Alternative Athens

A guided-tour company in Athens with walking food tours of 3 to 5 hours and a three-hour Greek cooking class in the centre.

Who they are

Alternative Athens was born in 2013 in Athens with a simple idea: to show travellers the most authentic face of Greece. The website does not give the name of its founder. It does explain how it works: it designs and runs its own tours, instead of reselling others', and builds them from what its team likes to show of the city. The guides work only for them. They are chosen for how well they know Athens and for how they deal with visitors. The company holds the travel agency licence of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO), number MHTE 0206E60000680301. It is a member of the industry associations SETE, HATTA and ASTA, and also of the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau.

What they do and where

In Athens they run walking tours of neighbourhoods, visits to the Acropolis and mythology tours, food tours, activities for families with children, experiences with local people and evening outings. The food tours and the cooking class have their own entries on this page. Outside the capital they organise day trips, for example to Delphi, to Mycenae and Nafplio or to Hydra. They also run multi-day trips and self-drive routes through the Peloponnese, the Cyclades, Crete and northern Greece. For companies they prepare group activities, and they also arrange private tailor-made trips.

The groups are small: the company says it travels in groups of 12 people at most. Its responsible travel policy takes the tours to less crowded areas and gives work to small locally owned businesses. It also tries to use little motorised transport. It is a partner of the Travelife sustainability programme.

Booking, payment and cancellation

You book on the website and pay by card. Otherwise, you can ask to pay by PayPal or bank transfer. The booking is not confirmed until the full amount is paid, and the voucher that arrives by email must be shown on the day of the activity. The published terms are these:

• Tours and workshops in Athens: no charge up to 73 hours before; between 72 and 25 hours before, 50% is charged; with 24 hours or less, or if you do not show up, 100%.
• Cooking classes and meals at home: no charge up to 6 days before.
• Day trips: no charge up to 73 hours before.
• Multi-day trips: there are always cancellation charges.

Cancellations and date changes must be requested in writing, at [email protected]. Changing the date is free within those same deadlines. If the weather is bad, the company may change or cancel the programme and offers another date or a refund, deducting any costs it has already incurred.

Children and languages

For under-18s, a parent or guardian must accept the conditions. The website sets no general minimum age, but it has a section of activities for families. It is in English and French, and does not say in which other languages the tours are run. There is no Spanish version, so it is worth asking before booking if you do not speak English.