Classical Greece & the Wonders of the Ancient World with 7 night Island Extension

Upon arrival, meet your tour manager for the short 30-minute transfer to your hotel. Spend the rest of the day relaxing and acclimatising to your new surroundings.

Depending on your time of arrival, you might choose to talk a stroll into Thessaloniki, which was once the wealthiest city in the Byzantine Empire. Take a walk along the seafront promenade, perhaps pausing for a souvlaki and a beer at one of the numerous cafés and restaurants, no doubt looking forward to a fascinating week ahead.

Join your tour manager for a fascinating tour of Thessaloniki, which, despite being Greece’s second-largest city, has a compact centre that is perfect for exploring on foot. Founded in 315 BC, Thessaloniki was an important city during the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods, and is home to several well-preserved sites from these eras. Visit the stunning Byzantine Church of Saint Demetrios, honouring Thessaloniki’s patron saint, a Roman soldier killed on the site of the church in 306 AD by Emperor Galerius, infamous persecutor of Christians. Continue to the Arch of Galerius, a magnificent symbol of the emperor’s power with intricate panel carvings commemorating a decisive victory over the Persians, and the waterfront White Tower, an Ottoman fortress and perhaps Thessaloniki’s most famous landmark. The tower was built in the 15th century on the site of a Byzantine fortification and was used to protect the harbour.

Enjoy lunch at your leisure in Thessaloniki, which has a well-earned reputation as a powerhouse of Greek gastronomy, before the tour continues to Halkidiki for a boat tour around the UNESCO­­­-listed Mount Athos. The ‘Holy Mountain’, as it is also known, sits on a peninsula that juts out in the Aegean Sea, and is home to 20 monasteries. According to myth, the mountain was created by Athos, who was one of the Gigantes. Sit back and relax as your guide explains the legend of Mount Athos, as you gain a unique perspective from the sea.

Enjoy an fascinating day of exploration in the home of the Gods.

In Greek mythology, Mount Olympus was the home of the 12 Greek gods. Your tour guide will bring these fascinating myths to life as you explore the mountain, which is Greece’s highest peak, reaching to 9,573ft above sea level. Homer, legendary author of the Odyssey and Iliad is also believed to have lived here. Mount Olympus is famous for its unique biodiversity and is classified as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The mountain’s forested slopes are home to 32 species of mammals, 108 species of birds and countless different reptiles and amphibians, together with 1700 plant species, which equates to roughly 25% of all the plants found in Greece.

Join your tour manager after breakfast today for an included tour of the rock formations at Meteora. The stunning landscape is littered with enormous rock columns, some as tall as 1,800ft. There are six monasteries precipitously perched on top of these gigantic columns, which are a designated UNESCO ­World Heritage Site. The monasteries date back to the 14th-century, and one of them, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Spend a wonderful day exploring this truly unique landscape, before returning to your hotel this evening.

This morning, after breakfast, board the coach and transfer to Delphi. Stop en route for lunch (payable locally), before arriving at your new hotel in the late afternoon. Relax and take the time to settle in, perhaps heading to explore the town, or enjoying an apéritif at your hotel, before an included dinner is served this evening.

After breakfast, join your tour manager for an included tour of sacred Delphi. Site of the oracle consulted for a thousand years for her wise utterances, Delphi’s remains include the Sacred Precinct, with its fabled Temple of Apollo and its reconstructed Treasury of the Athenians. Marvel at the 5th-century BC bronze charioteer, one of Classical Greece’s most priceless remains and visit the fabled Castalian spring, into which Byron once plunged.

After a wonderful day spent exploring Delphi, transfer to Athens, and your new hotel in Glyfada. Depending upon your arrival time, enjoy a first taste of the bustling Greek capital. Choose to dine in the hotel, or perhaps in one of the innumerable restaurants or tavernas close to your hotel.

This morning our included guided sightseeing tour will introduce you to this extraordinary, beguiling city. Explore the fabled Acropolis, the massive rock buttress topped with the familiar ruins of the Parthenon, one of the world’s most enduring symbols. The great double gatehouse, the Propylaea, the elegant Temple of Athena Nike and the great Erechtheion complete the major monuments that are awe-inspiring windows to the 5th-century BC era of the great Classical Greek Civilisation and its immortal leader Pericles.

Entrance is included to the Acropolis Museum, which houses items rescued from the monuments, and don’t miss the great Roman Herodes Atticus Theatre, the nearby ruins of the 17-000-seat Theatre of Dionysos, which once witnessed the masterworks of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the stupendous remains of the Temple of Zeus, once the largest temple on the Greek mainland.

Modern Athens surrounds the relics of the past – and your tour will leave you keen to explore under your own steam, before, this evening, you enjoy some traditional Greek hospitality in your choice of restaurant, reflecting on a wonderful week.

Say goodbye to any newfound friends that are leaving the tour today, before you transfer to nearby Piraeus for your ferry to Aegina Island.

Upon arrival you'll be transferred to your new hotel, where you'll stay for the next seven nights.

Now it's time to relax. You'll have a whole week to spend as you please. Choose from lazing around by the hotel pool, exploring Aegina Island, home to the 5th-century BC Temple of Apollo, swimming in the sea and enjoying some classic Greek food at a selection of local tavernas. However you decide to spend your week on Aegina, you're sure to leave feeling fully relaxed.

Catch the ferry back to Athens, transfer to the airport to begin your journey home.