Despite its recent economic woes, Greece remains a top-notch travel destination. Its wonderful historic sites encompass a four thousand year period, from the legendary to the obscure. Greece’s coastline contains superb beaches, and for hikers, its mountainous interior beckons exploration. Then there are the beautiful islands, ranging from quiet little backwaters to resorts as cosmopolitan as any in the Mediterranean.
If culture is your thing, you cannot fail to be utterly absorbed by what Greece has to offer. So many civilisations have left their mark on the country, from the Minoans and Romans, the Crusaders and Venetians, to the Arabs, Slavs, Albanians and Turks. Almost every town or village has a link to the past. It could be a crumbling temple to Aphrodite, a forbidding Venetian fort or a dusty, beautifully frescoed Byzantine monastery. Then of course, there are the museums, stuffed to bursting with classical sculpture and archeological treasures.
However much you enjoy your culture, by the end of the day you’ll want to take a break for a swim, a chat, a glass or two of wine and a plate of simple food. Greek food is at its best fresh, abundant and uncomplicated, and you’ll be welcomed and well catered for at even the most humble taverna.
Whatever you like about Greece, it needs its tourists more than ever. For the last few years the country seems to have teetered on the edge of financial catastrophe, with the threat of exit from the Euro. However, few people appear to have been put off, and visits to the islands have actually increased, as Greece has offered such good-value holidays.
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The sprawling city of Athens is almost an obligatory destination for every visitor to Greece, with almost a third of the population living in the city. Aside from the show-stopping Acropolis, it offers a truly metropolitan range of cultural experience, from museums to concerts; well-stocked shops; gourmet restaurants and exciting nightclubs, not to mention an excellent transport infrastructure. Thessaloníki, the metropolis of the north, has emerged in its own right as a lively, sophisticated place with restaurants and nightlife to match that of Athens.
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Apart from these cities, the mainland shows its best side in the well-preserved classical ruins of Corinth, Olympia and Delphi, the frescoed Byzantine churches and monasteries at Mount Áthos, Metéora, Ósios Loukás, Kastoriá and Mystra, the massive fortified towns of Monemvasiá, Náfplio and Methóni, the distinctive architecture of Zagóri and the Máni, and the long, sandy beaches of the Peloponnese and the Pelion peninsula. Perhaps more surprisingly, the mainland mountains offer some of the best and least-exploited hiking, rafting, canyoning and skiing in Europe.
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Out in the Aegean or Ionian seas, you’re more spoilt for choice. If you’re a first-time visitor, your best bet is to sample assorted islands from the nearby archipelagos – for example, Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades and the northeast Aegean are all reasonably well connected with each other, while the Sporades, Argo-Saronic and Ionian groups are best visited in single trips. If you’re short of time or on a tight budget, you’re best advised to head for the well-preserved Ýdhra in the Argo-Saronic Gulf, just a short ride from Pireás (the main port of Athens), but an utterly different place once the day-cruises have gone. Similarly, Skýros, remotest and most unspoilt of the Sporades, is a good choice within modest reach of Athens or Thessaloníki. Among the Cyclades, volcanic Santoríni (Thíra) and Mýkonos, with its perfectly preserved harbour-town, rank as must-see spectacles. Fertile, mountainous Náxos, dramatic cliff-sided Amorgós or gently rolling Sífnos tend to be more tourist-free and perhaps more suited to longer stays. You could spend an entire holiday in Crete but the highlights here are Knossos and the nearby archeological museum in Iráklion, the other Minoan palaces at Phaestos and Ayía Triádha, and the west in general – the proud city of Haniá, with its hinterland extending to the relatively unspoilt southwest coast, reachable via the fabled Samarian gorge. Rhodes, with its unique old town, is capital of the Dodecanese, but picturesque, Neoclassical Sými opposite, and austere, volcanic Pátmos, the island of Revelation, are far more manageable. It’s easy to continue north via Híos, with its striking medieval architecture, to balmy, olive-cloaked Lésvos, perhaps the most traditional island in its way of life. The Ionian islands are often dismissed as package-holiday territory, but their Venetian-style architecture, especially evident in Corfu, and neighbouring Paxí, make them well worth seeking out, especially on a journey between Greece and Italy.
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