By Dimitri C. Michalakis
Sound like a fantasy?
Well, it’s a reality for the clients of Kyvernitis Travel: a travel agency for the luxury visitor to Greece and for the discriminating traveler used to the very best.
”I want our clients to be treated the way I would like to be treated when I travel,” says Christos Kyvernetis, the amiable managing director of the company during a recent visit to New York City. “And I’m interested in finding the best for our clients: the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best of everything and something that is always distinctive and special. For example, here in New York look at the hotel where I choose to stay.” (The boutique Greenwich Hotel owned by Robert DeNiro and a stylish retreat in Tribeca off the beaten tourist track). “Our clients demand the best, and we provide it for them.”
There was the VIP who came to Greece on a private jet and wanted a party for his son that would show him the sights of Athens. “So we booked it at a restaurant by the old marketplace and on one side the party had a view of the old marketplace and on the other the Acropolis,” says Kyvernitis. “It was a magnificent.”
There was another client who had chartered a boat and was cruising the islands of the Aegean, when the sea got too rough and so he switched to the Ionian, but then his wife wanted a yoga session. “So we hired a private helicopter and we flew a yoga teacher to his boat in the middle of the Ionian sea. It was a little unusual (and expensive--$3,000)—but we did it.”
And then there was the junket organized for the sponsors of the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music, who came to Athens and not only got to see theater at Epidaurus but also enjoyed a reception and dinner hosted by some of the city’s cultural luminaries.
“What makes us different is that we provide the highest level of personal service,” says Kyvernitis. “People want what they pay for: they want the exact hotel, they want a specialized guide, they want a nice restaurant, and they don’t want to cope with the mob of tourists.”
That’s a lot to ask when visiting a busy tourist mecca like Greece, but for the past 15 years Kyvernitis Travel has specialized in bringing civility to the process and an unheard-of level of service to visiting Americans.
“For example,” says Kyvernitis, “we have something called Meet and Greet, where we can meet you at the door of your plane, escort you through customs, and then provide you with everything from a Mercedes sedan to a motor coach, from a private jet or helicopter or luxury yacht, to take you to your destination anywhere in Greece. We handle the transfers, reservations, tickets, accommodations, everything else you need. That’s what makes us different: we customize our service to you and make everything possible.”
You couldn’t get into your favorite restaurant before? (“There is no restaurant we can’t get into—they want the typical Kyvernitis client”). You couldn’t find tickets on a ship to the islands? (“We have priority booking with all the shipping lines”). You couldn’t get into any of the attractions at the Acropolis or survive the brutal two-hour wait in the sun? (“We buy tickets in advance, bypass the lines, even get you into the VIP room, and if something is closed at the Acropolis, we’ll take you to Sounion”).
The company also employs guides that are more than the standard part-timers reciting from a script or students learning English themselves and practicing on the tourists.
“A lot of our guides are from the States and they know what Americans want,” says Kyvernitis. “They are also scholars in their field and can provide more expertise, and more personal service, than the usual guide from a typical cruise ship who is escorting a party of more than 400 people.”
The Athens Olympics in 2004 put a new face on the old Greece (the walls of the Metro now feature archaeological reliefs) but a high-end travel agency like Kyvernitis Travel prides itself on finding the very special places off the beaten path. “We like to anticipate the new trends,” says Kyvernitis.
The company recently took a group of Swedish oenophiles through the new “winery trail” of boutique wineries that dot the countryside from Crete to Chalkidiki and feature some of the most unique flavors on earth. (“The volcanic soil of Santorini, for example, makes everything taste different.”) And the people who run these wineries are just as amazing. Paris Sigalas of Domaine Sigalas in Santorini was a mathematician who took to cultivating the family vineyards and soon made his label one of the most distinct in Greece.
“And because these wineries are successful, they invest in modern equipment, and often build restaurants on the ground of their wineries, so you can have a wonderful meal, with great wine, in a very authentic setting,” says Kyvernitis.
Kyvernitis has also transformed the resort experience by directing clients to premier resorts like the all-suite Elounda Peninsula in Crete or Grand Resort Lagonissi right in Athens (bungalows with private pools and villas available for $10,000 a night) and the other-worldly Soneva Nisi by Six Senses due to open in Milos in 2012. This resort will not only feature villas in the local style, some with private spas, but eco-friendly villas, and its own Cycladic-inspired village, where guests can shop for everything and sample a wide variety of cuisines and wines on the resort’s own grounds.
“But they will also be able to eat organic produce from the resort’s own gardens,” says Kyvernitis. “And because the resort is by the sea and Milos has chalky sand, the spa treatment that is offered is unique.”
Golf has also become a new attraction in Greece (you can now golf in Crete and Chalkidiki) and Kyvernitis cites the new resort opening soon in Messinia called Costa Navarino that will feature an 18-hole championship course designed by US Master’s champion and Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer and will be the first signature golf course in Greece. It will also offer a state-of-the-art conference center.
“It’s a very nice resort, but it will have a heli-pad for the convenience of business travelers,” he says.
And, of course, Greece is no longer just a summer haven: Kyvernitis points out that there are winter pleasures in Greece (never mind the bargain $400 airfares and less-harried service) that many travelers may never have imagined. “You can see bears in Palia Kalda. You can ski and do white-water rafting in Tripoli. You can go to Parnassus and ski and in less than twenty minutes go down to Delphi and check out the museum and then go back to Galaxidi and Arachova and have a great home-cooked meal. And some of these smaller villages have excellent amenities, like spas and indoor pools.”
He sits back and smiles amiably in the cozy lounge of the Greenwich Hotel in New York City, sheltered from the winds outside the windows on a cold and blustery January day.
“I think people are rediscovering Greece,” he says pleasantly. “And it’s now better than ever. Yes, our clients are very discriminating. But that’s why they come back to us again and again. They know what they want and they know that we take great pride in living up to their expectations.”
www.Kyvernitis.gr
