Greece Undiscovered
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Bask in the splendours of the ancient world on this 15-day Greece tour. Explore the Acropolis and the Arch of Hadrian in Athens. See where the Olympic Games began in 776 B.C at the Temple of Zeus and in the city of Mycenae, take in the giant Cyclopean stones. Thessaloniki’s markets tempt you with regional delicacies and a local beekeeper invites you to tour his family-run honey farm. On the romantic isle of Crete, stroll medieval towns and get up close and personal with archaeological finds.
Trip Code: I952M26
Start Location
Athens (undefined)
End Location
Chania (undefined)
Duration
56 days
Countries Visited
Greece
Trip Type
Eastern Mediterranean
Itinerary Type
Classic Group
Theme
-
Season
-
Booking Status
Available
Trip Highlights
- •
Dining Summary
- 14 Breakfast (B)
- 6 Dinner (D)
- 1 Lunch (L)
- •
Well-being
- colour Enjoy the comfort of Insight's luxurious, air-conditioned, 40-seat coach with double the standard legroom and onboard washroom. Our customized luxury coaches are sanitized before the start of your tour and are maintained to very high standards. Physical distancing measures have been implemented on our customized luxury coaches.
- Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.
- •
Additional Included Highlights
- Personal radio headsets give you the freedom to wander during visits to famous highlights, without missing any of your Local Expert's fascinating commentary.
- Hotel and restaurant tips are included - you'll never have to worry about how much to give, nor search for foreign currency. We also include all taxes and porterage charges at hotels.
- We carry your bags for you and promptly deliver them to your hotel door.
- From time to time, your Travel Director will delight you with an Insight Flourish, which is a local specialty representing the destination.
- Stay connected with friends and family with our complimentary coach and hotel Wi-Fi (where available).
- If your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates, then transfers are available at scheduled times. If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport.
- •
Authentic Dining
- Athens: Taste seasonal dishes built around olive oil, grains, legumes and coastal produce, paired with wines from native grape varieties grown across mainland and island vineyards.
- Heraklion: Share a Cretan menu with your Small Group. You’ll try island dishes such as dakos, built on barley rusk with tomato and mizithra, and kaltsounia pastries finished with honey and cinnamon. Raise a first toast with raki, Crete’s traditional grape spirit.
- Chania: Join your Small Group for dinner in a traditional Cretan restaurant. The menu features local specialities and seasonal ingredients, typically including dishes built around olive oil, vegetables, herbs and local cheeses, with regional wine served alongside.
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Insight Experiences
- Athens: View key originals from the Parthenon, Erechtheion and Temple of Athena Nike, including the Caryatids and sections of the frieze. Your Local Expert will highlight how sculptural styles evolved across centuries, and explains the Parthenon frieze’s role as political storytelling during Athens’ Golden Age.
- Vergina: Visit the Royal Tombs at Vergina with your Local Expert and see the tomb traditionally identified as Philip II’s. You’ll learn how the discovery of the burial complex reshaped understanding of Macedonian royal history and funerary practice.
- Nafplion: Meet an expert sommelier at a Nemea winery and learn about the evolution of Greek wine making, dating back to antiquity. After touring the winery, sample some of the delicious and elegant Greek wines, expertly paired with piquant local cheeses and tasty cured meats.
- Heraklion: Explore the Palace of Knossos with your Local Expert, Crete’s largest Bronze Age palace complex and traditionally linked to King Minos. You’ll walk through the Central Court and Throne Room and see reconstructed frescoes, examining how the scale, layout and surviving details reflect the administrative and ceremonial role of the site.
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Top Rated Highlights
- Athens: Ascend the Acropolis with a Local Expert to admire the Parthenon, built in 5th century B.C. Steps away you'll see the Temple of Athena Nike, also known as the Temple of the Wingless Victory, and the six stone-carved caryatids that make up the Porch of the Maidens on the Erechtheion.
- Athens: See Hadrian’s Arch, built in AD 131 to mark the boundary between ancient Greek Athens and the Roman city rebuilt under Emperor Hadrian. Its inscription reflects the city’s dual identity during the Roman period.
- Thermopylae: View the monument to King Leonidas, erected near the site of the 480 BC battle between Greek forces and the Persian army of Xerxes I. The statue commemorates the Spartan-led defence of the pass, where terrain played a decisive role in delaying the Persian advance into mainland Greece.
- Metsovo: A mountain town in the Pindus range with a long Vlach heritage and a strong tradition of trade across the high passes of Epirus and Thessaly. Built on steep slopes, the town is known for stone-built houses, carved timber balconies and small churches that reflect its 18th- and 19th-century prosperity.
- Ioannina: Cruise across Lake Pamvotis to the Island of Ioannina, a rare example of an inhabited lake island. Once ashore, the lanes lead past small churches and monastic sites that connect directly to the city’s Ottoman-era history, including places linked to Ali Pasha.
- Nafpaktos: See how Nafpaktos marks the Battle of Lepanto on its waterfront, with memorial inscriptions near the Venetian harbour and a statue of Miguel de Cervantes, who fought in the 1571 naval battle. The harbour’s enclosed shape and defensive walls remain the clearest present-day reminder of why this port mattered strategically.
- Delphi: Explore Delphi with your Local Expert, following the Sacred Way past the Treasury of the Athenians and the Polygonal Wall as the sanctuary climbs the slope of Mount Parnassus. You’ll reach the Temple of Apollo and learn how the oracle’s consultations shaped decision-making across the Greek world for centuries.
- Nafplio: Join your Travel Director for an orientation of Nafplion. See why this town was chosen as Greece’s first capital after independence, with neoclassical public buildings and waterfront promenades set beneath the Palamidi fortress.
- Archaeological Site of Mycenae: Explore Mycenae with your Local Expert, entering through the Lion Gate and walking the citadel where Cyclopean walls protected one of the most powerful centres of the Late Bronze Age. You’ll visit tholos tombs and learn how archaeology connects the site to Mycenaean society, trade and kingship.
- Heraklion: Take an internal flight to Crete, your home for the next four nights
- Corinth Canal: See the Corinth Canal, opened in 1893 to cut a 6.3-kilometre passage through the Isthmus of Corinth and link the Aegean with the Ionian. From the crossing point, you’ll view the steep limestone sides and the narrow channel that shortened sea routes around the Peloponnese.
- Heraklion: Join your Travel Director for an orientation walk in Heraklion, introducing the city’s Venetian and later layers. You’ll view key landmarks including the Koules fortress on the harbour, the Venetian Loggia and Morosini Fountain, then pass Agios Titos, the Cathedral of Agios Minas and the former Monastery of St. Catherine.
- Heraklion: Visit the Heraklion Archaeological Museum with your Local Expert to view artefacts from Knossos and other Cretan sites. You’ll see Minoan ceramics, jewellery, seals and fresco fragments displayed in chronological order, offering a clear view of craftsmanship and daily life across the Bronze Age.
- Rethymno: Walk through Rethymno’s old town and see how Venetian and Ottoman layers sit side by side. You’ll follow cobbled lanes past Venetian-built houses and civic buildings, then notice Ottoman domes and minarets added after the 17th-century conquest.
- Chania: Explore Chania with your Local Expert, beginning in Splantzia. View the Church of Agios Nikolaos, built in the 14th century under Venetian rule and later converted into a mosque during Ottoman occupation, with a minaret added. Continue to the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in the Jewish quarter, restored in the 20th century and one of the few surviving Jewish monuments on Crete.
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Insight Choice
- Thessaloniki: Join your Local Expert for an introduction to Thessaloniki’s historic centre, exploring key districts shaped by successive empires. You’ll move through the city streets before continuing to the Upper Town for views across the harbour and Thermaic Gulf.
- Thessaloniki: Walk with your Travel Director through central markets and bakeries, tasting sesame koulouri rings, local cheeses, cured meats and bougatsa pastry. You’ll see how Balkan, Anatolian and Mediterranean influences shape the city’s everyday food culture.
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Make Travel Matter
- Nafplion: Meet Anthony and Sophia at their family’s organic beekeeping facility in Arcadia, where three generations have tended bees with care and curiosity. Put on a beekeeper’s suit and step into the hives to witness these remarkable pollinators in action, before enjoying a guided tasting and discovering why Greek honey is prized around the world for its purity and flavour. Your visit directly supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land.
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Tasting
- Nafplion: Stop at a local olive grove to learn the steps from harvest to pressing, including how timing and temperature affect flavour. You’ll taste olive oil and learn how producers assess fruitiness, bitterness and peppery finish as markers of freshness and quality.
- •
Choice Highlights
- Thessaloniki: Join your Local Expert for an introduction to Thessaloniki’s historic centre, exploring key districts shaped by successive empires. You’ll move through the city streets before continuing to the Upper Town for views across the harbour and Thermaic Gulf.
- Thessaloniki: Walk with your Travel Director through central markets and bakeries, tasting sesame koulouri rings, local cheeses, cured meats and bougatsa pastry. You’ll see how Balkan, Anatolian and Mediterranean influences shape the city’s everyday food culture.
What's Included in Your Tour
- •
Dining Summary
- 14 Breakfast (B)
- 6 Dinner (D)
- 1 Lunch (L)
- •
Well-being
• colour Enjoy the comfort of Insight's luxurious, air-conditioned, 40-seat coach with double the standard legroom and onboard washroom
• Our customized luxury coaches are sanitized before the start of your tour and are maintained to very high standards
• Physical distancing measures have been implemented on our customized luxury coaches
- Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.
- •
Additional Included Highlights
• Personal radio headsets give you the freedom to wander during visits to famous highlights, without missing any of your Local Expert's fascinating commentary
• Hotel and restaurant tips are included - you'll never have to worry about how much to give, nor search for foreign currency
• We also include all taxes and porterage charges at hotels
- We carry your bags for you and promptly deliver them to your hotel door.
• From time to time, your Travel Director will delight you with an Insight Flourish, which is a local specialty representing the destination
• Stay connected with friends and family with our complimentary coach and hotel Wi-Fi (where available)
• If your arrival and/or departure flights are as per the itinerary start and end dates, then transfers are available at scheduled times
• If your flights are outside these times, or you have booked additional nights accommodation with Insight Vacations, you may purchase transfers or make your own way from/to the airport
- •
Authentic Dining
• Athens: Taste seasonal dishes built around olive oil, grains, legumes and coastal produce, paired with wines from native grape varieties grown across mainland and island vineyards
• Heraklion: Share a Cretan menu with your Small Group
• You’ll try island dishes such as dakos, built on barley rusk with tomato and mizithra, and kaltsounia pastries finished with honey and cinnamon
• Raise a first toast with raki, Crete’s traditional grape spirit
• Chania: Join your Small Group for dinner in a traditional Cretan restaurant
• The menu features local specialities and seasonal ingredients, typically including dishes built around olive oil, vegetables, herbs and local cheeses, with regional wine served alongside
Itinerary
Tour Dates & Pricing
All prices are per person in Australian Dollars (AUD), inclusive of GST. Special offers and discounts are subject to availability and may be withdrawn at any time.
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