Long-time clients Alicia & Jay came to us for some help with a bucket-list trip to Greece with her mom, dad, sister, and brother-in-law. The whole family wanted a mix of sightseeing, relaxation, luxury hotel amenities, gorgeous beaches, and incredible food! We were thrilled to put it all together for them. Here’s their feedback:
We can’t thank you enough for planning such a perfect family trip to Greece! We had an amazing time! We had beautiful, warm, and sunny weather for most of the trip.
Athens
As you already know, when we arrived in Athens on Saturday morning, there was a mixup with our transportation and we ended up just taking taxis to the hotel. However, after this, the trip was mostly seamless! The Athens Gate Hotel was wonderful and very helpful in confirming our transportation for the following day. When we arrived on Saturday, we had lunch and explored Hadrian’s Arch and Monastiraki Square. We had drinks and dinner at the Athens Gate rooftop, which had beautiful views of the Acropolis.
On Sunday, we had our tour of the Acropolis. When we got to the meeting point, there was no one there to meet us for the tour. We contacted the tour company and they arranged for someone to meet us back at our hotel so we could leave from there. The tour of the Acropolis was amazing and our tour guide was incredible. It was definitely good to do it early in the day because it was 90+ degrees, and it wasn’t too crowded as we were climbing up, but on our way down we noticed that the crowds had increased significantly.
After the tour, we grabbed lunch and headed to the airport.
Crete
We absolutely loved the Minoa Palace Resort in Crete! What a beautiful resort, which certainly earns its 5-star status.
We spent the next four days mostly between the beach and pools and walking to nearby restaurants for dinner. The hotel staff couldn’t have been nicer, arranging taxis and even salon appointments for us. We loved our rooms with the private pools!
The Cretan Cooking Class was an incredible experience and one of the best meals we had the entire trip. It was amazing to see the family’s villa high up in the mountains with incredible views.
We also explored Chania Old Town on Wednesday, which was beautiful. We stopped for lunch along the water at the perfect time because the skies opened up and gave us quite a storm. I think that was the only time it rained the entire trip in Greece!
Santorini
I think Santorini was collectively our favorite place! The Petit Palace Hotel blew us away with its incredible views. Talk about a grand entrance – the hotel’s entrance is literally two doors on the side of a cliff and all you see is the water below when you walk through. Our rooms were again spacious and impressive – from the unique bathrooms to the balconies. We saw the best sunset of our entire trip from our hotel room balconies. The hotel had a shuttle that runs back and forth to Fira, and the staff was very helpful with arranging taxis for us elsewhere.
We spent time exploring both Fira and Oia, which was my favorite place, as well as the black sand beaches – we spent a day at one of the beach clubs called Wet Stories. Marissa, Joe, and Bob did a hike from Fira to Imerovigli, which they said was amazing! We also did a tour and wine tasting at Santo Wines, which was great!
The highlight in Santorini for all of us was the Sunset Boat Tour. The tour ended up being all adults and relatively small (we lucked out with a fun group). The crew was spectacular and the food they prepared was delicious. We all swam in the Aegean Sea and enjoyed drinks, good music, and beautiful views.
Conclusions
We all agreed that it was so nice to have one extra night in Athens at the end of the trip. We loved the Sofitel – the convenience of the two-minute walk from baggage claim was ideal. We had dinner at their rooftop restaurant and it was great to be able to freshen up and get a good night’s sleep before the long flight back to Boston.
Overall, you knocked it out of the park again! This was the most memorable family trip. Thank you from all of us for planning the best escape to Greece!
