Memorable Greece vacation
Greece
|
Nov 17 - Nov 27, 2022
Overall an amazing trip and memorable experience for our family. Thanks to KimKim team and Amalia for the thorough planning. We hadn't travelled in a while since Covid and this was our first big international vacation in three years, and also the first one for my six year old.
Amalia was super responsive. Communication throughout the planning phase was spot on. She made sure to ask for our personal preferences, put together a custom itinerary, and made sure to plan a luxurious vacation to perfection. Amalia was responsive during the trip and she helped make some last minute reservations at a few places.
1) Athens
- Driver Thanasis picked us up promptly at the Athens airport. Thanasis is an absolute gentleman - very polite, respectful, courteous and was willing to go the extra mile, stops along the way to ensure we had the best experience. The Mercedes van was well maintained and super clean.
- The Foundry Suites at Athens - an amazing place, very central location (10-12 minute walk to the Acropolis), and great hosts, excellent breakfasts. We had a very comfortable stay there.
- Popi, our tour guide for the Acropolis Museum and at Acropolis was again amazing. Her story telling ability and the knowledge of Greek ancient history / civilization was fascinating. My daughter loved the guided tour and she made it very memorable with beautiful story telling. We were pleasantly surprised when Popi told us that she had a PhD candidate. Such was the quality of the tour guides.
- Very comfortable drive in the afternoon to Sounio - Temple of Poseidon. We saw the gorgeous Sunset
2 ) Nafplio
Our next part of the trip was in Nafplio, a place that is two hours from Greece by car. It is a quaint little town. Just walking around the town was quite an experience.
- We stayed at the amazing Anthemion Villas / Suites - luxurious and comfortable. It was away from all the noise but literally just 3 minutes away from the city center
- Next day we had a private guided tour of Mycenae and Epidaurus. Our guide Theodoros Lendoudis talked us through the history all the way from the Bronze civilization, cycladic, minoan, mycenean, and the classical era. The huge theater in Epidaurus with amazing acoustics was the highlight of the day
3) Crete island: Chania
We visited Crete island. Rented a luxurious Volvo which was super comfortable and stayed in the old town in Chania. It was a central location. Our tour guide at Knossos in Heraklion, Maria Ververaki was again top notch. We stopped on the way at the very beautiful Rethymno, Lasitha plateau, and the quaint little town Archanes, Our kids also enjoyed the pink sand beach Elafonisi.
4) Santorini
The last part of our trip was spent in Santorini at stayed put at the Heliotopos Hotel. Again a super comfortable stay and very memorable. We truly enjoyed visiting all the scenic villages Oia, Fira, Imerovigli. At the last minute Amalia helped plan an amazing half-a-day luxury cruise that ended with a gorgeous view of the sunset, which our kids enjoyed a lot.
Finally we came to Athens and did a a very interesting Food tour with the super nice Adania. We were able to taste authentic Greek food while hearing about the history behind each of the delicacies. Amalia was super sweet and met us on the last day of our trip, and presented to us some hand-knits hats that her mom had made for us. It was such a pleasure meeting her in person.
Overall a very memorable trip and amazingly well planned luxury vacation, thanks to Amalia. She was very attentive to all the details and planned a very customized trip considering our needs, and especially our second daughter's allergy needs. Highly recommend her.
Few opportunities / feedback to take the vacation to the next level:
1) Accommodation: Please do not recommend Porto Antico apartments for travelers or families. We understand the recommendation was made because of the hotel's reputation. But the apartment was dinghy. Thankfully we were able to find a good accommodation via Airbnb and the apartment refunded the amount on the same day.
2) Both Avis and Hertz are amazing rental car brands in the US. We had a very pleasant experience renting through Avis at Crete. But had a bad experience with Avis at Santorini. The main issue was that Avis was not open 24 hours! Because of which I had to rent a car from Hertz at the last minute. I think it is best especially for international travelers that need some flexibility - that you suggest the car company that is open 24 hours, so that there is flexibility for the travelers to decide on when to rent and when to return. I have to say that Amalia and the KimKim team promptly refunded us the Avis rental car costs for Santorini, which is very much appreciated.
The above two pieces of feedback are meant to be constructive. Amalia planned everything to perfection. The above two glitches is something that is hard to predict. Amalia was super responsive when we raised these during our trip. Overall very happy with the services provided. I would highly recommend both KimKim and Amalia for your travel needs to Greece.
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