Tour of Athens, Santorini, and Crete

Greece | May 10 - May 19, 2019

We planned this for a couple of generations of family, us (in our 40s) and our parents (ranging from 70 to 80). This overall was a great trip which allowed us to combine everyone's interest and also cater to some of the activities we wanted to do on certain days. At every hotel, the breakfasts were fantastic!

Most memorable - the first night restaurant. Although a tiny bit of a walk to get there (for our parents), it was beautiful, food delicious, and gorgeous view of the Acropolis. Pi Athens our hotel, although initially we were skeptical, the service and the rooms were great.

In Santorini - everything worked out wonderfully. Everyone really enjoyed the hotel we stayed (Fileria Suites). I really didn't miss the fact that we didn't have the views because we could go right across the street and enjoy them. Service was perfect.

In Archanes, the city was quaint, very quiet and didn't feel it was built for tourists yet. We had an extremely difficult time in finding the Kalimera Hotel and I had to call the hotel for them to meet us at a church (which was steps away from the entrance). We loved this hotel in its history, beauty, and service (again impeccable)... however, since we had seniors with us, we would have preferred to stay at a typical hotel without so many steps in the actual room. Although I know in Greece we did end up walking up and down quite a few staircases and uphills.... if we could have had the option in our hotel to do without we would have paid extra. Our parents did fine, but this would have been a good option for us to know about. Archanes, as much as we liked it, I know my parents would have loved to had a little touristy area to shop. So maybe a few more options of where to stay since we only had the one tour here and it sounds like we could have stayed in Heraklion, more built for tourists.

Chania - hands down this was the favorite of everyone in terms of the rooms, location, and also the elevator! Loved Chania in general - happy to walk around and explore on our own. The local tour was fantastic - loved the lunch, Raki making, cheese making, and bread making stops. Definite highlights.

Some pointers for our transfer from Chania to the ferry and to Athens. Our driver picked us up around 8:30 and we arrived at the ferry port around 9:30 or so - no problem. We thought we would be boarding the ferry immediately, but the ferry that was docked was for 10:00 PM or so. We found out that they ferry didn't arrive until 11:30 with a departure of 12:00 AM. So we ended up going to a cafe across the way and waited for a couple of hours. This was probably the low point of the trip as we were not expecting this wait. We would have rather waited in the hotel lobby a bit longer or at least know of the wait.

The overnight ferry ride was awesome - wish it could have been longer! But our transfer to Athens and our final day tour with Inside Athens was fantastic with Giannis as our tour guide.

Pick up to the airport worked everyone was able to depart on time!