The Lukeion Project
Family Tours
to the Mediterranean
What is different about our tours?
Education First
The Lukeion Project has partnered with Education First Tours (EF Tours) to provide the finest educational travel experience in the Mediterranean.
All of our trips are custom tours hand-crafted by Regan and Amy Barr who have chosen sites based on years of travel experience as archaeologists. Expect to see not only the most famous sites from the Classical world, but many that are less well known simply because they are off the beaten track. The results are a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the wonders of the ancient world while sampling the Mediterranean lifestyle, culture, hospitality and food.
Know Before You Go Sessions
There are a lot of tour companies that will take you to the Mediterranean. Few will have education as a priority, only one that delivers what it promises...and that would be us!
Once a month, starting around 6 months prior to departure, The Lukeion Project offers our travelers exclusive free live online sessions covering everything you need to know about our upcoming trip.
The beginning of each session covers practical pointers on traveling in the Mediterranean to help you be a more confident traveler. The second part of each session includes historical and archaeological importance of the sites on our itinerary as well as plenty of photographs to let you know what's in store.
Family Friendly
All ages
Elsewhere, most tours are designed for groups of late high school through college students or the retirement crowd. We do something unusual: we build a trip for families, teens and adults of all ages to enjoy. The mix of ages has always been a huge asset for our tours.
We welcome families with children as young as 8 years old. Older students (17 and older) are welcome to travel without a chaperone as are adults of any age. We do not provide chaperoned trips and cannot accommodate independent travelers ages 8-16 without an accompanying adult.
Stress free
Though travel can never be entirely stress free, we do our best to minimize travel worries because we handle nearly all the details. Included in the price of our trips:
- Airfare from our departure city
(we do have 'land only' options) - All airport transfers and land transportation
(we have a private air conditioned bus) - Hotel with a private bathroom
(most European hotels don't have rooms that accommodate more than 3 persons, larger families should expect to stay in more than one room; individuals may be paired with fellow travelers of the same gender or have the option of paying a single room supplement). - Entry fees to all sites and museums listed on our itinerary
- Dedicated tour director for all on ground logistics
- Dedicated bus driver
- Professional guides
- Breakfasts and evening meals
(usually set menu or buffet so there's no waiting for food after a busy day of sightseeing)
A full cultural experience
Included with our set itinerary, we also treat our travelers to sample many local crafts and foods. Depending on our destination country, anticipate stops at handicraft demonstration centers, exporters of local foods (such as olive oil and spices), souvenir shopping, and wine tasting opportunities.
Our native-language speaking private tour director teams up with organizers Regan and Amy Barr to make each trip unique and well suited to our schedule and group. We do our best to provide a sample of everything.
Plan now to join us:
Greece, May 2012: Click here for Information
We will start in Athens with the Parthenon and the National Museum and then continue the adventure as we move to Delphi, Olympia, Corinth, and much more. Next, an overnight ferry to Crete allows us to visit the Bronze Age home of the Minotaur at Knossos followed by the grand finale: a stay at the island of Santorini, likely source of the myth of Atlantis. Who is brave enough to go visit the heart of the volcano? Registration is now open.
Turkey, Early May 2013
Look for information and registration to open, August 2012
We will start in Istanbul where we will visit the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern, the Dolmabahçe Palace, the Archaeological Museum and much more. Then we head west to Troy, Pergamum, Ephesus, Sardis, a soak in the mineral springs at Pamukkale, and much more.
We will return to Italy again in May 2014