I'm a long time lurker and a couple of times poster. Thanks to the forum for your help in planning our second trip to Greece, particularly our time on Naxos. We flew British Airways PDX to LHR, spent a night at the Terminal 5 Sofitel and the next day flew LHR to ATH and then caught our Olympic Air flight to Naxos. Our experience at LHR was totally no muss-no fuss. The same with Olympic Air, on time and comfortable.
On Naxos we stayed at the well known Hotel Grotta. We didn't want to be on the beach, we wanted a sea view and, boy, did we get it! We had a very nice room with a sea view and a terrace. This might be the cleanest hotel we've ever stayed in. A great view, staff was friendly and helpful, hotel was sparkling clean, breakfast was delicious....what more could you ask for.
We spent nine nights and eight days on Naxos. We explored Naxos Town and worked on jet lag, we hiked three days with Stella Korre (naxoshiking.com) and we explored the island in our Escape Naxos rental car. We saw the Temple of Demeter and the Potamia, Flerio and Apollonas Kouros statues. Among other villages, we visited Apiranthos, Filoti, Halki, Melanes and Apollonas. All were well worth the visit.
With Stella, we did the Agia Marina to Apiranthos Village hike, the Seven Villages hike and the Apiranthos to Agia Kyriaki loop hike. We had a great experience with Stella: great sharing of her knowledge of plants and history, well thought out routes, beautiful countryside and great hiking. Take a look at her website.
We enjoyed our meals at To Elleniko, Vasillis Taverna, Apanemi Taverna and Kozi. Naxos Town isn't big and all were easy walking distance from Hotel Grotta. You need more than a couple days to see Naxos. We had a week, were busy every day and I'd say we just made a dent in it.
We then flew Olympic Air JNX to ATH for our Wonders of Epirus tour with well known guide Apostolos Douras. Look Apostolos up on wondersofknowledge.com and look for the video Greece's Epirus with Apostolos Douras on this site. We explored Northwest Greece and Epirus with Apostolos, a small group and a great driver. We saw beautiful sights, swam in the Ionian Sea, walked in the Acheron River and ate like Greeks for the entire tour. It was a fabulous experience and well worth the money. Our visit include Ioannina, Pogoni villages, Syvota,, Zagori villages, Tzoumerka villages and others. On our return to Athens, we visited Meteora, Fantastic! If you like visiting Greece and want more than laying on a beach, you should consider Apostolos's Wonders of Epirus tour.
We reversed our path home ATH to LHR, spent a night at the Sofitel and then flew LHR to PDX. We scored an upgrade to a suite at the Sofitel and that was a great finish to a great trip. We had a great time in Greece and were well received by all we met. Global entry back into the US worked just like it should. I'll do my best to answer any questions.
Mike