'Nikos Loukas','Private tours in Athens Greece','Minivan Minibus Taxi tours and transfers','private tours and transportation'

Please note that the e-mail addresses of the testimonials quoted below have been omitted for security reasons. 

All e-mail addresses are available upon request always after permit has been granted by their owners.

Nikos / Mannos, 

Greetings from the U.S.  I wanted to quickly write a note to you guys letting you know we have arrived home safely. 

Furthermore we wanted to thank you for showing us around Athens.  We enjoyed the day touring with Mannos.  He was a great driver / guide and was very informative of the different areas and sites that we visited.   After being onboard the Ship and completing most tours along with many others with ship sponsored tours it was a nice break to have something different.  It was much more relaxing and more personable.   

I hope to find some time in the upcoming future to spend more time in Athens and we would definitely use you guys to guide us around and will definitely recommend any of our friends and families to contact you guys if they go to Greece. 

Once again, thank you so much! 

Regards, Marc & Kerry Greenfield                                                            (Visited Greece on July 29^th 2010)

Nikos,  

We just arrived back in the States and wanted to let you know that Alex was terrific!  He showed us the entire city, explained much of the history, was patient with our daughter - was basically an all-around great guy!  We couldn't have been any happier.  The rest of our trip went great, as we flew up to our friends home in Ioannina, and travelled to Lefkada, Parga, Corfu, Loutsa (?)....it was truly the trip of a lifetime!! 

Please send Alex our best regards (I tried to look him up on Facebook, but I must have misspelled his name)...feel free to give him my email address... 

If I have any friends who will be visiting Athens, I will definitely put them in touch with you. 

Thanks again and warm regards,

Hi Nikos and George!
 
We recently returned from our trip and I wanted to send you a note of thanks for making our stop in Athens so memorable. George was our guide for our full day tour on 28/6/10. Vespina gave us our tour of the Acropolis, and Paige took us all around the Plaka and Athens. Everyone involved were so accommodating to our family. Lunch was delicious, including the shrimps with the heads on! There is so much wonderful history to explore that it would be difficult to have a less than exciting day, but I do believe that our guides helped to elevate our experience even higher than we could have imagined. Our whole family, from my mother who is 72 years old, to my youngest son, Derek, who is 12, were thoroughly entranced by the tour.
 
Please send a special thanks to George for being so patient with Derek, who was relentless in his pursuit of learning how to properly use his Koboloi! He really cherishes that memory!
 
I have already given your information to my travel agent who did not have a reputable company in Athens to recommend. She will definitely be sending clients your way!
 
Epharisto!!
 
Lauren and Joe Waldman                                                  (Visited Greece on June 28^th 2010)

Hello Nikos,          

Made it back to the States late Sunday evening. Just wanted to let you know that Alex did a fantastic job of taking us around and giving us the past and present history of Athens and Greece. He was very good at perceiving what we wanted to do and did it in a very expedient way, but making sure we did not feel rushed. His timing was great in that we saw the changing of the guard without a wait and even showed us turtle crossing the road. ( I am kidding on the last account, but we did see the turtle).       

After Alex dropped us off, my husband and I went to the Archaeology Musuem, and I even managed to go to the Acropolis Musuem. It was a full day,and I had the satisfaction of seeing everything I wanted to see. Thank-you for your services and helping to add to the overall enjoyment of our trip.

Nikos, 

Thank you for 5 wonderful days of sightseeing in the Peloponnese.  We had a great time & will always have fond memories of you, your car, your history lessons & Greece. 

Please accept our deepest appreciation for the fine, professional services provided by "Isa", I know the spelling is incorrect, on our recent tour in Athens. Isa was prompt, considerate and very professional during the entire tour. He took very special care of my mother. I will go to your website and see if I can provide a review for our experience.

Thank you for operating such a superb tour business. You make a very positive statement for your country. We look forward to coming again and staying longer.

I have attached a few pictures.

Hello Nikos, 

Just a short note to thank you for looking after us on our recent visit to Athens. We were very impressed with your service, the van and your extensive knowledge of the city. Speaking to other ship passengers in the days after it seems we had certainly made the right choice. Many had relied on public transport and walking around and only got to experience a fraction of what we managed to see with you. 

I have left a review on Trip Advisor that should appear in the next day or so and I hope others will get to read it and experience your wonderful service. 

Thank you again and I wish you all the very best. 

Just a quick note to let you know how very happy we were with our transfer and half day tour, it was a wonderful start to our holiday and the rain was not a problem.I shall and have already- recommended you to friends and fellow travellers and will certainly use you again when we return to Greece, which I trust won't be too long. 

Thank you and best wishes for a good and busy season. 

Pauline Edwards                                                                              (Visited Athens on June 4^th-5^th, 2010)

Hi Nikos, 

We all want to send a special thank you for the wonderful day that we spent with you while in Athens on May 11.  One of the highlights of our trip was to be able to climb up to the Acropolis, thanks to you.  We liked everything about our tour and thoroughly enjoyed our day.   

I wrote the company in Santorini where we had the bad experience with the driver and he refunded our money.  I appreciated his honesty in admitting that he made a mistake.  He said his regular guide was out sick and he thought this guy would work for us.  He was recommended to us from cruise critic, but I will not recommend them to anyone. 

Again, thank you so much for a memorable day in your beautiful city. 

Best wishes to you, 

We had a good experience and everything when as programmed, this makes a big difference when your time is limited.

Your exceptional quality of genuine concern and care during our stay in Athens was the best.  I would recommend to anyone going to Athens to hire you for their driver. Your van immaculate, your demeanour charming, your historical commentary on every tour we took with you was so impressive.

We want to share with you all a fantastic day tour in Athens.
booked with
http://privategreecetours.com/

The tour was great value, cheaper than the ship tours, with more knowlege and superb service. No problems with credit card at all, so book, enjoy and do not worry

I need to walk with a stick and was very concerned about coping with the Acropolis, Plaka and so on
We were met at the port in Piraeus by Nikos Loukas, in a lovely air conditioned Mercedes van, suitable for up to 8 people.
Nikos knows Athens so well, he could plan our tour to allow me less walking. The tour buses park some distance from the Acropolis, we were delivered to an easier access.
He knows the timing of each event in Athens and we got to see so much in just 4 hours.
 

One key feature of this tour is the use of a mobile. Nikos gives clients a mobile phone to call him when they are ready to leave the Acropolis or Plaka.

Best tour ever.  

Regards from your friend in the UK

Sharon and Andrew Young,and  twins, Simon and Robert                 (Visited Athens on Apr. 13th, 2010)

Dear Nikos: 

Just wanted to say thanks for the private tour you arranged for us on June 1st with Alex.  We had an incredible day, and the mix up at the Acroplolis with Alex waiting so long for us was due to us.  Alex did a wonderful job in guiding us around town  and one day in Athens is not enough.  We hope to return in the future.  We will definitely recommend your company to our friends.   

Take care and thanks again for a beautiful day.  

Kalimera, Nikos!

We are back in the USA and reviewing our wonderful visit to Greece. I was so happy to be able to meet you in person! Billy was a warm, enthusiastic, knowledgeable guide and made our visit extra special (not to mention the few "pop-ins" by you)!  Billy's suggestion for lunch was great, and we had a delicious sampling of Greek culinary treats! Thanks to Billy, we really made the most of our short visit to Athens, and it was exciting for me to see so many of the ruins I've talked about in my Greek mythology course.
I have attached a picture of our group with Billy. Please share it with him.
Eventually, we hope to return to continue touring other parts of Greece. We will definitely keep your email for future travel!

Again-ef-kha-ri-sto'
-Best regards,
 

Cheryl Leopold                                (Visited Athens on Jan. 10^th, 2010)    

You run an excellent, personal service and that is exactly what we were looking for in Athens.  I've given your email to several people that are heading to Athens, along with an excellent recommendation to retain your services.  In fact, I just gave your email this morning to a friend of mine leaving for Athens on Monday.  Alex was spectacular.  I think one of my favorite things about him was he gave a historical perspective, both ancient and modern.  Everywhere else we went it was only ancient history, and while I am very interested in ancient history, I really enjoy the modern so much more. 

The other thing that we liked was you checking up on how our day was going.  Brian and I were very impressed that you showed up in the middle of the city to see how things were going.  That was a really nice touch to the whole service.  

If you or Alex are ever planning a trip to San Antonio please get in touch. 

And thank you again for a great experience.  

 Annie Monahan                                       (Visited Athens on Nov. 11^th, 2009)

 Hope this is finding all of you well. Our entire cruise was an adventure/disaster as we missed 4 out of 8 stops, among them Santorini. However, the highlight of our trip was the time we spent in Athens. George was truly awesome.  I am slightly handicapped, but George always made sure I was taken care of, even took me on a side trip while the others walked up to the Parthenon (which someday I hope to do). The day was planned to avoid the crowds, and when we compared notes back on ship, saw and learned more than anyone else. 
The only problem I saw was that some places closed early, and we were not able to see them. But we certainly had a full day.

My sister and me would love to return to Greece, not on a cruise, but on land, and see more of your beautiful country. I was truly awe struck!  If we do, I will be sure to look you up.

Hope to keep in touch!        

 JAN - Sue Clingan             (Visited Athens on Nov. 2^nd, 2009)                       

Hello Nikos,
…Our group of travellers had just gotten together this past weekend to look at pictures, discuss our trip, etc. We had such a wonderful time visiting your city. I was thinking of any suggestions I could give you to improve and could not think of anything. You were very professional in dress and your transportation was very comfortable for getting around.  We enjoyed all the places we visited and thought we had adequate time to explore each place. We all agreed if we were able to travel back to Athens we would certainly use your services or recommend you to others. Thank you again for sharing your beautiful city with all its great history.

Have a wonderful year ahead and we hope to meet again in the future!!
 
Kim Miller              (Visited Athens on Nov. 1st, 2009)                       

Hi Nikos,  

Thanks so much for a couple of fantastic tour days in your country!   With only 4 days to spend in Greece, you and your team really helped us make the most of our time.  I personally was able to relax and enjoy the trip more knowing we were being expertly guided to all of the key sites and that you were taking care of the details. In addition to seeing the historical sites & artefacts, we were happy to have the opportunity to learn about present-day Greek life.   My goal was to make this trip a memorable one for my dad because visiting Italy & Greece has been a lifelong goal of his -- and we have all had the trip of a lifetime over the past couple of weeks.   We also appreciate you taking time out today to make sure we made it to the airport safely.  

Wishing you all the best, 

Jason Gibson             (Visited Athens October 28-31, 2009)                

Dear Nikos, 

I am now home after a wonderful cruise, in spite of having rain 10 out of the 13 days! It was lovely to talk to you in person, and I have to thank you for sending George to be our guide for our tour around Athens! He is a sweetheart, and provided us with a day that will stand out as one of the highlights of the trip! Everyone in the group enjoyed his suggestions and commentary as we went along. You, also, were such a help in planning and organizing the day, and you can be sure that I'll be recommending your company to anyone I know who is going to be visiting Athens. 

 I wish the best for you always,

Claire Dressman              (Visited Athens on Oct. 26^th, 2009)                     

Dear Nikos,   

We wanted you to know how pleased we were with the tour you arranged for six of us in Athens on Sunday, October 25th!  Our van, the driver, and guide, Gabriella, all provided us with a wonderful day of sightseeing.  Even though the sky opened up with "buckets of rain pouring down" on us, we had a great day, and particularly enjoyed a delicious lunch of Greek dishes in the Plaka after touring the Acropolis.  Gabriella was knowledgeable and patient with all of our questions. Thank you so very much - it was a pleasure to meet you and take your tour.

 Sincerely, 

Dianna and Jim Pennington              (Visited Athens October 25, 2009)                 

Hi Nikos, 

I think everything was fine on our trip.  We had such rainy weather when we were in Athens that I think that was what made it not so much fun.  George was great, just some of our group didn’t like getting out in the rain and it limited what we did. Best to you and we appreciated your services. 

Sandi Reynolds              (Visited Athens on Oct. 25^th, 2009)                        

Dear Nikos, 

My friends and I want to thank you for a wonderful city tour that you escorted us on in October.   Not only were the sights incredible, but you made us all feel like welcome guests.  We felt perfectly safe in your car; your driving was professional, skillful, and confident. Your knowledge of the area is phenomenal.  I feel that we now have a much better understanding of the ancient (and not-so-ancient) history of Athens.  The little anecdotes you told us only added to the enjoyment of the day. Despite the rain, we had a wonderful, wonderful day--thanks to you. Please feel free to post my comments on your website.  I would tell anyone who asks how very satisfied we were with your tour. 

Best wishes, 

Ellen Falk Celebrity "Equinox" Ancient Empires cruise,           (Visited Athens on Oct. 25^th, 2009)

 Dear Nikos,

Thank you for your e-mail.  We were quite satisfied with the services of our driver, Gregory and our tour guide, Ms. Gabrielle.  They both performed their jobs quite well.  Obviously, we had more interaction with Ms. Gabrielle.  She was quite knowledgeable and probably her best quality, in my opinion, was her ability to listen and be flexible to our desires for what we wanted to see and do.  Gregory for his part always drove the van safely and to close proximity of our destinations for loading and unloading passengers.  We enjoyed the day doing and seeing exactly what we wanted.Now, if you could have just changed the rainy weather to a sunshiny day, it would have been perfect -ha,ha.I will certainly recommend your tour services to others, and appreciate your request for our comments.  

 Sincerely,

Dianna Pennington              (Visited Athens on Oct. 25^th, 2009)   

Kalimera,

it's COLD here.   how about you?  Happy to tell you that our driver-guide Billy was excellent. very good English. we were very happy that he took us to the Changing of the Guard, we loved the dogs leading the parade. Acropolis museum was very crowded. of course, it was a Sunday. the tour was great. I think this only happened in Turkey, you know those Turkish rug merchants (smile) and not in Athens. we did not like that our driver-guide in Turkey took us to a rug store where they tried hard to sell rugs to us. My recall is that that did not happen with Billy. All in all, very pleased.

My best wishes to you for peace, health, and happiness.  

Joe and Nancy Jerardi,            (Visited Athens on Oct. 25^th, 2009)   

Dearest Nikos,   

My husband and I had an absolutely wonderful day touring Athens with Manos.  He was so wonderful.  We are grateful that we were able to see so much in such a short time.  I appreciate both of you taking such great care of us.   It was a pleasure to meet you as well.  I thought that was funny when you opened the door.  I am honored to have met you. Thank you again, if you don't mind, I will include you in a review that I will post about our trip on a forum called cruise critic.   

Have a wonderful day, and please extend our gratitude to Manos, 

Sincerely,

Nancy Miller           (Visited Athens on Oct. 6^th, 2009)                    

 Hello! 

Now we are back in Norway, today the temperature is below zero...we are freezing. I read about your election in the newspaper today, another Papandreou in charge , as you told us would happen!I will thank you for our great tour in Athens, we are all very satisfied.I have plans taking my parents to Athens, maybe in April 2010, and I will for sure contact you again!  

Best regards,

Tone Hals            (Visited Athens on Oct. 1^st, 2009)                     

Dear Nikos, 

Sorry for the delay in getting back with you but we were in California with our children for a month…  Your quick and informative e-mail replies were one of the things that definitely attracted us to your service.  Your personal appearance and immaculate car confirmed our choice, and the tour itself was informative and fun, and we thank you for the wonderful insight into your beautiful Athens.   Although we can't make any recommendations for changes we can only point out what first attracted us to you-your very professional website.  It was important that you mentioned your affiliation with the hospitality industry, which sets you apart from the other tour guides.   Feel free to contact us at any time, to use us as a recommendation or for further comments.  Thank you again for making our day a memorable one. 

Best wishes to you for a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year. 

Ed and Ilene Gold           (Visited Athens on Sept. 21-22, 2009)                          

Hi Nikos, 

I wanted to thank you and our guide Alex for a great tour of Athens.  Alex was polite, informative, and guided us along at our pace.  I'll put some good comments on cruisecritic.com and tripadvisor.com 

Thanks, 

Richard Smith            (Visited Athens on Sept. 16^th, 2009)     

Dear Nikos, 

I just thought I would drop you a line to say thank you for the fantastic tour we enjoyed with Manos on September 15^th. He was brilliant with a great wealth of knowledge and we all thoroughly enjoyed our day. We will not hesitate to recommend your company if any of our friends are in your part of the world on their travels. 

Thank you once again, 

Janette Tully             (Visited Athens on Sept. 15^th, 2009)                     

Dear Nikos, 

It seems a long time since we were in Athens in the sunshine.Your Taxi service was excellent , Spyros was on time and entertaining on the journey to the airportI would have no problem recommending your services to other peopleHope you have a Merry Christmas & a Happy New year. 

Regards,

Mr. Barry Luke            (Visited Athens on Sept. 5^th, 2009)                      

Good morning Nick, 

Thanks for your note.  It would be very difficult for me to suggest any improvements to your service. We thoroughly enjoyed our day in Athens - I only wish it could have been longer! Your service was prompt and professional. I think having that second mobile phone to use to contact you when we were finished at the Parthenon and the Museum was an excellent idea. You made what could have been just another day in a large city very memorable and special for us - thank you again.   After we left Athens we took two tours through the cruise company and a private tour at Ephesus with a company called Ekos tours. The cruise ship tours cannot compare with your personal service - we toured around ancient Olympia with a boring and disinterested tour guide. I kept thinking it would have been nice to have someone with your knowledge and professionalism leading the way. I will pass your name along to anyone that I know that is planning to visit Athens in the future. 

All the best, 

Maurice Hughes           (Visited Athens on Aug. 27^th, 2009)                     

Dear Nikos,  

I asked the entire family for suggestions for you.  Their reply was "it was perfect, why would he change anything?"  And so I let you know this.  My 3 children, my husband, and I all enjoyed our trip with you to Poseidon's Temple and then back to Athens where we learned so much from you about the city and even some Greek mythology which we all found to be very interesting.

We would and have highly recommend your services to everyone. 

Rosemarie Sweetwood          (Visited Athens on Aug. 25^th, 2009)                      

We had a wonderful day in Cape Sounion and in Athens. We really appreciated your services and our ability to customize the day.I cannot think of one thing to improve and would highly recommend you to
others.
We have great memories of our day in Athens and hope to return and see
more of your beautiful country in the future.

Suzanne MacMillan and family.                (Visited Athens on Aug. 22^th, 2010)

Just a quick note to let you know that everybody in our group enjoyed your tour. We had a wonderful time there. Many thanks. I will definitely contact you when we are visiting again. 

Happy New Year!!! 

Dora Hu    (Visited Athens on Aug. 16^th, 2009)                     

Nick,

we would like to thank you once again for a great and memorable tour. We will definitely post some comments on the internet and will surely contact you the next time we are in Athens.

Thanks again for a nice experience. 

Pepe Olvera              (Visited Athens on Aug. 7^th, 2009 )                    

Greetings from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada! 

I'm afraid I have nothing but positive things to say about your services. Some things that come to mind are:very professional, good clear website, good value for the pricekept us organized - got us to the 2 busiest sights at just the right time (Acropolis and New Acropolis Museum)knowledge of Greek history & mythology very goodinformative, friendly, nice clean vehicle We all enjoyed the tour. I would gladly recommend your services. 

All the best!

Linda Gambell            (Visited Athens on Aug. 4^th, 2009)                      

Dear Nikos, 

We were so very pleased with our day in Athens that it is very difficult to think of any way your service could be improved.  We wanted to visit certain sites, and we did, with a few more included, George took us around in such a way that we totally avoided crowds, he was very pleasant and extremely informative about everything - history, culture, food, whatever we wanted to talk about - and I bet he would be a lot of fun to just spend time with.  The van we used was clean, the air-conditioning worked very well, and we appreciated that George did not have to stop for gas on our time.  Visibility was great from the van, nice big windows for each of us!   We had asked to have lunch at a local restaurant, (taverna?), instead of a tourist or cruise tour stop, and we ate at a wonderful place right on the water, near Cape Sounion.  We are a typical suburban American family, but we were all willing to try some new things, and George helped us order a delicious meal. The weather was even wonderful - not too hot, enough of a breeze to keep the air moving. The only glitch we had came at the end of the day, and that was totally my fault.  I had completely forgotten we needed to visit an ATM to obtain Euros to pay for the tour.  It was no problem to find an ATM right by the port and George was very helpful to my husband who was having some difficulty getting the ATM to work properly. Our day was just about perfect.   We were also impressed by your website, and I must add that I was very pleased with your quick responses to all of my inquiries about the trip.  My husband & I hope to return to Athens and Greece, and you can be sure you will hear from us when we do.  And I will continue to recommend your services on Cruise Critic, and other travel sites I may use. 

Sincerely, 

Laura MattinglyFairfax Station, Virginia, USA         (Visited Athens on July 29^th, 2009)                              

Nikos, 

We were thrilled with our tour - it was absolutely perfect and we loved Billy!! We could not have had a better tour, driver and the van was spotless.  It was one of our favourite days of our trip - so glad we booked through you.  I have recommended you to my best friends who are heading to Athens this summer.
 
Best regards,
 
Janet Gaber             (Visited Athens on July 28^th, 2009)                              

Dear Nikos So nice to hear from you.

We still remember our trip with wonderful memories.  Nikos, you provided us such a lovely, comfortable, friendly and professional service. Also, you tailored the trip around our needs. You navigated the busy streets of Athens so easily. It would have been crazy to try to do it alone. There is nothing really I can add. Perhaps this letter will serve as an advert initself.  

Best Wishes, 

Yacoob Moosa & Family             (Visited Athens on July 1^st, 2009)                                                  

Hello Nikos,
 
I wanted to share with you how pleased the Bright Family was with the tour you provided of Athens last week. They were impressed with you knowledge and thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
 
"It was superb, above excellent!" Mimi Collins
 
DIPLOMAT TRAVEL AGENCY
6835 W. HIGGINS AVE.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60656
PHONE 773-774-2727
FAX 773-774-8181
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it               (Visited Athens on June 25^th, 2009)               

Dear Nikos,

I just wanted to take this opportunity to send you a quick thank you.As we had pre arranged you met us at the agreed time at our hotel.  I was pleasantly surprised that although a native Athenian you speak excellent English.  Your knowledge of the city and surround area is superb!!You provided us with excellent information about the sites we were touring and never made us feel rushed.  While we saw quite a bit in one day, we never felt that we were shortchanged in the amount of time we spent at each site.  It was clear we could take as much time as we wanted, we knew that you would be waiting for us when we were ready to move on.You were articulate, interesting and smart enough to know when no commentary was necessary-allowing us to simply absorb the beauty and culture that is Greece.  You made our day one of the most enjoyable ever. We were extremely please to find you.  We will highly recommend you to anyone looking for a fabulous sightseeing adventure in Athens and surround.  Should our travels take us back to Athens we will happily use you again!

Sincerely yours,
Jerry & Kerry Park
Simi Valley, CA              (Visited Athens on May 17^th, 2007) 

Dear Nikos,

We can’t thank you enough.  We arrived home yesterday after a very brief trip to Greece.  We had arranged a full day trip to Corinth, Myceneae, Naphlion, and Epidavros as well as a return airport transfer.  It was a pleasure being with you a wonderful person and a great guide!  We have never enjoyed sightseeing as much as we did with you.  We are pretty well-traveled, but this was the experience of a lifetime!  No tour buses to board.  No waiting for the inevitable person who is late because he knows you won’t go anywhere without him.  For the four of us, this day trip was actually less expensive than buying a bus tour.  The airport transfer was probably a little more, but we had a very early departure and no worries about whether or not someone was going to show up.  We have never met a more courteous, kinder, more friendlier person than you.  Also, what a sense of humor!The Athens Metro was the cleanest, safest, and easiest to use of any public transportation system we have encountered anywhere in the worlds.  And what a bargain!Do you notice a lot of superlatives in this message?  We can’t say enough good things about this experience.  Our sincere thanks for all of the good advice.  We hope to return to Greece when we have more time and we will certainly use your services.

Best regards.
Dennis and Candace Snyder, Howell, Michigan
Larry and Barbara Alderink, Saline, Michigan              (Visited Athens on May 13^th, 2005)