Athens tour guide question

[sbsmutoni]

We recently toured Athens. We were actually there on Christmas Day, and had reserved a tour with Denis (Dionisis) Kokkotos at Athens Limo (www.athens-limo.com). Despite many things being closed, we had a fabulous half day with Denis, including a nice drive to many sites, some time at the Acropolis, and other historical sites, and time to watch the changing of the guard parade.

 

Denis met us immediately outside the port entrance with a sign, and we were escorted to a Mercedes Limo (we were actually stared at like rock stars as we drove around the city!). It was very affordable, and Denis was very knowledgable.

 

One note made by others on this site: In Athens, you are either licensed as a driving guide or a tour guide, but not both. Denis was a driving guide, so he was not allowed to escort us into "historical sites". If you so desire, you can add a tour guide. For us, the driving guide was sufficient....he would just tell us what we needed to know, and if we entered an historic site, we went on our own.

 

Please consider using this guide....they are wonderful, and you will enjoy them.

[trudog9]

Hi Everyone... my husband and I just recently came back from our cruise. We were on the Star that went from Rome to Venice in November. That was our first time on CC and we decided to go on independent tours for most of the ports. We had the best time, the most we had in our van was 16 people, we saw more than the ships excursions and saved lots of money.

 

Here is a list of tour companies we used. They were all wonderful, reliable and we had the best of both worlds by using them.

Pompei and Amalfi Coast - info@aptours.it

Santorini - www.oceanwavetours.com

Rhodes - www.rhodesprivatetours.com

Ephesus - info@ephesusdeluxe.com

Athens - nikosloukas@gmail.com

Olympia - www.geo-travel.gr/katakolon/?p=113

Corfu - www.corfutaxitours.com

 

Check out their web sites and send them an email for prices. I guarantee you'll have a great time. This was by far our best cruise we ever took.

 

The Olympia tour is amazing. It's 10 euros per person and if you have more than 10 people they provide a guide. I started with about 12 people and by the time we got off the ship we had 44 people in our group.

They all have great reviews on both Cruise Critic and also Trip Advisor.

Edited January 5, 2012 by trudog9

[lchen818]

Hi Everyone... my husband and I just recently came back from our cruise. We were on the Star that went from Rome to Venice in November. That was our first time on CC and we decided to go on independent tours for most of the ports. We had the best time, the most we had in our van was 16 people, we saw more than the ships excursions and saved lots of money.

 

Here is a list of tour companies we used. They were all wonderful, reliable and we had the best of both worlds by using them.

Pompei and Amalfi Coast - info@aptours.it

Santorini - www.oceanwavetours.com

Rhodes - www.rhodesprivatetours.com

Ephesus - info@ephesusdeluxe.com

Athens - nikosloukas@gmail.com

Olympia - www.geo-travel.gr/katakolon/?p=113

Corfu - www.corfutaxitours.com

 

Check out their web sites and send them an email for prices. I guarantee you'll have a great time. This was by far our best cruise we ever took.

 

The Olympia tour is amazing. It's 10 euros per person and if you have more than 10 people they provide a guide. I started with about 12 people and by the time we got off the ship we had 44 people in our group.

They all have great reviews on both Cruise Critic and also Trip Advisor.

I have booked Nikos tour for our upcoming tripto Athens. I was wondering since the drivers won't ge the tickets for us, were the ticket window lines and entrance lines eve an issue?

Edited April 15, 2012 by lchen818

[Mojitolover]

Hello,

I need some help about booking a private tour in Athens for September 2011. I contacted Dimitrius and Paul at athensbytaxi.com and was impressed with what he offered, Does anyone have experience with him?

Thank you

 

We were just in Athens a couple of weeks ago and had a tour of Athens with Dimirius, Paul's son. It was wonderful! He is great. He knows Athens like the palm of his hand and was able to show us everything we wanted to see and more. He was also very pleasant and made our evening in Athens a lot of fun. We certainly recommend him!

[Blue Peter 2]

We visited Athens on a cruise on May 10th 2012 and booked this company for seven of us.:) X7 We highly recommend them. All e mails were answered promptly. Dimitri was waiting for us and made our trip very enjoyable. He was friendly and knowledgeable, allowed us to go at our own pace and it was a pleasure to be with him. This was much better value than a previous cruise excursion to Athens. Well done Paul and the team.

[contest88]

Your info is very helpful. Pls give us the contact email of Paul so we can contact him too. Thx

[weaselwatchr]

I have booked Nikos tour for our upcoming tripto Athens. I was wondering since the drivers won't ge the tickets for us, were the ticket window lines and entrance lines eve an issue?

 

At the Acropolis, you can buy a single ticket for all the archeological sites. There really was not that much of a line, but our guide/driver had us there when it first opened.

[mkcruise]

Mojitolover:

 

We are returning to Athens in June, after a visit last September and a tour with Paul's Taxi - it was a great experience, and as many have posted, tailored to whatever we wanted to do.

 

This time, due to scheduling issues, we have booked the evening tour, and it sounds like you did the evening tour as well. I am curious as to your thoughts, as it seems like it is more driving than the day tour when he had multiple stops (including the Acropolis) and got out of the vehicle to see various sites - like the Temple of Zeus. Did you do the dinner/show as an extra afterwards? Thx.

[Mojitolover]

Hello,

I need some help about booking a private tour in Athens for September 2011. I contacted Dimitrius and Paul at athensbytaxi.com and was impressed with what he offered, Does anyone have experience with him?

Thank you

 

We just used Paul Kalomiris' company when we were in Athens just a few weeks ago. His son, Dimitris, came to pick us up at our ship and gave us a tour of Athens by night. It was really wonderful! He was very pleasant and made sure we saw everything we wanted to see. The price was reasonable, too. We certainly recommend him.

[Mojitolover]

Mojitolover:

 

We are returning to Athens in June, after a visit last September and a tour with Paul's Taxi - it was a great experience, and as many have posted, tailored to whatever we wanted to do.

 

This time, due to scheduling issues, we have booked the evening tour, and it sounds like you did the evening tour as well. I am curious as to your thoughts, as it seems like it is more driving than the day tour when he had multiple stops (including the Acropolis) and got out of the vehicle to see various sites - like the Temple of Zeus. Did you do the dinner/show as an extra afterwards? Thx.

 

We did not do a dinner/show; but as you know from your previous experience, with Paul you can do anything you want. It is totally tailored to your wants and needs. We had a full-day tour on that day, so we just wanted him to drive us around to see the city at night, particularly to see the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus all lit up. Dimitris came to pick us up at the ship at 7:00 p.m. and we had contracted him for three hours, so he brought us back at 10:00 p.m. He took us to the Sygtagma Square to see the changing of the guard, a couple of Orthodox churches, drove us to the hill of St. Georges to see the Acropolis and Temple of Zeus from above. Then took us closer to these two monuments so we could take better pictures, took us to Hadrian's arch and the Olympic Stadium. We also spent some time in Plaka. We got off at several places and walked around a little bit and took pictures. He was very flexible.

[Annivgal]

Our group of 8 traveling on the Norwegian Jade last week had booked a private tour with Paul and we were very very pleased. Paul told us in advance about needing an extra guide if we wanted one at the Acropolis and he booked Gregory for us who was excellent as well. We would highly recommend the services of Paul or his son who we also met. He is very professional, drove a very comfortable van, and was very efficient and informative.

[everywherewoman]

How long was your tour and how much did it cost?

My family of 5(2 teens and 10yr old) want to make good use of our port stop without overdoing it.

thanks

[LinP]

Just back from the Med.

 

 

We had a wonderful day in Athens with Paul from Athens by Taxi. We did the full day tour which included the Parthanon then out the coast to the temple of Posidan.

 

 

We did a lunch stop at a great restaurant.

 

 

If you get the Professional tour guide, make sure you communicate how detailed you want them to go. Ours went too far into the history of everything - after 15 min at each stop, we just were falling asleep. Our fault for not communicating we just wanted brief discriptions so we could see more. She did a great job, just too much detail for our group.

[Enjoyliving]

Hello,

I need some help about booking a private tour in Athens for September 2011. I contacted Dimitrius and Paul at athensbytaxi.com and was impressed with what he offered, Does anyone have experience with him?

Thank you

 

 

May, 2012 What a great day! Our driver, Dimetrius, met us at the ship and we were on our way down after climbing the Acropolis before the crowds showed up! We then toured the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Changing of the guard, etc. Corinth was a wonderful experience. Dimetruis has great historical of knowlege of Greece and all the sites that we visited. Super day!

 

athensbytaxi.com

Edited May 24, 2012 by Enjoyliving

[Enjoyliving]

What a great day! Our driver, Dimetrius, met us at the ship and we were on our way down after climbing the Acropolis before the crowds showed up! We then toured the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Changing of the guard, etc. Corinth was a wonderful experience. Dimetruis has great historical of knowlege of Greece and all the sites that we visited. He is an excellent driver!!!!! Super day!

[Enjoyliving]

Hello,

I need some help about booking a private tour in Athens for September 2011. I contacted Dimitrius and Paul at athensbytaxi.com and was impressed with what he offered, Does anyone have experience with him?

Thank you

 

 

We spent the day with Dimetrius just a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful experience. We visited the Acropolis and other important sites in Athens. Then we were off to Corinth and Corinth Canal. Dimetrius was very professional and very knowledgeable about the history of Greece--both present and past. We have used Greek Taxi 4 times before and always been extremely please with the tours and drivers. They do a fantastic job!

[Mexfolkart]

We just used Andreas Kambas in Athens and he was also great..he is also with greek Taxi drivers..his email is a.kambas@taxidrives.gr he picked us up at the airport and took us to our hotel and then the day we left he picked us up and took us to the cruise ship. He also does private tours and can do the acropolis early in the morning and Corinth.This is our second time to use him and we really like him..speaks perfect English. He also does tours to Meteora!

Kepp him in mind, too!

Sherry & Kimber

[Mojitolover]

We used Paul Kalomiris' company when we were in Athens in April. His son, Dimitris, was our guide for a tour of Athens by night; and he was great! We had a wonderful time and will use them again for sure the next time we're in Athens.

[thestokes]

We recently returned from the Solstice cruise and used athensbytaxi for a 1/2 day tour. The company is extremely professional from making the reservation and following up promptly. Nick was the best driver who navigated Athens traffic so smoothly. He got us to the Acropolis before the crowds and we never felt rushed. Highly recommend!

[mkcruise]

We had occasion to use Paul's Taxi twice in the last year (September, 2011, and June, 2012, the day before the most recent election day), and the company delivered everything as promised. They are responsive and helpful in planning our time and stay in Athens. The second time we used them we did the Athens at Night tour, which due to our travel schedule, was our only option, and between the fact that we were pretty tired before the tour started, and the more limited "get out and see" options as compared to the day time tour (virtually all attractions are closed by this time), while we saw a lot of Athens, it was not as engaging to us as the daytime tour.

 

Nonetheless, while I'm not sure when we will be back in Athens, I would certainly use Paul's Taxi again without hesitation.

[hdhntrena]

We were on a cruise in the Mediterranean last month and used the excellent services of Greek Taxi for our day in Athens, 6/16/12. I arranged the tour with the help of Potoula and Cruise Critic. It was quite effortless on my part. There were 12 of us. Our minibus was spotless, new and air conditioned as promised. Our guide, Anasthesia (hope I am spelling this right because she sure didn't put us to sleep) was energetic, knowledgeable, courteous, friendly and caring. She and the driver were waiting for us as we got off the ship. We had a truly delightful day and a wonderful lunch at a restaurant that she suggested. I would definitely use their services again and I highly recommend Greek Taxi.

[hallpau]

I've used Paul's taxi service (greektaxi.gr) for 4 different tours during my 2 cruise stops in Athens. I elected not to hire an additional guide for the tours and I feel we received a lot of information by just asking questions while we were traveling from one stop to the next.

 

Paul's vehicles are spotless and the service was impeccable. I have recommended Paul to my fellow cruisemates and they were very happy with his services also. I highly recommend Paul and/or his son and will definitely use them when I visit Athens again.

[soxfan1495]

I've used Paul's taxi service (greektaxi.gr) for 4 different tours during my 2 cruise stops in Athens. I elected not to hire an additional guide for the tours and I feel we received a lot of information by just asking questions while we were traveling from one stop to the next.

 

Paul's vehicles are spotless and the service was impeccable. I have recommended Paul to my fellow cruisemates and they were very happy with his services also. I highly recommend Paul and/or his son and will definitely use them when I visit Athens again.

 

This is very helpful. From reading reviews on tripadvisor and here on CC, it seems that maybe most people, if they hire either Athens by Taxi, Private Greece Tours, Paul's taxi service, or another company to see the highlights of Athens, hire only a driver. They do not generally also hire a second person as a guide even if that option is available for additional cost. I am just wondering if most people are happy with having only a driver, and perhaps using a book or recorded self-guided tour, to provide additional information once at a site where a driver drops you off. Or is it recommended, from your experience, to hire both a driver and a guide?

[hdhntrena]

We hired a guide as well as the driver and she was wonderful and very knowledgeable. With so little time to explore a city having a guide is an asset. There were 12 of us and we were all very pleased. :p

 

[soxfan1495]

We hired a guide as well as the driver and she was wonderful and very knowledgeable. With so little time to explore a city having a guide is an asset. There were 12 of us and we were all very pleased. :p

 

 

Thanks- So I think we will hire a guide (at least for the Acropolis) as well as a driver. But now the question I am wrestling with is which company. There are three companies that get lots of great reviews in tripadvisor. It's hard to know which to pick. :confused: