Exploring Crete Traveller Reviews

We spent 12 lovely days exploring Crete, the Minoan civilization, it’s rich Roman, Venetian, Turkish, and Greek history. We enjoyed the beauty of the island and the food was fantastic.

This was our first tour with Peter Sommer but we hope it is not our last. We were a group of 10 with two fantastic guides, two of the best we have ever experienced.

We explored 7000-10,000 years of Cretan history and were introduced to some of the best food, olive oil, and wine ever! The accommodations were wonderful, inventive and inviting.

The professionals at Peter Sommer Travels are amazing. They are well organized, provide an outstanding travel and education experience, and go out of their way to make everyone feel comfortable. Our tour guides, Maria and Michael, were phenomenal. Not only are they highly trained archaeologists who bring life to the past in creative and fun ways, they use that history as a foundation to introduce you to present-day Crete. I still dream about the wonderful food!

This was our first trip with Peter Sommer Travel. It was our first time in Crete but the pre tour info gave us a good insight as to what we could expect. The focus was on archaeology and food. The tour guides were experts in these fields. They had a great knowledge of the archaeological sites which were chosen with care so we experienced a variety of sites that covered a wide span of history. A particular strength was their ability to convey their knowledge to the tour participants so we came away with a real understanding of the sweep of history we were exposed to. As for the food we were able to sample a wide variety of the Cretan regional cuisines and felt the menus never got boring. While we expected a great archaeological tour the food was a great bonus. We are currently checking out another Peter Sommer tour for next year. Many of the tour members were frequent participants with Peter Sommer. Their enthusiasm for some of the other available tours was infectious, and now we know why. Another plus was that the tour attracted folks from all over the world which added interest and made mixing very enjoyable.

The Peter Sommer tour was a great experience. Both guides were excellent subject matter experts, were approachable and related well with the group. Everything was well organized, and they were able to fit in some extra tour visits. The bus driver was excellent in dealing with narrow village "roads", and edgy mountain switchbacks. Before the tour the office staff were able to answer all our questions in a friendly and timely way.

Our holiday in Crete was wonderful. Our travels included curated visits to Minoan sites and museums, tiny and colorful Byzantine village chapels, and agro experiments where mountain villages are turned into lodging. The emphasis is on archeology and history of the island. The food and lodging was incredible with our local tour guide involved the whole way, making sure needs were met.

We are USA based and found Peter Sommer Travels easy to work with. Their tour website was amazingly accurate and we had great confidence embarking on this tour with them. Peter Sommers travels is a highly professional operation.

We had a highly enjoyable trip with Peter Sommer Travel exploring Crete's architecture, culture and food. With two very knowledgeable guides we learned a lot about the island's rich history as well as enjoying delicious food and wine.

Extremely well organised tour which had clearly been carefully planned.

We spent 16 days with a group of like-minded people from several countries being led through the history of the people who have called Crete home over a period of 4500 plus years. Michael and Maria, our leader/guides took us on a comfortable coach to twelve ancient cities and a number of museums, telling us when the cities were lived in and who lived at each place. Meals were taken at restaurants which presented the best of local foods and accommodation was at interesting and comfortable places. We thoroughly enjoyed the holiday and are looking forward to further adventures with Peter Sommer Travels

Peter Sommer Travels runs organised tours concentrating on archaeology, local food and staying at interesting accommodation places. This tour, our fourth with Peter Sommer, fully lived up to our expectations in all regards. We were led by two enthusiastic guides whose knowledge of Crete and its long, intricate history gave us an insight into this long history, challenging our imagination and entertained us with historic stories and Greek myths. The tour was organised as well as any we have taken, seemingly without hiccups at any stage.

This is a beautifully crafted tour. We were totally immersed in the culture, dramatic landscape and amazing layers of history of the island. The infectious passion for their job, the knowledge, consummate storytelling and historical perspectives imparted by the expert and local guides were major highlights of the trip. The hotels we stayed in were in interesting locations and were obviously carefully chosen for their quality and unique properties in locations varying from a waterfront mansion in Chania to hotels in atmospheric restored traditional mountain villages. The quality of the food and wine offered in atmospheric restaurants, wineries and tavernas a was superb. It was wonderful to meet the owners and chefs of the smaller tavernas and feel caught up in their passion for the local produce.

Peter Sommer Travels is a small family owned company who provide an excellent personalised service. This is the fourth tour we have taken with them, two land based and two on gulets. The staff employed by the company are extremely good and the expert and local guides who accompany each tour are superb. Each of our experiences has been unique and we are already planning our next trip with the company. We highly recommend Peter Sommer Travels.

This was an extremely well planned and executed tour around the significant bronze age archaeological sites, as well as visits to museums, wineries and other places of interest in Crete. The accommodation was comfortable, and the meals interesting and delicious.

Pre-tour information was excellent, with rapid response from the office at all times. The facilitation of the tour was very smooth, with any changes happening easily and without any fuss. Both guides were extremely knowledgeable and expert at imparting that knowledge, most personable, and great fun.

This was our 5th consecutive Peter Sommer trip and, as usual, it lived up to all expectations. Our guides, Maria and Michael, were a great double act. They entertained and informed us and looked after us so well and brought the history of Crete to life. The trip was very well organised and we saw so much of the island. We learned something of the landscape, culture and food as well as the history, from the earliest human inhabitation up to the second world war. The food and wine were excellent and we mustn't neglect to mention our driver Nikos, who expertly drove us on some challenging roads. We are now trying to decide where to go for our 6th Peter Sommer trip.

Peter Sommer Travels are superb. The organisation is faultless and the guides are always so knowledgeable and enthusiastic. They specialise in archaeological tours but offer a great deal more.

A+ Guides, comfortable accommodations, gorgeous scenery, fascinating archaeology and out of this world food!!

Tour operator was extremely well organized.