I signed up for the 4/17/23-4/30/23 tour. It says there is the opportunity to experience Greek Orthodox easter, but Easter is on the 16th that year. Am I missing something?
Should we switch to a different week?
What is it like to be there during Easter week?
My guess is that they have not updated their website since last April. Send them an email and ask about 2023.
Since many people like to arrive a day or 2 before the tour start, I think it's just a heads up that Easter may impact your plans.
Hopefully somebody else has experience with the holiday in Greece.
I was in Greece for Easter this year. It was very busy and some things were closed on Easter Sunday. The rest of the week was busy as people travel to be with family and hotels can be busy.
The Greeks take Easter very seriously. Even more than Christmas.
On Saturday night of Easter weekend, at midnight, fireworks go off, church bells are rung, and there are processions through the streets. On Easter itself you'll see lambs roasting in restaurants and, especially on the islands, you will see people trying to shoot down an effigy of Judas.
My suggestion is to get there to experience Easter Weekend before your tour. I was on Crete on the Saturday and traveled to Santorini on Easter Sunday. I am not religious at all but I did enjoy seeing how they celebrated.
Make your flight and hotel reservations very early.
Easter for the Orthodox Church is on 04/17/2023. I would arrive in Greece at least by Thursday if not a little earlier as by Sunday a lot of places will be closed including grocery stores etc. We were in Romania for the Orthodox Easter this year and very much enjoyed the experience. Our guide took us to the commencement of midnight mass and it was worth it. If Greece is anything like Romania, they will start celebrating on Friday and it will last through Monday.
I would not reschedule.
@Ed it seems like it might be helpful to at least move it a week earlier so we have the benefit of a guide during it. What do you think?
Looks like that would put you in Monemvasia for that weekend.
@Ed it seems like it might be helpful to at least move it a week earlier so we have the benefit of a guide during it. What do you think?
Kit Ko, Easter for the the majority of the Christian faith falls on April 9, 2023, while Easter for the Orthodox faith falls on April 16, 2023. With the Orthodox faith being the primary religion in Greece, I would speculate that, as Frank II states, things will be very busy on around then. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of Greece in particular can comment.
My wife and I have been to Europe for both Easters and would not change a thing.
As for getting a guide or changing your trip, I would suggest that you contact a few guides in Greece and see what they suggest.
The Greeks, as my Greek friends have concurred, celebrate Easter as much as, if not even more than, Christmas. It's a festive time.
I would keep your schedule as is. I was with a tour on Easter in Santorini. We were having dinner at our hotel and was told it was a buffet. Great, i thought, with a buffet there had to be lamb. No lamb. I wasn't happy. If I was on my own, I could have made reservations somewhere to have the traditional dish for the day. (Roasted lamb on a spit.)
I don't know how adventurous you are, but, I'm going to suggest getting to Greece a few days early and going to one of the islands. The attitude of the people on the islands is different than the mainland. They seem to be more relaxed, happier, and more festive. I was on both Crete and Santorini on Easter weekend and everywhere we went it seemed the people were happy. They would fill the outside seating areas of cafes and restaurants talking, laughing, enjoying the sun and having a good time.
They were not sitting outside because of Covid. They were sitting outside because of the weather.
Easter is awesome in Greece and I would agree to arrive and get situated by the Thursday prior. I would also recommend being in a smaller town/village or island instead of big city for the experience.
I did the RS tour this year that placed us in Athens on Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday which took place exactly a week after our own Easter Sunday. It was very special to see how Greeks celebrate their Easter. We saw lots of lamb being roasted on the grill everywhere in Athens. Our guide also took us to witness their Easter Saturday celebration at midnight. We watched Athenians walk out of their church and shared their candle flames to hundreds waiting outside the church while the priest also came outside to finish prayers. All this at the foot of the Acropolis!
This was very special experience. However, because of this our guide had to move a few things of our itinerary around. We ended up not being able to do the cog wheel train ride to the freshly caught trout lunch and I was bummed because I was really looking forward to that. The bus did drive us to lunch so that we didn’t miss. So just be prepared for the itinerary tweaking if you take this tour. It looks like the tour starts on 4/17 while Easter is on 4/16 so the itinerary may not be affected at all! Try to arrive on the Friday before so you can experience their Easter then. Restaurants and most shops were open on Greek Easter Sunday.
