Several days ago I returned to the USA from the May 23-June 5 Athens and the Heart of Greece tour....a tour I'd originally planned for 2020 to celebrate my retirement. I now know from firsthand experience why this tour is one of RS' most popular.
First and foremost: our lead guide, Dafni Panteloglou, directed us with superb knowledge, organization, and enthusiasm. This was her first RS tour as a lead guide, and I would have thought she'd been a RS guide for 10 years. She has a bright future with RS, and I know that future tour members will immensely enjoy being on her tours. Secondly, our assistant guide, Etelka Herecz, was equally excellent. Etelka normally leads the RS tours to St. Petersburg, Tallinn, and Helsinki and (because those tours have been cancelled to protest Putin's invasion of Ukraine) is instead working on other tours in 2022. What a joy to hear her tales of Hungary and prior RS tours.
Local guides: Our local guides were "off the charts" outstanding. Experts in knowledge and communication. It was a privilege to see the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Mystras, Mycenae, Epidavros, and the National Archaeological Museum with them. Best local guides I've ever had on a RS tour.
Food: very generous group lunches and dinners. I was amazed by how much I could buy at bakeries for 5 Euros.
Greek people: generous, kind, deservedly proud of their country.
History, archaeological sites, and museums: a feast. So worth the advance study I'd done.
Countryside: stunning blue water and beautiful mountains.
COV-19: all tour members complied with mask mandates on the bus. Most thankfully, there were no COV-19 cases in our group.
In summary, the best of the 5 RS tours I've taken...and well worth the risk of travelling this year despite the risk of contracting mild or asymptomatic COV-19 while abroad.