Epidaurus Itineraries

I recently returned from a trip of a lifetime - Smartours Spectacular Greece and Greek Island Cruise! This was my first trip with Smartours and I couldn't have been happier. With everything included, the planning and trip were hassle free! I got to see all the history, culture and beauty of Greece. The tour guides were incredible! Granville Lee-Warner, our ultimate Tour Director, welcomed us upon arrival in Athens. His incredible spirit, warm heartedness and knowledge guided us through our cruise portion of the trip. He pulled us together as one big family! At various ports of call, he was assisted by guides who displayed prodigious local knowledge. I would love to travel under his guidance again!!! Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, for the land portion of our trip, we were guided by the very knowledgeable Nina Pentogaluo. These two are remarkable assets to your company!!!! I look forward to planning another adventure with Smartours in the future!

With dear friends and veteran travelers, Sue and Pete, and following a long flight over the Atlantic and most of the Mediterranean, our adventure in Greece began in Athens. We spent our first afternoon and night there before boarding a Celestyal Cruise ship the next morning at Piraeus (near Athens) for a four-night Greek island cruise. Our cruise included visits to Mykonos, Kusadasi, Ephesus (Turkey), Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, and beautiful Santorini. We were guided by the ultimate Tour Director, Granville Lee-Warner, who was assisted at various ports of call by local guides who displayed a prodigious local knowledge. Upon our return to Piraeus and mainland Greece, our tour group of 28 boarded a bus for the land portion of our adventure. For the remainder of our adventure, we were led by a very knowledgeable tour guide, Nina Pentogaluo, as we journeyed to Delphi, Olympia, and Mycenae. We completed our adventure with several more days in Athens before flying home via Emerates Airline (an interesting experience all by itself, the story of which is more suitable for another time). The food was awesomely delicious everywhere we dined (I could not get enough of those remarkable Greek salads). The various hotels where we stayed exceeded our expectations, especially in Delphi and Athens. The hotel in Athens included a roof-top open air restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and Parthenon. We made friends with fellow adventurers who came from all parts of the U.S. (including our home state of Florida) and exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch. Along we way, we were coddled, educated, fed well, and entertained by our intrepid SmarTour guides, Granville and Nina. While some of us had concerns about the unusual behavior of a few tourists we ran into from time to time (not a part of our group), the people in Greece were always friendly and helpful. We learned that English is mandatory in all Greek schools so communicating was never a problem. The Euro was easy to manage and most places also took US dollars. Unlike our previous experiences in Egypt, there were very few places where we had to pay to use the bathrooms (W.C. in Greece, which, as was pointed out to us is strange because there is no 'W" in the Greek language). See my photos here: www.deano.zenfolio.com/greece2019

Great time, learned a lot- Our 2 Tour Directors Granville and Nina made Greek History come alive. We ha enough down time and enjoyed every minute. The optional tours were worth it and should not be missed. This is my second SmarTour trip and will do it again

Overall the trip was great. More emphasis should be put on avoiding unnecessary steps. I have bad knees and steps were a problem for me. Tour guides were excellent. Ship was a little on the seedy side but staff was extremely helpful. Hotels were excellent.

in overall the trip was wonderful, especially, land portion (Delphi and Olympia). Cruise part was ok, but very little time for Island tours. our lead Guides (Granville and Nina) and local guides were very nice and very knowledgeable. Especially both lead Guides were very helpful and made our trip enjoyable. And special thanks to Elias (our driver on the land tour), he was wonderful always so helpful and keeping eye on all our needs. He made out tour so enjoyable. We thought Smart Tour could improve this tour by allocation (or extending the tour time) longer for few days especially time spent on Islands. We thought planning for Island visit could be longer as some of them were quite short like Santorini. Turkey portion of the tour (Ephesus) was breath taking and nice little touch with a side visit to carpet factory. Our Hotel at Athens on first day was at best not what we expected (very small rooms), we thought food on the ship, especially breakfast and lunch, could be better. In overall, it was a good tour and got to see and learn more about Ancient Greece.

I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular Greece tour. The guide Granville Lee-Warner was fabulous. He made the tour extra special being personable, knowledgeable and giving us an extra excursion on the Island of Rhodes. I enjoyed Victoria as well for the land tours. She was very knowledgeable as well.