Peloponnese Explorer

Our guide, Sapfo, was truly excellent. Without doubt the best group leader you could wish for. She was interested and engaged with everyone in the group. She was knowledgeable. She was super organized and nothing was a chore. Our group dinners every night were a big success. Her restaurant choices were excellent. Our driver, Georgiou, was also really great. He kept the Mercedes mini bus immaculate. He was a careful and considerate driver and you always felt safe even on the tight back roads of the Mani Peninsula. Itinerary is good except that Monemvasia should be included as part of the tour proper and Sparta dropped from the itinerary. Make sure you take the optional extra of visiting Monemvasia if offered. It is well worth it. Overall I would say the tour is best described as “very full on”. A lot of the ancient and medieval sites have many many steps and some of the stones are very polished from so many people stepping on them over thousands of years. So I would recommend wearing hiking shoes if you have them also also bringing walking poles if you have them. Both will help with climbs, of which there are quite a few as I say. Overall the accommodation was ok (but not brilliant) except for Hotel Galaxy (they need to axe Het Galaxy). The Pantheon City Hotel was the best. Our group got on well, and I think that was in large part due to our guide Sapfo.

This was the second time we had been on the trip because we had enjoyed it so much the first time (May 2012). The itinerary was very similar but having a 'local' tour leader made the experience even better. Peter was able to provide background information and recommend places for eating, additional excursions, etc. He was particularly good at helping the group to 'gel' with his great sense of humour and keeping us engaged on long bus journeys. The official guides at sites such as Olympia, Mycenae and the Acropolis were also excellent, although we would have liked a little more time to explore freely at a couple of places, e.g. Delphi. We are aware that the itinerary was busy, however, and could not accommodate everything! Overall, it was an excellent tour which we would definitely recommend.

We had a great Peloponnesus tour with Peter! We experienced each historic sight with a preliminary briefing and all questions answered in detail. Our entire group got along very well!