Greece is a country of unique cultural heritage - 17 UNESCO listed sights are currently listed in Greece - which gives the Congress participants immense options for pre- or post-congress tours as well as for accompanying persons programe. All regions of the country are easily accessible by land, air or sea.
Some suggestions for the guided tours and optional trips for Congress participants.
City Tour Athens Sightseeing and Acropolis
Duration approximately 5 hours – English Speaking Guide
08:30 Departure from the Hotel by Deluxe Air Conditioned Coach and English Speaking Guide. This guided city tour of Athens combines many of the city’s principal modern and classical sights. The tour includes an overview of the modern city and striking contrasts to the remains of its glorious past. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Parliament House on Constitution Square, the Panathenian Stadium (site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896) and The Presidential Palace. Drive along Panepistimiou Avenue view the Catholic Cathedral, the Academy, University, National Library and Omonia Square and pass by the Roman Temple of Olympian Zeus, continue to the high light of this tour with a visit to the Acropolis and its many monuments including the Parthenon, the Propylea, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion, and the Acropolis Museum.
Sounio Temple of Poseidon – Half Day Sunset Tour
Duration 3 ½ hours
Drive along the costal road passing by the seaside resorts with a beautiful view of the Saronic Gulf. Visit the Temple of Poseidon, built on a site set back from the sheer cliffs and with its magnificent view of the Aegean Sea and islands, which was ideally located for worship of the powerful god of the sea. It provides one of the most spectacular settings to watch the Sunrise or Sunset. Sounio is also famous since the romantic poets left their signs of the Temple on its magnificent view.
One Day Cruise Aegina – Poros – Hydra
Duration Full Day
07:15 Departure from Hotel by Deluxe Air Conditioned Coach with English Speaking Guide to marina. Sail for the island of Aegina where you will have the opportunity to visit the famous Temple of Athena Aphaia. The cruise continues through the straits of Poros Island, where you can visit some of its sights. After lunch which will be served on board, arrival at Hydra Island where you will have free time for swimming or shopping. Early in the afternoon sail back to marina and transfer back to your hotel.
Corinth Canal - Mycenae – Nafplion – Argolis - Epidaurus
Duration approximately 10 hours
Departure from the Hotel by Air Conditioned Coach with English Speaking Guide and drive south by the coastal road along the Saronic Gulf to the Corinth Canal, (80 meters high and 6 kms long), which connects the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea.
Continue to Mycenae, the Homeric city of the Atreides, and the city “rich in gold” of the ancient poets, to visit the Lions Gate, the Cyclopean Walls, and the famous Royal Tombs of King Agamemnon.
After lunch continue for Nafplion (first capital city of Greece in modern times through the fertile plain of Argolis, the picturesque town nestling at the foot of a cliff crowned by the mighty ramparts of the Palamidi Fortress. Then on to one of the most perfect and best preserved of the ancient Greek theatres of Epidaurus of the 4th century B.C. Return to Athens by the coastal road along the Saronic Gulf.
Levadia – Arachova – Delphi - Athens
Duration Full Day
Departure from the Hotel by Deluxe Air Conditioned Coach with English Speaking Guide and drive northwest of Athens, through the villages of Levadia and Arachova, we reach the holly mountain called Parnassus. Nestled amidst the pine forested slopes and rocky crags of the sacred peak are the beautiful and exceptionally well-preserved ruins of Delphi. In ancient times Delphi was known as the centre of the world. A city of wondrous artistic achievements and grand athletic spectacles during the flowering of Greek culture in the first millennium BC, Delphi is best know, however, as the supreme oracle site of the ancient Mediterranean world.
Visit of the Museum in which one can see among other archaeological treasures, the unique bronze Charioteer, and then proceed through the sacred way to the Athenian treasury. Visit the temple of Apollo and the Castalia Spring.