ARCHAEOLOGY & HISTORY TOURS Holidays with Interest 2016 EARLY BOOKING EDITION Best Available Prices. Informed travel in beautiful locations with lovely hotels. Relaxed and varied itineraries exploring famous sites and some lesser­known gems. WELCOME TO HIDDEN HISTORY TRAVEL Archaeology, History, Landscape and Travel HOLIDAYS WITH INTEREST Enhance your travels with knowledge and insight from history, prehistory and the ancient world. We provide enriching travel experiences that are perfect combinations of leisure and interest. GREECE Cradle of civilisation and a profoundly satisfying experience. Ten days in April and October from £1145. CYPRUS A favoured location for thousands of years. Eight days in March, May and October from £1099. CRETE & SANTORINI Stunning landscapes and superb archaeology. Nine days in May and October from £1095. MALTA A surprisingly deep and rich heritage for such a small island. Eight days in May and September from £1095. POMPEII A gorgeous coastline with world-class archaeology. Eight days in April, June and September from £995. Stay informed about all our destinations with our email newsletter. We have a developing series of tours, lectures and publications. Sign up at www.hiddenhistory.co.uk or email to [email protected] GLORIES OF GREECE Well-Paced Why Greece? Greece offers a wealth of eminent archaeology, Honed through fabulous scenery, sunshine and hospitality. As the cradle of experience into an western civilisation, a tour of the ancient sites is a profoundly satisfying experience brought to life through Olympian engaging, relaxed mythology, Delphic wisdom and iconic art and architecture. Classical tour. 10 Days for £1145. Single supplement £190. Dates: 15 - 24 April 2016. 07 - 16 October 2016. Meals: All breakfasts, plus five evening meals. Four free nights in Athens to enjoy local Greek restaurants. Hotels Athens: The 4-star Alexandros Hotel for the first night and the last 3 nights. Nafplion: The 5-star Nafplia Palace Hotel for 2 nights. Olympia: The 4-star Best Western Europa Hotel for 2 nights. Delphi: The 4-star Amalia Hotel for 1 night. Also Included: Airport transfers; Full programme of Hidden Gems excursions with transport, entrances and private guided tours; This tour includes Lectures; Tour Director; TTA financial guarantee. lesser known gems such as Bassae, Tyrins and Eleusis. Day 1: Met at the airport and treats missed by most travellers, before transferred to your hotel in Athens. settling into your hotel in Olympia for Your tour director can help you get the next two nights. acquainted with your surroundings. Day 5: A whole day devoted to Day 2: We will return to Athens for Olympia with ample time to explore our final three nights. First we get to the origin of the Olympic Games know ancient Greece, starting by through extensive archaeology and uncovering the mysteries of Eleusis, wonderful museum treasures. walking the streets of Ancient Corinth, and visiting Nemea, where Day 6: A very scenic coastal drive mythology placed the slaying of the brings you to Delphi, famed for the lion by Hercules. Your base for the next wisdom of its oracle. We stay overnight two nights is the charming historic here, with the afternoon and following town of Nafplion, with its cobbled morning to experience this profoundly streets and picturesque waterfront. beautiful place. Day 3: Let myth and reality converge Days 7 to 10: Stay in Athens for three as you explore the Bronze Age palaces nights as the finale to your Classical of Mycenaean kings and heroes of the tour. Through a mixture of guided and Trojan War, visiting both Mycenae and free time you can enjoy the wealth and Tyrins, and concluding at the superbly significance of its famous heritage. preserved theatre at Epidaurus. Entrance to all the main ancient sites is included, and you can also opt to visit Day 4: Get off the beaten track on a Cape Sounion, or relax on a day cruise spectacular journey through the around the Saronic Islands (payable mountainous countryside of Arcadia, locally). Finally, you will be transferred part of old, unspoilt Greece. Visit from your hotel to the airport for your Megalopolis and Bassae, both rare flight home. Or why not stay longer? MALTA THROUGH MILLENNIA Why Malta? Malta is a unique, friendly place with a surprisingly deep heritage for such a small Mediterranean island. Our tour reveals its important World Heritage sites, from amazing 5000-year-old Stone Age temples to the magnificent Baroque achievements of the Knights of Saint John. 8 Days from £1095. Single supplement only £115. Dates: 30 April - 07 May 2016 for £1149 13 - 20 September 2016 for £1095 Meals: All breakfasts, plus six evening meals with drinks, plus two included lunches in local restaurants. Hotel: The 4-star Dolmen Resort Hotel, Qawra, St. Paul’s Bay. Also Included: Airport transfers; Full programme of excursions with transport, entrances and private guided tours; Lectures; Tour Director; TTA financial guarantee. Day 1: Met at the airport and transferred to monoliths are older even than Stonehenge. your hotel in Qawra. Your tour director can help you get acquainted with your Day 5: A half-day excursion to look at the surroundings. connection between temples and tombs in Neolithic Malta. The mysterious Day 2: Malta contains an extraordinary underground complex known as the story of Neolithic archaeology in its 5000 Hypogeum is thought to be a collective year-old temples, tombs and artwork. We tomb for those who worshipped at the explore it today by visiting the megalithic adjacent temples of Tarxien. structures at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, and we travel even further back in time to Day 6: Malta’s medieval gem is Mdina, a the Ice Ages at Ghar Dalam cave. tiny city of winding alleys and noble palaces. Its remains date back to Roman Day 3: The islands capital, Valletta, was times, as you’ll discover in an excavated built by the Knights of St John in 1570. Its Roman house and early Christian beautifully coherent Baroque architecture is catacombs. Nearby we also see the best now of World Heritage status. Our walking examples of Malta’s enigmatic cart ruts at tour includes the Grand Master’s Palace, ‘Clapham Junction’. Cathedral and National Archaeological Museum, and fantastic views of the famous Day 7: A mornings walking tour of the Grand Harbour, which featured ‘Three Cities’ takes us through historic, prominently in both World Wars. hidden streets clustered around Galley Creek, where the Knights of St John built Day 4: The island of Gozo has a character their first base in Malta. and beauty all of its own, and a day spent enjoying its quiet charms is always fondly Day 8: You will be transferred from your remembered. We visit its lovely coastal bays, hotel to the airport for your flight home, or its fine citadel in Victoria, and its Neolithic stay longer and make the most of your time temples at Gigantija, whose massive stone in Malta. APHRODITE’S CYPRUS: NORTH & SOUTH Why Cyprus? Cypriot archaeology and history is rich and significant and current relaxation of the north/south divide makes now a perfect time to visit. There are numerous sites of World Heritage status, from Neolithic villages to Graeco-Roman cities, Byzantine churches and Medieval castles, and the island's natural beauty befits its title as the birthplace of Aphrodite. 8 days from £1099. Single supplement only £150. Dates: 16 - 23 March 2016 for £1149. 29 May - 05 June 2016 for £1199. 23 - 30 October 2016 for £1099. Meals: Includes all breakfasts and all evening meals. Lunches left free for independent choice. Hotels The 4-star Atlantica Miramare Hotel, Limassol, South Cyprus. UNIQUE The 4-star Pia Bella Hotel, Kyrenia, North Cyprus. Uniquely, this tour stays in both north Also Included: Airport transfers; Full programme of and south Cyprus, excursions with transport, entrances and private guided tours; so experiencing both Lectures; Tour Director; TTA financial guarantee. sides of the island from two lovely locations. Day 1: Met at the airport and transferred Day 5: Transfer to North Cyprus today, to your hotel in Limassol. Your tour travelling via the island’s present capital director can help you get acquainted of Nicosia. Still a divided city but now with your surroundings. more relaxed than ever, we include a tour of its historic Old Quarter, impressive Day 2: We begin with 9000-year-old Venetian walls and fascinating Khirokitia, one of the world’s best Archaeology Museum. Crossing the preserved Neolithic villages. Continuing famous ‘Green Line’ we complete the to Larnaca, we explore the ancient short drive to our hotel in beautiful Phoenician remains and visit the Kyrenia. Pierides Museum, which gives a fine introduction to Cypriot archaeology. Day 6: Kyrenia has a delightful setting on the north coast, nestling around its Day 3: This morning is dedicated to old harbour and castle. We also visit Kourion, one of the most impressive two nearby sites which epitomise the and extensive archaeological sites of medieval heritage of Cyprus: the Cyprus with an abundance of Greek and precariously-perched St Hilarion Roman remains, and a beautiful setting Castle, once home to the Crusader kings overlooking the sea. We then enjoy a of the island; and the beautiful leisurely afternoon in the old town of Bellapais Abbey, a Gothic treasure in a Limassol, with its attractive seafront peaceful mountain village. and harbour, and interesting castle and museum. Day 7: Heading east we explore the ancient city of Salamis, founded as far Day 4: A feast of World Heritage today back as the Trojan Wars, and one of the at Paphos, including: magnificent largest city kingdoms of ancient Cyprus. Roman mosaics which rank amongst the In nearby Famagusta we find Venetian best in the world; the elaborately fortifications and Gothic churches sculpted Hellenistic ‘Tombs of the interwoven with present Turkish culture Kings’; and the revered Sanctuary of as living testament to the ‘East meets Aphrodite at Palaeopaphos, possibly west’ heritage of Cyprus.