Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

This was a fabulous trip — we spent one week on Crete and two weeks in the Peloponnese and Central Greece. We were very pleased with the services offered by the travel planner and they added a lot of value. For example, the transfers to and from the airport were terrific. We were very happy with most of our hotels. It was great to have someone to call for help — for example, there were floods in Central Greece during our stay and we weren’t certain if the road from Delphi to Meteora would be open when we were traveling, so it was terrific to have someone to call. We appreciated having dedicated tour guides at all of the ancient sites and at Momenvasia; most of them were terrific. We especially loved the Minos Beach Art Hotel in Agios Nikolaus — I wish we had had an extra day there! We also loved our hotels in Chania and Momenvasia. We would not have been able to plan this extraordinary trip on our own!

My husband and I just returned from 13 days in Greece (9/25-10/7). We visited Athens, Naxos and Santorini. Thanks to Mina and her staff, our trip was perfectly executed down to the last detail. Any questions, concerns or requests we had were answered quickly, efficiently and with a degree of care that made us feel as though we were very important travelers. Everyone, from Mina’s team to the drivers, tour guides and staff at the different hotels, were professional, friendly, and courteous. We never felt rushed or concerned—we could relax and enjoy our trip—which is a lovely way to travel.

In Athens our itinerary included a walking tour of the city with a guide who was an archeologist, geologist and very knowledgeable in the culture, history, mythology, and architecture of the city. Visiting the Acropolis, the museum and various churches and monuments are very different with someone there with you explaining their significance. We also enjoyed a food tour that brought us through the many neighborhoods of Athens and included lunch in a taverna, olive oil, cheese and ouzo tasting, Greek coffee, souvlaki, open-air markets, and bakeries.

After a seamless transfer, we arrived in Naxos where we stayed in a charming boutique hotel (18 Grapes). Very close to the beach and not far from the town center, the staff there were friendly, courteous, and gracious. In Naxos we enjoyed a hike through small towns, past olive and fig trees, beautiful vistas and many, many Byzantine churches. Our guide explained the importance of these churches, the changes in these towns over the centuries, and what life was like today to these people. At the end of our hike, we enjoyed a farm-to-table lunch in a family kafenio. We also attended a cooking class at an organic farm, where, after a tour of the farm, we created our lunch of home-grown vegetables and keftedes. We visited an olive oil press and sampled tapas produced there. We spent a day on a catamaran with stops around the small Cyclades islands, then enjoyed home-made moussaka.

A high-speed ferry (no idea one existed there, but so happy that Mina booked that for us, very rough seas, the “regular” ferry would have killed me) brought us to Santorini and to the beautiful Hom Santorini boutique hotel on the island cliffs of Oia overlooking the Aegean Sea. You could never leave, and be happy, but we enjoyed a walking tour of the villages of Santorini—churches, and narrow alleys through whitewashed buildings. We ended our tour at a family-owned winery. We also spent a day visiting 4 different wineries, each tasting paired with meze-style bites. Our last day was spent on an afternoon catamaran cruise, with swimming at various beaches, a BBQ on board, the panorama of Oia from the sea, and ending with views of the sunset from the boat.

This is our fourth trip with one of Wendy’s teams of experts, and we, again, were not disappointed. Travel can be expensive and stressful, and you want to be sure you’re not missing something amazing—when we returned home, we felt we had made the most of our time in Greece, it was an amazing trip—we saw and did things we’ll always remember.

Thank you to Mina’s team! Had a trip to Greece September 5-9 of 2023. We had no real knowledge of what to do or where to go, and have used the Wendy Perrin website before. We found on the site Mina Agnos. The trip she put together was fantastic and we could not have asked for better. We were met at the airport and whisked through security to our waiting car by the airport greeter. Then we were taken to the fantastic Hotel Grande Bretagne, a 5-star property, where we enjoyed a beautiful Acropolis view room. Would recommend that as an upgrade for sure! We went on a wonderful history and Acropolis tour and the next day a fantastic food tour. Historic rain interrupted our planned overnight trip to Meteora as roads were impassable. I was called by the concierge in Mina’s office, Stella, who was able to arrange another night at the hotel and instead suggested a day trip to Delphi. This was amazing! Tour guide Iris (who was with us at the Acropolis and Delphi) was kind and knowledgeable. We felt very pampered and important for the entire trip. Highly recommend Mina’s team if you are traveling to Greece and thank you Wendy Perrin!

Communication with the team in Greece was sparse and definitely not as thorough as our experience with a UK team on The WOW List. I made the point of saying it was a family trip with a toddler. The room accomodations in Santorini at the Villas in Andronis worked well for our 2 families, however the hotel choice was definitely not a family atmosphere hotel, which detracted a great deal from that portion of our trip overseas. Our three year old granddaughter saw things around the pool area she shouldn’t have had to see. Neither my husband, myself nor our two adult children enjoyed the hotel atmosphere. It was a club environment with primarily young adults. The restaurant ambience changed very quickly to a club scene before we finished dining at 7:30 pm, we dined at other restaurants the rest of the week. Very disappointing time in Santorini.

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