It was our first time in Greece and we loved it! All the hotels were superb and sailing in Santorini was amazing! Great food and drinks on a boat and we had a chance to see sunset over Oia! Mykonos was great too, expensive but 100% worth it! We enjoyed the beach clubs!
The Positives Yannis our tour driver was Excellent.. He was such a skillful driver, very helpful and gentlemanly as he would also help us alight from the bus. And he treated our luggages with care unlike during my Northern Explorer Tour last Septmeber 2017 where my luggage broke because of rough handling by the tour driver. The hotels that were good were Kosco Hotel which had complete amenities, Hotel Belvedere in Macedonia were the linens were excellent and the place had several grand pianos where one of my travel mates played the piano. Sky2 Hotel in Albania was also nice. Hotel VIS in Dubrovnik had a nice. location beside the water and breakfast.was good, Hotel Park in Slovenia was centrally located and walking distance to the the center of the city. Ibis Hotel in Budapest had a nice location since it was walking distance to Heroe's Square and a park but the airconditioning in most of the rooms were not working and since we were there on holiday, the place did not have the needed maintenance personnel. The food at Hotel Vicko in Northern Croatia was good and the owner very helpful but our room assignments were confusing although the apartel were we were assigned was nice. Ramada Blue in Sofia had complete amenities but the floor were we were assigned ( 4th floor) still needs renovation. I understand that hotel is still undergoing renovation. In general, the sights we saw during the trip were nice and the included dinner was okey but the one in Athens Greece on our first night was excellent I was wondering though if the included dinners in the other places reflected the actual local food of the place. THE NEGATIVES Since most of the tourists are seniors, I think all the shower areas of all the hotels should include a MAT inside the shower area and grab bars because the shower areas were always slippery and one had to be careful about slipping. The Hotel EL GRECO was terrible. Please skip MOSTAR. It is not worth the 6 passport checks.
The name says it all! It was like stepping into another world. We met some of the friendliest locals! Kate organized for us a private cooking class in a real island house with a Greek hostess Vasso who taught us that love goes through your stomach 😊 We ended our adventure in Folegandros, which was honestly the highlight of the trip. It's this tiny little island with 600 inhabitants that feels like it's completely off the radar, and we absolutely loved it. Throughout it all, Kate and the team were great. They had everything planned out perfectly, from our transportation to our accommodations to our activities. They even gave us a personalized guidebook full of insider tips and recommendations about little local taverns we would have never found by ourselves.