13 Days Private Tour in Athens Mykonos Santorini Crete and Corfu

Greatly disappointed with Private Tours Greece and booking agent Tourradar - our first trip of a lifetime to Greece

Where to begin? In a nutshell - Not worth $10,000! Very disappointed with the accommodations and some of the tour planning. We had hoped for much more for our first trip of a life time to Greece. I don't think there are enough characters to permit me to convey in writing the multiple disappointments. I doubt Private Tours Greece or Tourradar will publish this as well. It appears they only publish glowing reviews. However, here goes... We paid an additional $1,000 for a hotel upgrade to 4-star hotels. Of the five hotels we stayed in, only the Ibis in Heraklion deserves such a moniker (later caveat for La Divina - Athens below). 1) La Divina Hotel - Athens - The room at La Divina was an extreme disappointment. It was located on the first floor and the first room closest to the front desk. As a consequence, we were subjected to constant loud conversations and voices, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. The room itself was tiny and had a view of a dirt yard filled with weeds surrounded by a cyclone fence. From your brochure and the photos of the hotel, we expected to have a room with a view of the Acropolis. We would have appreciated being informed beforehand, or subsequent to our initial concerns, that a "standard room" in your so-called 4-star hotels was less than 4-star quality. We would have gladly paid for an additional upgrade. Every time we asked for an upgrade that we were willing to pay for, with the exception of the Ibis Hotel, we were told the hotel was fully booked. Really? The La Divina Hotel includes breakfast courtesy of Paleos Restaurant located two doors down from the hotel. Unfortunately, it does not open until 8:30 am for breakfast. We had to be ready for a 9:00 am pick up to begin the tour to the Acropolis. We had 15 minutes to inhale our breakfast after it was served. 2) Adonis Hotel - Mykonos - same situation. Our room was next door to the reception desk. The issue this time was not so much noise, but privacy. We had two large windows that faced directly outside for ingress and egress to the hotel. People were constantly walking by. We had to keep the drapes closed at all times. RIDICULOUS! We felt imprisoned without daylight! 3) Delion Hotel - Santorini - The room had a nice view of the Caldera/ sea, but, again, it was very small. Worse, the bathroom was tired and the size of a cookie jar. Any way you turned, you either practically fell into the toilet or tripped over the shower ledge. As for the shower, its design was ridiculous. The shower curtain only traversed half the shower opening so every time we would take a shower, the floor would flood, the toilet would get soaked, etc. On our second morning, I turned on the faucet in the sink to shave, and water came gushing out of the bottom all over my legs and feet. The plastic pipe under the sink was rotted and had become disengaged. This is NOT the makings of a 4- star hotel! Additionally, the opening to the small patio to enter our room was barely a foot wide. We had to shimmy in sideways every time we entered or left our room. Again, RIDICULOUS! Let's not even talk about the fact that the hotel was 52 stairs down from the Fira main shopping district street level. I had back surgery six weeks prior, which necessitated walking with a cane. You can only imagine my misery ascending and descending each and every time. Again, your tour company provides no adequate representations, in particular, that the hotel is located quite a distance down from the main road. Had we known, I would have booked us into the beautiful Hotel Atlantis at ground level next to the Cathedral Church of Candlemas of the Lord and above our hotel. 4) Ibis Hotel Heraklion - Crete - A GEM! What the other 4 hotels should have been! 5) Cavalieri Hotel - Corfu - The Cavalieri Hotel in Corfu is a faded grand dame whose furnishings and interior have not been updated since it reopened in 1969. Of course, when we checked in, we were given the "standard room' facing a building. At this juncture, we were fed up with the sub-standard hotels we had been booked in at extra cost, so we paid an additional 30 euros a night to have a room with a view of the gorgeous Ionian Sea. Do you really think that clients pay $10,000 US to be booked into a room, likely for the only time in their lives in Corfu, to face a wall of an adjacent building when the Ionian Sea is at their doorstep? Hotel Divina - Athens - As a caveat - I can only assume my disgruntled communications with Private Tours Greece regarding our abysmal hotels proved meaningful, albeit too late, to mean much. While the initial room at La Divina was a nightmare next to the reception desk, miraculously, when we returned from Corfu for our final night in Athens, we were given the "La Boheme" room on the second floor. It WAS a 4-star room with a stunning view of the Acropolis. What a shame we were not given this room at the outset. Patty from Greek Tours told us that when the tour company books a room in a hotel for a client it doesn't know where in the hotel the room will be located. Sorry, that is unacceptable. It is Private Tours Greece's duty to ensure that clients paying for a premium rooms at extra cost receive such! TOUR PLANNING: 1) With respect to our short time in Athens (one day is not adequate based on all the amazing archeological and cultural sites to see), while our hotel location in Monastiraki was ideal to see the Ancient Agora, Temple of Hephaestus, Roman Forum, Plaka, etc,, unfortunately we saw none of these. Instead of our tour guide wasting two hours of our precious time from 9:00 AM-11:00 AM touring downtown Athens by car viewing the financial/ business district and, later, homes of the rich and famous (of no interest) before touring the Acropolis, we should have toured the Acropolis at 8:00 AM or 9:00 AM (opens at 8:00 AM), which would have left us adequate time after the Acropolis and museum to visit all these sites in the afternoon. I was instructed by Private Greek Tours to buy admission tickets to the Acropolis for 11:00 AM. Mistake! 2) It came to our attention after the fact that our tickets to the Acropolis that I purchased entitled us to multiple other sites such as the Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Olmpieon, Kerameikos, and Aristotle’s School. Why were we not made aware of this by the tour guide? After our brief visit to the Athen’s Museum, we were dropped off at our hotel and left to fend for ourselves without this knowledge. 3) As for the Sea Jet ferry to Mykonos, your company provided us with 3rd class econo tickets located in the front row next to the café where hordes of passengers were practically stepping on our toes waiting in the café line to be served. The captain made us aware that we could upgrade to "Privilege Class" located upstairs with wonderful, roomy seats. We upgraded. Again, we were not made aware of the type of transport ferry ticket you purchased for us and you should have informed us that we could upgrade if we preferred. While on board, I immediately upgraded our tickets for our subsequent ferry rides to Santorini and Crete. 4) We paid for the additional food tour in Heraklion. Your itinerary states that we were to visit the "unique pastry museum with 232 rare exhibits," "taste roast goat or pork in red wine sauce, and enjoy Cretan sausages with raki." We EXPERIENCED NONE of these. 5) Lastly, I don't know exactly what the issue was with the driver/tour gentleman in Corfu, but when we boarded the transport he asked us where we wanted to go. We were incredulous! I had to take out the itinerary provided by you and tell him all the places. He never took us to the Achilleion Palace in Gastouri. We were quite upset. It is absolutely gorgeous. I researched it online and it was closed back in 2020 for renovations and appears to have reopened. So we don't know why we were not taken there. All this is to say we were sadly disappointed in our tour. It did not live up totally to what was/is presented in your advertisements. We will compliment you on the transfers and modes of transportations. Wherever we went, there was always someone there ready to pick us up/drop us off, and take us to where we were supposed to be. Notwithstanding, we truly made the best of our trip because we immersed ourselves in the fabulous and beautiful Greek culture, food, amazing archeological sites and antiquities (Delphi, Delos, and Knossos), and most of all, the wonderful Greek people who all treated us so well. We shall never forget our sunset cruise off of Santorini. It was spectacular as were the sunrises and sunsets from the Caldera. For this we are thankful. Yet, in conclusion, we cannot, in all honesty, give your tour company and Tourradar a positive review. I hope that you can appreciate and learn from all that we have expressed to you. When a couple spends $10,000 US for their first trip of a life time to Greece, they expect more than what was provided.

Response from the operator: Good evening, Thank you for reaching out and giving us the opportunity to clarify the points you mentioned regarding your travel package and expectations. First, we would like to remind you that the package you purchased was a basic package, which included standard rooms, as initially agreed. It was never stated that upgraded rooms were included, such as rooms with an Acropolis view in Athens or other specific views in different locations. Additionally, you were informed in advance about the hotels and room types included in your package. Naturally, an upgrade option was always available at an additional charge, which could be arranged in coordination with the hotels if you had expressed interest. The package included basic service categories for transportation (ferry, flights) and accommodations. If you preferred VIP or business class services, we could have arranged that with the corresponding cost adjustment; however, no such upgrade request was made. The selected hotels are all four-star establishments with excellent reviews on booking.com, and we have collaborated with them for years, consistently receiving positive feedback from our clients. If you encountered any issues during your stay, the hotel staff were available to assist, and we could have arranged a room upgrade as well, as we did in Athens, at no additional charge. Regarding the Acropolis schedule, the available time slots for entrance are set. As for the Athens tour, as you know, it included a panoramic tour of the city’s main landmarks and a two-hour visit to the Acropolis. If you wished for a different structure for the tour, we would have been happy to discuss it with you in advance to better meet your expectations. Also, the reviews we receive are automatically submitted by each customer and are not influenced by us, whether they are positive or negative. Thank you for choosing our services, and we remain at your disposal for anything further you may need in the future. Best regards,

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Great holiday! Almost perfect.

Absolutely perfect until the last stop. The hotels, the guides, the logistics were stellar. It was a holiday for a lifetime. Last stop was Corfu. It was beautiful. The hotel staff was great. The breakfast was top notch. The room? Beyond awful, a stunning let-down to end a perfectly constructed tour.. What a disappointment after the first class hotels prior to Corfu.. Athens Hotel? very good. Mykonos hotel? Very good. Santorini hotel? very good. Crete hotel? very good. Corfu? The room was only comfortable when only one person was in the room. Two people? One too many without carefully pre-planned choreography. Modesty? Forget that with floor to ceiling "almost opaque" glass doors that insure all bowel activity is on near-perfect display with no available place to avoid the show, sounds, smells. Hotel staff was top notch. Breakfast was fabulous. The room was annoyingly small and aggravatingly, uncomfortably cramped.

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Magical honeymoon in Greece! Thank you!

We booked this trip to celebrate our honeymoon in Greece and it had everything we wanted! The hotel in Santorini, Asha, was excellent. In Mykonos, we stayed at the Kivotos Hotel, a truly impressive five-star hotel with amazing service. As we added an extra day to our trip, we decided to do a private cruise to Aegina to see the islands of the Saronic Gulf. It was truly amazing! I will definitely recommend this trip to anyone who wants to honeymoon in Greece, and certainly to all our friends.

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