With its staggering history, killer parties and island hopping, Greece should be high on your list as a must-hit spot in Europe – and Greece tourism itineraries ensure you make the best of everything the land of sunny white-washed villages, gyros and proud ancient temples has to offer.
Greece tour packages include ancient ruins, island cruises and toga parties
Greece tour packages start and end in Athens, Mykonos and Santorini, offering the best of the country’s mainland and its famed islands. There are regional Greece tours along with options for combinations with Turkey and mainland European packages, on which Greece often offers respite as a midway-break destination or the final stop on an epic itinerary.
On the mainland, Greece tour packages include tickets to the Acropolis and Parthenon, knowledgeable guides for the cities of Athens and the Oracle ruins of Delphi, safe hotels in Athens, and stopovers in Thermopylae and the Corinth Canal.
All ferry island transfers are scheduled – a real bonus in the peak summer season, and once you arrive on the islands you will enjoy free time at the beach, orientations with knowledgeable local guides on Mykonos, Santorini and Paros, resort accommodation with swimming pools, and Greek island sailing tours with a dedicated skipper and yacht crew. On the Greece tourism cruises travellers make the journey count, with discounted all-you-can-drink cards, while other festivities in tour comparison Greece include toga parties and priority access to top night clubs.
Greece tourism itineraries are jam-packed but there are still optional excursions such as visits to local Greek taverns with music and dancing, half-day guided trips to Meteora and the Palace of Knossos, Crete winery tours, and visits to Oia village on Santorini.
Ready to plan your trip? Visit our tour comparison Greece to find the right tour for you.
Want a taste of that insider Greece tourism knowledge we mentioned before? We have collected the best facts from real life tour guides. Impress them on tour with how much you already know.
- Known locally by the ancient name Hellas, Greece boasts some of the longest and most well-known history of any nation.
- The classical capital of Athens is home to mythology and iconic ancient ruins such as the Acropolis, along with charming neighbourhoods such as the Plaka district, dotted with welcoming taverna restaurants.
- The Saronic and Argolic Gulfs are two important bodies of water off the coast of the Greek mainland to the west of Athens.
- Aside from historic ruins, there are plenty of other significant points of interest on the Greek mainland, such as the isthmus at Corinth Canal, the Peloponnese mountains, the Rio-Antirion Bridge and the plains of Thessaly.
- Some of Greece’s most important historic sites outside of Athens include Thermopylae with its tales of Spartan courage, the ancient Olympic site of Olympus, the clifftop monasteries of Meteora accessible from the nearby town of Kalambaka, and the Oracle ruins at Delphi.
- Greece’s famous islands dot the Aegean and Mediterranean, and form different groups including the Cyclades, Ionian and Dodecanese islands.
- Some of Greece’s most beloved destinations find their home in the Cyclades Islands, where the windmills and nightlife of Mykonos, sunsets and cliff-top villages of volcanic Santorini, and parties in Ios await.
- Of the Ionian Islands, populous Crete, the Venetians and beaches of Corfu, the white sand in Zákynthos and the World War II stories on Kefaloniá are among the most visited.
- The Dodecanese Islands include the fort walls and Colossus of Rhodes, St. John’s Grotto in Patmos, the extensive shopping in Kos and the fishing village of Perdika.
- Other island-hopping stops include Hydra, Nafplio, Poros and Aegina.
- Many Greek figures are well known for the stories they feature in – such as the famous Trojan War tale – or their historic contribution, including the Gods of Zeus, Hercules, and Poseidon, the Spartans, the writer of the Iliad and the Odyssey poems: Homer, Sophocles, Alexander the Great, Euclid, Pericles and Leonidas I.
- 300, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Zorba the Greek, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Mamma Mia are all iconic films associated with Greece and Greek people.
- Greece has contributed some of the world’s most important inventions, such as π mathematics, Pythagoras theorem a² + b ² = c ², The Hippocratic Oath, the distance for a marathon, the alarm clock, Archimedes and the screw, shipbuilding and the pap smear.
- Greece is home to both the ancient and modern Olympic Games.
- The Greeks were the first to develop democracy, medicine, geometry, theatre, cartography and philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle).
- The medieval Knights of St John, founder of EasyJet Stelios Haji-Ioannou, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, and journalist Arianna Huffington are all Greek.
Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC
