A 10-Day Adventure:
Your journey includes round-trip airfare, superior first class hotels, deluxe motor coaches, daily breakfast and dinner as outlined, guided tours and entrance fees.
Flight arrangements from your USA gateway.
Our representative will meet you at Thessaloniki Airport after customs and baggage claim with appropriate group-name signage and transport to hotel.
Drive to Philippi, where Paul, intending to find a place to pray by the riverside, spoke to women who had gathered there, among whom was Lydia, the seller of purple and whose heart the Lord opened to hear the words that he spoke
(Acts 16:13-15). Visit the place where the baptisms of Lydia and her household is remembered and see a crypt dating from the Roman period, which is thought to have served as a prison for the Apostle Paul. See the famous Acropolis, the
Marketplace, the Basilica, and the Theater. Return to Thessaloniki, the city where Paul was accused of turning the world upside down by his preaching of Christ
(Acts 17:1-10), and the church to which he addressed his Thessalonian Epistles.
Visit St. George's Basilica, which tradition holds is built over the synagogue where Paul preached. View the Old City Ramparts and the Galerius Arch, which rises over the Via Egnatia. See two of the most beautiful basilicas in the city--St. Sophia
and St. Demetrios, which is dedicated to a distinguished member of the Roman army and a martyred Christian convert.
Today you will leave Thessaloniki, continuing in the footsteps of Paul, on your way to Berea, where Paul went after Thessaloníki and found the Jews there more noble. You will visit the Bema where Paul is said have tried to convince both Jews and Greeks. From there you will travel to Vergina to see the Tomb of Philip, father of Alexander the Great. After your visit there, you will go to Kalambaka for dinner and overnight.
Today you will visit Meteora in Western Thessaly, where world-famous Byzantine monasteries perch precariously atop rock formations of varied and beautiful shapes. You will visit two of these monasteries that seem to hang in the air. After
your visit to the monasteries, you will visit a workshop where beautiful icons are made and sold. Afterwards, you will travel to Athens for dinner and overnight.
Our day begins with a visit to the Agora, the marketplace of Athens. Here, too, Paul addressed the people of Athens and reasoned with Athenians regarding Jesus being the Son of God (Acts 17:17). See also the world- renowned Acropolis, where we will visit the Propylaea, the Parthenon, and the Erectheum. Leaving the Acropolis, we arrive at Mars Hill (site of the Aeropagus), where the apostle Paul stood before the city council members. Afternoon visit to the Acropolis Museum. Dinner and overnight in Athens.
Meet and drive to ancient Corinth. Arriving at Corinth, where the Apostle lived and preached for a year and a half. While ministering in Corinth, Paul likely wrote the First and Second Thessalonians to the newly established church in Thessalonica. Later, the church at Corinth would receive no less than four letters from Paul, including our canonical First and Second Corinthians. In Corinth, Paul met Aquila and Priscilla, who came there from Rome due to persecution during the reign of Claudius (Acts 18:1-17). We will see all the Greek and Roman sites associated with Paul’s ministry, including the Agora, the Temple of Apollo, the Roman Odeon, the Bema, Gallio's Seat, and the Erastus inscription. We will also tour the small, yet impressive, museum on site, which, among other things, allows for unique insight into the body analogy Paul employs in 1 Corinthians 12. Dinner and overnight in Athens.
Breakfast at your hotel and private transfer to Athens’s airport for flight to Izmir.
Upon arrival in Izmir, meet and transfer to the hotel for dinner and overnight.
Drive to Selcuk for a full day tour of Ephesus, where Paul ministered for three years. Visit Terrace Houses, the Library, and the Agora. The Temple of Artemis in
Ephesus was declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Dinner and overnight in Kusadasi.
Transfer to Izmir Airport for flight back to Istanbul to connect with your flight back home.