About Empiria Tours

Empiria Tours is the travel side of Empiria. We run small-group guided journeys through Greece, Italy and beyond — trips built around the places, the food and the people, with everything arranged before you leave and nothing sprung on you when you arrive.

Where we come from

Empiria began with events. Empiria Events brings communities together around the cultures they come from — Greek, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Latin American and more — with festivals, dinners, concerts and film. Ask enough people at a Greek festival what they would really like to do, and the answer is the same: go. See the island their grandparents left. Eat the thing they have only heard about. Take the children.

Empiria Tours is that answer. The same people, the same care, and a trip that starts as a story rather than a spreadsheet.

How we travel

Small groups. Sixteen travellers at most. Enough company to make a long table lively, few enough that the guide knows your name by the first evening.

Real departures. Every date on this site is a departure we are running, with a seat count we are holding to. When it says four seats left, there are four seats left.

All-in prices. The price you see is the price you pay. Taxes and fees are itemised on the page, not added at the end. A deposit holds your place, and the balance is due on a date you know before you book.

Local hands, one name on the booking. On the ground, our trips are run with operators who live where you are going and have done this for years. But you book with Empiria and you pay Empiria, and Empiria is the company responsible to you from the first email to the last day.

What a trip with us looks like

A day usually has one thing in the morning worth getting up for, a long lunch, and an afternoon that is yours. We would rather you see three places properly than eight through a window. Guides are locals, or people who have lived there long enough to count. Where you stay is chosen for where it is and how it feels, and every itinerary is on the tour page, day by day, before you commit to anything.

Booking, without the small print surprises

• Your seats are held while you fill in the booking, so nobody can take them mid-form.
• You see the full itemised price before you pay, and again on your receipt.
• Payment is handled by Stripe. We never see your card number.
• The booking conditions and cancellation policy are published in plain language, and you are asked to read them before you reserve, not after.
• Your booking, receipt and departure details live in your account, and the confirmation goes to the address you give us the moment you book.

Come and find us

Questions before you book go to the contact page, where somebody who runs the trips will reply. If you would rather start with an evening than a week, Empiria Events is where we will be this weekend. And if you are a tour operator who would like to run trips with us, read about partnering.