Private guide in Athens

Am looking for a private guide and driver for a personal tour of Athens next summer.

My boyfriend & I are headed to Athens in a few days. I'll let you know if our driver/guide is good or not & their contact info. Have a great day!!!

Ann =)

Try athenstaxi@athenstaxi.org

We had an exceptional day in Athens. The owner is Paul and we spent our day with his son. I was travelling with my 8 year old son and this was of the only private tour guides that was really able to find good activities for us and to keep my son's attention all day.

I also feel that the value for this day was excellent compared to what I paid for private tours in other European cities. This was we got to see so much of Athens in one day.

We had a wonderful tour from Jordan. Link here for your information.

Matthew

We also used Jordan earlier this month and had a wonderful tour. Ours was to the Temple of Poseidan. Would highly recommend Jordan.

Dorie

We just returned yesterday from a cruise that started in Athens and spent 2 days/one night there prior to sailing. Everyone speaks very highly of Spiros, so I don't think you can go wrong with him. We had a wonderful guide just for the drive from airport to hotel who pointed out many sites along the way, showed us a map and gave recommendations for a self-guided walking tour. We were impressed with his perfect English, knowledge and pleasant personality.

John Valavanis

agroup@otebet.gr

We stayed at the Golden Tulip Electra Palace in the Plaka District. We could walk to every important site as well as to good shopping and excellent restaurants. I'd recommend doing a walking tour (either guided through one of the companies you can find online) or by yourself (hotel staff are helpful) and then having a tour with a company for what you didn't see. Athens is very pedestrian friendly.

We used Spiros in October and they were good. We started with a van of 8 and ended up on a brand new bus for the 24 of us. Spiros was excellent in returning all the emails. They zipped us around to all of the sites in Athens and then on to Sounion. Some did not want to travel the 1 and 15 minutes to see more ruins; but, we really enjoyed the relaxing ride along the coast and got to see the countryside...and the awesome bakery he took us to - yum! He also took us to lunch in the Plaka that was excellent. You could either pay 20 euros and get wine with lunch or 10 euros without wine. They just kept bringing out plate after plate of their variety of food and we were stuffed when we left. It was a great day! I would recommend that you talk with the group you are going with and Spiros, and make it clear whether you want to do more shopping or sightseeing and how long you want your lunch to be - i.e. pick up and go or sit down for an hour...after those questions are answered, Spiros will take over and you should have a wonderful day.

One more thing...if you do go to Sounion...make sure you get the baklava at the restaurant!

Thank you for the suggestion of John V. I tired to email him at the address that was posted on the thread and it was returned as "illegal host/domaine name found". Any suggestions?

Am looking for a private guide and driver for a personal tour of Athens next summer.

we used Paul at www.***** . He has a Mercedes car that holds 4 people. Since there were 6 of us, we used a minivan that holds 10 (with 3 others from cruise critic) that was driven by his friend Peter who was great.

Try athenstaxi@athenstaxi.org

 

We had an exceptional day in Athens. The owner is Paul and we spent our day with his son. I was travelling with my 8 year old son and this was of the only private tour guides that was really able to find good activities for us and to keep my son's attention all day.

 

I also feel that the value for this day was excellent compared to what I paid for private tours in other European cities. This was we got to see so much of Athens in one day.

We did this two weeks ago. We were with Paul's son, Nick. He was fabulous. I just cannot say enough good things about him. I think he's in the second photo on the right side of their webpage. His english is flawless (his Dad lived in New Jersey for like 13 years and I believe Nick was also born in Jersey). His driving skills, actually his calmness combined with his driving skills, will amaze you. He used to be a Formula One driver. He's also done private security driving. He's very good and very personable. He's not cheap though -- it was an expensive day; however, I do not regret one penny, er euro, of it. He picked us up at the ship and spent the entire day with us. We saw so much more than anyone else that I spoke with. We really had a full day. He's very good with not nickel and diming you. You agree on a price and that's it -- if it takes a little longer, he doesn't freak out. He doesn't rush you or make you feel like you have to hurry. You can take your time and see what is of interest to you. He knows the city well and he uses the drive time to educate you both on history and on local life in Athens.

Once you are at the Parthenon, I would highly recommend a licensed guide. It's 85 euro (or it was this year) for an english speaking guide. That's about $125 for an hour. It's well worth it. We figured that we might never get back there so we might as welll understand what we were looking at. Paul can arrange a guide ahead of time; however, we just did it on our own when we got there.

Thank you for the suggestion of John V. I tired to email him at the address that was posted on the thread and it was returned as "illegal host/domaine name found". Any suggestions?

Sorry it took so long to reply - I've been busy catching up from the trip and haven't logged on in a while. I checked my confirmation email. It was www.taxireservations.com I can't find his business card right now, but try the website and specifically request him. good luck!

We used ***** too. Paul's son Jim was our driver on 3 separate occasions during our stay in Athens. Jim was and excellent driver and extremely knowledgeable about his country. I can't say enough good things about this man. To give you an example, our plane out of lhr was cancelled due to fog. We called Jim and told him we wouldn't arrive as scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Later we called him to say we wouldn't arrive until 4:00 a.m. and would certainly understand if he wasn't available. What a relief when he met us at the airport at 4 in the morning (he even stopped for bottled water for us on the drive to our hotel). Another day he took us to Sounion in time for the sunset and later to a

delightful seafood restaurant located on the water. I don't know much about cars but I do know that his car transported 4 adults w/luggage in comfort.

We have just returned from the Med. Spiros was driving another group from our roll call and he suggested Fortis. Fortis was wonderful. We had a rainy day in Athens and he adjusted the day to make the best of it. We barely noticed the rain. He took us to a wonderful restaurant where the locals eat rather than a tourist spot. We had a great day and felt like we made a friend in Athens. He can be reached at fotis@taxitours.gr. If you contact him please tell him Pam said Hi. :)

We just spent four glorious days in Athens with the Best Tour Guide I have ever met! I highly recommend him:

Mike Stilianoudis

maikstil@yahoo.gr

30 6944 521878

He picked us up at the Prinsendam, took us to our hotel, waited while we unpacked and rested a bit, then took us around the highlights of Athens for the rest of the day. He took us to the closest points his taxi could drive, let us out with instructions of where to go, what to look for, what path to take, etc., then waited for us - when he saw us approaching, he drove his taxi to where we exited the site and on we went to the next place. He saved me thousands of steps!! Altho I use a cane, I was able to go to the top of the Acropolis because I did not have to start the climb where the tour busses leave tourists off. From picking us up at the dock at 9 a.m. to taking us all over Athens to see the highlights until 6 p.m., he charged only 175 Euro for the 4 of us! Door-to-door service with knowledgeable commentary - can't be beat!! In excellent English, too! There was never a dull moment with him.

Mike (he signs his email Michel) is brilliant with Greek history and mythology and knows amazing facts about just any topic - the conversation never lagged and he has a wonderful sense of humor! He also can recommend good hotels if you give him your criteria for area, price and amenities. He responds almost immediately to email texts (using his phone) and gave us 2 more exciting days of touring before taking us to the airport yesterday.

I fell in love with Athens because of Mike's expert leadership. If you contact him, tell him Kat says, "Hello"/Kallispera!!

Kat (just returned from 14 days on the Prinsendam & 3 Glorious Days with Mike in Athens)

Sounds like there are quite a number of good guides in Athens, which is a good thing.

Here are snippets from our day in Athens.

[YOUTUBE]bfABTgvEFRY[/YOUTUBE]

Our driver was Dimitris from PKtravel Greece.