Greece: In the Footsteps of Paul the Apostle

The house of our blessed Mother Mary so simple yet so full of Mother Mary’ presence. Made me remember my biological mother and who much she is responsible for my faith. Thanks be to God.

Late evening tours I did not enjoy. Lots of people and not enough time to sight seeing as well as Turkey tour wasted time at the rug factory when I would have liked to spend that time souvenir shopping. Rush tours

Full and knowledgeable experience

I don’t want the schedule of some of our tour in the afternoon .By the time we done it is already dark.

Lovely trip. The visit to Mary's house and Meteora monasteries were at the top of the list.. The Acropolis in Athens was a close third! Packed a lot in 10 days....was a bit tired by day 9.. Our guide was fabulous!!!

The cruise wait time was three hours to get off the ship. They could have staggered the times different groups got off. So I sit got too late so I did not get off the ship after waiting three hours.

My favorite island was Meteora, however all of Greece was spectacular. The Acropolis was beautiful. Tour Director needs to slow down on walking tours. She walked so fast we could barely keep up or hear her on vox. The hotel accommodations were great but didnt appreciate the little rooms on the ship and no upgrades available. Trip was spectacular to Greece. The local guides were outstanding. Knew the history and kept us interested.

I am very impressed with Collette! It is a very detail oriented, all-inclusive tour company. I didn’t feel the need to have a travel agent be in charge, Collette covered it all. The tour was great, the manager and guides for each place we stopped were excellent. The tour bus and driver were awesome, too. As a solo traveler, I felt very safe at all times. I will use Collette again!

Excellent accommodations and tour guides. I was disappointed in cruise ship scheduling. Arrived at islands too late in the day. Embarking and disembarking took a long time.

Great tour with Savas, the teacher (Fred Witzig), the history and meeting new people on the team.

Tour managers and local guides were great

The tour was great. There was a lot of riding on the bus, but that was unavoidable due to the distances between sites. Most of the participants were older so the frequent bathroom breaks were appreciated. I like visiting Ephesus the best, but the food on the ship was not good at all.

The schedule of late nights and early departures was grueling for older passengers. The twin-bed cabin on the ship was cramped. Some of the local guides were hard to understand because they talked too fast or had strong accents. The one in Turkey was terrific! And we really liked Theodosius! The ala cart food on the ship was excellent, but the buffet food got a little monotonous. The bus was luxurious, and the bus drivers were outstanding. Baggage handling was highly efficient, including transferring belongings we left behind in the Holiday Inn in Athens to the Crowne Plaza in Athens. We would consider another Collette Tour, but would choose one with a less demanding schedule.

Well planned, Amanda was incredible. Went smoothly and had a great time!

I was one of the travelers that was stranded in the Denver Airport and missed Mykonos and Ephesus.

The tour was great!! We were expertly lead through St. Paul's footsteps while getting to exoerience the cultutal and modern aspects of Greece!

Unfortunately, many of the guests on the tour had missed connections and lost luggage which impacted the overall tour. The change in the final hotel while it was noted two weeks out it was not brought to our attention at the pre-sail meeting and we were staying over in Athens to meet family, so we had to pay for a hotel stay that we did not use.

It was a good tour but quite rushed. I have visited Ephesus before and this trip was a hurried trip through. Also two Greek island stops in each day were too much.

Eleni, our tour guide, was amazing. On the other hand, Collette scheduled our connecting flights with little forethought. We missed connecting flights to munich and athens. Missed the beginning of the cruise and was without my checked in luggage for 6 days.

Our tour guide was the BEST !! His Name is Savas !! It was an amazing experience

Too many hours driving, not much narrative during the drive

I feel misled and bait and switch by Collette. This was supposed to be a private tour with our church, we had twenty strangers with us. When I signed up I was told 30 people, after a bit it was 33. Ok, that’s good. No, there were 44. I would never have gone if I knew it was 44 people plus not our private group that we paid BIG bucks for!

Tour director was ok in explaining what we saw I don’t understand the difference between a Tour Director and a Tour Manager. Gaiam Paulo was very good.. For our accommodation, all hotels were excellent except for one. There wasn’t enough personal time.

Trip stopped in London, no guidance on transportation or tours. Had to change to a second hotel next day.

This is by far one of my best tour experience. This is our second tour with Collette. Our Tour Manager, Amanda Phillips made a big difference. She is very knowledgeable, professional, and quick to respond to everyone’s needs. Amanda provided good places to eat and shop. Our hotels are convenient, clean and walking distance from all the good places to visit. Let’s not forget Visilli, our tour bus driver. He is an awesome driver that can maneuver through tight places. He is amazing! And our Celestial cruise it’s amazing. All the excellent food, great service are fantastic. The ship is big enough and not over crowded. This is perfect for our tour. As for the Foot Steps of St Paul, this tour provided an abundance of experience, knowledge and the most amazing sites. The Greek food are amazing! I highly recommend this tour. And if you’re lucky enough to get Amanda as your tour manager it would be an experience you’ll treasure like we had.

Except for some confusion with the connecting flights, the travel was Excellent. Food was nice and the tour guides were all wonderful!

Yes - the Hotel Capsis in Thessaloniki had bathroom issues - the sink and the shower did not drain and the shower would not stay in position to use and one had to hold it to shower. Additionally, the hotel in Kalambaka did not have irons nor did their housekeeping have a pressing service. This hotel really needs updating or need to find other accommodations in this area. The lobby and dining room are lovely but the rooms are extremely dated and look like they are stuck in the 1960's. The cruise was fun and we loved the Greek islands. When we arrived in Rome, our room looked like it was stuck in the 1950's and the bedding was ancient. The lobby and dining were very nice but our driver to the airport passed the Hotel St. Martin and told us that many Collette travelers stay there in Rome and it was very nice. We were told upon arrival in Rome, that the Roman Serenade extra option had been cancelled without any explanation and had a difficult time obtaining a refund from Collette, as they were told we did not show up for an included dinner, which was not true. Our tour manager, Sophia, in Greece was excellent as were the other guides who joined us in different places. Chiara, our tour manager in Rome, seemed to be very new and wasn't as organized as Sophia. The guide for the Vatican Tour was excellent and Rome did not disappoint!

Collette had several hours advanced knowledge that we would be stranded in Paris, which was not our final destination. No one was at the Paris Airport to assist us and reassure us that we would be taken care of. Instead we were given verbal phone instructions to lug our baggage to the Novotel Hotel across the airport, up and down escalators, onto a shuttle train not knowing where exactly we were headed. After we were informed our stay in Paris would be more than just one night, someone at Collette did not want us to be moved to downtown Paris so we could at least go and see some of Paris. This was finally arranged with taxi's sent for us. There were 8 of us that took the Rome extention. We were taken to the Athens Airport and 7 of the 8 of us had Business Class seating, which meant we could all use the lounge preflight but the one lady!!!!! This was a very rude thing to do to this lady by your booking staff!!!! While on the plane there were seats available in the Business Class. Someone dropped the ball in this situation!!! She should have been with the rest of us!

we were stranded in London due to the strike in Greece. No one from Collette contacted me but they did deal with Father Tyler. We had to pay for our hotel the first night and then had to move to another hotel. We had to pay for our meals and we missed the cruise to the Greek islands.

The Collette tour guides were bad. Amanda was very controlling - her bus got every advantage every day. It was awful how biased she was toward her bus. Theo could not make any decisions until Amanda told him the plans for her bus. It was awful!. The 2 buses rarely mixed. As a result, we were never able to take a picture of our full group. We do not have a picture of the entire group that traveled to Greece….very sad.

Amanda was very biased to her group. She did not allow Theo to speak up. One night we waited two hours for our meal. The other group came later and left long before us.

Yes. The trip was a great failure. Airflights were not done correctly. Mike your representative that told us what we would need realized the flight was not correct but did nothing about it. When we got stranded in Denver, it seemed like Collette or United Airlines didn't care. We missed 1/2 of our trip and you want to give us a $200.00 voucher on another trip. You need to give us a complete paid trip with hotel reservations, guides, and meals to Crotia and Turkey. We paid over $5,000.00 for a trip and missed 1 /2 of it and was so exhausted from spending 56 hours in the airport and then a 8-9 hour ferry trip and waste a day waiting to catch up with our group. Why would we want to take another trip with Collette?

I did not have a good experience with Collette. We question Mike at the meeting if there was enough time catching our flight from Denver, he assured us it was. I do hold Collette responsible. We have a construction company, we are held responsible when our subs messed up. You contracted out your company to some one else to book our tour. I missed my tour going to Turkey and Mykonos. My presentation to my church fell short because of your scheduling. The $200 travel coupon was an insult. There is no way that I can fly to Turkey and Mykonos and a hotel on $200. I would like a refund for time that I lost for the two countries. so it very hard for me to give you a great review. Mark and Ruby Kelley

Wonderful experience visiting parts of Greece that I had not visited in the past.

The entire trip was well planned, accommodations very good, and all tour guides outstanding.

All the ruins were excellent! The monasteries stuck out above the rest!

This is an excellent tour! Met all of our expectations! Be prepared to walk a lot and work your way through ruins! Very moving!

My tour guide(Savas) knew important things.

my wife fell and broke her elbow in 3 places savass called the hospital to tell them to expect us savass paid for the cab from our hotel to the hospital savass went to the hospital with us and communicated with the doctors and nurses in Greek which greatly expedited the process savass used his own credit card to buy airline tickets to get back from Thessaloniki to Athens to pick up the tour again (We paid him back) savass was one of the most memorable things about the trip

really did not have best...but very disappointed in not being able to get pictures in Santorini

See first comment

The tour was amazing and I would do it again with Santorini and Mykonos in the day. We saw the monasteries on the basalt pillars which were an unexpected highlight and Ephesus. So many incredible experiences! Really loved Athens and Phillipi and Thessonalonikki too. Food was wonderful.

Loved seeing the coast of Turkey and countryside of Greece

Each of the ruins sites where well chosen, but all where so good I am hard pressed to pick a favorite. The one short bus stop at Thermopylae was a highlight since I have studied this battle for years. Very happy to see it.

Mass celebrated by Monseigneur Callahan at Berea near Phillipi at the altar by outside stream where St.Lydia and her household were received into the Church. The monasteries at Meteora were exceptional.

Maybe add a day or two to this tour to slow the pace a bit.

Our favorite part of the tour was our manager Kerri. She was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant to be with.

The ground portion of our tour was very interesting.

Historical information was provided by knowledgeable tour guides. Travel accommodation ms were excellent.

Super Excellent tour stops.

My last evening when I danced one of the Greek dances.

House of Mary was very moving . Country side was unbelievable thru out the Tour.

It was all amazing, we’ve never done a tour before, but after this one, we want to again. Thank you Amanda!!!!’

there was a lot of travel and sightseeing packed into this trip. while it was wonderful, it was a little too much for some people. i believe the explanation of the trip needs to be more forthcoming with the amount of travel and the speed at which we had to travel to see everything. While this is a great tour, people need to know it is not a "relaxing" trip. It was quite difficult for older and those with health issues to fully particpate. i do not necessarily think the tour should be changed but just make people aware of how busy they will be and that they may only be incertain places for a short time (Mykonos and Santorini) I was really disapponted that we only were on Mykonos and Santorini for a couple of hours and at night.

There were so many memorable experiences but we were rushed through them. We definitely needed more time to savor every site.

Athens, Santorini and Mykonos

Ephesus and Patmos and then the Parthenon.

The best experience of my lifetime. A truly marvelous trip!

After 12 hrs of travel, we were taken directly to the welcome dinner....without being able to shower or settle in. The tour did not allow for relaxation. We were dropped off at Mykonos and Santorini at b.c. the end of the day. So disappointing, as we would have loved to take pictures, but the sun was going down. The tour was grueling for those of our group who could not make the steps and I th therefore, stayed behind!)

it was humbling to walk in the footsteps of Paul the Apostle. I loved the contrast of the included sites from the ruins at Ephesus in Turkey to the Monastery at Meteora and the beautiful island of Santorini.

Athens, exploring the acropolis.

Excellent Tour seeing so much of Greece. Our favorite was touring Ephesus.

Touring the Greek Isles. Worst: Santornni...It was crowded, not well planned...no parking, had to wait a very long time to evern get our bus to get thru to pick us up. Only bad memory for us.

A very enjoyable & interesting trip with lovely fellow travelers & a brilliant tour manager Lucy. But exhausting at times: lots of early starts & long journeys. And the accommodation & food provided (i.e. not the places where we paid for ourselves, which were great) was nothing special, especially given the cost of the tour.

The blue Aegean Sea was spectacular

The best part of the tour was the cruise, however, I would have liked to have had more time at ports. The land portion was too busy. Would like to have more than one night at accommodations.

I already told you. How many times do I have to do this? Can't read the first item below because the "NEW! Attach a photo or video" covers it up and I can't seem to make that go away.

Poorly designed itinerary. Overpriced

Our tour guide Georgios doing Greek dancing impromptu on our bus. Visiting Santorini, Mykonos & surprisingly the monastery visits.

This was a stressful trip and should have een noted as such

Comprehensive. A bit exhaustive.

food never hot always just warm.breakfast put out early and eggs cold

I already did in the space above.

This was a great tour and we saw a lot. This was a very fast paced tour with really no down time to shop or just take a breath and enjoy the sights. Pretty much all 44 of us on this trip thought it was too fast.

We enjoyed the trip and had a lot of fun and saw a part of the world that goes back to ancient times

Discover Greece was an amazing tour. Our tour manager, Savvas Papasavvas, was outstanding! I really got a sense of the culture. Traveling in the footsteps of St. Paul made the New Testament come alive for me.

very poor accommodations. quality of meals poor. Site visitation time vs travel time very poor--spent much more time on tour bus than actually touring sites

The tour could of been completed with in a few days. The cruise portion was less than desirable as the ship seems outdated. As with most Collette tours, you are rushed from location to location. If you want to be relaxed this is not the tour for you. The hotel accommodations are misleading as Collette tends to get a vast discount on the rooms which puts you in the most undesirable rooms in hotels, by elevators, no view, smaller than normal rooms, etc. The best part and probably the best part of all Collette tours are the guides. They are enjoyable to be with and make undesirable accommodations, cranky cotravelers, and mediocre food selection a distance memory. On this trip Savvas Papasavvas was awesome, he always had a smile and kept the groups spirit's high.

The tour was planned out pretty well, as far as the sited we visited. I was amazed at some of the beautiful places we were able to tour. But there was one night where we were expected to pay for our own food & were taken to a restaurant that was a little pricier than I would've chosen as a single mom paying for myself & 2 sons. We were also only given a choice between 2 dishes. This seemed out of line for us being responsible to pay for it ourselves. Also I was told that there would be gluten free options for my son. But this proved to be not the case at most places. The worst experience was on the airplane. The only thing they had available in the 14 hours of flying was a small bowl of fruit, small amount of chicken, & a small salad. They also only provided 2 small cups of water to drink. He ended up fainting, which scared all of us. Luckily he was ok the next day. But a stewardess actually came to me & said that we could've told them ahead of time about his gluten intolerance & they would've made sure he had plenty. Well, I thought they were informed by you, my tour company that I had informed about it. So not happy about that! Throughout the tour, every restaurant server we encountered were completely oblivious to his need to be gluten free. The only places he could really eat well were the breakfast buffets at the hotels. We made due & he didn't starve, but for the amount of money paid, being able to have decent meals shouldn't have been a challenge. That was a completely unnecessary stressor. I would like to complement you on the site tour guides chosen, especially the one for Ephesus. They were very informative, patient, & kind. The cruise was a bit of a disappointment. The desserts were delicious, but the buffet meal food offerings weren't so much. Some of it was good. But the majority was very bland. It was also not open throughout the day. I've never experienced that on a cruise before. Also it was cold & the buffet was only available to eat in outdoor dining area. That was not pleasant. The cruise shows at night were excellent, as also were the live musicians playing throughout the day! I really enjoyed the entertainment part of it.

We loved the sites selected and the hotels that we stayed in.

The whole trip went well and was interesting. Our guides did a good job. Our accommodations were nice. They were not excessive. I like that. I do not like to pay and arm and a leg for a place to sleep. If it is clean and comfortable, that is enough.

Felt rushed in a few places....but we saw a great deal!

We got on the bus in Greece and reazlied there were at least 10 people included on our tour not from our church. This kept our pastor from being able to teach to the depth we were hoping.

We didn't get enough free time to shop or just relax. We were going the entire time--completely exhausting.

The buses were not maintained. For example trash found, pieces of cup holders missing, no internet capability. I felt the tour guide at times focused on his personal life too much. Also since this was a biblical tour I felt his scope of knowledge was only Greek Orthodox, rather than the broader scope of Christianity.

Most memorable experience was on the first night at the Greek restaurant...festive, inviting. exciting.

The day we toured the Acropolis!

Trip was good and I enjoyed the sights.

See prior notes on Greece, particularly cruise portion, which could have been much better - poor planning of visits to islands. Most cruise ships sail at night and give you the full day to tour. We spent most of the day on the ship and only had a few hours to tour - when weather permitted. Hotels and ship were clean and most were comfortable (beds). Food was good but not exceptional, esp. ship. Beautiful countryside, Ephusus was very interesting and cleaner than Greece (Athens in particular).

Going to Ephesus!!!! Actually never should have gone to Santorini. We had very rough seas getting on the tender and as a result were very late leaving the ship. It was after 7:00 PM when we arrived on Santorini and then we left at 8:30 PM. It was dark and and a total waste of time. Money for this extra trip should be refunded.

Crystal cruise line was a disappointment. Food was terrible.

Our tour mgr, Kerrie, was fantastic. But there was too much included in our 11 days. I am physical and mentally fine with a fast pace but it is just not the way I want to spend a vacation. Early mornings and late nights were necessary to get everything in. I would have rather seen less and not have been so rushed. Only 2 hours at Ephesus was such a disappointment. I was terribly disappointed with the Greek cruise ship. It is very old.

LOVED THE PEOPLE I WAS WITH AND TOUR WAS WELL PREPARED.

Good accommodations from home pick up to all transfers. 3 of the 4 Greek islands were scheduled after sunset. There were more “Footsteps” of sightseeing than St. Paul reflection. Overall a good experience mostly because of the tour manager Papasavvas.

Tour was fabulous, and helped to understand the trials of St Paul. A bit disappointed in the food onboard ship. Good, but not up to quality of other cruises.

Super tour. Guide, super tour. Terrible last dinner which I. Already. Wrote about. One.more thing. How come we don't get a souvenir group photo. Put it in a cardboard folder with Colette ads over it. I think your tours have so much in them. I love how much we do and see and how great the local guides are. Looking forward to Oberammergau next spring.

It was like a race to cover as much ground as possible.

I was very pleased with the logistics arrangement, the professionalism, caring and knowledge of the tour director, the places we visited and the local tour guides .

I enjoyed Cruise to Creta to meet owner of vineyard; Kavala; Philippi; and Meteora.

The Greek Isles are beautiful. I especially loved Patmos. Our guide was a true believer who share many wonderful details with us.

Evening meal first night in Athens

The destinations were great. Best was Patmos.

Ephesus was the highlight for me and I wish we could have spent more time there and at Kusadasi.

See the previous statement under Collette experience.

I enjoyed dinner, and entertainment in the Plaka, in Athens.

The site seeing locations were wonderful. The hotels and cruise boat were okay I would not choose them again

Tour was awesome - loved the cruise to the Greek islands plus the land tour in Athens - very interesting

There was a wide variety of experiences.

Tour stops very great. The amount of ground covered and the knowledge we obtain about each site could not have been reached on our own. The absolute best was seeing the tall natural stone monoliths at Meteora with the monastery’s built in top.

Great .