Exceptional Tour Experience - I would highly recommend this tour! Our day began with a drive from Athens to the Corinth Canal. Our guide Andreas was phenomenal! Very personable, hospitable, and went above and beyond to ensure we had a good time. We missed the changing of the guard in our last tour, so Andreas stopped by the changing of the guard and allowed us to see it in the very beginning. He provided us with a detailed explanation of the significance of the guards, making the experience all the more authentic! Our first stop at the Canal was great! Andreas put on a video for us to watch while we were driving, which enhanced our experience and understanding all the more. Next we drove to Sparti where we stopped to see the statue of King Leonidas. This was a great experience as we got to take pictures with the statue and it wasn’t crowded. The olive museum was great!Not too busy and very interesting! The trip to Mystras was fantastic, the history was rich, the pathways were easy to follow, and the views were spectacular. Andreas drove us to the top and we walked down making it easier. The food at the tavern was delicious, the pork special came with crackling pork and the best potato’s I’ve ever had. All in all, this experience was better than we had hoped for. In addition to our itinerary, Andreas took us to places in Sparti and shared about his experiences growing up in that area. He made this an authentic Greek experience, he was genuine, knowledgeable, and made it personalized based on our preferences. At the conclusion of this tour we were not being dropped off by a tour guide, we were being dropped off by our new friend. If you are looking for a self-paced, authentic, and highly enjoyable experience, I strongly recommend booking with Olive Sea Travel. Both tours we did exceeded our expectations, when we booked we were looking for a private tour that was reasonably priced, not overly “touristy”, less crowded, and self-paced. Olive sea travel exceeded this expectations.

Fabulous day trip outside of Athens - Our family had a wonderful experience with this tour! After a few days in Athens it was fun to explore the area outside of the city, and our driver/guide, George, was fantastic! He was friendly, knowledgeable, and made us all feel incredibly comfortable. Mystras is beautiful and unique, and after our hike we had a delicious lunch in the town (George's recommendation). An excellent way to see the impressive mountains and countryside of southern Greece!

Sparta! - This excursion was definitely the highlight of our trip. Our guide, Alexander, was friendly, knowledgeable, easy to talk with, and seemed to enjoy showing us around as much as we enjoyed the sights. If my family and I find ourselves in Greece again, we’re certainly reaching out for another tour with him.

Exciting tour! - The tour was really fun! Special requests were no problem either - we visited an olive oil museum in Sparta -, a little gift at the start, a nice driver... That's what makes vacations so enjoyable!

Sparta with our amazing driver Alexander... - We booked this tour after seeing and being impressed by the movie "300". As a reminder, this film tells the heroic battle of 300 Spartans in the Strait of Thermopylae against the Persian army. As the distance between Athens and Sparta is around 250 km, this tour involved a lot of time in the car and you would think it could have been boring. On the contrary, our driver Alexander performed magic and gave us a university level course on the history of ancient Greek civilization. During the entire trip, he told us everything about Greek mythology, down to the smallest detail. This allows us to understand how the ancients thought and why they built their city in this way. Mythological awareness also transforms our understanding of archaeological constructions: although a stone will always look like a stone, knowing that King Leonidas could probably have sat or walked on it sparks the imagination and makes everything much more fascinating. We made a first stop at the Corinth Canal and were able to take some impressive photos. Arriving at the archaeological site of Sparta, we were able to see the remains of the ancient city. Restoration work was still underway to try to rebuild as much as possible of what time and invasions had destroyed. Bearing in mind the many stories our driver Alexander told us along the way, we could better imagine what life was like here thousands of years ago. We also visited the Spartan Museum where we could see well-preserved statues, sculptures and other relics. A next stop was planned in the "newest" medieval city of Mystras. We explored the site on foot, but we were still too impressed by the Spartan archaeological site, and we were not in the mental state to appreciate this “modern” site. So we changed the plan and asked our driver Alexander to return to Sparta for shopping and walking in the streets. On our way, we discovered pretty statues in the (new) town evoking the glorious past of this town. On the way back to Athens we had some more fun and exciting talks with our driver Alexander. We are delighted to have carried out this tour and we can only recommend Alexandre to lead it. Congratulations Alexander!

Great! - Great touring guide, realy knows a lot! Epic scenerys and lots of information about history an myths!

Exceptional Tour Guides pt. 2 - We were delighted to learn that Babis and Alice would be our tour guides for the second time for a Private Sparta Day tour. For years, my mother's family has been attempting to find family in the Sparta area, which was what prompted this tour. When we mentioned this in passing, Babis did a great deal of research attempting to locate our municipal village in Sparta. Ultimately we found and visited the village, where no one in Greece spoke English, and we did not speak Greek. This prompting our tour guides to become our translators. The end result was that we met family and learned so much more about our histories. It was the first contact of American Greeks with their Mainland Greek family in 50 years, and our guides went out of their way to facilitate this connection. Through this connection, we learned of more Greek family in the United States. We were delighted that the Greeks kept insisting that Babis and Alice were part of the family, and they are more than welcome at our next reunion.

Sparta and Mystras were fantastic - Nasos was a fantastic driver who has a lot of historical knowledge. Nasos was on time, made all the stops we requested, and gave us enough time at each stop to enjoy the sights. Nasos knew his way very well and when roads were stopped, he quickly navigated around so that we even had time to get to our ship on time! We highly recommend Nasos and if we come back, we will look forward to his help!

Fantastic historic trip with an exceptional driver - Thank you Alexander for a great day. We loved not just the sites but your knowledge of each area and the mythical stories and your enthusiasm. It was great to learn more about not just the past but what life is like in the present. We hope to visit again some day. Chrissie and Ross, NZ

Spectacular Spartan adventure - Nasos and Mano made this a trip I would never forget. They personalised it and made it the highlight of my holiday. I cannot thank them enough