Croatia Sail V2 – 2024

Pre & Post Trip Options

Pre-trip – Greek mainland and Athens – 4 days, 3 nights

• Day 1: Leave home for an overnight flight to Athens.
• Day 2: Arrive Athens and transfer to the Acropolis Palace Hotel for 3 nights with spectacular views of the Acropolis from the rooftop restaurant. Relax, and explore Athens on your own, prior to a group welcome dinner at the hotel.
• Day 3: Today we take an all-day tour of ancient Athens, including the Acropolis and the Parthenon, the Acropolis Museum, and other ancient archeological excavations.
• Day 4: We journey today to Delphi where you can ask the oracle your own questions about the future and visit the very temple where she sat. We’ll also visit an olive oil factory and view an olive farm.
• Day 5: As our time in Athens ends, we take a ferry to join our other travelers in Paros.
• Cost

What’s Included:
3-nights lodging near the Acropolis
Tour of ancient Athens
Day tour to Delphi or Meteora
Airport / Ferry transfers
Breakfast each day

$1200 Double occupancy
$400 Single occupancy upgrade

Post-Trip Extension to Istanbul, Turkey 3 days

• Day 1: Once we disembark in in Split, we’ll transfer to the airport for a direct 1 hour flight to Istanbul. There we’ll check into our hotel before having a walk around the Old City and later, an authentic dinner at a nearby restaurant.
• Day 2: After breakfast at the Hotel, embark on a private yacht arranged for an unforgettable 2 hours Bosphorus cruise. Sail through majestic strait that runs through Istanbul, linking Europe and Asia with a possibility to take pictures of the marble palaces, ancient wooden villas of Ottoman architecture besides modern residential. The guide will help you to get a whole picture of Istanbul while you enjoy a glass of wine or cup of tea with sweats from the Spice Market. After the tour, we drive back to the Hotel & enjoy the free afternoon till dinner.
• Day 3: After breakfast at the Hotel, meet your guide to drive to the Old City. Today you will focus on the Old City as it was in the days of Justinian and the other Roman Emperors. Start your day with a visit to Topkapi Sarayi. Begun by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1453, it was the palace of the Ottoman Sultans for over 300 years and is a supreme example of Ottoman architecture. Here we will wander through its many pavilions, courtyards, and gardens, see unrivaled treasures from the collections of the Ottoman Sultans including dazzling jewelry and unique porcelain. Continue to Seraglio Point, where you are first taken to the site of the famous Hippodrome. Here you will see the obelisk of Theodosius with its 4th Century reliefs. Walk to Sultan Ahmet Camii, better known to us as The Blue Mosque. With your expert guide, you will learn that the Mosque was built in the 17th Century and is famous for its great dome, six minarets and an interior covered in blue Iznik tiles. You then visit Aya Sophia, previously the great church built by the Emperor Justinian, now a mosque. After an instructive tour you are then taken to the impressive Yerebatan Sarayi which is an “Underground Cistern” created by the Romans as a water source for both the Byzantine Emperors and later the Ottomans’ Topkapi Palace. The next stop will be Grand Bazaar, which was the commercial heart of the old city, and its 4,000 shops are full of treasures – including carpets and kilims, silks, jewelry, ceramics, icons, and leather goods. Wandering through the Grand Bazaar, indulge in some shopping. Enjoy the free afternoon till 5.30 pm to be picked up from the meeting point to get to Whirling Dervish Ceremony Center for our included show and dinner.
• Day 4: Today we transfer to the airport for our flight home, arriving the same day.

Included: airport transfers, all airfare, transportation, all meals, cruise and all entry fees and tour costs.

$1,470 Double occupancy

$300 Single upgrade