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10-Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands |
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Explore Athens, a place of ancient culture and modern Jewish
history. See Athen's ancient structures -- where people worshipped and admired
the Greek gods of yore. Understand the history of the Jews of Greece, a
community that was established with the destruction of the Second Temple in
Jerusalem and expulsion of Jews from the ancient land of Israel. Meet Greek Jews
who are recording their long and peaceful history in the country; a community
almost completely destroyed during World War Two.
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Tour Highlights
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- Visit the new Acropolis
Museum
- Visit Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry
Museum
- Meet with Jewish community
members
- Visit the Benakai Museum
- Walk through the old Jewish
section of Thessaloniki
- Drive thtough the Saronic Gulf to
Cape Sounion
- Evening event with Greek
music
- 4-day islands cruise
including: Mykonos, Kusadasi, Patmos, Rhodes, Herkalion
and Santorini
Trip Includes
- 8 nights accommodation
in selcted hotels
- 4 nights in Hilton
Athens
- 4 nights onboard Louis MV
Aquamarine
- Breakfast daily 6
lunches and 8 dinners
- Sightseeing per
itinerary in a modern air-conditioned motor coach with panoramic
windows
- Services of a friendly
and professional English-speaking Expedition Educator throughout the
trip
- Entrance fees per
itinerary
- Airport
transfers on arrival and departure
- City taxes and VAT
- All hotel portage and
tipping included
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Day One Wednesday -
DEPARTURE
- Depart the U.S. on your way to
Greece.
Overnight: Flight
Day Two Thursday -
Arrival in Greece
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Arrive in Athens.
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Welcome by Da'at representative, assistance with arrival
formalities and transfer to your hotel (included in package price).
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Take a city tour of Athens and gain an
appreciation of this ancient city, one of the world's oldest. See
thePanathenic Stadium, known as the Kallimarmaro, Temple of Olympian
Zeus, the neoclassical Greek Parliament, Syntagma
or Constitution
Square, Hadrian's Arch and the ancient
Agora.
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Visit the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum -- the most extensive ruins are
from the Golden Age of Athens but there are also remains thought to date from
the Late Bronze age.
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See the Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum, with works inspired by ancient
jewelry design to modern commissions and private collections of jewelry and
decorative arts from all over the world.
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Da'at Encounter: Welcome dinner and dialogue with the Jewish
Community of Athens, discussing the past, Present and
Future.
Overnight:
Athens
Day Three Friday - Athens and the Jewish Culture
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Breakfast at your hotel.
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Da'at
Encounter: VIP visit to the Jewish Museum of
Greece. Originally founded in 1977, it has developed an impressive collection
and helped in the recording, research and preservation of the history of the
Jews of Greece.
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Guided visit through the Jewish community compound, including
the Etz Haim Synagogue, home to the Romaniote community of Jews who are first
recorded as living in Greece shortly after the destruction of the
Second Temple in 70 ACE; and the Sephardic community's Beth
Shalom, the site for the new Holocaust Memorial in Athens.
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Da'at
Encounter: Meet
and dialogue with community leaders over cocktails in the courtyard of the
Jewish community compound.
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Benaki Museum: Private VIP visit and chance to view
this extensive collection of Greek art from pre-history until
today.
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Shabbat dinner with members of the Athens Jewish community.
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Optional walking tour through the Plaka, the oldest neighborhood
in Athens with its numerous pedestrian areas, quaint shops and
coffeehouses.
Overnight: Athens
Day Four Saturday - Thessaloniki and Jewish
History
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Breakfast at your hotel.
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Transfer to the airport.
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Departure from Athens and arrival
in Thessaloniki.
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Guided visit through the Jewish sites of Thessaloniki, including Villa Allatini, Villa Mordoch,
the Hippocrates Hospital, Museum of the Jewish Presence in Thessaloniki and the Yad
Le'Zicharon Synagogue, still in daily use today by the local community, which
numbers about 1,300 people. During the Ottoman period, Jews accounted for
almost half of the local population but numbers dwindled after a catastrophic
city fire in 1917. The remaining 50,000 Jews who were successful and
well-integrated into local society were almost all murdered during the
Holocaust.
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Continue your tour of Thessaloniki including the Great Wall and the White Tower, remains from the city's Byzantine
period.
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Da'at Encounter: Meet and dialogue with members of the local
Jewish community at the Thessaloniki Jewish Community Center -- The Jews
of Thessaloniki: The Glory of Yesterday and the Challenges of Today.
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Transfer for the airport.
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Departure flight to Athens.
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Arrive in Athens.
Overnight:
Athens
Day Five Sunday - View From
Poseidon's Perch
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Breakfast at your hotel.
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Enjoy a scenic drive from Athens
along the coastal road and views of the Saronic
Gulf. Pass through some of Athens's upscale, suburbs of Glyfada,
Vouliagmeni and Varkiza. Continue on to Cape Sounion, home to the 5th century BCE, Temple of Poseidon. Dedicated to the Greek god of
the sea, Poseidon, it is perched high above the Aegean
Sea with panoramic views that extend for
miles.
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Return to Athens.
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Farewell dinner and program.
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Enjoy an evening of Greek music and dance at
Plaka.
Overnight: Athens
Day Six Monday - Cruise Day
One
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Check out of your hotel.
- Transfer to Piraeus - embark on your cruise.
- Lunch onboard.
- Arrive at Mykonos just in time for
the evening's festivities. Famous for its nightlife, Mykonos will charm you
with its famous windmills, whitewashed buildings and quaint streets.
- Free time at leisure.
- Dinner onboard.
- Depart Mykonos.
Overnight: Cruise
Day Seven Tuesday - Cruise Day Two
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Breakfast onboard.
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Arrive in Kusadasi, a resort town on
Turkey's Aegean coastline.
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Free time at
leisure, exploring the town, inhabited as early as 3000 BCE.
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Optional
half-day tours (not included in package price):
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Ephesus and the house of Virgin Mary
(Not suitable for passengers with walking difficulties). Visit this site,
reputed to be Mary's home when she was brought to Ephesus with St. John after the
resurrection.
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Ancient Ephesus, home to magnificent Roman ruins - the most
extensive in the Western Mediterranean - as well as other important
antiquities from Ephesus's long history.
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Lunch
onboard.
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Depart to
Patmos.
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Arrive in
Patmos, where there are remains found on the island that date back to the
Bronze Age, and which is also home to the Monastery of St. John the
Divine and is said to be the place where St. John received his revelation.
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Dinner
onboard.
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Depart Patmos.
Overnight: Cruise
Day Eight Wednesday - Cruise Day Three
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Breakfast
onboard.
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Early morning arrival in Rhodes,
the largest and most populous of the Dodecanese Islands.
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Free time at leisure to explore
the Roman ruins as well as the Jewish Quarter
of Rhodes, once home to a thriving community that was almost completely
destroyed during the Holocaust.
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Optional half-day tours (not
included in package price):
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Rhodes
and Lindos combined: Both cities are places where ancient peoples lived,
fought and built their monuments, many of which survive in part to this
day.
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Old City and Filerimos: The Old City is where the
Jewish community once lived, at one time nearly one-third of the population
of Rhodes was Jewish. The synagogue, Kahal
Shalom, established in 1557, is the oldest one in Greece and is still standing in the
Old
City. In Filerimos, see
the remains of a Byzantine church and an early Christian basilica as well as
other fascinating ruins that lay on this hilltop about 35 miles from the
city of Rhodes.
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Lunch onboard.
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Depart to Heraklion (Crete).
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Dinner onboard.
Overnight: Cruise
Day Nine Thursday- Cruise Day Four
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Breakfast
onboard.
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Arrival in Heraklion, Crete, in the early morning.
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Morning at leisure in Crete's
largest city, first established by the Saracens in 824 ACE and close to the
famous ruins of Knossos from Minoan times.
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Return to
the ship for lunch onboard.
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Arrive in
Santorini - a group of volcanic
islands that formed as a result of the Minoan eruption about 3,600 years ago.
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Leisure time to explore the
island and admire the colorful, sandy beaches, marked by the lava flows that
ran underneath, forever changing the look of the sand. Ruins remain from the
Minoan as well as later Hellenic periods.
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Dinner onboard.
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Depart to Piraeus.
Overnight: Cruise
Day Ten Friday- Depart Greece
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Need to Know
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- Tour prices are per person in U.S.
dollars. All hotel accommodations, motor coach transportation, special
dinners, sightseeing, admissions, luggage handling and the services of local
guides, drivers, and the Expedition Educator are included.
- Hotel Accommodations: The
tour price includes all hotel accommodations, in hotel rooms with private
baths. Our standard is to provide the best available hotels while considering
value. Although the level of the accommodations may differ slightly from hotel
to hotel, we are committed to your comfort. Two-bed rooms are reserved in most
hotels. Triples are two-bed rooms with a rollaway cot where available and are
not recommended when considering the comfort of those in the room. King-size
beds are not available in most hotels; what is considered king-size usually
consists of two single beds pushed together and made up separately, but with
one headboard. Some two-bed rooms may have two twin - not full- or queen-size
- beds.
- Meals are included as
specified in the itinerary.
- Expedition Educator: All
trips are conducted by our Expedition Educators or local guides who remain
with the group throughout the tour.
- Gratuities Included: All
gratuities for restaurant and hotel staff.
- Luggage Responsibility: All tour
packages allow one piece of luggage per person and one carry-on bag. Excess
luggage will be subject to charge of up to $100 per piece. The Travel Agent
and/or Tour Operator shall not be held responsible for any damage to or loss
of luggage/personal items. All damage/loss must be reported at time of
incident and documented in writing by local authorities for submission to your
insurance company.
Not Included
- Airfare to the tour
departure point and from the tour ending point is not included. Airfare may be
purchased from us for travel originating in the United States. Please see
Flights tab in the right-side toolbar.
- Porterage fees at Piraeus (3 euro
per bag) is not included.
- Shore excursions and tipping on
board.
- Personal Expenses: All
personal expenses such as: laundry, valet service, cables, telephone calls and
postage are not included.
- Guide and Driver
Gratuities:
- 4 seater -
$70 (i.e. 2 pax) - per day
- 7 seater - $90
(i.e. 3-5 pax) - per day
- 10 seater - $110
(i.e. 5-7 pax) - per day
- 10-19
passengers: Guide $10, driver $5 - per participant per day
- 20 passengers
and more: Guide $8, driver $4 - per participant per
day
Additional Information
- Airline Security Measures:
In the U.S., you must provide identification in the form of a passport at the
time of airport check-in for travel to international destinations. Your
passport name must match the name on your tour reservation and airline ticket
or you may be denied boarding.
- If you are traveling from an
airport outside the jurisdiction of the U.S, you will need to determine what
travel documentation and identification is required for that particular
airport.
- Due to heightened security
regulations, certain items such as a metal nail file, pocketknife, cigarette
lighter or tweezers, and some liquid, gel, or aerosol items may not be
permitted in your carry-on luggage. Please call your airline prior to
departure to obtain current information on non-permissible carry-on items and
recommended airport check-in times. You may also wish to visit the
Transportation Security Administration website at www.tsa.gov to obtain more
information on acceptable identity documentation and prohibited luggage
items.
- Holidays and Museum Closures
- Museum visits and personal shopping time may be disrupted due to unforeseen
circumstances or the many religious, state and local holidays locally observed
in the destinations being visited.
- Photography During Tours: We will
occasionally use photographs taken by fellow guests or your trip director for
promotional purposes. If you prefer that your photo not be used in any
marketing activities, please notify us at the start of your
tour.
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| 11 Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands |
| 2010 | | Land/Cruise Only | | Status | | |
| Oct 20 | | $3860 | | On Sale | |
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Important to Know
- Land-only price does not include arrival/departure transfers unless otherwise indicated.
- By paying a deposit upon registration, you are agreeing to ARZA World terms.
- We highly recommend carefully reviewing those terms for full details about conditions and penalties.
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View Map
Accommodations
- 11 Day Exploring Athens, Thessaloniki and the Islands
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Day 2 - 5: Hilton Athens
Athens
The hotel faces the spectacular Acropolis on
one of the city's most fashionable avenues in the capital. It is located minutes
walk from the city centre, opposite the National Art Galery and close to many
major companies, shopping areas and embassies.
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Day 6 - 9: Louis MV Aquamarine
Greek Islands Cruise
Considered one of
the best vessels for cruising the Greek Islands, her sleek design and medium
size make her ideally suited for navigating the waters of the Aegean Sea, while
her upscale amenities and services create a comfortable floating base for the
duration of the trip. The Aquamarine has 525 spacious staterooms and suites, as
well as two spacious, full-service dining areas and several comfortable bar and
lounge areas for cocktails, coffee and light snacks. As you sail between ports,
take advantage of the Aquamarine's numerous leisure facilities including a
swimming pool, sun deck, fitness center, massage/sauna facilities, basketball
court, casino, and
more.
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Dates & Prices
Program
The AW Added Value
AW Flights
Reading List
Need to Know
Peace of Mind
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