Siranna's takes: Tour Review

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Member of our tour group.

I know the word Review sent your finger to mouse to click off

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But wait, I do want to tell you a bit about our four day bus tour called “Eight Day Classical Greece” tour with Gate 1 Travel.

First, this is not a senior citizens bus tour. That was my biggest worry that we’d be stuck on a bus with a bunch of gray hairs, using canes for 4 days. That was not the case. Just about every age group and national was represented. Oh sure, we did have Estelle Getty. And yes, she was always the last one on the bus; but when you reach a certain age people tend to cut you a little flack. Plus she was nice. And cute. That always helps.

I was surprised about the families on this tour. Not people with young kids; but mom and dad with their adult children and their partners’. Two sets of families on our tour bus. Also, meet my match with a woman from New York traveling with her two cousins. They were a hoot! Or maybe it was that New York accent and attitude. Had a mother/daughter combo on the bus along with a couple of friends who live 1500 miles apart and taking tours is how they see each other once or twice a year. And then there was people like us; a couple who travel better together when neither one is driving.

Tour bus rider

The tour bus was big, and comfortable. The seats had plenty of butt space, however the lack of leg room was frustrating. Airlines have more leg room. I know, a truly sad statement.

All the hotels were of high quality. Each had a gorgeous pool, lobby and comfortable beds (not the ones made of rocks.)

What is a typical day is like on a tour you ask??

Our tour guide Elina.

Breakfast buffet at 7 am. You leave your luggage outside your door before breakfast and someone will pick it up, load it onto the bus.

On the bus around 8 a.m.. Drive to (whatever) site. The tour guide walks you around, tells you what you should know and then give you a bit of free time (around 40 minutes) to snap pictures and meet up again before next site or in our case the museum tour. Again, the guide tells you what you are looking at. Snap a few more pictures, visit the restroom and back on the tour bus in 30 minutes.

Traditional style food always served

Lunch stop. Always where the tour guide wants to stop. I am sure they have planned out certain restaurants that gives a kick back to the tour group. You are responsible to pay for your own lunch & drinks.

Back on the bus, a brief stop to view a bridge or canal and a short stop usually at a craft/wine/local place before the hotel stop.

The view from our Hotel in Delphi.

We arrived our first night at 8 p.m. to the hotel, and the earliest we arrived was 6:30 p.m.. At all hotels, we had a buffet dinner (which was included in the cost) and the bus driver/hotel staff would unload the bus and take your bags to your room. However, it was usually a choice of eating dinner OR going to the pool OR making a trip into town. My tummy rules over exercise or window shopping. Besides, I paid the food, I’m going to partake.
This tour did not have any window shopping stops. We had to purchase all our souvenirs at museums.

Our tour guide was well-versed, insightful and kind as they all should be since they all want to be tipped at the end of the tour. Our tour information clearly stated a tip would be required at the end and gave a suggest amount per day for the tour guide and bus driver. However, our tour guide never asked for a tip at the end. I liked how she didn’t pressure us for the tip so I felt better about the tipping and perhaps gave something extra because of it. I noticed a majority of the people on the tour did tip and a couple of people even gave her some sort of knickknack.