Gastronomy of Greece Tour: Athens, Santorini, and Crete

We had a wonderful and memorable trip to Greece, thanks to the Zicasso travel specialist’s excellent planning. In addition to exploring Athens, she designed a seamless road trip across the Peloponnese Peninsula that took us to beautiful beaches and ancient castles in Messinia, Voidokilia, Pylos, Methoni, Monemvasia, and Nafplio. She also provided clear directions and recommended great stops to break up our drives, including Mystras Castle and the beautiful Polylimnio Waterfalls.

Our hotel accommodations were excellent throughout the trip and we really enjoyed our stay in beautiful Santorini. We also appreciated her restaurant recommendations, which saved us from having to search for places to eat and always led us to great food. She stayed in touch via WhatsApp the entire time, checking in on us and answering our questions whenever they came up. There is so much to see in Greece that we’ll definitely need to go back for another visit.

Excellent! Everything was meticulously planned. All of our tours were very interesting and the drivers were courteous. We went to Athens, Naxos, and Santorini during our 11-day trip. Overall, I think our favorite place was Naxos, with Athens and the Acropolis being second, although the weather that morning was not the best. But our guide was excellent and kept us engaged while fighting rain and wind. As I mentioned, all the drivers and guides were excellent and I would highly recommend this trip. Santorini was beautiful too and the wine tour was extremely interesting. We highly recommend Zicasso.

The itinerary is not the best for the price we paid and for a family with two children. We thought we could come back to Greece, but after this trip, we might not come back or even use Zicasso again. Here are the reasons: 1. The hotels are subpar for the price we paid for this tour. Our hotel in Athens felt like a 2-star. Our hotel in Santorini has a great view, but it's just a view, no pool, etc. nearby. Our hotel in Crete is not near a beach, a 20-minute walk. 2. Too much time was wasted on travel from one location to the next (Santorini to Crete and Crete to Athens). 3. Four nights in Santorini with two children is overkill since there is not much to do other than take photos, hike, and that's basically it. 4. Some of the tours are okay but nothing special, i.e., the hiking tour in Crete where they call the "little forest" is merely just for the name. It has nothing to do with the tour guides. All tour guides are great. However, we feel the tour company is crafting ordinary tours, labels it special, and calls it private. 5. In Delphi, we could have had more time to look around after the two hours. If any of the tours were great, it was the tours we had in Athens and Delphi. If we had known this type of tour we received, we could have done an all-inclusive resort in Greece and done our own without having to go through Zicasso and the tour company.

Our travel specialist was an exceptional travel planner. I have planned many trips and my experience with her was at the top. I actually investigated working with Zicasso because I was interested in leveraging the planning of my trip as a cultural exchange with someone in-country who could provide their personal perspectives and insider tips. She delivered!

Our travel specialist had dinner with us the first night and gave us all sorts of insights on Athens and her recommendations. She also gave us her cell number and was available 24/7 for any needs we had throughout the trip. I have never had service like this. She was truly incredible and helped us navigate last-minute changes or additions flawlessly and with no stress.

She found small, family-owned hotels with lots of character for us to stay in. She organized a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Santorini to participate in all of the many festivities surrounding Greek Orthodox Easter; so many traditions and so very different than our American Easter. It was authentic, joyful, and an incredible cultural exchange in that we were welcomed wholeheartedly by the people of Santorini.

The guides she provided were locals who had deep knowledge and high academic credentials, so traveling with them was like going back to school and learning in the most amazing fully immersive manner.

Our guide in Santorini mentioned we must not miss Akrotiri on Santorini, so we made time to fit in this unexpected tour; turns out it blew our mind: an ancient Minoan city... and some say it may have been the lost city of Atlantis. The story of the town and its demise is stunning. Then, a visit to Knossos in Heraklion, Crete, with our PhD guide, a cultural anthropologist and archaeologist. She was able to share the historical perspective on the Minoan Palace of Knossos, but also the contemporary study of the subject and how the work of "pre-history" civilizations is done with limited Minoan language and documentation.

Our travel specialist planned a flawless trip of a lifetime for us, but we also made a friend in Athens. We are so very grateful.

Zicasso's travel agent and the rest of the team were great! They were so easy to work with and listened to suggestions when we were planning our Greece honeymoon. They did an excellent job planning Athens, Crete, and Santorini.

It was a great, history-filled week, complete with walking tours, food tastings, and historic sites, as well as a spa trip for some relaxation and a unique cooking class where we met others from around the world to create a Greek meal, learn about history, and then enjoy our meal together. I would recommend this travel company for your travel needs!

We had a very good trip to Greece with Zicasso's travel specialist. We traveled to Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini with a group of six (three couples). They did a good job of finding nice and convenient hotels in each location, and we were also pleased with the Acropolis tour, food tours, and catamaran trip we took during the week.