Greece travel guide

Acropolis is of course a huge and important historical site, but what really makes it pop, is its location. Perched on top of a hill right in the middle of Athens, so it can be seen from almost everywhere within the city. The panoramic view from the top is equal amazing and stretch all the way into the Aegean Sea. It was the ancient Greek (not a given) who built this magnificent temple complex around 440 BC and no expense was spared. The crown jewel is no doubt Parthenon with its tall marble columns, which are constructed such they lean slightly inwards to create the optical illusion that they look straight. The Acropolis site is surrounded by several other ancient sites on it's slope, like Theatre of Dionysus and further down, the Ancient Agora (ancient city square). To fully appreciate and understand this masterpiece, a visit to the Acropolis museum is a must.

Aegina Island is so close to Athens, that it makes a perfect day trip for a taste of Greek island life. It lies only a 40 minutes boat ride from Pireas, Athens' harbour suburb. Aegina is fairly large (87 sq km) so if you want to explore the whole island in a day, a scooter is necessary. Else it's the water, seafood, and easy life people come for. If Acropolis hasn't filled your desire for ruins, there are more ruins at Aegina town - Aegina was once a strong city state like Athens. If tours are more your thing, Aegina is also a part of the 3-islands-1-day cruise (Hydra, Poros, and Aegina), which is heavily advertised by the travel agents in Athens.

Without the masses of tourists and just a short (1,5 hour) ferry ride away from Santorini, Anafi is a great small island to kick back and relax for a few days. The hilltop town of Hora feels like it hasn't changed all that much in the last 20 years and the local people still live there, work there and sit in front of their houses and on the squares. By vehicle you can get to the other end of the island in less than a half hour and on foot it takes a couple. There is a small monastery and a hiking trail to the top of the enormous rock where you find beautiful views and another small monastery. The beaches on Anafi are not exceptional but nice with beautiful calm waters. Although it's not officially allowed, many people camp out on some of the beaches. All in all, it's a great island to escape the tourism madness of Santorini for a couple of days!

At first sight, Athens can seem as an one trick city. As big and splendid Acropolis is, as anonymous and nondescript are the rest of Athens. New and old from all time periods are mixed together. Sure, there are Roman columns here and temples ruins there, but nothing that can't be seen within a day. But what Athens lacks in attractiveness, it certainly wins in other aspects. Don't settle with the otherwise pretty view from towering Acropolis over Athens' urban sprawl, when the view from Lykavittos Hill (277 m) includes Acropolis. Explore the tiny white painted neighbourhood of Anafiotika on the northern slopes of the Acropolis hill. Indulge in the many good gyros and souvlaki places. Or people watch at one of the city beaches, a tram ride away. It's even possible to take a day trip to one of the closer islands. So don't just see Acropolis when in Athens.

When you climb the Acropolis, you realize Athens is quite close to the sea. It only takes a tram or bus ride to reach the coast, which is dotted with both public and private beaches. Mind you, they're nothing like the ones on the islands, but if you can't wait, Athens' beaches make a nice side trip from the dust and heat in downtown. A thumb of rule, the further you get from Athens, the nicer the beaches, and the private beaches are definitely better than the scruffy, but free, public ones. But all of them are good for people watching.

With the same name as the island, Lefkada is a beautiful quaint Greek town. It is not as touristy as some other parts of Lefkada island and has a nice and relaxed feel to it. Old ladies sit in front of their houses in the narrow alleys and old men wander about. What makes Lefkada town very unique is the way the people have built their houses in order to protect them from earthquakes. The houses are either entirely, or sometimes only the top floors, covered in metal plates, which they then have painted in nice colours as is typical for Southern European towns.
The town also has a nice waterfront with bars and restaurants and a large marina with sail boats.

The Peloponnese peninsula and, more specifically, the center called Arcadia is a beautiful hiking area. The area is dotted with small stone villages where nowadays only a few old people still live. It is a typical Greek landscape with plenty of olive trees. There are several day hikes you can do. One day hike starts at the renovated 17th century Filosofou monastery, which you can visit at the start of this hike. You have to have legs and arms covered to enter but these clothes are locally provided (and make a good picture). The hike then takes you through the Lousios gorge, following and criss-crossing the Lousios river. The end of the hike is near the archaeologic site of Roman Gortys.

If you want to cool down on a hot Peloponnese summer day you can head to the sea, ... or maybe better head for the Neda Gorge.
The landscape is spectacular and the great thing to do here is river trekking. You can do it organized where you wear wetsuits and you hike, clamber the rocks and swim in the pools for several hours. Alternatively, you can just hike through the last part of the river trek where near the end you can hike and swim through a bat-filled cave and up to some small waterfalls. A short trail at the end of the gorge leads up to another but even more idyllic waterfall for some more swimming and relaxing in and by the cool water.

Not to be confused with Mt. Olympus, Olympia is the birth place of the Olympic games.
Much is left to the imagination, as it is with many archeological sites but this one is definitely worth it if you like the Olympic games and you would like to see and "feel" where it all started. Several of the temples are in ruins but there is a great museum that exhibits beautifully restored statues (especially the one of Hermes) and enormous pediments from the temple of Zeus.
Maybe the best part of the visit to Olympia is to go to the "stadium" of which the entrance is still there - and race your friends on the 120 m long sprint track!

Once, Santorini must have been a beautiful little island where the locals painted their houses white and their doors, windows and the domes of their churches blue. Greece used this pretty image to advertise the country and this has attracted an enormous amount of tourists to this island. You will not find many locals here anymore but, still, it is definitely worth a visit. Especially coming off season, you can get some pretty decent deals to stay in beautiful "cave houses" and we must admit that the town of Oia is still very picturesque. Although sometimes you will need some patience to get through the "traffic jammed" pedestrian alleys and deal with the hundreds of tourists trying to find the best location to watch the sunset (and applaud when the sun has set), you can discover some more relaxing places and good areas to swim. Especially the small harbour of Ammoudi is a great place to swim and has wonderful waterside restaurants with great seafood.
So get your Euros out to enjoy this pretty island but preferably go off season to avoid some of the crowds.