Exploring Crete Traveller Reviews

We covered Crete from East to West: all the major archaeological sites and several world-class museums. We stayed in hotels full of character, and ate wonderful local food in a full range of restaurants.

Peter Sommer Travels is a small operator that I have travelled with on over 20 occasions.

We spent two weeks touring the major archaeological sites of ancient Crete, in the company of three professional, practicing archaeologists eager to share their passion for Crete. And along the way, we enjoyed wonderful local cuisine and charming local accommodations in beautiful settings. What's not to love?

Peter Sommer Tours is magnificent. Their planning, communication, responsiveness, and attentiveness are without equal.

This trip hit five stars on all fronts. This was a mother/daughter trip and the first time in Crete for both of us. It exceeded all expectations. Our guide, Maria's incredible knowledge and hernability to weave history and myth together made the many sites we visited that much more fascinating. The hotels were unique, including old, remote village homes converted into charming hotels. The meals were a treat in themselves, locally sourced and deliciously prepared, and the itinerary took us through Crete's variable and beautiful landscape. For anyone interested in history from that part of the world, I would highly recommend this trip.

Very personal service and expertly arranged trip. All details were taken care of and great care was taken to accommodate individual group members' requests and needs.

Excellent and detailed guided tours of the important sites in Crete from Neolithic through Byzantine times. Fine dining with emphasis on local Cretan ingredients and staying mostly in unique boutique hotels.

Extremely helpful in providing alternate meals for special diet needs. Personally made arrangements to for COVID testing requirements of entry and exit, which would have been awkward to try to do yourself.

thorough tour all around the island, with highly knowledgeable and really pleasant guides

Peter Sommer Travels is a superbly run tour operator: itineraries are well thought through; logistics quickly and quietly managed; fascinating dinner discussions; and a virtuoso bus driver .

We were on this tour October, 2021. This is an in depth view of the many Minoan sites on Crete. This tour is superb because of the two experts, Maria Girtzi Phd., archeologist, and Paul Besson, historian. We stayed at a range of lodging across the island and experienced town and mountain-top venues. One must understand how active this tour is with many marvelous experiences, but only for the truly fit.

Peter Sommers Travel has assembled a group of expert guides that differentiate these tours from others by virtue of the expertise of the "on the ground" tour leaders.

Our experience in Crete began on 6 Oct and ended on 20 Oct. My wife and I soaked up our exploration of Crete through the windows of archaeology, nature, and cuisine. Our only regret was that we did not have more time to go into greater depth in our explorations. The topography was fascinating, especially in terms of how the ancient sites fit into what we were seeing in old and existing cities and strucutres. Of course, it was interesting to sample the cuisine for our meals from the east to west, as well as the north and south of Crete. The food was always very fresh and delectable. Of course, with our waking on the archaeological sites and in the cities kept us in good shape inspite of the great meals. We highly recommend this tour for those interested in ancient times and even to modern times. Our tour guides were excellent in explaining where we going and what we should learn at each site and then provided us with detailed info on what we just visited. They had special insight on the cuisine. We are very happy that we could take advantage of what Peter Sommer's team had to offer in this wonderful tour of Crete's archaeology, nature, and cuisine.

We had two guides. One was a trained archaeologist and the other was an expert in the ancient to the modern history of Crete. In addition, we had an excellent van driver who was amazing in taking us to sites withut any difficulty. This organization was put together by Peter Sommer's organization and operated without any problems. What more could we ask for.

In short, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable! Crete presents layer after layer of history and culture, some verging on myth and some speculative. Much of the recent history can be characterized as "turbulent". It all makes for a fascinating place to visit, particularly in the company of our knowledgeable guides.

It is hard to exaggerate the quality of the experience which Peter Sommer Travels provides. The guides are extremely highly qualified (importantly, they know what they know and what they don't know (i.e., is not known)). They also clearly have a passion for the history and culture which they present, and it shows in their enthusiasm. At the same time, every effort is made to make the trip an enjoyable experience, from beautiful accommodations to fantastic meals which most often explore regional specialties. All in all, I can't recommend Peter Sommer Travel highly enough.

Great guides and wonderful trip. Terrific insight by well planned tour providing marvelous insight into a fascinating part of the world.

Very responsive and helpful

An extended tour of Crete, taking in fascinating towns, archaeological sites and cultural encounters. The tour guides, Heinrich and Maria, were superb at narration, local expertise, logistics and general helpfulness. We greatly enjoyed this tour.

This was our fifth tour with Peter Sommers, after tours of the Peloponnesus, Athens and the Dodecanese Islands in Greece, and a tour of rural Ireland. Their tour guides are particularly superb in expertise and logistics.