Results tagged “Greece” from Intelligent Travel Blog

The New Acropolis Museum, a project that the New York Times called "one of the highest-profile cultural projects undertaken in Europe in this decade," is celebrating its opening day on Saturday after years of planning and labor--33 years in all, eight since the design was chosen. The stunning modern building, designed by New York architect Bernard Tschumi, allows visitors to view the Parthenon from balconies and see archaeological remains through glass floors. It boasts 226,000 square feet of glass, 150,000 square feet of display space spanning five floors, and 4,000 artifacts. However, perhaps the most important statement made in this museum's opening is not what it has, but what it is missing: The Elgin Marbles.

For all of the beauty and history encompassed in the existing displays, they are incomplete. According to the AP,   

The Parthenon was built between 447-432 B.C., at the height of ancient Athens' glory, in honor of the city's patron goddess, Athena.

Despite its conversion into a Christian church, and Turkish occupation from the 15th century, it survived virtually intact until a massive explosion caused by a Venetian cannon shot in 1687.

About half the surviving sculptures were removed by Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 1800s, while Greece was still an unwilling part of the Ottoman Empire.

Most belong to a frieze depicting a religious procession that ran round the top of the temple.

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

Most of the correspondence we've received from friends, family and colleagues in the States during the ten months we've been traveling has referred to the terrible economy, the awful mood back home, and what a different country we'll be returning to. Literally everyone has told us we couldn't have picked a better time to skip town for a year.  

As mentioned in my previous post, we couldn't have chosen a better time to go to Greece, either. The big advantages to visiting in May are the weather, lack of crowds and ease of traveling from place to place. So with two weeks to play with, the challenge was figuring out where to go from the multitude of recommendations we received, many more than I had anticipated.  

Going to the Acropolis in Athens is pretty much mandatory, but can easily be done in a day. There are lots of other interesting things to see around the city (a newly refurbished museum opens in July), but with two kids in tow, we didn't feel compelled to seek them out. Albeit among the most famous historical sites in the world, the Parthenon and surrounding ruins did not inspire us as much as others throughout the country.  Most of the site was covered in scaffolding and if you didn't have a tour guide like us, it's hard to make out exactly what happened here in its peak period some 2,500 years ago. By contrast, we had the archaeological site of ancient Corinth almost all to ourselves, while the well-preserved artifacts in its museum really helped us understand its significance. As a port city, the modern day Corinth also offers some nice seaside restaurants and shopping, which made it perfect for a day trip away from the congestion and big-city challenges of Athens. 

Rainer Jenss and his family are currently on an around-the-world journey, and they're blogging about their experiences for us at Intelligent Travel. Keep up with the Jensses by bookmarking their posts, and follow the boys' Global Bros blog at National Geographic Kids.

If you're checking into this blog for some guidance about travel to Greece, here's a simple piece of advice I just discovered firsthand: Pass up going in the summer if you can possibly avoid it. Shoot for May, early June, September, or October instead. Unless, of course, you prefer being with lots of other people, intense heat, and overrun tourist attractions.

I was told July and August are VERY busy here and the beaches, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, and archaeological sites are all jammed. I have to assume most visitors really enjoy themselves and have a wonderful time with so much great stuff to see and do. After all, there's good reason for all the popularity. But given the timing of our stay here in Greece (first half of May), I'd bet it would be pretty hard to beat the incredible weather, uncrowded islands, and ease of touring the sights we experienced during this time of year.

Lucky for us, we didn't even have to resort to taking the boys out of school, at least not this year, to be here before the season officially starts. Take it from someone who has spent the last forty-five weeks touring some of the world's most popular tourist attractions, it's a bonus to be in these special places without the all-too-common throngs of sightseers. And if there's any good news to come out of the global financial crisis, it's that you can now journey abroad and generally find smaller crowds. The recession has certainly played a significant role in reducing the usually high number of visitors to not just Greece, but destinations all across the world. So in hindsight, I guess we picked a pretty good year to take this little global jaunt (more on this in my next post).          

Because we want this trip to be more about education than vacation, we bought the boys a children's book about ancient civilizations to help them better understand the history behind the places we'd visit and things we'd see.  Otherwise, they're just a "pile of really old rocks." Since I was eager to freshen up on Greek mythology myself, I'm not embarrassed to admit that I found the comprehension level of this book just right (Hey, this mythology business can be quite convoluted!).  Armed with some knowledge, sunblock, a good appetite, and sixteen days before our next flight, we were ready to roll.

It's rainy and bleak here in D.C. today, so my "I Want to Go to There" (IWTGTT) locale of the day is the sustainable mountainside co-op, Vamos, in Crete. Featured in this weekend's Guardian Travel section, the little town located in the White Mountains has a collection of 19th century sandstone guesthouses available for rent, with on-site cooking classes, nearby beaches, and hiking trails through the snow-capped mountains. Here, author Jane Foster explains its history:

It started in 1995, when five local couples clubbed together and began renovating three old stone family cottages for use as guesthouses. Worried by the village's gradual depopulation and economic stagnation, they planned to revive the rural community through sustainable tourism, offering visitors the opportunity to explore the Cretan interior while providing locals with a new livelihood.

The Guardian has a roundup of other smaller cottages that will let you escape the bustle of the seaside resorts of Crete. All I know is, I want to go to there.

Photo: Vamos

Fifteen years ago, a recently-graduated British archaeologist decided to walk 2,000 miles across Turkey, following a section of Alexander the Great's ancient path from Troy to Iskenderun (with a heavy backpack and plenty of stops at ruins and ancient battle sites along the way).

Sound crazy?

Well, maybe a little. But it seems to have worked out, because right now Peter Sommer (the aforementioned archaeologist and Alexander the Great enthusiast) is embarking on yet another tour that hits many of the same highlights he explored back in 1994. These days, however, he is paid to do it.

Sommer runs Peter Sommer Travels, which offers expert-led tours throughout Turkey and Greece. Given the background of the tour guides (historians and archaeologists - many with PhDs), the tours are certainly educational, but there is also plenty of time for fun, relaxation, and eating wonderful Turkish meals...oh, and did I mention that the tours get from one place to the next on hand-built gulets?

"We tend to cruise for about three to four hours per day, with stops in idyllic coves for swimming, snorkeling, or something more physical like kayaking or windsurfing," says Sommer. "We normally visit one ancient city per day, usually in the late afternoon, when the heat of the day has passed. That's when our specialist guides bring the ruins and the history to life."

So, basically, sail through paradise, then let an expert tell you stories of past civilizations while you stand on the ground where history was made. I'm sold!

A variety of tours are offered spring through fall. Check out www.petersommer.com for more details. And stay tuned for more amazing and enriching tours in the May/June issue of Traveler.

Photo courtesy of Peter Sommer Travels

Having a soft spot for furry creatures, I couldn't not follow up with tour company Inside/Out's founder, Zoe Katsulos, about an upcoming "humanitourism" trip to Greece to tackle the animal welfare crisis there.

Inside/Out puts together trips around the world that couple humanitarian volunteer work with sustainable eco-adventures. The ten-day June trip (June 12-22) to Ioannina allows a group of 12 travelers to help cats and dogs in Zagoria, a little-visited mountainous region of northern Greece. In Greece, as in many parts of the world, cats and dogs suffer starvation, neglect, abuse, abandonment, poisoning, and overpopulation. There's no SPCA to provide shelters and neutering and spaying are infrequent. Volunteers will help local animal activists construct and maintain feeding stations for the strays, and inform local people about animal rights and welfare issues. After five days of humanitarian work, the humanitourists embark on their well-deserved eco-adventure, trekking, rafting, sea kayaking, and enjoying Greek culture, history, and food. I asked Zoe Katsulos about how it all works.

What's "humanitourism" all about? How did you develop this concept?

Humanitourism is designed to provide an intimate connection with the people, the culture and the land through various channels; it balances volunteer work with guided adventure travel. Humanitourism fulfills on both the volunteer humanitarian and tourism ends, because people get that additional connection to the land and the culture by participating in adventure activities that are local or indigenous. Our adventures are also fully guided and planned, not just add-on options. We also have built-in photo workshops that help participants document and share the causes we are helping in a compelling way.

I developed the concept to fill a void that was missing between voluntourism and adventure travel. Since then, I've noticed several companies also trying to jump in and capitalize on this niche but they are either voluntourism companies that offer some add-on adventure or adventure companies that offer add-on volunteer options. Our organization has combined the two from the very beginning.