In May I went on the Odysseys Unlimited trip to Greece that includes Crete. Although the itinerary is great on paper, not enough time was allotted in the important archeological sites. On top of that, the guide was mediocre at best. Before I describe her faults, please note that the president of Odysseys Unlimited responded to my review stating that they would EDUCATE this guide, meaning that they would use her again. She was so bad that she should simply never be used! And the president offered me an insultingly small amount of money off my next trip, hardly enough to compensate for a subpar guide. This guide had incomplete knowledge of the sites and objects in museums, sometimes giving us the wrong information. I know this for a fact because in my free time, I stayed in some museums and had time to read the information, and on Crete, I actually went back to Knossos and hired a private guide. The Odysseys guide didn't utilize the time on the bus to educate us, thereby using up valuable time at the various archeological sites to stand and introduce it to us when she ought to have been showing it to us. She seemed shocked when we wanted to know more about the politics, education and health systems of Greece. She would partially block our view of items she discussed in museums. We would pass by interesting statues in towns, aqueducts on the road, which she never thought to address. I had a food restriction which she ignored, repeatedly. This food restriction was in my pre-trip paperwork. She ignored it even after I spoke to her about it.
I have taken 3 trips with Odysseys. India was excellent with a superb guide. Japan was excellent because the good guide was supplemented with a curator from my local museum. Greece was partially ruined by this terrible guide. In spite of the nice accommodations and good food, I am not sure this track record merits traveling with Odysseys again.
I took the same tour right after Covid and it was also disappointing. I had taken three other tours with Odysseys and they were very good.
I found out that Odysseys hires a Greece based tour company to run their tour in Greece. It seems to cut corners and didn't feel the same quality as the other Odysseys tours.
I also learned something on that tour that I thought was true but wasn't sure. Multi-day tours are not for me.