Tour of the Archaeological sites of Greece.

Day 1. Arival in Athens
Meeting at the airport and transfer to your hotel. Late afternoon "welcome reception". In the evening walking tour of Plaka area and optional dinner at a typical Greek tavern in the Plaka area under Acropolis.

Day 2. Athens - Marathon - Thebes - Volos - Platamon (Mt. Olympus).

We start our tour from the Marathon battlefield where the vastly outnumbered Athenians repelled thePersian invadors. Driving North we meet Thebes, the city of Oedipus and Pindar, where we visit the museum's most impressive collection of Mycenean and early achaic pieces. Continuing North we stop at the monument of Leonidas at Thermopylae. Here the 300 Spartan warriors died to the last man protecting Greece from another massive Persian invasion. This event has been recently made into a film based on Stephen Pressfield's novel, The Gate of Fire. The next town that we meet is Volos(ancient Iolchhus) where Jason and the argonauts began their journey before arriving at the fabulous museum and the Neolithic sites of Dimini and Sesklo. In the evening we arrive at Platamon under Mt. Olympus and have the night in the shade of the 12 Gods.

Day 3: Thessaloniki - Pela- Vergina
The museum of Thessaloniki has the gold of Alexander the Great's empire. The next two sites are key to Alexander's empire in Macedonia. Two films about Alexander are scheduled to be released in 2004. Visit of Pela & Vergina sites.

Day 6: Delphi - Nafpaktos - Patras - Olympia
Delphi is a world site, the famous sanctuary of Apollo where prophecies were uttered in his name for nearly 1500 years in antiquity. After our morning and early afternoon visit, we drive the four hours to Olympia

Day 7: Olympia - Kalamata - Mystras - Sparta
Olympia needs no introduction, and the museum has the most complete array of severe-style statuary in the world. After a beautiful drive we cross the Mt. Taygetos, passing the Keadas spot to arrive in Sparta.

Day 8: Sparta - Mycenae - Nafplio - Epidavros - Athens.
We drive to the Argolid, one of the most ancient areas of Greece. There we visit Mycenae, the city of Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks in their war against Troy, and Epidaurus, the most impressive theater of antiquity.

Day 11: Myconos - Santorini.

Morning transfer to Pireaus and departure for Santorini. Transfer to the hotel. Try and visit Fira, the main town of the island, the town with the beautiful view of the caldera. The magnificent caldera isn't the only reason we're spending a night here, as you'll see. If you saw the recent Tomb Raider film, you'll know why we're visiting this island. In about 1650 B.C. half of the island was destroyed by a volcano, giving rise ultimately to the myth that this was Atlantis.

Day 12: Santorini - Heraklion
We visit the Bronze Age site of Akrotiri after a stop to the Santorini museum, which contains the most famous Minoan frescoes in the world. A quick dip in the Aegean Sea at the famed "Black Beach" and then we take a ferry to the island of Crete.

Day 16: Athens - Sounion

A visit to Greece is incomplete without a drive along the beautiful coastal road between Athens and Cape Sounion(70 km.), dominated by the ancient fifth century B.C.E. fine Doric temple of Poseidon, magnificently and appropriately situated at the edge of the cape, where Lord Byron carved his name. The view is renowned, especially for its spectacular sunsets and its spectacular vista of the Aegean sea.The cape marks the spot where Athen's King Aegeas cast himself into the sea after his son, hero Thesseas, returned from killing the Minotaur in Cretan King Minos famous labyrinth but forgot to change the colour of the ship's sails, signaling he had survived. The sea bears the bereaved king's name (Aegean sea). A sunset visit to Sounion gives you the opportunity to say a sad farewell to this beautiful country, "the land of Hellas." We pass by the neigbouring town of Lavrio and the remains of the silver mines. Without the wealth from these mines there would never have been a classical Athens.

Day 4: Ioannina - Dodoni
Drive to the beautiful Ioannina and visit the Dodoni site.

Day 5: Meteora - Delpfi
Visit the monasteries on the Meteora rocks before proceeding to Delphi.

Day 9: Athens
Morning visit to the Acropolis and its monuments. Afternoon visit to the Archaeological museum.

Day 10: Pireaus - Mykonos - Delos
We board the ferry for Myconos. In the afternoon visit to Delos island.

Day 13: Knossos - Heraklion Museum
On our first day, we tour the museum's impressive collection of Minoan artifacts, followed by a stop in Knossos, the principal city of King Minos.

Day 14: Phaestos
Today we venture deeper in Crete visiting the ancient site of Phaestos and Matala.

Day 15: Malia - Ag. Nikolaos - Heraklion
Overnight trip by ferryboat to Pireaus in 4 birth cabins with WC. Arrival in Pireaus 06.00am in the morning.

Day 17: Departure
Morning transfer to Athens airport for departure.