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-   -   Tour Guide in Olympia Greece (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/tour-guide-in-olympia-greece-865765/)

jtgarland Nov 6th, 2010 05:38 PM

Tour Guide in Olympia Greece
 
I am looking for a guide for the day to tour Olympia while we are on a cruise. Any good suggestions on guides you have used? Thanks, John

travelerjan Nov 6th, 2010 06:26 PM

Unfortunately there is no good answer to your query unless you luckily encounter someone. As you know, only licensed Guides are allowed to take people through sites in GReece. There is SOMETIMES at the gate of Major Sites a licensed Guide or 2 who will collect a group of people at x amount of Euros per head... but you cannot count on that.

The other way is to go through the licensed guides trade organization, Here's a link, http://wftga.org/page.asp?id=9#Greece But they are VERY bad about responding because they have only a volunteer staff to answer e-mails. I once e-mailed asking for better way to contact and got an angry reply: we don't have a staff to respond to individual requests (!)
THe same link has e-mail contacts for groups in Different islands (Rhodes, crete, corfu, N.E.Aegean) which are "on the spot" and answer quicker.

There is also another link that has individual Guide e-mails, they are mostly in Athens but there is ONE listed for Olympia -- also, the website is supposed to be for tourists but is only in Greek, GErman and FRench, NO ENGLISH. here's the link to the French one http://www.tourist-guides.gr/fr/cont...desguides.aspx

... This is one of the aspects of Greek tourism that exasperates me! These licensed guides work hard for their certification; they want business... but there is no mechanism to link them up with individual tourists or small groups -- so they mostly work with bus tour companies, or are "on call" by Athens hotels. Really disorganized!!

jtgarland Nov 6th, 2010 06:34 PM

Thanks, that is what i'm running into, no response from my emails. I'll try the sites you listed. Thanks again, John

Nadia Nov 13th, 2010 03:06 PM

John, is your cruiseship docking at Katakolon port?

diann24 Nov 14th, 2010 08:51 AM

We were just there--some fellow passengers from our cruise ship had pre booked a taxi--there were maybe 3 cars and 8 couples. They went to a winery as well and it was perhaps 45 euros per person. another option is in town I saw a bus that takes you there, for 10 euros there is also a train but it is seasonal. The train was very inexpensive. we just went to the town and shopped. I was toured out, that day needed some down time. There is a lovely dock with many nice restaurants and cafes for coffee/wine/dessert on the water.


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