Greece in 17 days.

Hi Nick,
There are much more to Greece than the islands. Your itinerary depends on when you are coming, but I guess you are talking during summer. First of all if you are on a budget you better not visit Mykonos (party island number 1 for rich Greeks) and make a short stop in Santorini, which is one of the more expensive islands to visit but being so famous I guess you should go - it is indeed very beautiful but has a sort of artificial flavour to it, all geared up for the rich cruise tourists. There are many other islands which may be more in your style (looking at your blogs) you can check them out (too long to discuss them all), Andros, Syros, Sefiros, Milos, Kythira for example.

If you are coming from Macedonia I think you should stop in Thessaloniki, it is a real city, very vibrant, with lots of interesting history (ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman) and a beautiful seaside promenade (from the White tower towards east) - it has been voted by some travel magazine one of the top 20 cities to visit, but not many tourists make it there. The archaelogical museum has an amazing collection of Macedonian gold (Alexander the Great and his descendants amassed vast fortunes).

You should also take a day or two to visit Athens (don't be put off by the protests they are very localized around the Parliament and Syntagma square) to see Acropolis (but go early in the morning or late afternoon) and the new Acropolis museum.

Do come to Crete, it is a great island, with lot's to offer. It is a big and very mountainous island so traveling around takes quite a lot of time, but with the beautiful landscape it is very enjoyable. Walk a gorge (most famous is Samaria), visit Chania town with the old Venetian harbour, rent a car and go to the mountains, to long-forgotten villages, if you are not tired of archaeology visit one of the Minoan palaces, Knossos is the most famous but I like Mallia best - although Mallia is a charter resort, few visit the palace and there is a nice beach next to it. The south coast has many pleasant small resorts - Palaiochora, Sougia, Plakias, Keratokampos are some that I like.

And a tip, when it comes to eating go where the Greeks go, because they really care about good food and choose the best.

Best wishes for a great travel
Inga Reply to this

Hi there,
If you want to go to the most spectacular archaeological site go to Delphi, if you rent a car it is around 3 hours from Athens, probably difficult to get to by public transportation.

Mycene I personally like a lot, but then I am very interested in archaeology, the Lion gate is of course very famous, and the tombs are very impressive (you go into the big domed tomb chambers). There is also a very good museum on the site that explains a lot of what this place was, but of the "palace" disappointingly little is left.

Olympia is probably a bit underwhelming for most people, but of course it does have an appeal of the Olympic games. I would suggest that if you are in the neighbourhood (if you go to Mycene for example) to go to Epidauros instead. There is an enormous amphitheatre (with different plays, usually ancient Greek tragedies, during weekends in July and August), and a big site with temples and so on. If you go to this area a nice place to stay is the town of Nauplion. Sparta - it is a small town, and unfortunately very little is left of the heroic times of Menelaus. But, there is the fortress city (from the bysantine era) of Mystras, which is very nice to visit, it is a Unesco World heritage site, very spectacular setting just outside Sparta.

Peloponnese is indeed a very nice area in Greece, and because it is not extremely exploited for tourism I think it is a very pleasant area to visit. The forested mountainous area on the Eastern side called Parnornas is very beautiful with small villages, and you can always "climb" down to the sea for a swim. Other places to visit are the Tahyetos mountain, Mani in the south with its towers, the Monemvasia old castle town, the mountain villages in the centre around Stemnitsa. To do all that you need a car and 10 days at least!

Another spectacular place is Meteora, on the mainland, with rock formations with monasteries. Could be combined with Delphi.

Inga Reply to this

Last question. Is there ferries at the moment between Rhodes and Turkey? If yes where do I book.

Nick Reply to this