Greece: Where the Gods, Warriors, and Ouzo Still Have a Story to Tell

There are destinations you visit, photograph, enjoy, and then leave behind.

Greece is not one of them. Greece follows you home.

Perhaps it is because so much of what shapes our world today, democracy, philosophy, theater, athletics, and architecture, has its roots here.

Or perhaps it is because the Greeks have had several thousand years to perfect the art of making visitors feel welcome, feeding them far too much food and convincing them that another glass of wine or ouzo is an entirely reasonable idea.

When we developed Best of Greece: An Aegean Odyssey, I didn't want it to simply be Athens, a photograph of the Parthenon and a quick dash to an island.

Greece deserves more than that.

This is a Journey of Discovery.

Making Nafplion Home

And one of the things I particularly love about this program is that for five nights we make Nafplion our home.

That word, home, is important.

Rather than packing your suitcase every morning and moving to another hotel, you begin to know the town. You recognize the waterfront. You discover the café where you want your coffee. After dinner, you can wander the cobbled streets, browse the shops or simply sit and watch Greek life go by.

By the third evening, you stop feeling quite so much like a tourist.

Of course, I also tend to discover the shops remarkably quickly. My shopping instinct has survived almost 35 years in travel and apparently shows no sign of weakening.

Greek Food: Never Just a Small Lunch

And then there is the food.

I have learned that saying, “I'll just have a small Greek lunch,” is one of travel's great lies.

Somehow fresh bread, olives, tomatoes that taste better than tomatoes have any right to taste, feta, grilled fish, perhaps a little octopus, and a glass of wine turn lunch into an event.

Nobody seems particularly interested in rushing you either.

Perhaps they have discovered something the rest of us haven't.

Walking Through 3,000 Years of History

From Nafplion, we begin exploring Greece's extraordinary history.

At Mycenae, you walk through the massive Lion Gate into a civilization more than 3,000 years old. The stones used in its walls were so enormous that later Greeks believed only the mythical Cyclopes could have moved them.

Standing beside some of them, I'm not entirely convinced they were wrong.

At Epidaurus, another surprise awaits.

Its ancient theater was constructed in the fourth century BC and is famous for its remarkable acoustics. You stand there and realize people were engineering extraordinary buildings more than two thousand years before microphones, amplifiers, computers, or PowerPoint presentations.

That is rather humbling.

The Difference Between Sightseeing and Discovery

But some of my favorite travel experiences aren't simply about famous monuments.

Visiting a local olive farm, tasting the oil and meeting the people behind it changes how you look at something as simple as the bottle of olive oil sitting in your kitchen at home.

You begin to understand the land, the families and traditions behind it.

That, to me, is the difference between sightseeing and discovery.

Beneath the Greek Countryside

Then Greece takes us underground.

At the Diros Caves, small boats carry you through an extraordinary subterranean landscape of water, stalactites and stalagmites.

There is something slightly surreal about silently floating underneath the Greek countryside.

My imagination tends to become overactive in places like this. Somewhere between Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts, and every adventure movie I watched as a child, part of me is expecting some mythical creature to appear around the next corner.

Fortunately, the boatman appears considerably less concerned.

Sparta, Mystras and the Birthplace of the Olympics

The journey continues through the Mani Peninsula and toward Sparta and Mystras, where completely different periods of Greek history seem to sit almost on top of one another.

Then there is Olympia.

Standing in the birthplace of the Olympic Games and walking into the ancient stadium creates another of those moments when history suddenly stops being something you've read about.

Naturally, there is an overwhelming temptation to run down the track and demonstrate one's athletic ability.

I have decided that imagining myself doing it is considerably safer.

My knees and I reached that agreement some years ago.

Ouzo Beside the Corinth Canal

But one of my favorite memories of Greece happened somewhere I wasn'texpecting it.

The Corinth Canal.

I was sitting at a restaurant beside the canal, sipping ouzo on a journey of discovery event, when ships began passing right in front of me.

And I mean right in front of me.

There is something extraordinary about sitting comfortably at a restaurant while what seems like an impossibly large vessel moves through this incredibly narrow channel only a short distance away.

How often do you get that close to a fast-moving ship while sitting at a table drinking ouzo?

It was one of those wonderfully unscripted travel moments.

Although I should probably add that the ships looked increasingly impressive as the level of ouzo in my glass declined.

Athens After Dark

Then we arrive in Athens for a 2-night stay.

I've seen the Parthenon during the day, surrounded by the energy of one of the world's great cities.

But one of the images that has stayed with me most came at night.

I was sitting outside a local restaurant having dinner, looking upward toward the Acropolis and Parthenon.

The moon cast this almost eerie glow across the ancient structure.

Below it, Athens was alive, people eating, talking, and laughing, while above us stood a monument that has watched over this city for nearly 2,500years.

I remember sitting there thinking about just how many generations had looked up at the same structure.

Sometimes travel produces a photograph.

Sometimes it produces a moment.

That was a moment.

Santorini and the Lost World of Atlantis

And then there is Santorini.

We've all seen the photographs: whitewashed buildings, blue-domedchurches and the enormous blue expanse of the Aegean.

But photographs don't quite prepare you for standing there.

Santorini itself is the remains of an enormous ancient volcanic eruption, and as I stood looking across the caldera with the sun slowly disappearing into the Aegean, my imagination took over again.

For a moment, I felt as though I was standing on the edge of the lost world of Atlantis.

Whether Santorini really has any connection to the Atlantis legend has been debated for generations.

Frankly, as the sky changes color and the sun sinks into the sea, youdon't particularly care.

You simply stand there and watch.

Preferably with a glass of Greek wine.

There are worse ways to end a day.

When Travel Becomes Something More

And this is where I believe travel becomes particularly powerful for a Chamber of Commerce,

association or nonprofit organization.

A group may depart as members of the same organization, but something changes when people experience places like these together.

They sit around a table in Nafplion.

They taste olive oil together.

They laugh over ouzo beside the Corinth Canal.

They stand underneath the Parthenon.

They watch the sunset over Santorini.

People who may have passed each other at business events for years suddenly have a shared experience and shared stories.

Discovery, Community and Fundraising

At the same time, the program creates the opportunity for the organization to generate meaningful non-dues revenue and fundraising while offering its members something genuinely special.

That combination of discovery, community, engagement and fundraising is what our Journey of Discovery programs are really about.

Because ultimately, great travel isn't measured by how many attractions you checked off a list.

It's measured by the stories you are still telling years later.

And Greece gives you plenty of them.

Until next week's Journey of Discovery, where shall we go next?