Aegean Adventure
8 DAYS
Athens 1 • Aboard ship 4 • Athens 1
Basic Inclusions
Accommodations
Accommodations in centrally-located three-star or four-star hotels. Rooming on a triple basis. Inside cabins on Days 3, 4, 5 and 6 aboard ship. Double rooms: $50 per night, per person. Triple/Quad cabins aboard ship are bunk style beds.
Meals
All breakfasts. Four lunches. All dinners. Dinner aboard cruise ship on Days 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Transportation
Round-trip transportation on scheduled airline. All public transportation tickets included where applicable.
Guide
Special arrangements as noted.
Travel Protection
Passports provides and pays for a Post Departure Travel Protection Plan that includes coverage for Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Medical Expense and Evacuation and more.
Tour Summary
Itinerary Includes
Local guide services provided as indicated on itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival Athens
Arrival transfer
Day 3: Athens - Aboard ship
Departure transfer, The sophisticated island of Mykonos
Day 4: Aboard ship
Kusadasi and Patmos: Shore Excursion to the ancient Greek city of Ephesus
Day 5: Aboard ship
Rhodes: Shore excursion to Lindos and the Citadel of the Knights
Day 6: Aboard ship
Crete, Santorini: Port of Heraklion, Optional Shore excursion to the Santorini village of Oia
Day 7: Aboard ship - Athens
Transfer from the pier
Assistant full day (through dinner)
Half-day city sightseeing in Athens: Local Guide, Visit to the Acropolis, Sightseeing stop at the Parthenon, Visit to the Acropolis Museum
Day 8: Departure
Departure transfer
UNPARALLELED STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE
CITY-CENTER HOTELS
Stay right in the heart of it. Why settle for staying outside of the city? Wake up in the city. Explore. Have dinner in the city. Explore. Return to the hotel at your convenience.
Check out our typical hotels
3-AND-4 STAR HOTELS
We’ve scoured each city for the finest hotels for our groups. Comfortable, conveniently located, clean and safe. That’s what we do.
HOTEL CHOICE
We give you options - but the choice is yours.
AMAZING FOOD
Student tour dinners don’t have to stink! Enjoy authentic, high-quality food, and lots of it. Three-course meals that you will want to post on social media.
Check out what our food is like
INDUSTRY BEST TOUR DIRECTORS
Passports contracts only the finest, A+ Tour Directors in the industry. With decades of experience, our team is second-to-none in terms of experience and professionalism. Read more about our amazing Tour Directors.
24-HOUR SERVICE
Your Tour Director will meet you at the airport and stay with you every step of the way until your return flight. They are your own personal travel expert.
INCLUDED FLIGHTS
We work with the airlines so you don’t have to.
BEST AVAILABLE ROUTINGS
We look for the best possible routings for your group with a minimal number of legs and ideal layovers. We try to get you in early - but not too early - to maximize your time overseas.
MORE INCLUSIONS
UNLIMITED PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INCLUDED
You don’t want to have to worry about getting metro tickets when you’re pressed for time. We provide pre-loaded travel cards so that you can hit the ground running.
INCLUDED OVERSEAS MEDICAL COVERAGE
Passports provides and pays for a post-departure travel protection plan that helps protect you while on your trip with coverage for trip interruption, trip delay, baggage loss, theft or delay, emergency medical expenses, evacuation and more.
ALL TIPS INCLUDED OPTION
Tour Directors receive tips at the end of the tour. Including the tip in the up-front tour cost saves your group from carrying around extra money overseas or being surprised with an extra expense at the end of the tour. This is just another way that Passports is honest and up-front about all expenses. You can choose to include the tip ahead of time - or not to. Passports gives you the option.
NO ON TOUR UPSELL
Ever been pressured on tour to purchase an excursion? Or been shuttled into one workshop after another? Not with Passports.
VALUE VALUE VALUE
Dollar-for-dollar Passports is the best value you can get. Our tours are packed with included activities for a price that you can't beat with any other company.
HUMAN-FIRST POLICIES
FANATICAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT
We are here to be your partner. We support our group leaders 100%. Through thick and thin, we will work with you to make your travel program an annual success.
BEST REFUND POLICY IN THE INDUSTRY
Passports refunds 75% until 30 days prior to departure as our default policy. Early cancellations have fixed, low cancellation penalties. We would love for you to compare our cancellation policy to our competitors. Passports acts as the best partner we can, for every traveler, on every tour. That’s our promise.
SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT
Our Tour Advisors are amazing people who work with the group leaders during the pre-sale, enrollment, pre-departure, on-tour and post-tour periods. They check in when the group is overseas. They are the point of contact throughout the entire process to assist in all phases of the tour. This is more important than you would think unless you’ve been with another company and changed hands several times in the course of the tour. The point is: trust and accountability are critical in our relationship with a group leader.
NO HIDDEN CHARGES
No adult fee. With Passports, adults pay the same as students. Oftentimes adults will opt for a double room as they can’t room with students, and there is a charge for the double room. But there is no charge simply for being an adult.
No hidden airline fees. No hidden tripwire fees. With Passports, what you see is what you get.
Detailed Itinerary
Days 1-2: Arrival
A dream comes true as your wide-bodied jet thunders off the airstrip, Europe-bound. Time for a meal, a movie and a nap. It gets light again, first off the left-hand side of the airplane, then everywhere. It's morning, and Greece!
You may want to stroll in the lively Plaka district, or ride the steep funicular railway up Mt. Lycabettus for a fabulous view of the city.
Overnight: Athens
Day 3: Piraeus, Mykonos
Head to Athens' port, and board your cruise ship.
Step ashore on an Aegean haven that combines the dazzling white beauty of a typical Cycladic island and a jet-set ambiance. Stroll through flower-decked lanes to the church of Paraportiani, or along the waterfront for great views of the famous windmills.
According to mythology, it's on this island named after the local hero Mykonos, son of the King of Delos, that Hercules slew the Giants. Their petrified corpses are still scattered about: keep your eyes open for large rocks!
Overnight: Aboard ship
Day 4: Kusadasi and Patmos
Your ship docks in the port of Kusadasi, in Turkey. This is a picturesque market town where you will have fun browsing.
Enjoy an excursion to the ancient city of Ephesus, once one of the most important Roman cities in Asia-Minor with 250,000 inhabitants at its peak. The final resting place of St. John, it is also the site of the ruins of the Temple of Diana, four times larger than the Parthenon and designated as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Your guided walking tour commences at the Magnesian Gate, which leads into the ancient site. See the Forum, the Odeon, the Thermal Baths of Scholastica, the Library of Celsus, Temple of Serapis, the Temple of Hadrian, the Great Theater, recognized for its outstanding acoustics, and the Arcadian Way, where Mark Antony and Cleopatra once rode in procession.
The next port of call is Patmos, where the Christian author John lived in exile. Now known under many names (the Apostle, the Evangelist, the Divine, the Revelator), he wrote on this rocky island the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, which is also called The Apocalypse.
Overnight: Aboard ship
Day 5: Rhodes
Rhodes' harbor was once guarded by the Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In the Middle Ages, the island became a fortified stronghold ruled by the crusading order of the Knights of St. John. Go explore the Old City, or bask in the cosmopolitan atmosphere at the yacht harbor.
Enjoy an excursion to the majestic Acropolis of Lindos. This superb site graced by a Temple of Athena dating back to 300 BC overlooks the Aegean Sea and has attracted an artists' colony. At the foot of the hill stands the often visited Panagia Church, which dates back to the 14th century.
Get transported even deeper into the Middle Age on a visit to the walled Old Town built as a citadel in the early 1300s by the Knights of St. John. Landmarks include the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Street of the Knights, and Gothic mansions with Byzantine features.
Overnight: Aboard ship
Day 6: Crete, Santorini
Sail on to Crete, a land of mountains and valleys, which has stood for centuries at the crossroads of great civilizations.
Your ship docks at the port of Heraklion, Crete's capital city, and the birthplace of the Minoan civilization (3650 to 1400 BC).
City highlights include the Old Port;, El Venizélou Square; El Greco Square with a statue of the great painter himself, Domenikos Theotokopoulos, who was born in Crete in 1541; and the Venetian Walls, begun in 1462, when the Republic of Venice ruled over Crete.
The unforgettable sight of Santorini's steep cliffs rising over cobalt waters greets you as your ship sails into the stunning natural harbor formed by its caldera (the remnant of an ancient volcano that erupted around 1600 BC and wiped out a flourishing Bronze Age civilization).
Once ashore, you will be transported up the steep flank of the Santorini caldera to the top of the island. See the town of Fira (also spelled Thira), perched high above Santorini's Old Port, and head to Oia, a picturesque village set at the island's northern tip.
There's more to Oia than the sunsets for which it's gained fame. See why as you stroll along its lovely cobblestone streets, past white washed houses with blue shutters. Take in the panoramic view of the caldera's bay punctuated by the two black islets known as Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni. Check out the shops, pause at a local cafe.
Overnight: Aboard ship
Day 7: Cruise Ship Disembarkation, Athens City Sightseeing
Disembark your cruise ship at the port and transfer to Athens.
An assistant will escort your group today, through dinnertime.
Enjoy a coach tour of Athens, old and new.
See modern Athens, with the Greek Parliament, the 1896 Olympic Stadium, the Plaka district and Syntagma Square, where you may see the picturesque Evzones goose-stepping their way through the Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
A local guide, well-educated and specially-trained on the history and culture of Athens, will accompany your group.
Visit the awesome monuments built by Pericles on the Acropolis during Athens' Golden Age in the 5th century BC. On that hill, the goddess Athena reigned supreme. You'll see the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Erechtheion with the Kore Porch, famous for its Caryatid columns.
Of course, you'll visit the centerpiece of the Acropolis, the 2,500 years old yet ageless Parthenon. For this huge temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, architects skillfully avoided straight lines and right angles to counterbalance the unsightly optical illusion called optical sagging, which deforms straight lines.
Delve deeper into antiquity at the contemporary archaeological museum open in 2009 at the base of the Acropolis hill, in the hope that it will one day house the superb and much disputed 5th century BC Parthenon Sculptures that were moved to England in the 19th century by Lord Elgin. For now, visitors can view a Permanent Collection with artifacts from the 7th century BC to the 5th century AD, and peer at excavations through a glass floor.
Overnight: Athens
Day 8: Departure
It's the birthplace of Western Civilization that glides by under the right wing of your jet airplane as you head for home. Arrive home later today, eager to share your adventures with family and friends.
CUSTOM TOURS
All tours can be customized to your particular needs.
Or start from scratch - we will build your dream tour!
Mykonos
Kusadasi
Patmos
Rhodes
Santorini
Heraklion
Acropolis
Parthenon
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