Ancient Greece hiking vacation

Planet

Greece offers spectacular history and culture to explore, including the UNESCO listed sites of Delphi and the monasteries of Meteora which are perched high on precipitous rock formations. We believe the best way to experience such historically important sites is on a low impact walking vacation.

The slow style of a walking vacation, not only affords you more time to appreciate the natural beauty of the region but, just as importantly, positively contributes to the regions that host you. To help avoid erosion, we recommend you stay on the marked footpaths at all times. And while many people visit the monasteries each year, only a few take the time to walk the trails beneath the monasteries to gain a unique perspective of the landscape in a sustainable fashion.

We have planned this trip to include public transport (paid locally) where possible to keep your impact on the environment low.

We are aligned with “Leave No Trace”, an international organisation that has set the global standard for outdoor ethics. Through targeted education, research and outreach, its mission is to ensure the long-term health of our natural world while maintaining sustainable recreation in nature.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travelers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail: in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office and we are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, as well as recycling all of our paper and plastic waste.

People

Our preferred accommodations we use on this trip are locally owned small hotels; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people. For example, when available, we book the Acropole Delphi Hotel, which is family run; and the Doupiani House which offers at breakfast a wide variety of local produce including eggs from the area, homemade jams, honey from Meteora, and locally made yoghurt.

In Athens, we have planned a self guided walking tour for you where you will stop off in local restaurants. It is a unique way to see the city! You will have a cold starter in a roof top restaurant, and then move onto a typical tavern for a hot starter which could be tzatziki, fried cheese and zucchini balls; and have your main meal at another establishment, and finally have dessert in Gazi College. It is a great way to support different restaurants, all whilst sightseeing.

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveler booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travelers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveler ebook before departure