A 10-Day Italy & Greece Adventure for Friends and Groups: Culture, Cuisine & Coastlines

Greece Insiders was very easy. They really listened to what we wanted in a tour and tailored it for our desires. I highly recommend them!

phone call when she asked about our interests. She proposed activities tailored to what we described, such as a food tour, wine tasting, and cooking class. We refined the itinerary over time, and Anthia provided great recommendations. Overall, the trip was a perfect balance of activities and opportunities to relax.Anthia picked great accommodations that provided beautiful views, high-end finishes, and proximity to shops, restaurants, and other sites. We loved all our hotels.Anthia demonstrated excellent customer service by providing welcome gifts upon our arrival and checking-in multiple times. She responded quickly to our questions to make sure that we had everything we needed.We had so many enjoyable moments that it is difficult to pick a highlight. We loved the private tour of the Acropolis followed by a walking food tour of Athens. We had a beautiful sunset cruise and a wonderful wine tasting and cooking class in Santorini. The honeymoon suite at the Agali House on Santorini also stood out.Our trip was amazing, and we would not make any significant changes.Written May 30, 2022

the trip due to a last minute health issue but it turns out that’s for the best as they aren’t as mobile as they used to be and many of the areas we went wouldn’t have been navigable for them.Back to the travel agency experience though… I had worked with a couple other travel agents when trying to plan our trip. I like to call my travel style Selective Luxury or Cost Conscious Luxury. Meaning, I want luxury experiences, but money is an object. I don’t want to spend much more than I need to for luxury experiences, but I’m ok spending a bit more to get a luxury experience and to ensure the get the level of service and experience that we expect. That makes it difficult to work with some travel agents. It seems like travel agents fall in two camps: 1) bulk travel agents who basically have a cookie cutter plan that they effectively try to force fit you in for their efficiency, or 2) full service luxury travel agents who do amazing things but don’t want to talk unless you’re willing to effectively give them a blank check. I initially tried Amex Travel, and I had good experience with them on some domestic trips, but in this case I kept finding travel agents that only fell in the two categories above. I needed something in the middle. Then I came across Greece Insiders via KimKim. Chris was our agent. HE WAS AMAZING.He took the time to understand what we’re trying to do, who was going on the trip with us, what types of experiences we were most interested in. He gave me a lot of options to start with so he could start seeing what I was drawn to. There were things that immediately resonated, things that didn’t and stuff in between. But he continuously learned our style and expectations. He was also flexible… Remember those categories of travel agents above? It seems like neither of those two categories are willing to work with you if you want to book any lodging via AirBnB or similar sites. They have their own channels they prefer and those channels typically have minimum stays of a week or more. In our case, our trip was going to be 10 days split between 3 places - Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini. I wanted luxury accommodations, preferably homes with swimming pools, hot tubs, several bedrooms, at least two master bedrooms, several bathrooms, and large gathering spaces where we could eat and hang out. So we had very specific expectations. I was able to find places in all three locations that fit the bill through our favorite short-term rental site. Chris was more than happy to work with that and was able to even work with the owners/managers to help us coordinate chefs and other services that we had come in occasionally on specific days.He pulled together the perfect vacation for us. It had the right amount of activity, relaxation time, exploration, and experiences. I would absolutely recommend Greece Insiders and Chris in particular. FABULOUS!

the Athens airport to meet us in person, have a drink, give us our ferry tickets and present us with a gift of Greek goodies for us to enjoy. We highly recommend Eleni. She was thoughtful in her hotel choices, tours, restaurant recommendations and we wouldn’t hesitate to use her again.

Chris arranged an amazing trip for us! Clearly he knows how to properly vet the tour companies to use as the entire experience was seamless. It was nice to have Chris available to ask questions during our trip.

the activities we wanted. Showing up and knowing that there was nothing we had to think about other than having a good time was such a relief. The tours she booked for us all exceeded our expectations. When planning the trip she was very easy to talk to and stayed within our budget without hesitation.We are so happy with our experience we couldn’t imagine doing another trip without her!

balcony on New Year's Eve.The private guided tours were all outstanding. Nota gave us a wonderful tour of the Acropolis. She is a huge source of information and explained to us the Roman agora, the Persian wars and the interesting unique structure and history of the parthenon and the other temples on the Acropolis. It would have been impossible to appreciate the site without such a knowledgeable guide.George was an extremely interesting person, a painter, saxophonist, owner of nine cats (!) and an expert on prehistoric Mykenai. He gave very passionate explanations about this amazing place.We very much enjoyed our food tour with Eleni. She is a treasure. I must have gained many pounds sampling lots of dried fruit, raisins, cheese, fine meats, sweets, Greek coffee and wine. The market was a lot of fun to watch and these beautiful food shops were fantastic.Penny was also wonderful and did a great job showing us the intriguing site at Delphi. It was extremely interesting and the scenery was beautiful.!Our driver, Yiannis, who took us on two trips, is a very special person. We very much enjoyed our conversations with him during the long drives and our walk with him through beautiful Nafplio. The company is lucky to have him.All in all, this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! We highly recommend Greek Insiders!

My grandson and I had the most amazing tour of Greece. From the representatives to the drivers and tour guides everything was handled beautifully. The hotels were very nice and centrally located. I would highly recommend Greece Insiders to help you organize your perfect trip.

the perfect trip to Elena’s help with any questions that came up on our trip and her meeting us our first day in Athens to review and answer any questions about our trip, transport between islands, etc. We are so thankful to them for providing a dream trip to Greece!

was knowledgeable, easy to talk to and very accommodating. She took us on a culinary tour of Athens, one of the highlights of our trip, as we got to eat baklava in a local Greek Taverna, watch cheese and other pies being made--then sample them fresh and hot--eating the best Gyro sandwiches in Athens and sample fresh olives, nuts and other products at the fresh market. We enjoyed driving to Mystras to see the UNESCO site (fabulous ruins) and visiting ancient Corinth where the apostle Paul preached. Other highlights of our trip were our visit to Chania on the island of Crete and staying on Santorini for 3 days. Near Chania we had a Greek cooking class at a farmhouse where we made our own dinner and learned to appreciate the multiple uses of olives and olive oil. We stayed in a cozy boutique hotel in Chania and in a hotel on the cliff in Santorini with an amazing view of the sunsets and cruise ships. We have to give a major shoutout to Thanos, our travel specialist. Before we left he worked closely with us to pick the tours, hotels and activities that were the best for us and within our budget--he gave us great suggestions of things to do that we didn't know about. We actually got to meet him in Athens and he checked on us almost daily. We messaged him when we had questions about the itinerary or needed help and he always responded quickly. I highly recommend KimKim and their travel specialists. Their platform that produces the itinerary is easy to use and included ideas for restaurants and what to see in each city we visited.

which was a pleasant surprise. I visited Athens, Milos and Santorini. All the tours he booked for me were on point and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone in my group. I will use him again when going back to Greece and when I plan my trip to Italy. You can't go wrong using this company!

happy we did. We had fabulous hotels in perfect locations, private tour guides, private drivers and small group tours organised prior to leaving home and it all worked perfectly and gave us an amazing experience. TravelLocal made our planning very easy and our holiday wonderful. Thannkyou Al;exandros and Elena and we would highly recommend anyone traveling to Greece to access your services.

really learned a lot during our short stay.

fully delivered on that. The tour of Tuscany was a highlight, as was the Roman Forum. It was amazing to be so immersed in history, and I can't wait to go back!

and he made sure to take this in account with our plans, even sharing child-friendly tips. Anthia then took over with the execution - such a lovely lady, she took the time to walk us through the itinerary and logistics over a call, patiently answered all our questions, and was available throughout our trip on WhatsApp in case we had any questions or needed any help. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip, which was tailor-made to our requirements, and all logistics went smoothly no doubt to their attention to detail!

I was having a hard time getting everything just right, so it was so helpful to have someone local who knew what we needed to do beyond going to the Acropolis, how to space out our travel destinations os our young kids didn't get too tired, and which were the best beaches in the areas we knew we wanted to go to. I highly recommend this experience and will definitely be looking for similar help on future trips.

were happy. They even were proactive when the heat would close tours early, ensuring we were in early and with few issues. All of this was done within our budget! I would recommend them to anyone!

and friendly. The hotels were all top notch. All the vehicles were high end premium vans. Anthia helped us with dinner reservations and recommendations also. She was constantly in contact with us and accommodated many last minute requests too. I would not hesitate to refer Greek Insiders to my friends and family!

and any of the islands. Thank you for a fantastic trip!

communication before we left to iron out any details and make me feel more confident that this was the real deal so to speak. The trip itself- Every local guide was on time and exactly where they said they were going to be. At no time was there any confusion or deviation from what was communicated in the itinerary. The guides were friendly and informative. "Hog," our driver was fabulous and so much more than just an excellent and safe driver. He was intelligent, interesting, and genuine and added so much to our experience about understanding modern Greece, and had great recommendations for local restaurants.. The hotels and breakfasts were great and a few times we got treated with upgrades. The planning of the itinerary was very thoughtful. At first glance, I thought that touring some of the sites so late in the afternoon seemed odd, but clearly it allowed for us to take our time getting from place to place as well as beat the heat. We were well taken care from beginning to end, which allowed us to pack in so many sites, so much learning and fun without getting overwhelmed.

Greece Insiders online. We told Elena what we wanted and within a couple of days, she'd put together a pretty much perfect trip. With a few small adjustments...it WAS the perfect trip! We had to do nothing but turn up! A wonderful driver, the best guides we could ask for, and nice hotels, made for the trip of a lifetime. One of the most important things for me, was the fact that Elena and Lydia made themselves available to troubleshoot any issues, at any time. The comfort of knowing that anything that might go wrong would be handled for us...was priceless! Thanks to Elena and Lydia, for a fantastic experience!!

planned - from airport transports, flights to/from Santorini, rental car, tour guides, etc. We loved the fact that this trip was tailored to our personal interests. It was so easy to plan as Chris communicated with us directly. Anytime we had a question, we got a quick reply. We especially enjoyed driving through the Peloponnese Region - the scenery was gorgeous along the coast, and the pace was much more relaxed than Athens. We stayed in 3 different towns and 3 very different hotels, but all were superb! We had never planned a trip quite like this, but Greek Insiders and Chris made it easy and manageable. The trip itinerary was so detailed - it was like having our own personal tour guide with us.

So many spectacular sites and seemingly so little time. Our local agent, Alexandros, through TravelLocal really got us to the best sites and with great guides. All logistics were flawless (how often can you say that). The Hania area in Crete and Delphi were true standouts.

which is a charming town with great access to Mycenae and Epidaurus. Delphi is an amazing area and Thessaloniki offered some of our best meals of the trip. Our driver was so professional and personable and made sure we had great snacks! We were very impressed by the guides at the archaelogical sites and I highly recommend using a guide to get the most out of your visit. Thanks to Elena and the many other people we met for making us feel welcome and helping us enjoy their amazing country.

just us and were fantastic—food tour in Athens, Acropolis, Mt Zas hike and small villages tours on Naxos, etc. Hotels and all transportation were great. We felt very taken care of and the tours gave us a lot of history and context for what we saw, as well as a chance to meet and interact with locals.

I would not do multiple days together of guided tours. There were times by the end of the 2nd day I was not able to absorb the information they were talking about. We loved loved our days in Zagori, the place we stayed was excellent (our favorite) and the gorge and bridges were beautiful. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is going to Greece. The water in Zakynthos was so blue and clear, it was magnificent, and would highly recommend this island to anyone.

dates, exhibits overwhelmed me. The trip was very well planned for getting around the country and seeing the sights, except on Zakynthos and in Rafina.We took lots of pictures to remember our trip by and share with others.

private driver, Andres, for almost a week, our guides, 4 in all, were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Honestly, our guides may have been the best guides in all of Greece. They treated us so well! Making sure we had everything we needed and took us everywhere we went. So much better than a group tour.Our trip was tailor-made for us, just the way we wanted to see Greece. First class!

and his colleague, Maria Grazia, supplied daily detailed information with names and connections.  Midway through our two week Italy stay, we switched plans when Chris and Maria Grazia fully understood and reacted quickly to make other plans for us. Chris suggested an online meeting before we left our Boston home to review our specialized itinerary  which proved extremely worthwhile and allowed us to make a face-to-face connection.  Thanks to the Whatsapp application we had both Chris and Maria Graze in our pockets 24 hrs. per day.  We did have some off-hours communication that both Chris and Maria Graze accepted helpfully and graciously - they both possess a great sense of humor.  We could not more strongly recommend working with Chris and his hand-picked team.

planner. They are very responsive, attentive, and made attention to detail a priority.

travel guides, first we had Elena who initiated our itinerary and hit the nail on the head, gave us exactly the type of trip that we wanted and was looking for especially for our honeymoon! Then we had Lydia who finished off the tail end of our planning before getting to Greece and she was incredibly communicative and responsive to when we had questions and helped us get all of our things together prior to going on our trip! From the moment we arrived in Greece, everyone whom we had come in contact with was so incredibly nice and fun it felt like we were hanging out with friends! When meeting with each of our tour guides , even Lydia our travel guide one night, Being in a new place it was so refreshing to have amazing conversations about the culture and just being in the company of good genuine people. Lydia would check in with us through out our trip to make sure we were okey and it was incredibly comforting. We kept saying to ourselves each day it can't get better and somehow they both topped it off when we had different types of food tours ,Wine Tours and the sheer beauty of each archaeological site was just amazing. We never felt rushed in any way being that it was our honeymoon we wanted to remain active but also have some down time and their itinery gave us a lot of time to explore on our own, places that we wanted check out. We did all of the mainland and we had the same driver each day we traveled which was like one big road trip with a great friend! There was even one day we were supposed to do a hike, the weather ended up being crappy and our driver yannis was on the case in no time he made some calls and we were able to still do something with the day and make it so much fun even though we didn't get to initially do what was planned! That being said I cannot recommend them enough! From the moment we got to Greece, till the moment we left , everybody was so incredibly nice our experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to use them again to go back!

change a few things and she adjusted quickly and all was set to go! When we arrived Lydia met us at our hotel and we had coffee together and she was letting us know if we had any questions, concerns or issues she would be there to help. Everything was great, including smooth transitions between islands. We couldn’t have asked for a better experience and would highly recommend them to anyone!

arranged for our stay were excellent We would not change one thing that we did. Any questions we had during our time in Greece were immediately answered by a representative from Greek Insiders via text. We also received text reminders for flights and other logistics which we found reassuring and helpful. Normally when we travel we plan most of our trip on our own, but with needing to arrange transportation to different islands, we felt getting assistance was a good idea. If traveling to Greece I highly recommend reaching out to Greece Insiders to assist with your planning.

an Athens trip for me and my wife with some of the best hotels and best tour guides. I cannot wait to book my next trip and look forward to working with Lydia and Greece insiders again!

Our entire itinerary is so well planned. From food tour to day trips to days for ourselves, we experience something new and exciting every single day.Our Destination Expert Elena is such a great guide. She has been so approachable and helpful since we inquired about traveling to Greece. Her warmth and friendliness have made us feel free of any worries from booking the trip through our stay in Athens. A big thank you to Elena's wonderful professionalism!Highly recommend Greece and Greece Insiders!

how to travel easy. She includes local restaurants which we reviewed along with the hotel suggestions. In some cases, the tours, wineries, etc included a lunch, around 2-3 pm and at night we weren't very hungery and may buy a snack at the local mini market. We had both some small group tours - maximum 8 but we only had maybe 5 on it including our self, some it was just us 2, we also had private tours, Athens, Delphi, Chanai. Some of the Tour companies were Luxury Tours, GS-ES tours, and driver in Athens was TBS , ask for Yani with them- great driver and very personable - we met the tour guides either at the site or they may ride with us in Athens. The tour guides were very good and we had fun teasing and learning from them. All the hotels which she booked were within walking distance of many sites or transportation was easily gotten, we used buses as well as hotel drivers. Elena is worth the cost of the travel. Since we were flying in, we elected to fly via Athens to Crete so that we wouldn't be go back and forth to airport to go from Athens to Crete or Crete to Athens to Santorini and then back to Athens to fly out. The cost to fly from Athens to Crete via Sky wasn't much and we arrived in Crete about 5:30 pm. We had no complaints about the Hotels, they were clean, very helpful staff and great locations.

Our advisor was Julia and she was amazing. We went for our birthdays and Julie set up a perfect 18 day trip for us. We would definitely use this company again.