10 day trip to Greece with 3 generations (kids, parents, grandparents)
Greece
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Mar 23 - Apr 3, 2023
I was in charge of planning a trip to Greece with/for my family, including grandparents. I was overwhelmed about where to visit with just 10 days while being careful to not overwhelm the grandparents. I signed up for KimKim just to see what it was and suddenly we (Christos and I) were off planning a 10 day trip to Greece.
I found the budgeting and pricing to be uncomfortably unclear. I set a budget and the initial cost came in 3K over what I wanted. We continuously replanned the itinerary and cut out activities in order to come back down to my (high end) of the budget. This took a lot of time and communication. When you google the prices for the hotels and tours, you realize you are paying way more than what you could have planned yourself. Of course, we need to pay the cost of the travel advisor, the private drivers and (what I later learned) is a 24/7 travel assistance service on the ground in Greece that you may or may not need assistance from. I think an itemized invoice would help deliver customers more peace of mind in how they are spending their money.
Overall I am extremely pleased by the destinations, hotels and tours recommended by Christos. I feel like we saw most of the important places in Greece with our 10 days. The pace was relaxing but full of interesting things to do.
I was disappointed with the driving services but only because it was described as "your private driver will happily provide details of the area while you're on your scenic route" over and over again. We ended up laughing at this extravagant and false description of services every time we got into a new driver's car because they hardly spoke any English at all. The scenic routes were also along the highway, unless you count the time the car got a flat tire at a toll booth or we got lost in an orange grove and had to turn around. I also had no idea if we would have to pay extra for quick stops at the grocery store, or staying longer somewhere because it was virtually impossible to communicate with the drivers because of this language barrier. Don't get me wrong, I don't travel to foreign countries and expect everyone to speak English. However, when it was clearly stated over and over again in our itinerary that we're getting a mini tour guide in transit, and we can't even communicate with the driver about what we're doing next, I find that a bit ridiculous. Also, because the financing was not clear, I had no idea what this driver had been paid to do. Was he available for us for the day? For four hours? Only from here to there? Did gas for extra stops come out of his pocket? We wanted to be mindful of his time and expectations as well as not racking up extra costs for ourselves.
Overall, and most importantly, we found the drivers to be always on time and very professional.
The tour guides Christos booked for us were fantastic! They were extremely passionate about what they were showing/telling us and really made the trip. We could also tell they weren't just tour guides with a memorized spiel - they were anthropologists with lots of experience working in the field. We learned so much and have so much respect for the Greek culture, history, and people. They were also extremely flexible and accommodating.
The bike tour said it was starting at 6 years old - this is absolutely not possible. The bikes were mountain bikes with huge tires. Despite sending our measurements 2 days prior, neither of my kids, nor my mother (grandma) could touch the ground with even their toes. They felt extremely uncomfortable and my 10 year old got on the bike and immediately crashed and scraped up her knee. My mother and youngest daughter ended up skipping all the biking because they could not provide suitable bikes for their size/comfort. This said, the tour guide went above and beyond making sure he could include them in as much of the itinerary as possible, as well as organized a taxi (which his company paid for) to take them back at the half way point. He was sooooo thoughtful, friendly, and full of interesting information. My mom and youngest daughter were happy to go back early and shop, and the rest of us finished off the tour. Everyone was happy and the day was a success! But also, please don't send any small kids on this tour unless they have mountain biking experience.
The acropolis tour was AMAZING. Our tour guide just captured our attention and hearts. She even gave us a little gift at the end. She was extremely considerate of my mom the entire tour. 4 hours was long for the kids but they were well behaved and made it through just fine.
The tour at Epidauraus was also amazing! Wonderful tour and guide and the perfect length.
Aegina Island was a bit of a disappointment. Our driver, who was supposed to give us a "2 hour guided tour" again, hardly spoke English. He did manage to brokenly explain the myth of the Temple of Aphaia, but he got the facts wrong, or maybe it was the language barrier. We ended up googling everything we needed to know. We also felt is was WAY to long to be on the island, but because we didn't book the tickets ourselves, we were stuck waiting two hours for the boat to come and take us home. Also, it would have been great to know you needed a mask to go on the boat. We didn't have masks and we ended up paying a guy selling masks near the waiting line money for masks.
Overall it was a fantastic trip. We loved Athens and all the shopping a food options. We found the hotels to be very nice. The country, food and people are amazing! We're so glad we went.
Hotel Reviews
This was very nice. We liked it a lot. Breakfast was amazing! - Jacuzzi was closed for the season - It was very hot at night and the air conditioning didn't cool the room. The street was too loud to leave the windows open.
Very nice hotel and nice staff in a great location. - the breakfast was a bit disappointing. There was no fresh fruit or vegetables. On our last day they kindly put out some pineapple, which we thought was considerate.
Activity Reviews
Hi Liz
Thank you very much for your detailed review, it is certainly very useful for us, in the process of our continue improvement.
Greetings from all the team.
Christos