Have an authentic Greek Easter experience on this wonderful 8 day journey across Greece!
Easter in Greece is the most important festival of the year and probably isn’t celebrated anywhere in the world as such an intense experience with joy and devotion, as it is in Greece.
The Greek Easter Sunday dates for the coming years are:
<PLACEHOLDER EASTER DATE>
Itinerary:
DAY 1 Flight from your point of origin – Athens
Flight from your point of origin to Athens. Welcome by our tour guide and transfer to your hotel in Athens Nea Makri hotel for two nights. Distribution of rooms and dinner. After dinner we will have a small session to inform you about your trip to Greece. Overnight stay in hotel.
DAY 2 Corinth canal, Ancient Corinth
Morning drive to Corinth Canal (world famous and was built at the end of the 19th century as an artificial connection between the Saronic Gulf and the Gulf of Corinth) 15 minute photo stop. We continue the trip to Ancient Corinth. Visit the Ancient site, Agora, Temple and Museum. Continue to Mycenae. Visit the well-preserved Cyclopean walls, the Royal Tombs, and the magnificent Lions Gate, the earliest form of monumental sculpture in Europe. Here, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann began (in 1874) excavations and discovered the Royal Tombs of the House of Atreus and their huge hoards of gold. Return to our hotel. Dinner and overnight stay.
DAY 3 Athens – Delphi
After breakfast we start our journey to Athen’s center. In the morning, drive over the Omonia and Syntagma Square, past the Panathenaic Stadium (photo stop), the Royal Palace, Temple of Zeus, the Acropolis. Visit the Propylaea, the Erechtheum, temple of Nike and the Parthenon. Free time and lunch in Plaka. Then drive on the University Road, past Schliemann’s house, the Academy, the University and the National Library. Continue to Itea in Delphi. Check-in at Itea, dinner and overnight stay.
DAY 4 Delphi – Kalampaka
After breakfast we visit Delphi. The town owes its fame to the oracle. We will visit the Temple of Apollo, and among other things, the Treasury of the Athenians, the theatre, the stadium and the museum with the famous bronze charioteer. After lunch we will drive to Kalambaka. Distribution of rooms, dinner and overnight stay in Kalambaka.
DAY 5 Holy Friday: Meteora – Icon factory – Pieria
After breakfast we drive to Meteora. We have a guided tour of the famous, built on high sandstone rocks, Meteora monasteries. Suspended between heaven and earth, these monasteries were built in the 14th century. Visit 2 monasteries and have an explanation of the significance of the Byzantine Orthodox monasticism in Greece and Eastern Europe. We have lunch in a traditional tavern in Kalambaka, then drive to an icon workshop “PEFKIS”. Pefkis is one of the most famous icon workshops in Greece. His clients include, among others, the Vatican. Guided tour of the workshop and information about icon painting. In the evening we continue to Katerini. Distribution of rooms dinner and overnight stay in Katerini. After dinner we go to the church, followed by participation in the ceremony, “Epitaph” with candle procession through the city. On Good Friday, early in the morning, if not Thursday night after Mass until the early morning hours, the “Epitaph”, the coffin of Christ starts being decorated. All people bring flowers to the church, which are then bound to the “Epitaph”. Later, the flowers are distributed and placed in the Ikonostasi until the next Greek Easter. In the evening after the main Liturgy (Mass) of “Epitaph” is supported by the entire town (Litanie).
On arrival back at the church the “Epitaph” is held by the carriers at the entrance and all have to humility and receive the holy blessing by passing under it to enter the church. Return to hotel and overnight stay.
DAY 6 Easter Saturday: Thessaloniki – Agia Sofia – Agios Dimitrios
After breakfast we drive to Thessaloniki. In Thessaloniki we have a city tour visiting Agios Dimitrios with its catacombs and the beautiful church of Agia Sofia. Then we visit the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. Free time for lunch at the famous Ladadika in Thessaloniki. We then proceed to the North part of the City and the famous castles of the city. In the afternoon we return to our hotel in Katerini. At 23:30 we go to church. Here we take part in the Easter Vigil Mass. We are there to celebrate the unique festival of the rebirth of Jesus together with the locals. At midnight, people will receive and pass on the famous Easter light. Together we will sing “Christos Anesti” the Resurrection Psalm, we then go to the hotel for the Easter Night’s Dinner “Mageiritsa the traditional Easter soup and Easter cake” Tsoureki. “This ends the Lent. Overnight stay at the hotel.
DAY 7 Easter Sunday: Easter – Easter lamb
After breakfast in the morning around 09:00, we start to prepare the Passover lamb on a spit. Should you want (and after the Easter Vigil you manage to get up or are perhaps still awake), you can help us to do the “heavy” work of turning the lamb over charcoal. Around 14:00 until night time the lamb meal begins with appetizers, side dishes, salads, wines, etc. Of course, there must also be dancing! Dinner and overnight stay at hotel.
DAY 8 Thessaloniki airport departure to your point of origin
After breakfast, transfer to the airport of Thessaloniki and return flight to your point of origin.
