The Olive Odysseys Small Group Tours-Exquisitely Designed
  • The Olive Odysseys
  • Greece May 2021
  • Italy & Greece
  • Paris to Lisbon-An Exceptional Marian Pilgrimage
  • Italy 'Bucket List'
  • The European Experience
  • Spain
  • Policy Privacy
  • Trip Planning
  • Croatia With Prague & Budapest
  • France
  • Greece Trip Planning
  • Italy Trip Planning
  • Media Press Release
  • Media Bios
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Seafood Pasta
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Tzatziki
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Greek Briam
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Greek Yogurt and Honey Delight
  • COVIDupdate
  • The Olive Odysseys
  • Greece May 2021
  • Italy & Greece
  • Paris to Lisbon-An Exceptional Marian Pilgrimage
  • Italy 'Bucket List'
  • The European Experience
  • Spain
  • Policy Privacy
  • Trip Planning
  • Croatia With Prague & Budapest
  • France
  • Greece Trip Planning
  • Italy Trip Planning
  • Media Press Release
  • Media Bios
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Seafood Pasta
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Tzatziki
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Greek Briam
  • Greece Gives Up Its Secrets Recipe-Greek Yogurt and Honey Delight
  • COVIDupdate
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YOUR CART

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The Olive Odysseys-Island of Patmos, Greece
Yes, there are a few ways to do it.
  • You can become a blogger (lots of people doing that these days–it's pretty crowded)
  • ​Take a menial job with low pay in the location you want to be (and have no time and money to do the traveling you came to do)​​
  • Become a photographer/ photo journalist (another crowded area)
  • Teach English (a great vocation–but low or no pay)

​Or you can run your own tours! 
Yes, this is how we travel and get paid and we can tell you there are plenty of people looking for this service. Now after 20 years doing this we are opening up our book of secrets and letting a few people in on it. We just completed our first intensive 6 session master class. We will let our students tell it better than we can.
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Lillian Woods, Ashville North Carolina 

 “Patricia’s program delivered… she provided me the confidence to take that next step to actually begin giving tours of my own.” 

“As an experienced entrepreneur and professional, I have attended many trainings and programs, and I found Patricia a trustworthy guide on this journey." 
May 2017 –The Olive Odysseys MClass–Get Paid to Travel
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John Woods, Asheville NC

"Patricia and The Olive Odysseys demonstrated a high level of professionalism in every facet of the course. The content was so thorough that we emerged with a real foundation of not only the practical steps in planning a tour but also the art form of being a Tour Leader."
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“Her [Patricia’s] passion for this service and her commitment to doing it well are the energies that surround every point of the program.” 
May 2017 –The Olive Odysseys MClass–Get Paid to Travel
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​“I am grateful for the strong foundation that Patricia’s class delivered” 
May 2017 –The Olive Odysseys MClass–Get Paid to Travel ​

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​“Patricia’s 19 years of leading tours has produced a pro! ”

May 2017 –The Olive Odysseys MClass–Get Paid to Travel

You can create a tour for the place you are right now, or the place you want to be. We will show you how to run tours where you are right now–and YES, we wish someone would do a highlight tour of Cleveland, Ohio. That is Patricia's hometown even though she now lives most of the year on a Greek island. 

This intensive class will also set you up to run tours wherever you dream of being
–Florence, Tuscany, the island of Santorini? Or an island in the Pacific or Asia.... 

This is a revolution in the travel industry. We are starting in June 2017. 

Six In-depth Classes-Live OnLine
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Lesson #1
  • Why this type of travel (small group tours) is on the rise
  • How we quick-start any trip plan
  • Use our own TripScripts® to masterplan your tour
  • Determining your location
  • An insider way to consider your trip theme
  • Fill out your first trip together
  • Q & A period
  • Email contact available with Patricia after class





Lesson #3 

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Our Secret Formula
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How to book your hotels
  • One of the costliest segments
  • How to leverage the best price
  • Our secret to great hotels!


Skip-the-line Insider Secrets
  • How to find the correct online sites to book​
  • Why this is so important to the success of your tours!​
  • Q & A period
  • Email contact available with Patricia after class
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Lesson #5
  • Pre–travel communication-What to send to your clients before their tour that whets their appetite
  • Day Sheets–Our 'daily newspaper' on tour that will make you look super organized
  • YOU on tour–Yes, that is right–what you need to be doing on tour!
  • Plan B–Oh yes,  you must have one and how to formulate it.
  • After the trip is over–what keeps our customers coming back for more (most of our customers are repeaters or four-peaters(sp?)
Lesson #2
  • Connecting the dots–we will show you how we get our customers from A to B and then to C
  • A pro tool we use to determine length of travel time 
  • Transportation modes in depth and how to use a slick combination to make your customers' travel seamless 
  • A rule that we use on arrival times
  • A preview of how we find and book our hotels
  • Q & A period
  • Email contact available with Patricia after class

Lesson #4

Details, details, and more details–filling in the blanks
  • Setting up your days-getting the most for your clients to experience
  • Sites–which ones? 
  • Visits–Why these are the choicest bit for any tour
  • Your peripheral people–where to find them and how to hire them
  • Eating (Breakfasts lunches and dinners) one of the most important aspects of any tour. How to do it right so that your clients are raving but you are on budget!
  • Free time–downtime and why it is crucial for your clients AND yourself

Lesson # 6
  • Your final pricing for your trip. Our formula on how we do it & how we make our money
  • Set up your own website
  • Set up your own company
  • A look at Airbnb Experiences–what this means for you to get your trip up and running next week!
  • Where to get your first customers!
  • An invite for a select few
  • Q & A period
  • Email contact available with Patricia after class​​
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Learn More Now!

In other words you can start running your own tours anywhere in the world you are right now or anywhere you want to be. Half day tours, one day tours, even full length in-depth tours!

​We know all the secrets to putting together tours, leading them and having our customers love the experience! 
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​Let them tell it themselves:

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Fresh quotes from recent travellers on our tours:
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​"My husband and I love to travel but hate to do the planning. The Olive Odysseys arranges a wonderful trip focused on our interests and then accompanies us to make everything goes perfectly. Going with a small group of like-minded people makes it even more fun. We have taken several trips with Patricia and Manolis and they have been our best travel experiences."
–​Sue L. Hudson, Ohio

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"Spain was our 4th Olive Orchard tour and all have exceeded our expectations. They are a wonderful blend of city and countryside, historical sites and splendid scenery, charming hotels and interesting food, seamless transportation and assistance whenever problems or questions arose. We could never duplicate the experiences on our own!"
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Linda H.  Fernandina Beach, Florida
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"All the details are taken care of for you. Great, unique hotel/restaurant locations.
​Just sign up and have a great and memorable time."

–​Roger L.  Hudson, Ohio

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"I loved this trip, the people, the places we visited and I would recommend it to all my friends. Thank you Patricia and Manolis for all your hard work, graciousness and sense of humour."
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Mary C. New York , New York

"We like the small group setup with seamless logistics, yet adequate time set aside for individual free time and relaxing."
–​John & Elizabeth C. Baton Rouge, Louisiana 

"You're (Patricia & Manolis) are like family –​and you are very well organized and prepared. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into research and planning –​and it shows in the trip."
–​Bob & Carole F.  Dennis, Massachusetts


Learn More Now!
6 steps you'll need in order to run your own tour :
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  1. The quickest way to determine what your offering will be. Come up with that incredible tour that will get clients right away.
  2. Use our very own TripScripts® for shaping the flow of your tour. Your clients will be dazzled.
  3. How to find your providers, those support people that will add tremendously to the experience of your clients. 
  4. How to gain your clients' trust within the first 5 minutes of your tour.
  5. How two shy and tongue-tied people grew up to run their own tour company. And how you can be successful and entertaining even if you were not the class clown or are an outgoing talker (and actually why it is better that you are a quiet person!)
  6. Over Deliver and Under Promise. We'll delve into exactly what this means and how the use of this in practice will get you great reviews and more clients. ​
Learn More Now!

Plus a bonus-our free book download–​ that will contribute to the start of your traveling career!​

limited number of spots. Sign up today and start getting paid to travel [just like we do!].


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Bonus–​ Our book about our travel adventures free to you–We'll give you the link during the class. 
Our New Book –​Patricia Hajifotiou, co-owner of The Olive Odysseys, delivers a distinctly different book on the subject of travel. Insider tips along with funny stories, mostly at the authors expense, are interspersed with 'pinch yourself moments'. Leading tours abroad for 18 years, Patricia relates her adventures from a tour leader's point of view. Hilarious travel fails plus the #1 way she has learned to make your next trip the best it can be.
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–Our Guarantee–
We stand behind our product 100%.
We offer a 14 day money back guarantee. 
​If you are not satisfied for any reason we will refund your money, no questions asked!
A few words about us:
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​I am a lucky person. When I started the Olive Odysseys back in 2007, I had an inkling of doing travel for a living. But I had no idea what it would turn into–​ My own tour company where people pay me to travel with them. And I am so grateful of that. 

We are a small group tour company that is interrupting the system. Most tour companies, even small ones, determine the set itinerary (sometimes not changing them for years), determine the dates and then post those on their web site. Yes, they say between 20–​30 people on the trip. That is a huge and unwieldy number to us! You cannot get a private Tortellini lesson in the kitchen of Maribell in Bologna, Italy or fit in the farmhouse kitchen of Frederika as she shares her Tiramisu recipe with us. Plus our customers get to decide the dates that are convenient to them. Sure, we use our expertise to suggest places to go and we put together all the nitty–​gritty details. But in the end it is our customers' tour. Not our tour and not for the convenience of us, but our customers. 


Make no mistake, my husband and I work hard at what we do. But we get to travel and see extraordinary places and we get paid to do it. We have daily 'pinch yourself' moments on tour where we say to ourselves. Ok, yes you really are here! Here are some examples:​

–Climbing to the top of the Campanile in Florence, Italy. The crowds are below you, and the church bells start to ring, and yes that is Carrera marble covering the facade and...

–​A cooking lesson in the private kitchen of Frederika in a medieval Tuscan town that features her farm & vineyard. You laugh along with the group as she shares her family recipe for Tiramisu and keeps calling it 'stupid Tiramisu' because according to her it is so easy to make...


More 'pinch yourself' moments on tour:
–Driving south from Barcelona with our own private bus and driver into the Priorat region of Spain, where some of the best vintages in the world are produced...yes, you get to go along to one of the more important wineries where the owner takes you into the vines and you get to sip the nectar it has produced...

–You know that the trip you put together for this particular family is a celebratory/bucket–​list trip for them. You get to see the tears of thanks in their eyes, after you get them to the small town in Greece where their grandfather and grandmother left from so long ago...

We have been successful. We have worked over 19 years doing tours (previous to starting our own company in 2007, we worked for a bicycle vacation company doing tours for them in Europe–​mainly Greece) of every type. Cycling vacations, in the footsteps of St. Paul trips, chartered yacht trips where we hopped from Greek island to island, tours by land and by sea, and country–​specific highlight tours, just to name a few. All of them tailored for the people who hired us. Most of our customers are now repeat customers who simply say to us "where to next?"

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Claim Your Seat!

​Our guiding principles in our lives and business:
Integrity–Honesty–Transparency–Generosity–Humor​

As seen on-
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Policy
See our privacy policy here

Contact

The Olive Odysseys 
46 Shopping Plaza
​Drive # 107
Chagrin Falls, Ohio
​44022 U.S.A
Phone: ​1-440-804-5062
patricia@theoliveodysseys.com
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A member of the
​American Society of Travel Advisors