Bella Vivante at the Erechtheion Temple on the Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Customized Travel

Ariela’s two 2023 trips in Greece were a great success.

In the Glories of Greece tour we visited major monuments, many UNESCO World Heritage sites—the Parthenon in Athens, sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, the citadel of King Agamemnon at Mycenae, the elaborate Minoan palace of Knossos. We saw exquisite artwork in beautifully renovated museums and observed the traditional art of pottery in the distinctive Cretan mountain village of Margarites. And we got to savor superb Greek food and relax on the sunny beaches of Crete.

The Artists’ Tour of Performance Arts in Greece was a unique, theater-focused program consisting mostly of American actors and directors. We received a private tour of the National Theatre of Greece (NTG), participated in their master class on producing the Greek chorus, and shared a lunch with their Greek actors and directors, who fortunately spoke English. We attended performances of 3 ancient plays, one at the Theater of the Rocks in Athens, and 2 NTG productions at their major summer festival in Epidauros, and several local music concerts. And we got to savor superb Greek food.

»PAST TOURS

ARIELA, LLC can arrange customized tours to different locales that provide general historic, artistic, archaeological and literary backgrounds as well as focus on particular themes. Most trips run from 14 to 21 days.

Designed to provide enjoyable educational experiences, all trips center around site and museum visits, and they include some light educational reading materials and topic discussion sessions. They also include ample time for relaxation, shopping, glorious beaches, and scrumptious food and drink!

Crete, Kommos beach

Crete, Kommos beach

Primary locales are Greece and Turkey; other possible itineraries include Southwest U.S. archaeological sites and Western European museum tours. The local arrangements for most tours are handled by in-country vendors, such as the Hellenic Educational and Research Center (HERC) in Athens, Greece.

Basic Tour Itineraries

View from Pronaia, Sanctuary before the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece

View from Pronaia, Sanctuary before the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece

View major ancient landmarks and learn the basic social, cultural, historic, artistic, archaeological and literary backgrounds to the sites. Some examples:

  • GREECE
    Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Epidauros, select islands
  • TURKEY
    Istanbul, Troy, Ephesus, southern coast and/or Cappadocia
  • Sultanahmet Camii, "The Blue Mosque," Istanbul, Turkey

    Sultanahmet Camii, “The Blue Mosque,” Istanbul, Turkey

  • GREECE-TURKEY COMBINATION
  • SOUTHWEST U.S.
    Casa Grande, Montezuma’s Well and Castle, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Walnut Canyon, Wupatki

Possible Themed Tours

Tour themes can be customized according to the interests of the group. Tours can be tailored to particular groups, such as women’s groups; lesbian/gay; parents or grandparents with high school or older children; etc.

Some examples of tour themes:

Ancient Greek Theatre Tour

Ancient Greek Drama from Its Origins to Today includes viewing ancient theatre sites, reading and viewing performances of Ancient Greek and modern plays, meeting with contemporary directors and actors

Minoan dancing women

Minoan dancing women

Women’s World of Ancient Greece

Goddesses, Rituals, Social Identity—visits to many of the major sites and others with an emphasis on the female-oriented dimensions of the sites and material

Ancient Greek Art, Architecture or Engineering

Ancient Greece excelled in these art forms and each can readily form the subject of its own tour.

  • The ART TOUR concentrates on museum artwork and select sites, exploring in greater detail the ideas expressed in and the development of the superb vase and wall paintings and sculptures.
  • The ARCHITECTURE TOUR focuses on the impressive building styles of temples, public buildings and domestic architecture; their ground plans, construction methods, and developments over time.
  • The ENGINEERING TOUR focuses on the remarkable engineering feats that include the Efpalinon Tunnel on Samos, the walls and citadels of Tiryns and Mycenae, beehive tombs, the Parthenon in Athens, and more.
Temple of Apollo, Corinth, Greece, Acrocorinth in the background

Temple of Apollo, Corinth, Greece, Acrocorinth in the background

Mythology of the Land

Ancient Greece and/or Turkey excursions that explore the mythological tales and characters as related to the sites we visit.

Minoans and Mycenaeans

The Prehistoric civilizations on Crete, Santorini, the Cycladic Islands, and mainland Greece, especially, Mycenae

Lycian Rock Tombs, Dalyan, Turkey

Lycian Rock Tombs, Dalyan, Turkey

Anatolia, Cradle of Civilizations

Explore the rich diversity of ancient civilizations that have flourished on the land base of modern Turkey that includes Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Hittite, Phrygian, Greek, Roman, Jewish, early Christian, and other cultures from Byzantine to Ottoman through modern times.

Western European and/or North American Museum Tours

View and learn about the great works of ancient art housed in major museums in Europe and/or North America. These might include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, Antiquities and Pergamum Museums, Berlin

PAST TOURS
Ancient Arts, Modern Culture: Touring the Unique Greek Islands of Crete and Santorini
This ARIELA trip was terrific! Featuring Hania, Crete with its inviting Old Town, harbor, luscious food and live Greek music. The charming mountain village of Margarites renowned for its pottery. From Crete’s capital Iraklion, we visited the amazing ancient Minoan sites of Knossos and Phaistos, relished their remarkable artwork at the Iraklion Archaeological Museum, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon at the southern beach resort of Matala.
Then Santorini. This picturesque isle, crescent-shaped since the 1628 BCE volcanic eruption, a popular destination wedding site, is now suffering from its own success. Multiple cruise ships daily disgorge throngs of visitors on this tiny isle like a modern volcanic eruption. Yet we enjoyed the ancient site of Akrotiri and its amazing artwork at the Fira Museum, the northern village of Oia, Pyrgos with its medieval tower, and a wonderful lunch at the seaside village of Kamares.
Smithsonian Journeys Study Expert, 2014-23
  • Classical Greece
  • A Cruise to Ancient Greece
  • Athens and Poros: A Stay in Greece
  • Legendary Turkey and the Turquoise Coast
  • Sicily and S. Italy
Leksand, Sweden river view

Leksand, Sweden river view

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