Unforgettable Thessaloniki: Private UNESCO Heritage Journey

We recently enjoyed a 3 day private tour of Thessaloniki led by Efi, and can’t recommend her highly enough. Efi also helped arranged a comfortable minibus and headsets locally for our group of 16 people. One morning included a well‑paced walking tour of Thessaloniki’s early Christian and Byzantine World Heritage sites. We visited the Rotonda, the city walls, the Acropolis ridge, and several stunning churches with mosaics that Efi brought to life through concise, accurate commentary. She speaks impeccable English. Between monuments, she guided us through lively food markets and suggested local treats that added a genuine flavour of the city. Her friendly manner and thorough organisation made navigating the city centre effortless. For anyone wanting a focused, informative walk through Thessaloniki centre and UNESCO‑protected monuments, Efi must be the number one choice.

Efi is very professional and we covered a lot during our 4 hour tour. Visited several unesco sites , monastery , churches, city wall . We even enjoyed delicious triangle cream sweets exclusive to this area. Efi also was kind enough to assist with our transport to airport for the next day. Thank you.

Efi was an amazing tour guide! So much knowledge and engaging personality. She asked us what we would like to emphasize in our tour, and accommodated our interests. She was friendly and shared lots of stories as well! highly recommend!

Really enjoyed the Tour with Efi. She was very knowledgeable about the history of the city and took us to some places that I am sure we would have missed on our own. Thoroughly recommend.

Efi was a very helpful, friendly and knowledgable guide who went out of her way to make sure that we felt welcome upon our arrival in Thessaloniki. You definitely get the feeling that she has a passion for history and loves her city. Highly recommended!

My husband and I (able-bodied and in our mid-60's) greatly appreciated Efi's experienced approach to showing her city and her country to interested visitors. My husband and Efi exchanged a number of emails to let her know what our particular interests were. I think that pre-tour conversation was helpful. We took two tours with Efi. The first was a 4 (or 5?) hour walking tour of Thessaloniki. We were interested in local Jewish history as well as learning about many of the other peoples and cultures who have made Thessaloniki such a mosaic. So our walking tour reflected that interest as well as visiting Ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman sites. I never felt like we were going too fast or too slow. This tour was not only informative historically, but it also helped us get oriented to where the open air markets and great restaurants are. It made the rest of our stay (a week) in the city easier. Efi is very extremely knowledgeable, delivers information at a manageable pace, answers questions and was attentive to our comfort (stopping for food, coffee and bathroom breaks. She is enthusiastic about helping people connect with the region, the people and the incredible cuisine! Next, Efi took us to Virgina (a 6 hour tour with a driver) where we visited Phillip II's (and other ancients) excellently excavated burial grounds and the recently opened museum. We had time for conversation about the ancient history and current significance of this region as we drove there and back. I really loved our week in Thessaloniki and I believe Efi contributed to that experience. We would be happy to go on another tour with her (maybe Meteora? maybe Komotini?) when we are lucky enough to return to Greece!

Efi was a most gracious and knowledgeable host! Her communication leading up to the tour was fantastic, as was every other facet of the tour. She even helped us with “after tour” support by finding us a lunch reservation on a busy national holiday. The tour was extremely interesting, especially if you are interested in early Christian history and art. Thank-you Efi!

I and my guests from Malaysia had a wonderful experience touring the center of Thessaloniki and the old town; Efi met us at Aristotle Square and initially walked us through Kapani, Modiano market, the old Roman market and the Basilica of Agios Dimitrios explaining the historic significance of each location. We then took a lovely coffee break at Cafe Byzantion at the Old Town enjoying the panoramic view of the city and then went on a nice stroll to see the ancient walls and the tower at the corner of Old Town where we enjoyed a wonderful view of the city and the bay of Thermaikos. An experience to be repeated at the earliest opportunity!!!!!

Our tour company scheduled 2nights in Thessaloniki. We searched for a guide online and we’re so fortunate to find Efi. We asked for her UNESCO tour but got so much more. She was wonderful communicating with us prior to leaving the US. She alerted us to a necessary schedule change because of a Greek Holiday and found a perfect solution to make the tour fit our schedule. Walking the city with Efi was delightful. As she gave us a historical perspective of these interesting sites she also found out our interests. She pointed out restaurants and shopping areas we might want to visit on our own. We ended our tour at a wonderful non-tourist restaurant where she gave us a copy of her book and other readings and recipes of the city. If we return, we would definitely schedule her Food Tour. Our 4 hour tour with Efi was a great introduction to Thessaloniki which my husband and I would highly recommend.