Private Corfu Itinerary for Seniors: Culture, Adventure, and Charm

We had an absolutely amazing trip, thanks to Zicasso's travel agent and the rest of the team at the tour company. They listened carefully to what we wanted and created a perfect itinerary for us: Athens to Corfu to Santorini. They took all of the stress out of our trip and allowed us to completely relax and enjoy ourselves. 

They handled booking accommodations, dining reservations, transportation, and all activities for us, and provided a detailed itinerary that had all of the information we needed. I cannot recommend the travel company enough and we will certainly be using them next time we vacation in Greece or another location they service. Thank you!

The travel fairy at Zicasso's tour operator, as she called herself (and I felt it fit her well), certainly put together a magical trip to Greece for our group of four. We all had a fantastic vacation in Greece and were super-impressed and pleased with the staff at the travel company.

The connections for flights and ferries, as well as all of the transfers to and from our hotels and excursions, were seamless, which made for a stress-free vacation. The hotels they arranged for us ranged from old Venetian buildings in older parts of Athens and Heraklion to an upscale small resort in Naxos, as well as a fantastic hotel in Chania that overlooked the harbor. My husband and I loved every one, especially the resort in Naxos.

I highly suggest this travel company because they listened to our group's likes and dislikes to plan the perfect trip. Our trip consisted of Athens, Naxos, and two places on Crete, filled with two food tours, a boat trip, historical excursions to the Parthenon and Knossos, as well as excursions in nature to Imbros Gorge and Balos Beach. Any guide during these excursions was very knowledgeable.

We would change only the following two things. Naxos was so beautiful and we were all sad to leave and wish we could have added an extra day to just relax on the beach for a full day. So, my suggestion to anyone traveling to Greece would be to save at least one full day at one of the beautiful islands without an excursion.

The other thing we would change is to take a boat to Balos Beach instead of walking down to the beach. My husband is 80 years old and although he is in good shape, the hike was very steep and scary in some parts. As we were walking down to the beach, we loved the incredible vistas, but were also concerned about having to walk back up the equivalent of 66 flights of stairs. I say this just as a cautionary tale to really look into this walk before your trip. The views were hard to beat, but the walk was not easy.

Highlights of this trip included the hotel in Naxos (our resort on Plaka in Naxos), with super-friendly and helpful staff, private tour of Knossos and the museum, and the charming city of Chania. Greece is truly a beautiful country, with stunning vistas, beaches, historical sites, museums, and cute narrow streets filled with shops and restaurants.

Thank you for a vacation that will stay in our hearts forever.

When we first spoke and started planning this trip, it seemed like she understood exactly what we wanted for this trip. I explained the importance of quiet hotels, and she said that she understands how I feel, and in the same way. I also expressed that we were limited in time and wanted to make the most of what we had by seeing as much as possible. I explained that we like a full itinerary and expressed concern that we wanted to make sure there was going to be enough to do in Northern Greece. She seemed to understand me and reassured me, which is why we booked with her.

After we booked, things went terribly wrong. We felt that there was a distinct lack of communication on what we were paying for. We were never informed about the 2-hour time limitation on our private tour, that our hotel had to be changed after our deposit was placed, that our “food tour” would just be our guide buying a few items for us, and nothing other than a total price was provided. After looking at the price of the inclusions online, we are confused about where all of our money went. In the end, we were left feeling like we were given the "bait and switch" as the trip was marketed to us as the luxury vacation we asked for, but ended up being very different.

We have been on several luxury trips and this trip was far from the luxury of those previous trips. Several of our hotels were very noisy and we spent most of the trip sleep-deprived because of it. The few hotels that were quiet were quite small, and one even had to have the bed built into the wall to provide enough room. We also experienced several small issues such as door locks and TVs not working in our room or air conditioners draining onto our luggage, but those things can't be planned for. The "luxury" vehicle we were supposed to have was a spacious van, but had no air vents for the back seat, no cup holders, no armrests, only a hard bench seat in the back, and the “door open” light turned on every time we curved or turned left. This was made worse by the large amount of time that we were scheduled to spend in the vehicle. We felt like we spent more time driving around than anything else. This was made worse when we experienced backtracking during our trip. We travelled 1.5 hours to Metsovo and 1.5 hours back to our hotel from Metsovo. The very next morning we had to travel over an hour back the exact same way to go to Zagori. I understand that the driver is limited in his time; however, a quick search showed hotels right there in Metsovo with good reviews and similar prices to our hotel. This would have saved us hours of sitting in the car going back to Meteora. Also, during our private olive oil tour, the tour sent their driver to pick us up and take us back to our hotel, just to have our driver pick us up from our hotel and take us 30 minutes immediately back past the tour location. As pricing was not transparent, we have to assume that we paid additional for their driver to take us around when we were already paying for our driver to take us around. This felt like a waste of time and money.

Multiple days we were dropped off at remote hotel rooms with hours to spend and nothing but a restaurant nearby. If accommodations had been booked in more populated areas, we could have walked around the shops and seen more of Greece, but instead we were trapped in remote villages. We felt that this was poor planning and on one day in particular we missed an anticipated itinerary stop due to a tour being scheduled earlier in the day, which did not allow enough time for us to follow the itinerary. We were asked to leave the hotel earlier than normal that day and we drove 4 hours with only a short bathroom stop in order to make our tour on time. This resulted in us being dropped off at the hotel after our 2-hour tour in the middle of the afternoon (and it was the hotel with nothing around it).

When I expressed my concerns to our travel planner during our trip, it felt like she dismissed my concerns entirely and tried to blame the problems on anyone or anything other than herself. Later in the trip, we contacted her again as we didn't have a time for our dinner reservation and found out that she never booked it. I felt that she wasn’t very professional in responding to my feedback about how we felt the trip was not going well. In the end, it felt like she blamed our poor experience on everyone else, including us.

Our trip to Greece was absolutely incredible! We had high hopes for a great vacation and the actual trip far exceeded our hopes.

Zicasso's travel designer planned our two-week honeymoon in Greece (Athens, Paros, Santorini, and Crete) and it was absolutely incredible! All the sites were absolutely gorgeous and the activities planned were great, with amazing tour guides. We had private pick-up and drop-off on travel days, as well as for any of the tours provided. She was very responsive to any questions we had and helped accommodate anything we wanted to change in the itinerary. Everything was meticulously planned and there were really no issues that we ran into.

All the hotels were fantastic, all of them four or five stars and within our budget. They were all beautiful and had great service in desirable locations. We would definitely utilize this travel agency again, especially our agent! We would 10/10 recommend. We made unforgettable memories on our trip, all thanks to the travel company.

Words cannot do justice to the memories we have and the sites we visited, the experiences we shared and the people we interacted with. We had the most wonderful time, with no stress. Everything was taken care of.

Zicasso’s travel agent and her company, in one phone call, listened, heard, inquired, and knew exactly what I wanted in this trip. The sites and experiences, the hotels and free days absolutely fulfilled, actually exceeded, anything we could have dreamed of for any trip – boutique hotels in Chania, Crete, and Corfu were exceptional in every way. They were located in the most perfect places, with the most delicious breakfasts daily and management and staff who were at your service anytime. The beautiful rooms were comfortable, spacious, and with beautiful decor.

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.