The world is an exciting and fascinating place to explore. But everybody, from individuals through travel agents to tour operators needs to explore responsibly. Tourism offers incredible opportunities to see ancient things and natural beauty – but it brings with it the need to accept the responsibility to protect, maintain, and sustain the wonders it discovers. At Explore Global our philosophy and operational culture is that we have a role as stewards of the places and history we discover with particular sensitivity to the local culture and economy. Nowhere do we feel this is more important than the sights and sites, the islands and the beaches of Greece, the Balkans and Cyprus.
As one of the cradles of western civilisation Greece has an enormous wealth of assets both incredibly ancient and more contemporary. For a relatively small country we have 19 UNESCO World Heritage sites listed. We can show you all of them, not to forget some of the most beautiful islands and coastlines in the world.
Few people realise just how central Athens is to a range of important inland sites and sights, most of which can be visited on a day excursion. These include Delphi, Mycenae, Olympia, the monasteries at Meteora and more. Athens can also be the jumping off point for longer tours around the Peloponnese to the southwest or north to Macedonia. Naturally, guided tours of Athens are included too!
We Greeks are a nation of seafarers – with over 6,000 islands, of which 227 are inhabited, we’ve needed to be! Cruising both the mainland coasts and island-hopping is far and away the easiest route to seeing the sights and sites – a sort of ‘road-trip-by-sea’. We offer organised small ship island-hopping and coastal cruises or fully crewed catamaran and yacht charters where the itinerary is by arrangement.
There are road races over 26 miles all around the world – but there is only one original marathon. It still more or less follows the route that Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to report a famous victory in the battle against the Persians. It’s the race that every long-distance runner wants to compete in – but it’s far from the easiest course in the world. Run with us and our experienced running coach will not only do warm-up runs with you, including a running tour to see the sites of ancient Athens, he will also talk you through the ups and downs of the course itself and work with you on a strategy to make sure you finish the race having given your best performance.
Tips and Advice
Everybody has a secret guilty pleasure. Ours is a farmhouse on Mykonos called ‘Mykonian Spiti’. Spiti means ‘home from home’ and this place, which is doing a great job of keeping island culture alive and thriving, has it all. You can cook here, you can bake then break bread here, you can taste the best wines in Greece, or you can simply turn up and enjoy the most authentic delicious meal. What’s not to like?
We often get asked ‘where’s your favourite beach in Greece?’ Well, we’re not going to tell you that, we wouldn’t want it to get crowded. But we will tell you what we think is the most beautiful public beach (this month at least!) and that is Elafonisi Beach in Crete. Known as the ‘Cretan Maldives’, the white sand dunes, crystal clear waters and coral pink beach is one of the most memorable places you will ever swim.
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