Greece - March 2025

In the spring of 2024, at the music Jamboree at my daughter's school, they announced that their band and choir trip in 2025 would be to Greece. I decided instantly that my daughter had to go on this trip. As information continued to be shared, I found out that there was a Friends and Family option to travel basically on the same itinerary, but separately from the students. Even after hearing this, I wasn't convinced that I would want to join on a school trip with 100 high school students, but the more I read and researched the more I was convinced that we needed to go. So, I signed Whitney up for the school trip, Matthew and myself up for the Friends and Family trip, and told Galytea that if she wanted to go, I would pay half, so she and Ben joined us as well.

With the exception of Whitney, none of us had been outside of North America (USA, Canada and Mexico). We were extremely nervous about the flight, which had 2 layovers and was a full day of travel, and having to stick to a schedule that we didn't really control. I have to admit that it was better than I expected, even with the long travel and a few hiccups along the way.

There were 104 students and chaperones, and another 34 Friends and Family in total for this trip.

Day 1: Travel Day

Our flight left MSP at 6:40pm. There were two flight groups because so many signed up, and we ended up on the second flight group, but Whitney and her friend Sophia also flew on our flight because they grouped anyone with Friends and Family together. Whitney had to ride the bus to the airport from school, so Matthew, Galytea, Ben and I drove to the airport without her. There was no issue at MSP and our first layover was in Chicago at O'Hare International. We actually arrived at O'Hare a little early, but they didn't have an available gate for us, and we ended up waiting almost an hour. We only had an hour layover, so they ended up holding our plane for us since there were so many delayed.

The flight from O'Hare to Munich was also pretty uneventful. We were on a Lufthansa flight, and the seats were not the best, but it wasn't as bad as I had expected. I am a good plane sleeper, so other than being pretty sore from the long flight there aren't many complaints. The meals they serve were not good, the entertainment options were pretty good.

Once we landed in Munich, we were already delayed from our Chicago delay, so our 2-hour layover turned into a 1-hour layover. We exited the plane and walked through the point of no return, then we realized we didn't have our roller bag! We had left it in the overhead compartment on the plane. We went straight to the service desk, and they sent us to another. The next service desk sent us to another, and by the time we got there and were told to go to yet another, we had to make a decision to wait to figure out our bag or get on the next flight without it. We chose the latter. The bag only had a couple of outfits that Matthew and I each packed in case they lost our checked bags. The irony, right? We did end up getting our bag back a few days after we returned to Minnesota, but I highly recommend putting a tag on every piece of luggage, not just checked bags.

The flight from Munich to Athens was just over two hours, and with daylight now it was a beautiful flight. We flew over the alps and enjoyed watching the different geography on the way.

We landed in Athens around 6:30pm, claimed our bags and met our Travel Guide Gabriella and bus driver Spirro. We loaded our awaiting motorcoach and started our drive to Nafplio, where we would stay the first two nights. Nafplio is approximately 2 hours from the airport, but traffic added time. It was dark on our drive, so we couldn't really see the landscape, but we did detour for a minute to see the Corinth Canal. Even though it was dark it was interesting to view the canal from the bus.

We arrived at the Amalia Hotel in Nafplio just before 10pm. We dropped our bags and went for a late dinner. All of our dinners and breakfasts were included in our vacation package and were buffet style meals. The food was good but did tend to be pretty similar every day without a lot of variety.

Our hotel was pretty nice. We had a room on the 3rd floor with a balcony overlooking a small courtyard with a glimpse of the mountains in the background. The "queen rooms" had two twin beds pushed together - at all of our accommodations - which was pretty weird for us. The blankets and sheets were separate, but the beds pushed together.

After the extremely long travel day, and the 8-hour time difference, we went to bed pretty quickly after dinner.

Day 2: Mycenae and Nafplio

We were up by 7am for breakfast and loaded onto the bus at 9am to start our day. We were visiting Mycenae this day. All of our tours were included in our vacation, so our guide had our tickets for us to all museums, archeological sites, etc. which was very convenient.

Our first stop was at the Treasure of Atreus. This was a tomb built into the mountain with a large open room and then a smaller one off the side. Apparently, they found no human remains in the tomb. The way they built it was basically stacking bricks and then shaving them down to create the illusion of arched walls. Technically I guess it was arched, or rounded, but the bricks were actually not stacked in a slanted or curved way but carved to make it that way.

Across the street is the Archeological Site of Mycenae. This fortress is estimated to have originated in the 1300s BC!

We started at the museum. We went to several museums on this vacation, and it was so hard to wrap my head around how we were looking at artifacts that are 2000+ years old. Some of the items have so much detail and were so well preserved. The explanation for this is the sites were buried for centuries, covering them and protecting them from the elements, so when they were extracted many of them were in decent shape for the age.

After the museum we walked the archeological site. The views from here were incredible.

Walking wasn't terribly difficult to navigate but there was a slight grade. There are tunnels running under the ruins, but they are not open to the public, so we just peeked where we could.

Our next tour was the sanctuary at Epidaurus. This was believed to be the birthplace of Asclepius, the god of healing, and included a bath house used for spa healing treatments.

There is an amphitheater at the site, which is still used today. We walked to the top, only stopping to catch our breath once.

Next was where the ruins of the bath houses used for healing were located.

Once we were done at the archeological sites, we drove into the town of Nafplio. It is a beautifully picturesque seaside town. We ate lunch and did some shopping.

Nafplio has several ancient fortresses, one in the water and one that you can hike to up a pretty impressive hill. Whitney decided to join some other students and climbed to the fortress, and the rest of us stayed in town.

The water was extremely cold, but I did dip my feet into the Aegean Sea.

We ended our day with dinner at the hotel.

Day 3: Olympia

We packed up and loaded our luggage onto the bus at 8am and started our drive to Olympia. Our drive was around 3 hours through the Greek countryside, with olive groves and the occasional small town dotting the landscape. We drove on a major highway for part of the drive, but most of it was country roads that I was glad I didn't have to navigate the bus through. We did stop at a bakery on the way.

We arrived at the Ancient Olympia Museum and Archeological Site right around 11:00am, starting at the museum again. The artifacts, sculptures and stories were fascinating. It was hard to imagine the same sculptures and ornaments we were looking at were likely at the first Olympic Games in Greece in 776BC.

The actual site of the first Olympic Games, at the Altis, or the sanctuary to the gods, was overwhelming. You really had to imagine what it looked like when it was the center of religious festivals and dedication to the Mythological gods. There was active excavation happening when we visited, and while the columns and many of the temples were semi erected, it wasn't together enough to feel like you were experiencing it as they did 2500 years ago.

The Temples of Zeus and Hera are the most famous at the site, and there are the remains of the athletic buildings, bath houses and the actual stadium which is really a dirt "track" with hills on each side where spectators would have sat to watch with concrete starting points.

We posed on the starting line of the track and walked the entire length.

When we finished our tour, we only had around 30 minutes to walk through the town of Olympia before returning to our bus and then checked into our hotel. We had lunch at the hotel, and then had a few hours to relax and settle in. The students stayed at a different hotel than we did. Our group was at another Amalia Hotel, and it was really nice again.

We had dinner at The Touris Club, which offers a buffet and traditional Greek folk dancing. The dancers were very engaging. We had a lot of fun this evening, and every one of us got up to join in the dancing, even on tables!

Day 4: Delphi

After our one evening in Olympia, we were on the road to Delphi at 9am.

We stopped at another bakery to use the restroom and buy some drinks and snacks. There was a great spot across the street where we took pictures of the gorgeous Rio-Antirrio Bridge, before arriving in another seaside town called Nafpaktos.

We had several hours to explore Nafpaktos, shop and eat. Because Whitney was at a different hotel and on a different bus, it was nice to have these opportunities to check in and spend some time with her. She met us almost immediately off the bus and we found lunch first, then spent the rest of our time shopping and admiring the town and the sea bordering it.

We reloaded our bus and made our way to Delphi. The students were spending this night in the town of Itea, which was right on the water, and we were staying in Delphi, which was up into the mountain. The drive up the mountainside was pretty curvy, and Gal ended up with some motion sickness, but the scenery was worth it.

We stayed at another Amalia hotel, which again was a great hotel, but this one had the worst view from our balcony. Being up in the mountain, we were hoping for amazing landscape down to the sea, but we had a small courtyard and more hotel to look at. There were better views from the common areas of the hotel, including a patio that wrapped the front of the hotel.

We arrived quite a while before dinner, so Matthew and I walked into the town to shop a little and experience what we could in the area. Everywhere you walked seemed to be uphill, so it wasn't a nice relaxing walk by any means, but we did find beautiful views, a nice church and several small shops. The town of Delphi is known more for winter tourists who enjoy skiing, so it wasn't very busy being off season for winter sports and summer travelers.

We sat on the patio enjoying the evening until we had dinner at the hotel.

Day 5: Delphi and Athens

After our one-night stay in Delphi, we packed up and loaded onto our bus at 9am. We started our day at the Delphi Archeological Site, which was just a few minutes from our hotel.

Beginning at the museum again, we saw more incredibly preserved statues and artifacts from thousands of years ago.

The archeological site in Delphi has sanctuaries dedicated to Apollo and Athena, as well as athlete training areas, an amphitheater and a stadium. This site was the most physically demanding, with everything being built into the side of the mountain, to reach the stadium the trail had several switchbacks and a decent incline. We did enjoy it, and the walk itself didn't take terribly long.

After our tour we started our drive back to Athens. Just a few minutes of driving from Delphi, we reached the town of Arachova, which is a charming town right off the road in the mountain, and then stopped just past it so we could get pictures.

A short distance further we stopped for lunch at Aggelos House and Restaurant. This was probably my favorite meal of the week. It felt like speed eating, they brought you one appetizer, and then the next, and then the next, and the food kept coming. It was one item at a time, but was so good, and there wasn't an item that I didn't enjoy. I believe we had 4 appetizers, several side items and meat.

Our drive to Athens took several more hours, with traffic adding time. We stayed at the Hotel Divani Caravel. This is a really nice hotel, but it is a little outside of the Plaka area, with less right around for us to enjoy. The students stayed at a hotel that was just a few blocks outside of the Plaka, and we were around 5 miles from them.

Once we checked into our hotel, we walked a few blocks to see the area close to us, but didn't have a lot of luck finding anything we wanted to do. We did get a coffee at Starbucks and enjoyed walking until it started to rain.

We went back to our hotel for dinner and then bed.

Day 6: Athens

We started our day with a timed entry at The Acropolis at 9am. Even though it was early, it was extremely busy. We had amazing views of the city in addition to seeing all of the incredible remains of the Parthenon and all of the other temples.

After our tour we walked as a group to the Plaka, with Gabriella pointing out interesting sites along the way.

We met up with Whitney and found a place for lunch. We spent the rest of our day enjoying shopping, cafes, people watching and admiring the busy bustle of the city.

Matthew was determined to try the subway - or metro as they call it in Athens - so we texted Gabriella and let her know we wouldn't be on the bus. We made our way to the Metro Station and paid our 5 Euro fare. It was impressive how clean it was in the metro station. We received instructions on how to get to where we needed, which was honestly extremely simple. We had to get on the red train and ride it one stop, then get off and board the blue train for one stop. Then we walked a few blocks to our hotel.

When we were leaving the station, Ben had someone feel up his back pocket, and was pretty sure he was trying to pickpocket him. Luckily, he had everything in his front pocket, but he was either felt up or someone tried to get some money.

We had some time before dinner, so we changed and went to Bistro 46, which was a bar right by our hotel. We each had a drink and then went back to our hotel to catch the bus for our ride to dinner.

We had dinner at Zafiro Experience Greek Show this evening. Zafiro's was similar to the Touris Club, with a meal and traditional Greek dance. Before we were seated, we had a quick tour of the facility. They own olive groves and showed us some of the equipment used to make the oils. They also gave us samples of bread and olive oils when we went into the restaurant. There was a definite push to sell their product, but it was really good so I did buy some oil. The restaurant is located overlooking Athens, and seeing the city lit up at night was really cool.

Dinner was good, and the dancing was fun to watch. Most of the students danced, and more had the opportunity to break plates.

Ben was selected to "compete" in a sweeping competition after many plates were broken during the dancing. He won, and they crowned him a demigod. He then changed into traditional Greek clothing and danced.

This was a late night, and we had an early morning, but it was a highlight with Ben being the center of attention.

Day 7: Aegina Island

We had to be on the bus by 7am. We were at Port Piraeus early, to catch the ferry to Aegina Island. Our buses also were taking the ferry.

I had never been on a ferry that was as nice as the one we took to the island. I've been on small ferries on Lake Superior to Madeline Island, and in Lake Heron to Mackinaw Island. This Ferry was huge, with nice table and couches, decent restrooms and a snack counter. It wasn't fancy, but it was nice.

We started by sitting on the second deck outside so we could enjoy the view. The view was foggy and hazy. It took us around an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the island, and we did stay outside for the majority of it. Eventually, we were damp and cold, so we went below and inside.

Once we arrived at the port on the Island, we walked for a few minutes while waiting for the buses to get of the ferry. The Holy Church of Saint Nectarius is right there on the dock, so we checked that out, and Matthew even lit a candle.

We drove around the island, with Gabriella telling us about the history of the area, and pointing out many pistachio groves, the main crop on the island.

We stopped at the Chapel of St. Nicholas. This is such a beautiful church with gorgeous ceiling murals, stain glass windows and a lovely terrace.

After our bus tour of the island, we were dropped off back by the port and walked to our restaurant for lunch. We were eating lunch as a group this day at a nice restaurant with table set up right on the beach.

We had a couple hours after lunch to enjoy the town, so we walked, shopped for pistachios and pistachio infused treats, and spent a few minutes at the beach, stepping into The Saronic Gulf on the Aegean Sean.

Before we went back to meet our group at the port, we had a drink at a restaurant close to the port and enjoyed the open air next to the sea. While we waited for our group at the port, we saw several sea urchins on the rocks below.

Once we loaded the ferry and started our ride back from the island, we found a spot inside to relax. We were all a little tired after our late evening and early morning, so were thankful to have a place to sit.

After we arrived at the port, we made our way back to our hotel. Gabriella said goodbye, as our tour was officially over.

We discussed taking the subway back to the Plaka, but decided against it. Whitney did end up going to the Plaka with friends, while Ben, Gal, Matthew and I went to Bistro 46 for drinks. We were all pretty exhausted, so it was an early night, with one quick detour to a corner market for energy drinks.

Day 8: Travel Day

Spiro picked our group up at 9:30am for our ride to the airport, our week in Greece coming to a close. Our travel home was pretty smooth, with just a slight delay out of Athens.

We are used to busy vacations, I like to see as much as I can while I am traveling. I don't want to miss anything if I can help it. This was definitely a busy week, but it didn't feel overly rushed because we did have down time to explore on our own, and riding on the bus rather than driving ourselves gave us some needed relaxing time. With that said, it would have been nice to have another day or two on our own after the tour ended rather than flying out the next morning. This was an incredible vacation and I feel so blessed that we got to do this with our kids. It makes me even more excited for our continued international travel in the future!