For the first time ever, Peter Sommer Travels is offering tours outside of the Mediterranean with two new tours in England and one in Ireland – both available in the company's new 2017 brochure. Guests can now explore the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and castles of England, as well as Irish heritage, traditions, and culture.
Four new Mediterranean gulet cruises have also been added to the 2017 selection, including a family adventure in the Aegean and an intimate experience traveling the coast of Dalmatia. Each gulet is handcrafted and offers private bathrooms, good sound-proofing, air conditioning, and home-cooked meals with fine local wines.
Each of Peter Sommer Travels’ expert guides have an academic background in history, art, and/or archaeology.
New in 2017:
Exploring Wessex: From Neolithic Avebury to Georgian (Seven days, $3,282): Expert guides Paul Beston and Dr. Michael Metcalfe take guests to Stonehenge and Avebury, the Roman Villa of Chedworth, Salisbury Cathedral, the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, and the city of Bath. Guests will stay in an Italianate-style Victorian country house in Wiltshire and a mansion house in Bath.
Exploring Hadrian's Wall: Romans, Reivers and Romantics (Seven days, $3,100): Tour specialists Paul Beston and Peter Sommer himself follow the Roman emperor Hadrian’s monumental fortifications across northern England, exploring medieval market towns which has drawn conquerors and settlers from the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, medieval warlords, border raiders, and the Victorian romantics.
Exploring Ireland: The Heart of the Emerald Isle (11 days, $5,333): A dive into Ireland’s heritage led by experts Heinrich Hall and Dr. Siobhán Hargis. This tour combines off-the-beaten-track locations – like ‘royal’ sites of Gaelic mythology – with must-see places, including the Megalithic tombs of Newgrange and Knowth, the ‘Celtic’ cliff-side fort at Dun Aonghasa, and the heart of Dublin and its array of museums.
Cruising the Aegean: From Kos to Patmos (Eight days, $3,135): Led by expert guides Professor Tony Spawforth and Nota Karamaouna, guests trace the history of the healing shrine of the god Asklepios on Kos, the Crusader castles built by the Knights of St John, and Patmos, a UNESCO World Heritage site crowned by an extraordinary Byzantine monastery.
Cruising the Aeolian Islands (Eight days, $4,937): Travelers will explore the volcanic archipelago of the Aeolian Islands. Led by historian and archaeologist Dr. Michael Metcalfe, travelers discover: Salina’s spectacular foods and wines; Stromboli’s smoking craters, hiking trails, and ever-present promise of lava flows reaching the sea; sparsely-populated Filicudi and its Bronze-age village, and Panarea, with an unexpectedly renowned night-life.
Cruising the Aegean: A Family Adventure (Eight days, $3,350 per adult; $3,170 per child 12 and under): Families will discover the mysteries of ancient gods, giants, and monsters as expert guides Dr. Helena Tomas and Dr. Maria Girtzi bring the region’s vibrant past back to life.
Cruising the Dalmatian Coast (Eight days, $4,220): This voyage offers 10 guests an intimate and off-the-beaten-track tour of one of Croatia’s most diverse coastal regions. Led by archaeologist Dr. Helena Tomas, the group will experience Šibenik’s cathedral and hilltop fortresses, the tiny rock islets that form the Kornati archipelago, Trogir’s preserved medieval cityscape, the waterfalls in the Krka Valley, and the tiny island of Nin, one of Croatia’s medieval capitals.
Walking and Cruising Southern Dalmatia (Eight days, $4,220): Peter Sommer Travels’ first ever Croatian ‘Walking and Cruising’ itinerary – a combination of a gulet cruise with escorted walks exploring the 5km wall at Ston, the vistas on Mljet, and the Stari Grad Plain on Hvar, a UNESCO World Heritage site, led by expert guide Dr. Helena Tomas
Other itineraries include gulet cruises along Turkey’s coastline and Croatia’s Dalmatia Coast; family tours; gastronomic tours of Turkey; city tours of Athens and Istanbul; cultural walking holidays and tours of destinations like Crete and the Peloponnese.
Peter Sommer Travels was named Tour Operator of the Year 2015 by the Association of Independent Tour Operators.
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