The world might be shut down at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start planning your next great adventure across the world. This time, we’re going to take a look at the land of philosophers, legends and gyros. These are some of the best tours to Greece that you will be able to find currently on the market.
It might be tempting to book your own trip to Greece and explore the various islands and cities yourself. And that is a perfectly valid way to see the world. However, with these tours, you’ll have some of those stresses that come from independent travel lifted off your shoulders. Scheduling your own travel, booking your own hotels and other basic necessities like that are all done by the travel company, leaving you to sit back and relax as you enjoy these all-inclusive Greece vacations. The best part is that there’s a wide variety to these tours, with some being budget Greece tour packages and some being on the more pricey side. Either way, you’ll enjoy your time in one of the crown jewels of the Mediterranean.
Best Tours To Greece To Explore Its Ancient History And Breathtaking Nature
Best of Greece By G Adventures
Coming up first on our list of the best tours to Greece, we have the “Best of Greece” tour by G Adventures. This tour is a 15 day trip around the Greek mainland before hopping on a boat to explore the world-renowned islands of Crete and Santorini. Some of the highlights include days in Athens, Delphi, Chania and the finishing flourish of beautiful Santorini.
The tour includes 13 nights of hotels, 1 overnight ferry, 13 breakfasts and 1 dinner. There are also optional add-ons like the Athens Sunset Bike Tour or the Santorini Sunset Cruise. If you are travelling alone, you can take the (rather costly) option to get your own room throughout the journey, though this is of questionable value. What isn’t questionable is the value that you can get out of this trip. You and a maximum of 16 other people can experience a lot of Greece in these 15 days and that’s why it’s one of the best Greece tours.
Sailing Greece – Santorini to Athens By G Adventures
Another tour from G Adventures, this time it is an adventure more focused on the naval aspects of the Greek region. Instead of ending at the island of Santorini, this Greek tour starts there. It is another 15 day tour, travelling through the Cyclade islands, stopping at Mykonos before hopping onboard once more and travelling to the end destination of Athens. Throughout there is the option to stop at multiple islands like Syros, Sifnos, Ios and others.
Meals are not included in this tour, with the exception of some basic food items onboard the ship. A max of 8 travellers can join this tour, so it isn’t like you’ll have to deal with a whole flock of people on this boat. This is one of the best Greece island tours, but it is a very naval-focused one. So if you or the group you are travelling with get seasick easily, you might want to skip out on it.
Greece: Ancient Ruins and Iconic Islands By G Adventures
Rounding out the top 3 of our list of the best Greece tour packages is the “Greece: Ancient Ruins and Iconic Islands” by G Adventures. As the name suggests, this is a tour for those who are fans of history, which is one of the reasons to visit Greece. You will explore all the classics on this journey: the Athenian Acropolis, the Oracle at Delphi, the site of the original Olympic Games before sailing out to Santorini to get a peek at what the Greeks would see from their islands.
This is a 12-day tour, with 11 nights of hotels and transportation included. There are 11 breakfasts and 1 dinner included as well, with the rest of the food chosen by you. You can take the Athens Sunset Bike Tour mentioned earlier on this trip as well. With access to local experts and historical monuments, this is a great tour for those fans of the Classical era of Greece.
Greece Family Holiday By Intrepid Travel
Turning away from G Adventures for a moment, we have the “Greece Family Holiday” by Intrepid Travel. This trip is pointed more towards the family experience, with extremely easy physical conditions and a minimum age limit of 5. It takes 8 days as you wind your way from Athens, through Delphi to the coast of Lefkadas before sailing to the grand finale in Corfu. You have options for different activities like guided tours of the Acropolis and Delphi Archaeological Site, a cooking class in Lefkadas and a day trip in Corfu.
There are 7 meals of breakfast, 1 lunch and 2 dinners included in these travels. You also get 7 nights of hotels, with transport mainly done by minivan and the ferry. As we mentioned, it is primarily a family-focused trip. So while it’s certainly one of the best Greece tour packages, it might not be one of the best Greece honeymoon packages.
Greece Real Food Adventure By Intrepid Travel
A different take by Intrepid Travel, the “Greece Real Food Adventure” seeks to give travelers a real taste of what the local cuisine is like. You’ll find food is a heavy motivator as you pass between Athens, Aegina, Poros, Nafplio and Kardamyli. The food variety here is almost indescribable, but we shall try. There is lamb from Poros, pistachios from Aegina, olives from Kalamata and visit a family-owned ouzo distillery at Nafplio.
There are 9 days included in this tour, with 8 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 dinners along for the ride. You get 8 nights of hotels, with transportation being made by ferry, bus, bike and private vehicles. The minimum age is 15, so it isn’t a trip that you’ll be able to bring young kids on, but older ones should still be able to experience the joys of Greek cuisine.
Greece Retreat: Syros Island By Intrepid Travel
The “Greece Retreat: Syros Islands” from Intrepid Travel is one of the best budget Greece tour packages. It is a short 5-day trip that allows you to see some of the highlights that most people think about when visiting the region. You start by touring around the famous sites of Athens before hopping onboard a ship headed for Syros. You both explore and relax on the island for a couple of days before taking another trip to Mykonos before finishing with a variety of optional activities in Athens.
There are 4 breakfasts and 1 dinner included with the travel package, with 4 nights of family-owned hotels thrown in as well. The maximum size of the travel group is 12. This might not be the smallest out there, but it does mean that it’s an option for those looking for Greece honeymoon packages. For those who want to simply want to relax on a Greek island, this might be the trip for them.
Greek Island Hopping By Contiki
On the other hand, for those that want to see more than 2 islands, Contiki’s “Greek Island Hopping” tour will fulfill that itch. This 13-day tour allows you to explore Athens before travelling to Mykonos. After 2 days in Mykonos, Santorini comes next for 3 days. Once done with Santorini, you travel to Ios before heading back to the capital for departure. This trip, one of the most popular European tours, will give you plenty of chances to experience each of the locations you visit, seeing all that you can while there.
For 12 nights, you’ll be exploring and experiencing these islands in all their glory while resting your head at pre-arranged hotels. You will get breakfast every day, as well as 4 dinners. There is a local guide to Athens and travel between islands (obviously). However, there is no airfare coverage, so it’s not one of those Greece vacation packages with airfare.
Greek Islands Activities Tour By Aegean Outdoors
Another focus on the islands of Greece, Aegean Outdoors have focused more on what you can do on them rather than seeing all of them. You will only be going to the islands of Paros, Naxos and Santorini. However, you’ll be spending almost all 9 of those days doing activities on each. Ride horses and take a cooking class on Paros, hike and bike on Naxos and taste wine and sail around Santorini to experience all it has to offer.
Accommodation is included for all nights, while your group will be guided by an English-speaking Aegean Outdoors guide. All of the additional trips (like the cooking class or horse riding) are included in the package. There is a full board meal plan included as well. All transport around the islands are included, but international flights are NOT. This is a good experience if you want to spend more time on less islands, but that time is spent doing various activities.
Cruising the islands of Greece and Turkey By Intrepid Travel
On the other hand, if you want to spend less time on more islands, this is the one of the best Greece island tours for you. In 9 days, you will travel to both Greek and Turkish islands. These include Mykonos, Ios, Santorini, Kusadasi, Samos, Poliegos and Folegandros. You spend part of a day in Athens before boarding the ship to start your journey. Then there’s almost constant movement around the various islands. All the while you can tour some islands, eat on almost all of them and explore when you have the time.
Because there is so much travelling that has to get packed into 9 days, this is why it is somewhat lower on our list. However, you get plenty of stuff included in the package. There are 8 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 4 dinners, 7 nights of small cruise ships and 1 night of hotel staying.
Sailing Greece – Mykonos to Santorini By G Adventures
We round out our list of the best tours to Greece with another sailing tour from G Adventures. This is a smaller tour that focuses on the islands in the Cyclades, Mykonos and Santorini. It’s a short, 8 day tour that will let you experience this part of Greece in all its glory. You’ll spend 7 nights aboard a nice sailing yacht that will take you from island to island. Some of the possible stops in the Cyclades include Naxos, Paros, Antiparos, Ios, Sifnos and Folegandros.
Meals are not included with this tour package, so you’ll want to stow away and extra $240-315 USD for any sort of meal costs. There are some basic meals aboard the boat. The amount of people allowed stops at 8, so this will not be a big trip. This is also a trip for those who are 16 or older, so there won’t be any trouble with young kids.
Why Should I Book A Tour To Greece?
That concludes our list of the best tours to Greece. But just why should you go to Greece? These are all great options for once you decide on it, but what would motivate you to do so? That’s what we’re going to cover now.
It’s Less Time-Consuming: One of the best parts about signing up for these tours is how quickly it can go. You simply read through the tour, decide if it looks like the right tour for you, gather up the funds and then you’re done. Compare this to months of research, booking X amount of things in advance, having to learn local phrases and so on. It just saves so much time that it is sometimes unbelievable how much this helps.
It Can Relieve The Stress: Similarly, the stress that comes with the various tasks of preparing for an independent journey to Greece can be so high that the tours can save a lot of headaches. No more worrying about the hotels, how to travel between islands, what times local restaurants open and close and so on. It’s just a large help to have someone already do that and know their way around the intricacies of planning one of these trips.
You Learn More About The Culture: Finally, having a tour guide can help you learn so much about the local culture. Instead of having to struggle through the language barrier yourself and try to understand what is going on around you, the guide will allow you to ask questions and feel more comfortable in this new space. The fact that they also are familiar with the locations that you are visiting means that it is that much more helpful to go on one of these tours. After all, if you get lost by yourself, it becomes much harder to get back where you were.
