Peter Sommer Travels Traveller Reviews

A fantastic trip from Bodrum to Santorini and back on a Turkish gulet with a friendly crew and perhaps more important friendly fellow passengers. The best way to see the Greek Islands. A holiday that combines, phenomenally well researched and guided archaeology with gentle cruising, great local food (and wine) and swimming in isolated coves. My passion is the archaeology but the environment on the boat means you get the best of all worlds combining visits to great sites with relaxation and making new friends. Our guides Heinrich and Nota were friendly and knowledgeable about the islands, their history, culture and food! We've booked our next trip already, see you in Crete!

Nothing is too much trouble and everything seems to run seamlessly. I'm sure that involves a lot of hard work and experience behind the scenes. They provide lots of information prior to travel and will respond to queries and advise how best to add a few days on to your stay in say Athens or Istanbul. Having traveled with them several times now I know that they can be relied upon to go beyond what a customer should reasonably expect!

We joined the gulet in Fetiye and cruised for 7 days, stopping every day at archeological sites. The sites varied in their degree of development and Peter's knowledge of the archeology and passion for the subject made the experience "come alive". He had an excellent assistant, Cem, and the crew were great. Superb Turkish meals were produced 3 times a day - you will not lose weight!! Carole Davies

Peter Sommer is a very knowledgeable archeologist, with a passion for his subject. As mentioned above he, his assistant Cem and the crew were marvellous.

I have experienced two of Peter Sommer's gulet trips in Turkey: one with Peter as host and the second with Michael and Cem as hosts. Each trip was a wonderful blend of caring and entertaining hosts that are first and foremost great storytellers; picturesque landscapes and seascapes, a variety of honey-pot and lost places and local delicious food and hospitality. In addition to the gullet trips, both holidays provided the opportunity for extensive extra travel in Turkey, which Peter Sommer Travels assisted with. I returned from these trips feeling renewed and full of energy.

I had a lot of direct dealings with Peter in the organisation of both trips. Nothing was every too much trouble and Peter and his office and tour staff were always extremely professional. The additional service provided to recommend other places to visit in Turkey and with organising local flights, accommodation and hire cars was seamless.

First trip: learning about and sailing the Dodecanese with Peter Sommer was amazing. Knowledgeable guide Heinrich who has excellent people skills and helped us discover ancient Greek sites. Small sailing boat with great accomodations and fabulous local food. Second trip: Learning about the Southern Coast of Italy and sailing the Amalfi Coast with Peter Sommer. Michael, a knowlegeable guide was so helpful when touring Pompei and other ancient sites, Baia and Capri. Great accomodations on a small sailing boat, with wonderful local Italian food.

Peter Sommer is most helpful when planning and executing a trip. He has wonderful choices and tours and is available to answer any questions and advice for travel. His tour guides have PhD's in ancient history and are so knowlegeable. Local guides are also excellent. A first class experience. We have done two tours with Peter Sommer and plan to do more.

We travelled in Turkey with Peter in late April and early May 2013 - in the footsteps of Alexander the Great. Peter's seemingly limitless knowledge of Alexander and his conquests, combined with the delights of Turkey - food, weather, history etc, made for a wonderful holiday which we are eager to repeat as soon as we can.

Peter Sommer combines the best aspects of what you might seek in a tour guide. He is warm and friendly and, as an archeologist, he has a vast knowledge of the ancient world and an infectious enthusiasm for relating that. And the tour was incredibly well-organised. We could not recommend Peter and his company (Peter Sommer Travels) highly enough. If you are looking to travel with a small group of like-minded people and experience the best of small group travel, you should look no further than Peter Sommer Travels.

We went on an archaeological tour of part of Turkey's coastline by boat. Very comfortable accommodation on board, delicious food, a well thought-through itinerary and led by a knowledgeable archaeologist and tour guide.

Every aspect of the holiday seemed well planned from the pre-tour reading list to the transfers.

We sailed from Bodrum, Turkey to a great many of the Greek islands (Dodecanese and Cyclades) on a Turkish gulet. We were led by two extremely knowledgable, as well as personable, archeologists. We visited archeological and cultural sites on the islands and were also treated to an amazing array of delicious food - Turkish on the boat and Greek on land. Additionally, we were very fortunate to share this experience with some wonderful fellow passengers - two thirds of whom (us, included) had been on one or more previous trips with Peter Sommer Travels. That fact alone should be quite an endorsement. It was a small, only 15 passengers, very personal journey, with plenty of time for relaxation as well as education.

This was our second trip with Peter Sommer Travels. We were thrilled with the first one we took, which was led by Peter Sommer himself. And this, our second, fulfilled every expectation that we had and then some! The trips are for small groups and are led by experienced archeologists who are very knowledgable about the areas visited. Additionally, the guides are genuinely friendly, extremely helpful individuals. And the meals and accommodations are top rate. We have already booked another trip with Peter Sommer Travel for next spring!

We travelled on the "In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great" trip. A three week itinerary retracing Alexander the Great's footsteps across Asia Minor. We visited extraordinary sites each day. Peter regaled us with stories filled with history and myth at every stop. We also enjoyed lovely accommodations and delicious food. All of the guides were excellent; knowledgable, good natured and quick to meet the needs of the guests.

Peter Sommer Travels runs small group, expert-led archaeological and cultural tours specializing in Turkey, Greece and Italy with a focus on the ruins of the ancient world and the daily pleasures of the modern.

We travelled along the Turkish coast north from Bodrum stopping in at small towns and ancient cities along with expert guides. The boat and crew were terrific - friendly and helpful and the food was wonderful. Exceeded our high expectations.

Peter Sommer Travels Efficient and capable and made first class arrangements.

Cruising to the Cyclades was our second gulet cruise with Peter Sommer Travels and it was even better and more special than the first trip (Cruising the Carian Coast) which had been so impressive we were anxious to book a second trip. The fact that 10 of the 15 guest on the Cyclades tour were "repeat" Peter Sommer Travels guests immediately indicated previous happy travel experiences. The cosmopolitan guests were an amazingly congenial and gregarious group and that added to the overall success of the trip. Although Peter Sommer Travels cannot guarantee the personalities of the travelers, these archeology-focused trips attract a to some extent "self-selected" group of people and the fact that such a high percentage are repeat travelers with the company is some "insurance" that the group with be a fun group. The Aegean Clipper is a beautiful and spacious Turkish gulet. The captain was a gregarious, humorous, knowledgeable,delightful person and his crew were friendly, competent, and attentive. The two guides were fantastic, that is knowledgeable, personable, and very caring. These two guides were so good that we and three other passengers signed up for another Peter Sommer Travels tour in 2015 with these two guides! The Turkish food on the boat was terrific and abundant. The Greek food on the islands was terrific and abundant. Finally, the sites visited could scarcely have been any more perfect for a vacation trip. The islands were different and each special. The sites on the islands were often very beautiful and were always very interesting. The variety of sites from ancient temple ruins to a sponge factory to a steamy volcano made for a fascinating trip. The walks, hikes, and climbs were all manageable (and my wife and I are in our late 60's), but vigorous enough to balance the constant supply of excellent food and wine. Many people on our trip were very literally experienced world travelers and most if not all of the guests on this trip indicated that it was one of, if not the, most fabulous trip they had been on.

We were fortunate to have Peter Sommer himself as a guide on our first trip with his company (Cruising the Carian Coast) and we were so impressed with him and with how perfect the trip was in terms of all arrangements and itinerary, that we thought immediate, "We must do another trip with Peter Sommer Travels." However, I thought we might be very lucky to have had Peter Sommer himself as our main guide and we could have less good fortune on one of the future trips. So, I asked Peter about the selection of the other guides. He proceed to give me a lengthy, detailed history of how additional guides were added to his growing operation. His mini-lecture gave me great confidence that we would have great guides on any future Peter Sommer Travels tours we took. Cruising to the Cyclades proved beyond a doubt that the guides are as good as Peter Sommer himself! Fortunately,at the end of our cruise in Bodrum, Peter Sommer was able to spend some time with all of us on our last evening and he was just as pleasant and gregarious as he had been on our first trip. He had the satisfaction of hearing from me and from other guests how unbelievably wonderful the trip had been. And, he had the pleasure of hearing that five guests had already signed up for a 2015 tour with his firm. I believe it is safe to say that Peter Sommer personally witnessed the amazing esprit d'corps among the guests, captain, and crew at our final dinner/party on the Aegean Clipper. One final observation: Although even Peter Sommer cannot control the weather it is important to note that for our two-week adventure, it rained once but only at night (as in Camelot).