Driver/guide in Greece

Prior to our leaving for a 10-day visit to Greece in May 2014, our travel agent — with Travelive (US office in Bloomfield, NJ; 888/377-5483, www.travelive.com) — arranged for my husband and me to take a private two-day trip to Delphi and Meteora.

Partly because we were 70 and 80 years old, we didn’t want to deal with 40-plus others and possibly several languages on a bus tour, so we rode in a Mercedes on the two-day trip. The journey was an almost 500-mile round trip from Athens.

Happily, our contracted driver/guide was Jordan Daioglou (phone 30 210 281 7175, email jordantaxi52@hotmail.com or visit www.athens-tours.gr). He knew exactly the best “comfort” stops, places for lunch and the routine for touring Delphi (only local guides were allowed), and he took us to visit a church in Kalambaka that most tourists don’t know they can visit. Jordan recommended a restaurant nearby for dinner, which was excellent. 

Meteora, which we visited in Kalambaka, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece. There are six monasteries built on natural sandstone rock pillars.

On the shorter route back to Athens, Jordan stopped at the site of the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas faced off against the Persians and King Xerxes.

Jordan is a safe driver, speaks excellent English, is a font of historical information and has a great personality.

The total cost of our 10-day Greece trip, $3,678, included a round-trip flight Athens/Santorini, airport transfers, our hotels in Athens and Santorini, a half day of sightseeing in Santorini and the two-day, one-night private driving tour, with a night in Kalambaka.

ANN CYR

Delray Beach, FL