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Athens & Attica - City, Sanctuary and Sea: The Making of Classical Athens
8
days
from
US$5,410
Book today with a deposit of
US$812
15th - 22nd February 2027
Tour highlights
- Unhurried exploration of the finest Classical sites in Athens and the Attic peninsula at a quieter time of year.
- Includes a private after-hours visit to the outstanding Acropolis Museum.
- Balanced programme of Athens’ major monuments with the principal sites of Attica and the Saronic Gulf.
- Stay in a comfortable hotel within walking distance of the Acropolis, with rooms overlooking the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
‘Fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens, until you become filled with love of her.’ This tour aims to retrieve a sense of the glory that Pericles put into words c. 430 BCE – around the time that the Parthenon temple was completed. Athens became not only ‘the school of all Greece’, but also a creative crucible that forged key templates of political thought, philosophy, drama, architecture and the visual arts in Western civilisation. To this day, the city’s Acropolis – its geological and archaeological high point – rises above modern urban sprawl as a symbol of democracy and cultural excellence. It preserves that iconic power despite successive waves of conquest, occupation and dilapidation.
Legendarily the hero Theseus brought together the settlements of Attica, a peninsula bounded by mountains and sea. Our itinerary explores both the celebrated monuments of Classical Athens and the Attic hinterland – including places such as Eleusis and Marathon, resonant in the collective consciousness yet relatively unfrequented, and a passage to the island of Aegina. The Acropolis and the Agora receive the detailed attention they deserve, and ample time is devoted to Athens’ outstanding museums, including the National Archaeological Museum and the Acropolis Museum. At the latter, a private out-of-hours visit affords the chance to experience its remarkable collections in an atmosphere of rare tranquillity.
As Athenian residents will confirm, February is an ideal time to visit the city: cool, luminous and above all – uncrowded.
Itinerary
Fly midday (Aegean Airlines) from London Heathrow to Athens. There is time to settle into the hotel before dinner.
An introductory morning lecture is followed by a visit to the Agora (market place), the centre of civic life in ancient Athens and an active area of excavation since the 1930s. The afternoon is spent at the National Archaeological Museum, which houses the finest collection of Greek art and artefacts to be found anywhere in the world.
A morning devoted to the Acropolis – monumentally developed since the Bronze Age, architecturally the foremost sanctuary of the Classical world. It comprises not only several temples of widely-influential design – Parthenon, Erechtheion, Athena Nike – but also massive marble gateways (Propylaia), and the Theatre of Dionysos, where plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and many more were first staged. A free afternoon is followed by a dinner and a private evening visit to the Acropolis Museum – which even allowing for certain absent pieces remains the best place for appreciating how Greek sculpture marvellously evolved from Archaic to Classical.
From the port of Piraeus we sail across the Saronic Gulf to the island of Aegina. Commanding a dramatic position above the island, the Temple of Aphaia is a remarkably well-preserved early Classical temple. Continue to the Archaeological Museum, which highlights Aegina’s importance as a prosperous maritime power in the Archaic period.
Back in the city, various important sites: the Kerameikos Cemetery, where Athenians were buried beyond the ancient city walls, with memorable grave markers; a huge temple to Olympian Zeus, completed by the Roman emperor Hadrian 700 years after its inception; the Panathenaic Stadium, testament to both the ancient and modern heritage of sport and the Olympic Games; and the Pnyx Hill, mother of all representative parliaments.
We follow the Sacred Way to Eleusis, centre of the still-enigmatic Eleusinian Mysteries – initiatory rites held annually for the cult of Demeter and Persephone. In the afternoon, our tour heads north to Marathon, site of a decisive battle between Greeks and Persians in 490 BCE – and described by J.S. Mill as ‘an event in English history … more important than the Battle of Hastings.’ (That verdict will be explained.)
Drive east to the sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron, before continuing to Thorikos – with Mycenaean origins, one of the oldest settlements in Attica. Trace the coast south to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, on the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula. In 1810 Lord Byron was moved to inscribe his name on one of the columns. It is a spectacular final sight and site.
Depart mid-morning from the hotel and fly from Athens, arriving mid-afternoon at London Heathrow.
Expert speaker
Dr Nigel Spivey
Senior Lecturer in Classical Art and Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Emmanuel College. Among his publications are Understanding Greek Sculpture, Greek Art, Enduring Creation, The Ancient Olympics and Classical Civilization: A History in Ten Chapters. He presented the BBC2/PBS series How Art Made the World.
More tours led by Dr Nigel Spivey
Practicalities
Two sharing: US$5,810 or US$5,410 without flights. Single occupancy: US$6,990 or US$6,590 without flights.
Private travel by air-conditioned coach; accommodation as described below; breakfasts, two lunches and four dinners with wine, water and coffee; all admissions; all tips for waiters, drivers and guides; all state and airport taxes; the services of the lecturer, local guides and tour manager (if applicable).
Royal Olympic Hotel: Rated locally as 5 star, this is a comfortable hotel located a 10-minute walk from the Acropolis. We have booked ‘Athenian Panorama’ rooms with views over Athens. The roof garden restaurant has views of the Acropolis, and décor is traditional in style. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
You will be on your feet for long stretches of time, in some cases on exposed sites and walking over rough terrain and therefore sure-footedness and agility are essential. Average distance by coach per day: 35 miles.
Typically between 10 and 22 participants.
Before booking, please refer to Travel.State.Gov to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting. As a British company we follow the advice of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
15th - 22nd February 2027
Speaker:
Dr Nigel Spivey
Price:
from US$5,410
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