My friend and I had a wonderful trip to Greec...

Greece | May 3 - May 14, 2023

This hotel is very clean, the location in the old part of Chania close to the water and central to the shops and restaurants. The room we were in was spacious and we had a little balcony that looked out on the street. The hotel is like an apartment next to restaurants and shops. We ate breakfast (part of the room rate) at a nearby restaurant and the food was amazing. Be sure to try the Crete breakfast if you stay there.

Great downtown location with an amazing view of the Acropolis. The breakfast buffet is very good and you can view the Acropolis as you eat. Rooms are clean, beds are comfortable. Very attentive hotel staff.

The white-splashed hotel was on the side of the cliff with amazing views of the bay, the island and all boats going by, including cruise ships that docked right below us. Sunsets were great. And the views at night are wonderful. It's about a 10 minute walk from the town but has restaurants and amenities nearby. Also, you could walk along the cliff in both directions to see churches, shops, restaurants, etc. We had a deck with chairs we could sit on to relax and take in the view. You do have to walk down and up stairs to get to the pools and restaurant for the breakfast buffet--which was very good. There is no elevator so you get your exercise going up and down the stairs--be sure to watch where you are going instead of the view!

We flew in at 8 pm and left at 3:30 am to catch our flight. The hotel is very convenient, right across the street from the airport. Staff were kind and efficient. Didn't get to try the food. Very nice hotel with great beds, big bathrooms, all the amenities you would have in a big city hotel.

This is a good hotel near the main market area and the port. The rooms are nice and the breakfast buffet was excellent--they opened it early just for us because we had an early ferry to catch. It's within walking distance of the main places to visit in town.

This was an excellent tour of the Acropolis--our guide was very knowledgeable and personalized the tour for the two of us. Then she took us around Athens describing the local cuisine and giving us the opportunity to try everything from baklava (the best I've every eaten, in a local taverna) to gyro sandwiches, with cheese pies, fresh olives and dried fruits and nuts in between. I was so stuffed I didn't eat the rest of the day.

Mystras is an amazing place that I didn't know about before. There is a lot to see and I recommend walking to the very top, which we didn't do. There isn't an "Ancient Sparta", so I think that is misleading. It was great to stop at Corinth on the way back to Athens.

The ruins are a work in progress, but still interesting. And there is a good museum that is a part of the tour. We were able to stand where the Apostle Paul probably preached and visualize what it would have looked like. We coupled this tour with the tour of Mystras, which was a good combo and use of time since it was on our way back to Athens. There were not many other people there--it was nice to get off the beaten track.

There were only 6 of us in the group so we got a lot of personal attention. It was fun to visit the little villages in the countryside. First we visited a park-like preserve with fruit trees and local flora. We saw an ancient Greek church and ate hot cheese pies/fresh squeezed OJ in a little town called Stylos. Next we toured a local cheese factory and sampled their cheese with local honey--so delicious. In another town we visited a local bakery, watched some of their processes and ate fresh bread with local olive oil. We visited some other local sites before ending at a Fres where we ate local cuisine at Koyvaros Taverna. Their Greek salad was the best!

We drove to a family farmhouse in Fres where we had our own workstation and learned how to make stuffed zucchini, peppers and tomatoes, cheese pies and a kind of bruschetta. In between we feed sheep, learned about the local history and saw tools and implements they used on the farm in the past. After the food was all cooked we had a huge meal and enjoyed each other's company. The setting was beautiful--our work tables were outside and we could see the mountains and countryside until the sun went down. The food, company and ambiance were amazing.

We went to a museum and learned about the history of Santorini, the Red Beach and to the ruins of the town Akrotiri, that are still being excavated and pieced together. Next was lunch that included delicious baked fish/veggies and a pana cotta with beetroot topping. Truly amazing food. We spent an hour at the Black Beach and shopping area, visited a church at the north end of the island and then ended the day watching the sunset from a restaurant on the tip of the island. It was beautiful!

The catamaran was very nice and the views and food were amazing. There were only 10 of us on board and our group meshed will together. The only problem was that it was too cold to get in the water. Not anyone's fault, many locals told us it was the coldest May in their memory.