Review: Contiki “Spotlight on Greece”

SCORE: ★★★★★

LOCATION: GREECE

LENGTH: 4 DAYS

DATES: 31 AUG 2015 – 03 SEP 2015

REVIEW ON CONTIKI WEBSITE:

This trip was such an incredible experience! You get to see and experience so much within a very small timeframe. 4 days (well technically 3) I got to go and visit some incredible historical sights that have been on my bucket list for years.

Athens was amazing one of favourite places from my entire trip (5 weeks) the Acropolis and the Parthenon are spectacular and incredible and the views from the Acropolis are breathtaking you get a 360 view of Athens. I highly recommend if you have time in Athens before or after this tour to visit the Acropolis museum a lot of the artefacts are in the museum and there is a really interesting movie about the Acropolis.
The Contiki extra dinner for 43 euro in my opinion was not worth it. The entertainment was great i loved the greek dancers and the singer was amazing but the food was at best average and defiantly not worth what we paid, however the greek dancing and joining in is defiantly something you should try.

Olympia was defiantly my favourite part of this tour and it was the part I was most excited about. The Olympia museum was incredible i loved seeing all the statues and artefacts. The Original Olympic Stadium was incredible to see. Even though most of it is just rubble and ruins you still get an image and idea of how it would have looked thousands of years ago. The Stadium itself is just a dirt track but it was fun to race on with the group and take some photos.

Delphi was okay I wasn’t really interested in the beehive tomb we went to as it literally an empty tomb. The hotel was stayed at was incredible the views from our room were stunning. This was the first time the group all went out together at the only club in town. As this was the last night we all went hard and had a lot of fun.

Every hotel we stayed at was amazing very clean and comfortable and all had pools which was a bonus.

But what made this tour amazing was the people I meet. Even though we had only spent 4 days together we all became very close and i have defiantly made some lifelong friends.

Also shout out to Contiki Tom or as i called him Tomas! Best Contiki tour manager i have ever had super funny and know a lot about greek history and mythology. He was always up for a chat and a laugh.

If you don’t have much time in Greece but want to do and see a lot this is defiantly this trip for you.

My Contiki was: Fun, Incredible

Sorry (Not Sorry)

For the past 5 weeks I have been travelling around Turkey and Greece and it has been such an incredible experience, I have met so many amazing people and created some unforgettable memories.

I went swimming in the Mediterranean (a lot!), went skinny dipping in the moonlight, tanned by the beach and on a traditional turkish gullet (it’s a boat),  I cliff jumped for the first time, I went clubbing and bar crawling, I drunk a terrible amount of tequila, I accidentally tipped a waitress 50 euro, I went to some incredible museums and archeological sites, I climbed more steps than I’ll ever know, I watched over 10 sunsets with red wine but only 1 sunrise, I received over 20 bruises and 7 scrapes, I saw Angelina and Brad Pitts house in Santorini, I hiked up 4 hills, I went snorkelling around a sunken ship, I got hit over the head with a skateboard (don’t worry I wore a helmet), I went cave exploring  and I ate an incredible amount of delicious food.

I did all this and more, I experienced so much yet I failed to write about it and share with you. I promised after my Turkey Sailing that I would continue to write and post but I got swept away in my trip and completely forgot. But I cannot be sorry because all I did was experience 110% of my trip and allow myself to experience as much as I could, I didn’t focus on posting incredible photos on Instagram or on Facebook I choose to live in the moment.  So now after my incredible 5 weeks it’s now my mission to now get you all up to date on what happened and how incredibly lucky I was to experience these two countries.

Day 1: Brisbane Airport

It’s finally time!
I’m here at Brisbane Airport waiting for my flight to Singapore which has now been delayed by half and hour. I have checked in my luggage been through security and now waiting by my gate with a bottle over seriously over priced water and reading the Paper Towns (which is amazing).

I had a pretty emotional farewell with my mum we hugged and I started getting pretty sad and teary eyed, I don’t like leaving my mum she is my rock. But this trip has been a long time coming and planning and no matter how much I will miss my mum I know it will be worth it for everything I will experience in Turkey and Greece and all the memories I will make.

I will try to blog travel journals every few days to keep you all updated but I’m not 100% sure I will or can as I’m not sure if I will have WiFi on the boat when I’m sailing around.

αντίο for now!

1 WEEK TO GO!!!

This time next week I will be at the airport, my backpack will be checked in I will have my boarding pass and I will be with my mum having some lunch holding on to the time I have with her before embarking on my journey to Istanbul Turkey.

My nerves are starting to get to me, but I’m also so excited to finally be able to travel through and see two counties that have been on my bucket list for years. Places that I have seen on Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr and been in awe of their beauty, food and culture.

This trip has been a long time coming and I can’t believe that in 7 days I will be jet setting off to experience it!

Countdown!

14 days until I fly off to Istanbul to start my 30 day trip around Turkey and Greece. I’m so unbelievably excited I finally finished buying things I need for my trip like travel sized body lotion, and I will start sorting and packing my stuff next week to make sure I have a very thing sorted. Nothing worse than the night before a flight racing around trying to get things organised!

Budget Update

Here is a updated budget for my trip to Turkey and Greece. I have included my new flight costs, Greek Island Hopping tour cost and extra food and shopping money.

$2243: RT Flights PAID

$480: Internal FLights (2) PAID

$946: Contiki “Turkish Sailing” PAID

$879: Contiki “Spotlight on Greece” PAID

$830: MedExperience “Greek Island Hopping” PAID

$400: Accommodation (1 hotel, 3 hostels- 10 nights)

$3100: Food/Shopping/miscellaneous (3100 ÷ 31 days = $100 per day)

$500: Travel/Public Transport (Mum)

$9378: Total

$4000: Left to pay/take

My Final Itinerary

Now that there is only 3 weeks to go before my trip i am confident my itinerary won’t change again. So here it is my itinerary for Turkey and Greece 15 August- 15 September 2015.

Day 1: Overnight Flight to Istanbul (via Singapore)
Day 2: Istanbul
Day 3: Istanbul
Day 4: Istanbul
Day 5: Istanbul
Day 6: Istanbul to Bodrum
Day 7: Bodrum
Day 8: Bodrum (Contiki Starts)
Day 9: Bodrum to Cokertme (via Orak Island)
Day 10: Cokertme to English Harbour (via Seven Islands)
Day 11: English Harbour to Karacasogut
Day 12: Karacasogut to Ballisu (via Cleopatra Island)
Day 13: Ballisu to Pabucburnu (via Kisebuku & Kargili)
Day 14:Pabucburnu to Bodrum (via Yaliciftlik)
Day 15: Bodrum (Contiki ends)
Day 16: Bodrum to Athens
Day 17: Athens (Contiki Starts)
Day 18: Athens to Olympia
Day 19: Olympia to Delphi
Day 20: Delphi to Athens (Contiki ends & MedExperience starts)
Day 21: Athens to Santorini
Day 22: Santorini
Day 23: Santorini to Ios
Day 24: Ios
Day 25: Ios to Paros
Day 26: Paros
Day 27: Paros to Mykonos
Day 28: Mykonos
Day 29: Mykonos to Athens
Day 30: Athens (MedExperience ends)
Day 31: Athens
Day 32: Overnight flight to Brisbane (via Singapore +1 day)

Greek Island Hopping

This is the tour I am most excited about as I have always wanted to visit the Greek Islands. I found this tour through their sister company’s website Sail Croatia. This tour “Greek Island Hopping” by MedExperience is a small group tour (max 30 pax) that island hops around 4 Greek islands starting in Athens. This tour runs every second day between June and September. The main focus of this tour is to travel between islands on a low budget while having fun swimming in crystal clear blue waters during the day and partying with your group of new friends at night till sunrise. Down below I have

Cost:£399 ($830AU)

11 days/10 nights (3rd-13th September)

1 Country / 4 Islands 

– Santorini

– Ios

– Paros

– Mykonos

Transportation: Ferry

Accomodation:

Athens- Athens International Youth Hostel

Santorini- Santorini Camping

Ios- Sunrise Hotel

Paros- Siroco’s Rooms & Studios

Mykonos- Paradise Resort

1 Month Countdown

There is now only 1 month left before Turkey and Greece I cannot believe how fast it’s coming from. It felt like only last month I was coming back from my last trip to Europe and the UK.
I’m so excited to be getting away and spending 8 days on a Turkish Gulet sailing around the Mediterranean not using my phone or worrying about anything, just tanning, swimming, eating, reading good books and most of all relaxing.

Turkey & Greece flights changed

Being spontaneous has become an art of mine. I spontaneously booked flights to Turkey and Greece last year, having no way of knowing if I could actually go and now I have spontaneously changed the date of my flights and booked a Greek Island Hopping Tour…

Last night I came across a website called MedExperience that do tours around Europe, including a 11 day Greek Island Hopping Tour. Immediately I wished I had more time during my trip in Greece to be able to do this tour knowing I already could afford it. To make matters more unbearable there was a tour that fit perfectly into my itinerary, starting on the 3rd September the same day as my “Spotlight on Greece” tour finishes. I immediately regretted not staying longer in Greece. Then after a few hours of procrastinating and feeling sorry for myself, it hit me that I can go if I want as I’m unemployed with nothing holding me back from staying longer.

So today I called up my travel agent and asked her to give me a quote on changing my flight home from the 4th Spetember to around the 14th. She came back and said it was fine, I could keep the same time flights just leaving 2 weeks later on the 15th September for $683. Now both the new flight home and Greek Island Tour have been booked and paid for.

Within the space of 18 hours I have gone from a 21 day trip and only staying in Greece for 5 days to a 32 day trip and visiting the places I have always wanted visit and have been on my bucket list for years.

Winning!!