfers really eased a lot of the logistics of traveling. You always know that the sights & foods, and people you meet on a vacation will be highlights, but with Harris and the team at Travel 12, the actual details were also a highlight of the trip - who knew?!?

Natalie was exceptionally helpful in recommending tours that worked for our family. She handled all the logistics, provided the guides, transportation if needed and even met us on the last day of our trip and gave us a gift!

All of the guides were knowledgeable, friendly, professional and experienced - our favorite was the cooking class with George, but all three Yannis's were great too! Nota's guided tour of the Acropolis and Acropolis museum was very informative and brought a lot of insight into the culture and history of Greek civilization, as well as current politics and social issues.

Thanks to all for making our trip to Athens very memorable!

We had an amazing trip traveling to Athens and Santorini. Each hotel we stayed at was very accommodating and the staff was wonderful. Each tour that was set for us was very punctual and the guides were all very polite and very generous and kind and always made sure we were comfortable and enjoying the trip. We were very pleases with every aspect of the trip. Tasos was wonderful in helping us plan this trip to our liking and was very pleasant.

We can’t say enough praise for Tasos and Travel 12. From the very beginning he provided constant, consistent communicate throughout the booking process as well as the trip itself. He made it very easy to communicate with him and his team during our trip if we had any questions or needs. Having concluded our trip, it is evident Tasos is proficient in his area and took great care and put such detail in planning our trip. He genuinely cares about his clients and their experience. Tasos listened to our interests and created a trip that catered to our desires in addition to immersing us within the culture of Greece, both ancient and modern day. It was a perfect balance between touring time and free time.
We relished that Tasos booked us in boutique hotels. We were able to obtain a more authentic, enjoyable experience of Greece this way. These lodgings exceeded our expectations. In all cases we were very impressed and surprised. Not only were they clean, the beds comfortable, and possess all the amenities Americans are accustomed to, but the staff were universally helpful, charming, hospitable and accommodating. The breakfast they provided were all wonderful, fresh, and more than filling. However, Kalimera Archanes Village provided the best breakfast of them all, filling our table in our villa. (Additional food notes: Black Sheep in Athens had the best greek salad and Yehanni’s first stop in the 7 villages tour in Crete provided the best greek coffee.)
The guides Tasos scheduled were extremely knowledgeable, engaging, and affable. With each guide, it was evident care had been taken to select ones that were passionate about Greece, its history, and culture. They were all phenomenal. Ioannis (John) was our guide in Thessaloniki. With the comfort that is present among friends, we strolled the streets of Thessaloniki and soaked up what he was teaching us. We had the pleasure of Anastasia touring us through Pella and Vergina. Upon observing our interest in Christian Biblical history she thoughtfully added an unscheduled stop in Veroia were we able to visit a tribute to the Apostle Paul and learn some of its history. Vangelis (Evan) took us on our hike of Meteora (the rocks) in Kalabaka. I would definitely recommend this experience if you are physically capable and in the area. He allowed us to set the pace and was well versed in the history of the area. Not only were the views breathtaking but it truly added to the experience of visiting the rocks and the monasteries. Alexandria, a native Athenian, was our guide for Athens. She was well versed in the history of Athens and local mythology. We toured the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, and ended with the Acropolis museum. She even accommodated our last minute request to stop at Mars Hill, where Apostle Paul preached. Then we headed to Corinth, Nafplio, and Epidaurus where our new tour guide had a college degree in history! He also lived in Nafplio and treated us to a wonderful lunch where we felt like locals. We took the overnight ferry which was a new, yet pleasant experience. The rooms were larger than standard rooms on a cruise ship. In Corinth we experienced another site where we learned more about Apostle Paul and got to walk down the paths he would have! Our guide was Katrina and she took us to the Palace of Knosos and the archaeological museum. Again, another guide (like all the others) that not only knew their stuff but was so very passionate about it! From there a father and son team, Demetrius and Yehanni took over. Each was a wealth of knowledge and a great personality- very vibrant, full of educational information, great company, and very competent. They truly made us feel like family by the time we left. Yehanni took us on a tour of 7 villages where we experienced Crete that shouldn’t be missed. We had greek coffee in one village, visited a bakery in another, and a family cheese factory in another. Everyone was welcoming and patient with us.
Our drivers were all courteous. They even allowed one in our party to sit in the front, passenger and “play tour guide” as she relayed information from them as we drove past areas of interest to them. In a sense, they were tour guides themselves. It was fantastic to be picked up each day by a driver and in a Mercedes passenger van to boot. We didn’t have to worry about anything as they had been given our schedules. All we had to do was show up on time each morning. Lampros was our most exceptional driver, and best dressed as he wore a suit each time we saw him, and made us feel special during our trip. On our last night he made a detour and took us to an amazing overlook high above the city Athens that offered a stunning view of the city and the Acropolis at night.
We walked away from this trip feeling very well taken care of, spoiled really, and having made so many memories that we will keep with us well past the next trip we book with Tasos. He blew our expectations out of the water and all four of us HIGHLY recommend using Tasos and his company Travel 12.

Harris went above and beyond to meet our precise needs and budget. I was hugely disappointed when things went awry (through our mistake), but he went out of his way — quite literally by leaving work and coming to find us — to alter our agenda and surpass our expectations. We had a wonderful time and would highly recommend Harris to friends and family.

Go see Greece and use Harris to plan your best trip.

We recently completed a 9 day, self-drive tour of the Peloponnese organized, with our direction, by Tasos and his team at Travel 12. The logistics and trip arrangement worked out very well. The selected driving routes allowed us to see a great deal of the countryside, visit the important historical and places of interest and stay multiple nights in several centrally located hotels. These local, four-star accommodations ranged from very good to outstanding. Our guides, Ilias and Antonia, were excellent for the 3 included tours. Tasos and his team provided the right amount of support to get us on our way and keep us on schedule.
This was on 'offseason' tour which we recommend considering. Popular spots such as Ancient Olympia and Mystras were not at all crowded. Days were generally sunny and mild. Think of March. Getting around by car is quite easy with Google Maps on your phone. The people are very friendly and there's a taverna on every corner.

We had a three day tour of Greece and it was wonderful. Christos was great at putting everything together and making sure that we knew where we were going and when. He even called a couple of times during our trip to ensure that everything was going well. Our guides Theodorus (Epidaurus/Meteora) and Anastasia (Thessaloniki) were both very knowledgeable, spoke English well and enjoyable. I would definitely consider using kimkim and Christos again if we ever came back to Greece.

First and foremost, we LOVED kimkim. My boyfriend and I were so skeptical at first, but our local specialist, Tasos created a plan and a trip to Greece that was truly amazing.

In the beginning stages of communication, I shared with him that we were very into food and wine, and love "off the beaten track" type sites. Tasos put together a few different itineraries for us, and we were able to pick and choose what looked most interesting to us. We were able to completely customize our trip to our liking.

Tasos worked incredibly hard until the last minute providing us up-to-date changes (we traveled during the holidays, so some forms of transportation were hard to book), but he assured us that everything would be in place for us at an affordable cost!

When we first arrived in Athens, we were greeted by a driver at the airport. He drove us to our first hotel and within an hour, Tasos came to greet us! He walked us around a little and gave us tips. From that point on, he gave us flight and ferry confirmations, and we easily were able to send email messages if we had any questions. He was super quick to respond, and we never at any point in time felt helpless or unsure about what to expect.

Tasos arranged lunches, dinners, tours and transportation for us to every place we went. It was so comforting to know that there was always going to be someone waiting for us when planned.

This service and Tasos made our trip to Greece unforgettable. I would have never been able to plan this on my own, and I felt like we were treated like royalty everywhere we went. Every detail was taken care of, and we were able to fully enjoy every aspect without any worry. I highly recommend working with Tasos for your trip to Greece!! He was incredible.

More details about the tours/accommodations/meals:
In Athens, we stayed at the Pi Athens Suites. The room was big and clean and our concierge was incredibly helpful, and even called a restaurant for us to make a reservation one night. We were greeted with a complementary bottle of wine, and were able to watch the sunset on the roof deck with a spectacular view of the Acropolis!! It was located in a very convenient area, walking distance from everything.

360 Restaurant: Amazing first meal in Athens with another amazing view of the Acropolis. The service was wonderful and the food was too.

Alternative Athens Tour (Acropolis and Ancient Athens through a Mythology ): This was a great tour to see all the historical sites of Ancient times. Our tour guide Alexandra was so knowledgeable, and made learning about the history very entertaining and fun. I loved seeing the sites and stopping at a local cafe. It was just long enough, and I learned so much.

Santorini-
We knew that it was going to be the off-season here, but were really interested in seeing the scenery and true nature of the island. There were not a lot of stores or restaurants open in Oia, the village we stayed in, but still was a great experience.
Our tour was guided by Gabriel - it was a Santorini Highlights & Wine Tasting tour. He arrived promptly and drove us around the entire island, telling us stories and teaching us about what life is like for a resident of Santorini. Again, we learned so much! He was hilarious and real, we truly enjoyed our time with him. We had a wine tasting at Santo Winery and again felt like we were treated very special.

Naxos-
We flew from Santorini to Naxos and arrived in the evening. We stayed at the Xenia Hotel. Again, very clean room and the concierge was amazingly helpful, and also close to everything. We were shortly after greeted by our tour guide, Katerina. She was fun and bubbly, and super knowledgeable of all things Naxos, as she has lived there in a small village for her whole life. She brought us to a cheese shop and taught us about local Naxos cheese and wines, and told us stories about what life is like living there. We went to restaurant 1929, on the waterfront and had an enormous meal. Everything was delicious and service was amazing. We walked around after and she gave us a tip on where to get an after dinner cocktail. We went there and ended our night amazed and happy.

Katerina met us the next day in the morning to show us around the villages of the island. We saw the Temple of Demeter, watched a local spin pottery, and again learned so much. We sampled the islands famous liquor, Citroen, and felt like we had known her forever! Katerina made us feel so welcome and we enjoyed being with her so much. We plan to keep in contact with her as well, and we feel like we met a friend! The only complaint we had was that we did not get to spend more time on this island!! This was by far the best part of our trip. But, we sadly then had to leave Naxos and took a ferry to Crete.

Crete:
We arrived later in the evening and were brought to the Consolato Boutique Hotel. The street looked like a scene out of a movie! The room was by far the best of all the places we stayed and the gentleman in charge was helpful and hilarious, and gave us some great tips on where to go for dinner.
We took a tour of Crete with our tour guide Dimitrios. He drove us around the villages, got to see great views of the mountains, and we visited Dourakis Winery. We loved the winery tour and tasting (I did wish it was later in the day because we were tasting wine before lunch). Regardless, it was enjoyable and amazing still. We visited a local cheese factory where we got to see all the steps to make the local cheeses, visited a bakery, and then were treated to a home cooked meal by some locals at a small tavern. Overall the tour again, was fantastic.

We visited the Botanical Gardens of Crete. Although it is winter, we still enjoyed seeing all the plant life and tropical trees, as well as the animals (there were about 15-20 peacocks there!!) and enjoyed one of the best meals of the trip at the cafe at the gardens.

I literally cannot say enough good things about our trip and Tasos, as well as all the tour guides, restaurants and hotels. We could not have asked for a better trip. It is so hard to even find anything to complain about, or anything we would have changed. We highly recommend using him for your trip to Greece, you will not regret it!

This trip so far exceeded expectations that it is hard to know where to begin this review. Tasos did an amazing job of customizing our 8-night trip to Athens and the Peloponnese to fit our family group’s unique mix of interests and personal style. We wanted to and did take in some of the “must sees”, such as the Acropolis and other ancient Athenian sites as well as the Acropolis Museum, which we explored on a wonderful private tour focusing on mythology and guided by warm and knowledgeable former archeologist. Another day, we explored the Mycenae archeological site and beautiful coastal town of Nafplio with Ilias, a historian, as our guide. Although both these experiences were wonderful, and made all the more so by the relative uncrowdedness resulting from our unconventional choice to visit Greece in December, it was the more personalized experiences that Tasos arranged that really set this trip apart. These included: (1) a wonderful day of rock-climbing with a fantastic and knowledgeable guide, Kostas, who took us to a stunningly beautiful location on the cliffs near Nafplio with routes for widely differing levels of climbers and helpful instruction for those who needed it; (2) a spectacular mountain hike above the clouds guided by Nick, who provisioned us well with both equipment and a satisfying lunch and Mountain Tea prepared by his wife, Daphne (we asked for and were given the recipe for her raw cereal bars; yum!); and (3) a visit to an organic olive farm and vineyard guided by Carola and effusively welcomed by farmer Dmitri and his family, who was the soul of hospitality and with whom we shared a wonderful home cooked lunch under his arbor; and (4) a tour of Athens street art with Niko (???), an engaging professional graphic artist.

Our accommodations were all charming and comfortable, ranging from a magical old stone bed and breakfast far off the beaten path in the mountain village of Kefalari, to artistic and eclectic suites in Nafplio, to elegant hotels in Athens and the Athenian Riviera.

Tasos and his team provided an extraordinary and thoughtful level of service. This included providing our party with a Greek cell phone with our itinerary pre-loaded and including google map links to all our destinations. It also included the services of our wonderful driver in Athens, Lampros, who was fantastic in meeting all our flights (including a much delayed 3:00 a.m. arrival!) and getting us to and from our city tours. Tasos and Lampros even got me an appointment with an eye clinic when I arrived in Athens with a terrible eye allergy, and Lampros came with me to the appointment to translate.

In sum, I cannot say enough good things about this trip and the incredible level of service provided by Tasos and his team.

We worked with Harris to develop a custom trip from Athens to the Peloponnese and back, by rental car. It worked out beautifully, allowing us to be flexible about arrival and departure times, and to work out meeting times and places with our tour guide, Ilias, on the fly. We were met by a driver, Lampros, at the Athens airport, and delivered to our hotel for the night. It was a short walk to pick up the rental car the next morning. Our local guide, Ilias, took us to four sites: Corinth, Epidaurus, Mycenae and Olympia. The sites were great choices, giving us some variety in site ages and styles. Ilias is a fount of information, easy to understand, and worked very hard to tailor his information to our interests. The hotels Harris booked were nicer than I would have chosen, and several of them were really special. One brought a fabulous breakfast basket to our room, one upgraded us to an ocean-front room with balcony, and one changed our room to a lower floor to accommodate our mobility issues. As a nice lagniappe, Harris provided us with a local SIM card to use in our iPhone during our stay.

To say this experience was amazing would be an understatement. I spent countless hours researching the sites and monuments in Athens and put together a list of all the ones that interested me and my Husband. I sent a message to KimKim as they were the only company I found that not only put personalized tours together (forget the canned tours where you only get a few minutes at each site with a large group of people and are rushed away due to a schedule and don't always get to see every site you're interested in) but they spent time and energy helping us put together the most memorable tour for our Honeymoon. I have told as many people I can about this company as I feel as though if you are traveling to an unknown land - you should get the best most valuable experience - KimKim delivered over and above our expectations. We were greeted, on time, by the most amazing and friendly tour guide, Cici. She was lovely, knowledgeable, respectful and really spent time catering to our desires and interests. Cici was not the only KimKim representative we interacted with - from the date we showed interest until after we left Athens, we were given advice, suggestions and support for the remainder of our trip to Santorini and Crete. We saw everything we wanted to see, had a great lunch to break up the day and then, a private driving tour of the entire city. we saw every monument, all the best parts of Athens and really felt a connection to our guide. once we paid for our package we were assured everything was included, transportation, tickets to attractions and the most thorough explanation of the monuments and their glorious history. There is not one negative thing I can say as we reflect back on the most amazing experience we were provided with. We plan to travel to Thailand next and we will absolutely be putting out trust in KimKim to help us plan another outstanding experience for us. I have never felt so taken care of by a company in the past and believe they really try their hardest to ensure each one of their clients is completely comfortable and satisfied. their response time to messages is quick and they really made us feel completely comfortable before, during and after our excursion.

Thank you KimKim for the most memorable honeymoon experience anyone could ask for!
With Extreme Gratitude,
Marc & Joshua

We arranged a driving holiday of the Peloponnese on the KimKim platform with Tasos as our local contact. We found KimKim to be an great way to organise our arrangements, find a local contact to make suggestions and the relevant bookings, and as a great communication platform both before and during our holiday. It allowed us to stay in contact with Tasos for any queries we may have had.

Tasos and his team at Travel 12 were excellent from start to finish. The arrangements made throughout our holiday were perfect with no problems along the way. The hotels and itinerary were exactly as we had hoped and having a local contact like Tasos really paid off. Tasos was attentive to our requests and was quick to respond to any communications. He even arranged for some belongings we left behind to be forwarded to another hotel along the way for us to pick up! Although we never met in person, on our final day one of his team visited us as we were waiting to go to the airport with a small parting gift. We could not recommend his service highly enough.

We did a two-week custom tour, with guides, hotels, ferries, transfers, etc Tasos helped me come up with itinerary and responded to my questions and suggestions. He was great.

It was pretty complicated but it went off without a hitch. When I had questions, Tasos was great about getting back to me quickly.

We went from Athens to spetses, Napthia, micenae, Olympia, Navpaktos, meteora, and Delfi. 3000 years in 12 days. Greece was amazing!

While we had a really good trip, we were honestly a bit disappointed with the city of Heraklion. (Should note that we originally intended to go to Chania, but we 'accidentally' booked flights to Heraklion, not realizing there is more than one airport in Crete. Perhaps we could have been steered further away from Heraklion, or just driven out for more day trips from there.) The pedestrian areas there were nice, and George did a great job w/our food/wine tour; however, it was almost frightening to walk around much of the city, since motorcycles abound on the myriad tiny, winding streets. We did thoroughly enjoy our wine tour to Douloufakis, as well as our olive oil farm tour to Koronekes. Our driver, Alexandra, was great! Always on time and very friendly, as well as an expert on touring commentary, especially cultural comments. Tasos was very kind and generous in taking good care of us, and again, a good trip, but would definitely have done a few things differently had we known that Heraklion probably lacks much of the charm that Chania apparently has. KimKim is, however, excellent to work with, always answering questions quickly, and very attentive. Thanks!

This trip was overall great. We made the best of all the mishaps but those were not many. Only issues we had were finding a driver for our first transport. The others were small such as time changes for a tour which we ultimately missed (we ended up on the wrong tour), but the tour we did go on ended up being wonderful so it wasn't really a big deal. The tour guides and drivers were all friendly; communications with our Greek specialist, Tasos, were prompt and efficient whenever we had questions or issues. Tasos kept in touch with us to make sure that things were going smoothly or altering plans to ensure we had a hassle free trip. Greece was beautiful and it would be hard to have a bad time there.

The trip was amazing, Greece is a country that has lots of colors, flavors and adventours. Tasos was very helpful and on the Two occasions we had an issues with the hotels he made sure he got an upgrade or a change of hotel.
I would advise to take a close look at the hotels before booking them.
Aside from that everything was great

Tasos did a superb job setting up what is, perhaps, a somewhat unique trip. No islands but remote, ancient Byzantine churches. No beaches but many monasteries. No classical sites but every Byzantine site within reach. With other travel agents we've had to go back and forth several times to convince them we knew what we wanted. With Tasos - one time and he had it. Thank you.

In 3 1/2 weeks there are so many spots we loved that we can't list them all so here are some highlights:
Thessaloniki: great city for walking, Byzantine sites around every corner, great climate and sitting on the bay, enjoying a great ice cream cone and watching the ships come and go can't be beat.

Kastoria: fascinating old town best suited for wandering and discovering. At the Byzantine Museum we discovered Achilles, a guide who took us on a walking tour of the town. He knew the history and culture and, most important, he had the keys to the locked churches we wanted to visit.

Meteora: monasteries in the sky. All I can say is that they're worth the hard work of climbing the hundreds of stairs. See as many of them as you can.

Nafplio: laid back port town - this was a great place for us to kick back for a couple of days at the midpoint of our trip.

Monemvasia: a medieval town built on a large rock in a bay. A map can't do it justice for walking around - you have to be aware of all three dimensions. Climbing to the upper city for sunset was a wonderful experience (the sunset, not the climb.) The town did help me appreciate how tough people had to be in the Middle Ages and why the life expectancy was in the low 30s. But today, the town is full of great places to stay and eat.

Athens: 3000+ years of history and a third of the population of Greece make it a daunting city. For this, our first trip to Greece, we concentrated on the museums: The National Archaeological Museum (where the Antikythera device resides and is being researched), The Acropolis Museum and the Benaki Museum stand out.

All in all, I'm not sure why it took us so many years to get to Greece but I'm glad we did.

We wanted to explore some of the Greek islands as part of my conference trip to Thessaloniki, Greece. We were particularly interested in ancient history and archaeology. In addition to Crete, Vasilis suggested going to Santorini and Mykonos/Delos. The experience was fascinating, although a medicaine and minor back injury intervened. We particularly enjoyed Athens, where we stayed in the old city, old Chania and Akrotiri site on Santorini. Vasilis was very helpful keeping us updated and dealing with a couple of last-minute changes. The tour of Santorini, which was scheduled at the last moment, was particularly memorable.