A date change may be possible subject to availability and provided that the terms of the package and/or suppliers allow it. There may be an additional charge and/or a price difference. Please contact us to verify and for details.
Amid colorful mansions, flower-filled courtyards, and stone-paved alleys, we discovered a magical city, woven from the fabric of fairy tales, history, and the Aegean Sea. The first thing you’ll notice is the color. Correction: the colors. Days, maybe even months after you’ve left, they’ll be the first thing you remember when you think of Ayvalık. A pink two-story house next to a yellow mansion with giant blue doors, next to a violet house with wooden balconies, next to another mansion painted the brightest green a mansion could ever be painted. A wonderfully incongruous sequence of colors frames every stone cobblestone path you cross, constantly giving you the feeling that you’re Alice in Wonderland —if Wonderland looked more like a pastel painting.
Thessaloniki "Macedonia" Airport (Google Maps)
We’ll meet up early in the morning and depart for Kavala and Alexandroupoli. We’ll arrive at the border at Kipoi and make a stop at the DUTY FREE shop. We’ll then enter Turkey and head to Çanakkale after crossing the Dardanelles Strait. Our journey continues to Homeric Troy. We’ll take a guided tour of the city that was destroyed nine times. Experience the EPIC of the *Iliad* “figuratively” among heroes such as Achilles, Hector, Ajax, Priam, Agamemnon, Paris, Odysseus, Rhesus, Menelaus, and others. We’ll then depart for Ayvalık (Kydonia), and upon arrival, we’ll check into the hotel. After a short rest, we’ll have dinner.
Breakfast and departure for an optional day trip. We’ll first visit the seaside suburb of Fokeon with its narrow streets, famous fish taverns, and Greek neighborhoods with picturesque houses—the last vestige of the local Greek community. During the summer months, it is the premier seaside resort for the various prefectures of Smyrna, Aydin, and Magnesia. We continue our journey to Smyrna, taking a bus tour of the historic district, Old Kordelio, the new seaside promenade, the mansions of the Greek community, the consulates, and finally the historic waterfront from which the Greek community departed for mainland Greece. Free time for shopping, coffee, and lunch. In the afternoon, we return to Ayvalık, where we’ll have dinner at the hotel.
After breakfast, we’ll set out for a guided tour of the famous ancient city of Pergamon, the archaeological museum, and the archaeological site of Asclepius. We continue to the Moschonisia Islands at the southern entrance to the Gulf of Adramyttium, opposite the island of Lesbos, where we’ll visit the Church of the Taxiarchs. These are the ancient “Ekatonisos” or “Askanios Islands.” Free time to sample local dishes and stroll through the streets of the former Greek quarter. Later, upon returning to our hotel, those who’d like to relax can enjoy a stroll through the picturesque town.
After our last breakfast, we’ll depart via Adramyttium for Çanakkale. We’ll cross the Dardanelles Strait to reach the beautiful city of Kallipolis, the birthplace of our national singer Sofia Vembo. We’ll continue on our way back, and after the necessary customs check, we’ll arrive late at night in our city.
Ayvalı is, first and foremost, the Ayvalı of our grandmothers—even if your own grandmothers didn’t come from here. Not all of their colorful mansions are inhabited, because more Greeks left here in ’22 than Turks came from Greece. There were more of them.
Some are for sale today, some are being restored, and others stand silently, with the charm of time leaving its marks upon them. They would make you feel melancholy, if it were humanly possible to feel melancholy inside a pastel painting. And if your melancholy thoughts weren’t constantly interrupted by an elderly gentleman who claims to be Turkish but speaks Greek with a Cretan accent and wants to hear news from his homeland —both his and yours—and which homeland belongs to whom, that’s a very relevant question here where you are.
Notes: The itinerary may be modified according to the needs of the tour without omitting any key points.
The possibility of a refund and/or any deductions depends on the terms of the specific package, the time of cancellation, and the respective suppliers. For your specific case, please refer to the General Terms and Conditions or contact us.
Some packages include travel insurance, or optional coverage is available, depending on the destination and itinerary. For available options and coverage terms, please contact us or refer to the General Terms and Conditions.
The reservation is finalized in accordance with the procedure set forth in the General Terms and Conditions (e.g., confirmation and payment of the amount/deposit, where required). For specific steps and deadlines applicable to this particular package, please contact us.
The itinerary is based on available routes and services; however, changes or adjustments may occur before and/or during the trip due to operational reasons and/or unforeseen circumstances. In any case, the General Terms and Conditions of Participation apply, and participants will be notified accordingly.