Athens & Santorini Vacation: Exploring Greece’s Best Hotspots

The itinerary is not the best for the price we paid and for a family with two children. We thought we could come back to Greece, but after this trip, we might not come back or even use Zicasso again. Here are the reasons: 1. The hotels are subpar for the price we paid for this tour. Our hotel in Athens felt like a 2-star. Our hotel in Santorini has a great view, but it's just a view, no pool, etc. nearby. Our hotel in Crete is not near a beach, a 20-minute walk. 2. Too much time was wasted on travel from one location to the next (Santorini to Crete and Crete to Athens). 3. Four nights in Santorini with two children is overkill since there is not much to do other than take photos, hike, and that's basically it. 4. Some of the tours are okay but nothing special, i.e., the hiking tour in Crete where they call the "little forest" is merely just for the name. It has nothing to do with the tour guides. All tour guides are great. However, we feel the tour company is crafting ordinary tours, labels it special, and calls it private. 5. In Delphi, we could have had more time to look around after the two hours. If any of the tours were great, it was the tours we had in Athens and Delphi. If we had known this type of tour we received, we could have done an all-inclusive resort in Greece and done our own without having to go through Zicasso and the tour company.

Zicasso's travel company made our bucket-list trip to Greece come to life! They organised all our tours and transportation, worked with us to provide activities that were in line with our interests, and even gave detailed information on suggested itineraries for our free days.

Some highlights included the walking tour(s) of Athens, our trip to see Santorini, and the best steak I have ever had at a beach hotel in Naxos! Our only suggestion is that we went on a day tour to Delos which was self-guided. There is so much history there though that a guided tour would have been helpful. I would definitely recommend booking your tour with them!

There were many amazing things about the trip, so I don’t want to give a negative review but I do want to point out some things that need to be improved. First, communication with Zicasso’s travel agent was not great when scheduling the trip. In this day and age where scammers are everywhere, it is important to hear from your agent whenever you send an email asking questions. With the travel agent, it would be days before I would hear from her, and only after contacting Zicasso thinking I had been scammed, did I hear from anyone. Having said that, when I got to Greece, the travel agent was good about responding to my texts and getting tickets, etc. to me.

Second, I requested all 4/5 star hotels. Our hotel in Athens was okay but certainly not 4/5 star. Our hotel in Naxos was excellent and we loved it. The third hotel, oh my goodness, it was a 2-star hotel and it was like a budget motel here in the states. We stayed near the beach in Santorini when we would have much rather stayed close to things like in Oia in perhaps a 4/5 hotel with an infinity pool. Instead, we were at a budget motel in a not very nice hotel and not a very nice beach - very disappointing. Second, the wine tasting was awful - we were so excited about going, even got dressed up, and it lasted 30 minutes and they basically put out a couple of glasses of wine with cheese and told us which one to eat with what. Almost all the other excursions were great - the catamaran was amazing, olive oil factory, bike ride, etc. were great - our 2-star hotel in Santorini - please don’t ever recommend that hotel to anyone.

I highly recommend Zicasso and my travel agent. She was very knowledgeable about Greece. She was very patient and helpful at every turn along the way. I booked my trip for May, but in February, Santorini had a number of earthquakes and I thought I would not be able to go, but my agent kept me up to date and informed, and was very truthful about everything that was going on. This kept me at ease and I was able to enjoy my time in Santorini, as I did in Athens and Crete.

Our trip to mainland Greece, organized by Zicasso's tour agency, was the best luxury trip my husband and I have enjoyed to date. Every hotel and site tour guide was carefully selected for our needs and interests, and they were all outstanding! Our driver for the entire trip was warm, courteous, and highly professional. We saw all the sites we'd requested and a couple of fun surprises along the way.

We travelled from Athens to various spots in the Peloponnese, then through the lush plains of Thessaly to Meteora, and then, finally, Thessaloniki. The accommodations were superb, with special shout-outs to the hotels in Athens, Nafplio, and Thessaloniki. We spent our last night at the Athens airport hotel and were so glad we did. The suite was stunning and completely soundproof. The food during our trip was incredible (especially at the hotel roof restaurant in Thessaloniki) and traveling by car allowed us to fully appreciate the gorgeous mountain and sea views. The Greek people were warm and super-friendly. Nearly everyone spoke English.

When we arrived in Athens, our travel consultants met us at our centrally located, fabulous hotel with all the info we needed, as well as a Greek cell phone and lovely gifts. All instructions were clear and details perfectly arranged. We really can't exaggerate how wonderful this trip was and we'll definitely return to this company for our next trip to Greece. 10/10 stars, though they deserve an even higher rating.

We had a wonderful time in Greece. We spent 10 days there and went to Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini. The accommodations were great and the planned excursions were fantastic. The weather was perfect.