My wife and I spent 15 nights in Greece in May. It was our first time to Greece and we had a great time. The weather was mostly good; highs 70 to low 80s and only two days of on and off rain . The people were very friendly, the food great and the sites and views awesome. We split our time between Athens, Crete, Santorini and Nafplio.
We stayed our first three and last night at the St. Thomas B&B not far from the Athens airport. Janet, the owner, picked us up at the airport. We liked this location because we could get away from hectic Athens at the end of the day (we are not big city people). Janet and her husband. Aris, took us to/from the local metro stop the two days we took the 30 minute ride into Athens (1.40 Euros each way). In Athens we visited the Acropolis Museum, the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Temple of Olympian Zeus/Arch of Hadrian, Library of Hadrian, Syntagma Square and War Museum of Athens. I did have a minor problem, I lost my wallet (probably to a pickpocket) between Ancient Agora and a food counter north of the flea market. Fortunately, it only had 30 Euros and two metro tickets. Everything else was in a money belt .We enjoyed our time, but two days was enough for us. The only thing we missed that I wanted to see was the National Archaeological Museum.
From Athens, we flew to Heraklion, Crete on Aegean Airlines. We were very impressed with their service and would highly recommend flying with them. At the Heraklion Airport, we picked up our rental car from Sixt. We were also impressed with Sixt. We stayed four nights at the Lato Boutique Hotel. We had a room with a balcony that overlooked the harbor. Nice room, good service and huge buffet breakfast. We would definitely stay again there. Our first day we drove west two hours to Chania, we spent 5 hours there walking around, eating lunch and going through the Folklore Museum. The wife really liked it as she does various hand crafts. We enjoyed walking around the town and the views of the harbor. On our way back to Heraklion, we stopped at Margarites which is famous for their pottery. It’s a picturesque hill town with at least a dozen pottery shops. We were there around 4:00 on a Saturday and we almost had the town to ourselves. We went to most of the shops and bought many items. We really enjoyed our time there. The second day, it was raining so we went to the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, which is first class. In the afternoon, we went to Knossos, a 3500 year old Minoan palace on the outskirts of Heraklion. We paid for a guide (I think it was 10 Euros a person) and there were six total in the group. The hour long tour was well worth the money. Our third day, we drove east to Aghios Nikolaos. We decided to take the the 4.5 hour round trip boat ride to Spinalonga Island The weather was beautiful and the cruise very enjoyable, one of our trip highlights. Spinalonga is an interesting island to tour and you do get a chance to swim in the Mediterranean which was fun. We ate twice at Ippokambos Restaurant in Heraklion. Very good fish and large portions.
From Crete, we took the ferry to Santorini Island. We were booked on the Hellenic Seaways ferry (bought tickets in Heraklion), but it was canceled the morning we were to leave. Fortunately, the Seajet ferry hadn’t left so we were put on it. Not sure if this common, but neither boat would have been half full. It took about two hours to get to Santorini. The ride was pleasant, but there is little to see along the way.
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