I love this country almost as much as I love Italy - Greece Trip Report

Restaurants: Doukato (courtyard dining, excellent lamb and more saganaki cheese!) and Rotonda (in Apeiranthos, with beautiful mountainside views) were our favorites but we enjoyed other meals: To Souvlaki Tou Maki, lunch at Faros tou Alykou near Alikou beach. I had a great chicken casear salad at a very casual place along the waterfront that we decided to have dinner at when we realized that if we kept going to restaurants where the appetizers, entrees and desserts were all just too appealing for us to pass up, we would not fit into any of our clothes by week two of our trip. I think it was Stan who recently talked about spilling the contents of not so good free after dinner drinks in plant pots and gardens. A young honeymooning couple we met at the ferry on the way to Naxos saved us from having to do the same when they happened to show up at Rotonda just as we were finishing our meal. They were extremely happy to have our free drinks!

Highlights: Alikou Beach (very beautiful with the cedar forest, very few people) and Plaka Beach (it was nice to have sunbed rentals, which were not available at Alikou)-we like the beach but are not all-day type of sun worshipers. We spent a few hours on each beach on separate days. The mountain villages (Halki, Filoti & Apeiranthos). Temple of Demeter & the Portara (both visiting the site and sunset viewing from our balcony). Day trip to Delos & Mykonos (Hint: take dramamine before getting on the boat for this excursion. The sea was choppy and while neither of us got sick, we both experienced sea sickness symptoms. I actually did take a dramamine-so maybe take two! Hint: if you prefer to have a guided tour of Delos, look into arranging this beforehand; we booked the excursion through “Get Your Guide” and the website said we could do this upon arrival in Delos but none of the guides were available when we disembarked.)

Nafplio (3 Nights)

Impression: It’s not just the islands that are beautiful in Greece! Loved Nafplio: the sea, the layers of mountains just beyond the sea, the flower filled lanes of town.

Hotel: Impero Nafplio Hotel & Suites – great location along the waterfront, good breakfast. We had a nice room but I waited too long to book this hotel and the smaller room with a sea view balcony was no longer available. I ended up booking the “grand suite with castle view” which is an attic room with a balcony, but without much of a castle view. Plus, the room’s air conditioning was seriously underpowered, so it was a bit warm for us (other floors of the hotel were noticeably cooler).

Restaurants: Mitato (very casual/good souvlaki & gyros – we ate here for lunch & dinner) & Vasilis Taverna (my favorite moussaka!). Koustenis for great gelato.

Highlights: Arvanitia Promenade - enjoyed a walk here on our first day. Mycenae & Epidavros – we toured both with
Patty Staikou (2 hours in Mycenae was 100 EUR & 1.5 hours in Epidavros was 90 EUR) ([email protected]) and** we would definitely recommend her. Palimidi Fortress – walked up & down! Walking the pretty lanes, waterfront sunsets, shopping (what was it about the Greek jewelry stores?? I am not a big jewelry person, yet I could not stop to at least window shop at so many in Nafplio & Athens. Bought some, too - 4 bracelets, 2 rings, 1 necklace – not all for me!)

Delphi (1 Night)

Impression: Of course, we came so we could visit the Sanctuary of Apollo and the Archeological Museum, but once again I was overwhelmed with the natural beauty all around us.

Hotel: Nidimos Hotel – basic room with a nice view from the balcony, convenient underground parking garage.

Sounds beautiful!

Restaurants: We stopped in Arachova on the way to Delphi and had lunch at Barile (we were a bit tired from the ride and needed to use the restrooms so we quickly ordered from the QR code menu not paying attention to the prices. Mistake! One salad, one personal pizza, a shared bottle of sparkling water and two espressos set us back $54!). Dinner was at Patriko Mas (directly across from our hotel, great sea views from a flower filled patio, good food).

Highlights: Touring the museum and the sanctuary with Georgia Hasioti ([email protected]);(120 EUR for 2.5 hours). Thank you for the recommendation, Janet. Georgia is another guide we would recommend. We enjoyed chatting with the 85-year-old local gentleman running the kiosk where we bought bottled water. The friendliness of the Greek people was something we encountered throughout our trip.

Meteora (Kastraki) (1 Night)

Impression: Well, it was just amazing!

Hotel: Pyrgos Andrachti – great balcony at the base of the Meteora rocks. We sat there for 45 minutes after check-in just admiring the views and listening to the birds.

Restaurants: Lunch at Yamas Taverna – we stopped here to ask for directions to our hotel and stayed for lunch. I had a tasty Greek salad and we were given a delicious cherry dessert. When we asked for the bill, the waiter said that someone on a red motor bike would be coming to escort us to our hotel! I offered our escort a “tip” when we arrived, but he refused and said he “did it from his heart” (we later learned he is a cousin of the hotel owner). I love the country, I love the people!

Highlights: Sunset Tour with Visit Meteora – visited one monastery, a Byzantine Church and stopped for various views/photo opportunities. It was cloudy, so sunset was not particularly memorable. We were booked for a hiking tour with them the following day, but it was cancelled due to rain. For us, the visit to Meteora was more about the dramatic scenery rather than the interior of the monasteries; however, our guide gave a fabulous presentation of the symbolism in the church.

Athens (3 Nights)

Impression: Amazing sites and we enjoyed our stay, but it’s not my favorite European city. We experienced more crowds here than anywhere else on our trip but we did not stray much from the central tourist area, so this was not unexpected.

Hotel: A.P. Acropolis View Apartments-nice room/bathroom, amazing Acropolis views and a delicious, plentiful breakfast served on the roof terrace. We loved the area (Psyrri) as it was full of restaurants and had a lively vibe, even though the hotel was but a short walk away and was quiet at night. We walked to all of the sites, including the National Archeological Museum.

Restaurants: Our dinners were all in the Psyrri district and were good but nothing to rave about. These meals were more about the lively ambience. We had lunch at Geros tou Moria in Plaka and O Thanasis in Monastiraki (both had very good souvlaki and gyros). We tried a different Psyrri bakery each day, all of them excellent: Nancy’s Sweet Home, Bougatsadiko Thessaloniki, and Little Kook (this place was Disneyesque, with Alice in Wonderland themed décor and wait staff costumes).

Highlights: National Archeological Museum which we toured with Demetra from Context Tours (very pricey at $355 for three hours). We had a credit with Context from a cancelled 2020 London trip that we applied to this tour. It was our first time using Context and we were extremely happy with the tour. Demetra ranks as one of the best private guides among the eleven we have toured with over the last few years. While the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum were highlights, I cannot say we felt the same way about our guide, Faye Georgiou. She is recommended by others on the forum and is the local guide for Rick Steves tours, so we were a bit surprised by our experience with her. She is definitely knowledgeable and she imparted that knowledge very well but aspects of her personality/touring style got in the way of what would have been an enjoyable tour for us. She deviated her attention from us several times to scold teenage girls for making too much noise, and to shake a finger at a man for harmlessly posing for a photo with the caryatids. Beyond this, Faye took roughly 45 minutes to walk us from the museum to the gates of the Acropolis. We were paying her by the hour and this walk should have taken all of 15 minutes. Then, although contracted to show us the sites, she abruptly left us!

Great things about this trip:

The mix of visiting sites and the more relaxing activities.

The later and longer dinners. We did everything we wanted during the day and were able to catch our breath and rest before heading out again. We enjoyed the atmosphere everywhere we ate, so having a longer dinner was truly enjoyable.

Friendly people who all spoke English but taught us some Greek (ola kala – “all good” was a phrase we used throughout our trip).

Uncrowded sites – none of them were anything like our experiences at the Uffizi Gallery or the Vatican Museum, for example.

Natural beauty all around us. It’s just a gorgeous country.

Costs: Since we were celebrating our 30th anniversary and this was our first international trip since 2019, we splurged a bit on this trip. Santorini is expensive, as everyone says, and our biggest splurges were on our Santorini hotel and two of our dinners there (Ammoudi Fish Tavern and Athenian House). In country transportation was costly at $1,600 (two Aegean flights, one ferry ride, 3 car rentals plus gas/tolls, a few taxis). We typically splurge on private guides (prices above) for large museums and ancient sites and Greece is full of them so that added to our costs as well. We found other costs to be reasonable. Not including the Santorini hotel our lodging (all well located, highly rated, but not “lux” hotels) cost was an average of $134/night; not including the two splurge dinners our daily food cost averaged a reasonable $75/day (lunch, dinner, pastries & gelato, coffee for both of us); we averaged $16 day for sites for both of us.

We have a few priorities for our next trips (Scotland, Portugal, and Sicily) but we are already thinking about a trip to Crete and heading back for more of the Peloponnese, so please keep up with your advice and trip reports!

Thanks so much for sharing a great trip report!

I am planning to spend some time in the islands before the RS tour in 2023, and I found your impressions of Santorini and Naxos especially helpful. The Grotta Hotel was my first choice for accommodations in Naxos, and your review reinforces that choice.

It was fun reading your report, particularly since I have been to all the places you went. In 2018, we went to Santorini, Naxos, Nafplio, and Athens. This year we went to Delphi and Meteora. We also went to Crete which we also loved as I am sure you will too.

We went to Italy last year and are planning a trip for next year back to Italy. So we have the same fascination with the two countries!

Very nice, thanks for the detail.

Marie- We did consider staying at an Agios Georgious hotel, as many on the forum suggest. Our intention was to visit a few beaches for a few hours (we really liked the ones we spent time on) so we did not feel the need to book a hotel right on the beach. You will enjoy your stay at Hotel Grotta!

Beth-I actually read your first Greece trip report and found it helpful in planning our trip! I find ideas and hints from the Greece "experts" helpful but I especially like reading the thoughts of a first time visitor when planning our trips (which is why I posted my trip report). While I have loved all of our European trips, Italy and now Greece are the tops for me. I like to go to new places but I would never turn down a trip to either of these countries! Hopefully I will follow in your footsteps and visit Crete soon!

We were in Greece, for the second time, a few years ago. Our itinerary included Athens and the Peloponnesus, Crete, Santorini, and Rhodes. Though they had been suffering through several years of economic hard times, we found the people to be unfailingly kind, helpful, and friendly. The layers of history evident all around are truly amazing. I concur with Fran in rating Greece as one of my favorites.