Greece’s second-largest city is Thessaloníki 1 [map] once better known as Salonica. Founded in 315 BC by the Macedonian King Kassander, the town later rose to prominence thanks to its position on the Via Egnatia between Rome and Byzantium. A dozen Byzantine churches survive, many clear adaptations of colonnaded Roman basilicas, in turn descended from Greek temples. The Museum of Byzantine Culture (daily) features superb wall paintings rescued from early Christian tombs. Macedonian, Hellenistic and Roman finds from the region grace the Archaeological Museum (daily), including many gold, silver and ivory treasures from the Vergina tombs of the Macedonian dynasty.
Skiáthos street scene.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
The furthest east of the three peninsulas extending east of Thessaloníki into the Aegean Sea is Mount Áthos 2 [map], one of the Balkans’ most stunning monastic realms. There are 20 surviving monasteries; the first, founded by St Athanasios in AD 963 and the most spectacular, is Símonos Pétra, with vertiginous drops on three sides. Women are still banned from the peninsula, with only a limited number of non-Orthodox male pilgrims admitted.
South from Thessaloníki, where Macedonia blends into Thessaly, Mount Olympus (Ólympos) 3 [map], home of the ancient gods, rises to 2,917 metres (9,750ft), the highest point in Greece. From here, Zeus let fly with his thunderbolts; this close to the sea, the weather is still fickle, and climbers or trekkers should take care.
Tip
Due to the Greek government’s crisis austerity programme, monuments and public museums will generally close early (4–5pm) even in summer, and many will shut for additional days as well as their usual closing days. Finding out reliable details is difficult, so check at local tourist offices or the actual sites as close as possible to when you want to visit, and try to factor this into your travel plans.
Thessaly and Epirus
Further south, mostly modern Vólos 4 [map] is the major port of Thessaly, but not without charm and a lively nightlife; it’s the major gateway to the Sporádes. Directly above rises Mount Pílio, with exquisite traditional villages, secluded beaches and dense forests in which the mythical centaurs were said to dwell.
Skiáthos smile.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
Just beyond the Meteóra loom the Píndos Mountains, the spine of mainland Greece, separating Thessaly from Epirus, the country’s remotest region, though the Vía Egnatía expressway now eases its isolation. Both this and the old highway cross the mountains to the scenic upland around the lakeside city of Ioánnina 5 [map], with a citadel, mosques and inhabited islet with frescoed monasteries. Immediately north lies Zagóri, the most scenic stretch of the Píndos, fissured by the deep Víkos Gorge and speckled with 47 villages built from the same grey limestone as the mountains.
The Meteora
At the western edge of the Thessalian Plain, on molar-like rock pinnacles, eroded from prehistoric seabed, perch the Metéora monasteries 7 [map] , worthy rivals to the Áthos group, but able to be visited (variable hours) by all. As on Mount Áthos, religious hermits appeared here in the 10th century, but only in 1344 was the first proper monastery built, and by the 1500s 24 religious communities had colonised the monoliths. From this zenith, decline set in, and only six foundations survive today. Historically the only way up was by winched rope-basket, until stairs were built in the early 1900s. Megálou Meteórou – the highest and largest – took nearly three centuries to complete, but Ágios Nikólaos Anapafsá and Roussánou have better frescoes from the 16th-century heyday.
Delphi: the world’s navel
Nestled in a natural amphitheatre on the southern slope of Mount Parnassós, the terraced sanctuary of Delphi 6 [map] was for centuries the site of antiquity’s most revered oracle. The ancient Greeks believed that here, where Zeus’ two released eagles met, was the “navel of the earth”.
Metéora, built on sandstone.
iStockphoto
The site closest to the road is the Castalian Spring; across the road is the Gymnasium area, with its mysterious round Tholos. The main Sanctuary of Apollo (daily) has ruins spanning all eras from Classical Greek to Roman, and there’s also a rich museum. The meandering Sacred Way ascends among temples, statue bases, stoas and treasuries. Only the Doric Athenian Treasury is intact, though it was rebuilt in 1904–6 with the marble of the original structure dating from 490 BC.
The present Temple of Apollo was the third built on the site, during the 4th century BC. The god Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, was associated with music, art, philosophy, law, medicine and archery – though prophecy was his main function here. The small theatre just above, dedicated to Dionysos, seats 5,000 people, has marvellous acoustics and a wonderful view. Near the top of the sanctuary, the stadium, 178 metres (600ft) long, hosted the Pythian Games in honour of Apollo, and its tiers of Roman seats accommodated up to 7,000 spectators.
Tip
The three domestic airways (Olympic, Aegean, Athens Airlines) are largely web-based, and tickets bought from walk-in agents are heavily surcharged. Get online early enough, however, and fares from Athens to the islands can be the same as or less than a ferry cabin berth.
The Sporádes and Saronic Gulf Islands
Scattered across the three Greek seas – the Aegean, Mediterranean and Ionian – are more than 1,400 islands, though fewer than 100 are permanently inhabited. A popular destination east of Vólos are the strikingly green Sporádes, the closest being Skiáthos 8 [map], which has more than 60 good beaches. Nightlife is lively, especially in the busy main Skiáthos Town. With a scooter or a car, you can explore more tranquil bays and remote monasteries. Skópelos 9 [map], next island out and now famous as the film location for Mamma Mia! is prettier, better wooded and boasts one of Greece’s handsomest port towns. Alónissos is for nature-lovers and hikers, while Skýros, accessed from eastern Évia, has a spectacular hóra (capitol) and a lively carnival.
Dining alfresco in Skiáthos Town.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
Southwest of Athens lie the islands of the Saronic Gulf. Closest is Aegina (Égina) ) [map], a 45-minute hydrofoil ride from Piraeus. Its most interesting monument, on a pine-tufted hilltop, is the well-preserved Doric temple of the nymph Aphaea, The elegant port-town, facing vivid sunsets, was briefly the first capital of modern Greece.
Mountainous Hydra (Ýdra) ! [map], about 90 minutes out of Piraeus, has just one exquisite town. It is virtually car-free, and mules still haul most of the cargo. The slopes above are forested, with several monasteries to which you can climb; the few beaches must be reached on foot or by boat.
Old Perithia, on the slopes of Mount Pantokrator, Corfu.
Kevin Cummins/Apa Publications
The Ionian Islands
The islands in the Ionian Sea off Greece’s west coast are often rainy and thus green, unlike the Aegean’s arid outcrops. Best known is Corfu (Kérkyra) @ [map], just off the mainland but closer to Italy than Athens. The Venetian-influenced capital of Kérkyra is a gem, comparing well to Dubrovnik further up the Adriatic. Although its beach resorts are often overcrowded, Corfu is big enough to preserve quiet spots, especially in the inland villages on the slopes of Mount Pandokrátor, and the exclusive resorts of the northeast coast. If it all gets too much, escape to the tiny, olive-cloaked satellite islet of Paxí.
Kefalloniá £ [map], of late inextricably linked to Captain Corelli and his mandolin, is the largest and most mountainous Ionian island, culminating in fir-covered, 1,628-metre (5,340ft) Mount Énos. But Kefalloniá’s main business – especially after a 1954 earthquake destroyed its rich architectural heritage – is beaches and the traffic in and out of its little ports. The peninsula beyond westerly Lixoúri, the coast around southeastern Skála, and the photogenic bay of Mýrtos on the west coast near Ássos and its castle are all sandy, while the northerly port Fiskárdo survived the earthquake unscathed.
Directly east stretches Ithaca (Itháki) island, Odysseus’ legendary homeland: it is quieter, with few beaches but three fine harbour villages sympathetically rebuilt after the quake.
Zákynthos $ [map] offers more green mountains and plains, stunning beaches and both good and awful tourist developments. Villages in the mountainous west largely escaped earthquake damage; not so the busy main town. Laganás Bay in the south is a loud and boisterous party resort full of bars catering to young crowds from across Europe, yet just a sandy cove east at unspoilt Gérakas on the Vassilikós peninsula, sea turtles lay their eggs.
Antísamos beach in Kefalloniá.
Kevin Cummins/Apa Publications
The Peloponnese
The little isthmus joining the Peloponnese (Pelopónnisos) to the mainland is cleft by the deep, narrow Corinth Canal; blink and you’ll miss it. Ancient Corinth % [map], just beyond its modern namesake, prospered from trans-isthmian haulage in pre-canal days. The Hellenistic city was razed in 146 BC by the Romans but re-founded a century later. What remains is the most complete Roman imperial town in Greece (daily).
The new motorway towards Kalamáta forges southwest from here, while the old highway enters the Argolid Plain at modern Mykínes, behind which stands the ancient fortified palace complex of Mycenae ^ [map] (daily). Heinrich Schliemann excavated here on 1874–6, relying on little other than intuition and the accuracy of Homer’s epics. Greek archaeologists had already revealed the citadel’s imposing Lion Gate, but Schliemann’s tomb finds, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, amply corroborated Mycenae’s Homeric epithet “rich in gold”.
Near modern Árgos, further into the Argolid, stands ancient Árgos & [map], among the oldest Greek settlements; notable are the huge, steeply raked classical theatre (Tue–Sun), and the Frankish castle atop Lárissa hill, the ancient acropolis. The upmarket resort of Návplio * [map] is overawed by Akronávplia just overhead, plus the sprawling, 18th-century Palamídi, comprising three self-contained Venetian fortresses. Almost 900 steps lead up from the Old Town to the summit and sweeping views.
The best route southwest takes in Spárti, successor to ancient Sparta, and the Byzantine strongholds of Mystrás ( [map], with exquisite ruined palaces and frescoed monasteries. Atmospheric, walled Monemvasiá, a mini-Gibraltar southeast of Spárti, was the port of Mystrás and later an important Venetian stronghold. A drive west over the mountains from Spárti leads to Kalamáta, of little intrinsic interest but the gateway to Messinía with its balmy climate, fine beaches, more Venetian castles at Koróni and Methóni and (unsurprisingly) a huge expat population.
Proceeding north along the coast brings you to ancient Olympia ‚ [map] (daily). For almost two millennia, the religious sanctuary here hosted that most prestigious of pan-Hellenic athletic competitions, the Olympic Games. The most salient monuments are the Palaestra, the Archaic Hera Temple, the enormous Zeus Temple, and the stadium with its vaulted entrance.
Oia Town on Santoríni.
AWL Images Ltd
The Cycládes
Adorning the central Aegean, the 24 inhabited Cycládes are the original island-hopping archipelago; in summer, inter-island boats (and flights from Athens) make connections easy. On Sýros ⁄ [map], the elegant, Unesco-listed town of Ermoúpoli is capital of the group; Mýkonos ¤ [map], just across a strait and veteran of around half a century of concentrated tourism, offers the quintessential Cycladic profile of marshmallow windmills and churches, plus sybaritic beaches. Páros ‹ [map] is a marginally calmer place for beginners, with a bit of everything in a more expansive landscape. Just east lies Náxos › [map] largest of the Cycládes, with high ridges, fertile farmland, great (if sometimes windy) beaches and labyrinthine Naxos Town, with Venetian fortifications and mansions. Beyond, the last of the Cycládes before Crete and the Dodecanese, Amorgós fi [map] is long, narrow and steep-sided, with a cult following for its excellent walking on cobbled trails and 11th-century monastery of Hozoviótissa, clinging limpet-like to a sheer cliff.
Eat
Because of the Orthodox tradition of avoiding meat or fish during fasts, traditional cooking includes quite a variety of vegetarian dishes, especially on Crete. One Cretan speciality is Ladera, artichokes and broad beans cooked in olive oil.
A separate ferry line threads through the westerly islands; Sífnos fl [map], with its multiple villages and white monasteries and culinary tradition, is the busiest. Boats continue to Síkinos and Folégandros, once (like Amorgós) used to exile political dissidents but now celebrated for their unspoilt architecture and way of life. Transport converges on Santoríni (Thíra) ‡ [map], most famous (and visited) of the group aside from Mýkonos. About 3,500 years ago this volcano-island erupted cataclysmically, leaving only a submerged caldera and high, banded cliffs of a remnant isle behind. It is considered to be the inspiration for Atlantis, the utopia-city lost beneath the waves; myth perhaps meets fact at Akrotíri on Santoríni’s south cape, a Minoan town that was preserved Pompeii-like under volcanic ash.
The Palace of Knossos, Crete.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
Crete
Crete (Kríti) ° [map], Greece’s largest island, could probably just survive as an independent country (certainly proud Cretans think so). It has a vibrant folk culture, a strong regional cuisine, atmospheric Ottoman-Venetian harbour towns on the north coast, and sheltered beach resorts, mostly on the south shore. Crete also produces – as the British writer Saki (H.H. Munro) noted wryly – “more history than can be consumed locally”, from the Minoan culture of the 2nd millennium BC to one of the fiercest battles of World War II. Start at the reconstructed Minoan palace complex of Knossos · [map] (daily) outside the capital Iráklio (Heraklion), a monument as much to the personal whims of excavator Sir Arthur Evans (including an unlikely colour scheme) as to this vanished people. To appreciate it fully, try to visit Iráklio’s outstanding Archaeological Museum, although currently several rooms may be closed.
Iráklio, except for its medieval centre, is not the most alluring of Cretan towns; for those head instead west to Réthymno º [map] and Haniá ¡ [map], each with postcard-perfect old harbour districts lined with Venetian buildings, fortifications and graceful Ottoman mosques. East of Haniá is Crete’s biggest resort, the full-on party town of Mália, location for a British TV reality show titled Sex on the Beach. Further east again, Ágios Nikólaos is also well established on the tourist trail, but prettier, with an old harbour, and much more tranquil.
Inland, the countryside is dotted with monasteries – the most celebrated being Arkádi near Réthymno – and hundreds of little frescoed Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches. Nature-lovers will find beaches in all sizes and consistencies – the busiest resorts on the south coast, still much lower-key than those on the north, are Plakiás, Agía Galíni and Paleóchora – and challenging hiking in the Lefká Óri (White Mountains) above Haniá. You can traverse the 18km (11-mile) Gorge of Samariá – the longest and deepest in Europe, and also thought to be one of the continent’s most scenic – for just a taste of a day in the life of a Cretan shepherd or World War II resistance fighter. The hike is strenuous, and if you are attempting it independently be sure to pick up information from the tourist office in Haniá and bring enough water and provisions for the day.
The barren caldera at Níssyros.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
The Dodecanese
In the southeast Aegean off the Turkish coast lie the Dodecanese, although this group has, in fact, 17 inhabited islands, not 12 as the name implies. Rhodes (Ródos) ™ [map] is the largest, most populated and most crowded, because of its Unesco-listed walled city, vast beaches, and acropolis-castle at Líndos. Rhodes is a palimpsest legacy of ancient Greeks, crusading Knights of St John, Ottoman overlords and Italian colonialists. Although the fortified Old Town contains a clutch of worthwhile museums, the showcase Street of the Knights and a few prominent mosques whose minarets pierce the skyline, more rewarding are random wanderings along pebble-paved lanes, past medieval houses and under flying buttresses. South of the town, Faliráki is as notorious as Mália on Crete as a place for kids to drink and go wild, but elsewhere around Rhodes you can find much emptier beaches.
Smaller, but still impressive, islands lie a day trip (or longer) away: Hálki and Sými with their stage-set port towns built from sponge-diving wealth, and Kárpathos with its natural grandeur and tenaciously retained traditional life.
On the second-largest Dodecanese, Kós # [map], a 1933 earthquake devastated most of Kós Town but allowed Italian archaeologists to excavate the ancient city. Thus, much of the town centre is an archaeological park, with the Roman Agora (the eastern excavation) lapping up to the 18th-century Loggia Mosque, the millennial Plane Tree of Hippocrates and the Nerantziás castle.
In the western excavation stand the cardo (main colonnaded street) and some excellent mosaics. The most sheltered beaches line the coast facing southeast towards the volcano-island of Níssyros, a popular day-trip destination with its photogenic villages.
Northwest from Kós are smaller islands that are governed from rambunctious Kálymnos, all with prominent castles and distinctive vernacular architecture. Astypálea, close to Amorgós, seems more like a Cycladic island, as does Pátmos ¢ [map], at the fringes of the group, with its volcanic scenery and fine beaches. But Pátmos is best known for its sumptuous hóra (Old Town) clustered around the massive walls of the monastery of St John the Theologian (daily), one of the most revered sites in the Orthodox world.
The resort of Mólyvos, on Lésvos.
Britta Jaschinski/Apa Publications
Northeast Aegean Islands
Beyond Pátmos, Sámos ∞ [map] boasts two high mountains, hill villages amidst wine terraces, emerald waters and a superb Archaeological Museum (Tue–Sun) showcasing items from the Archaic Sanctuary of Hera. Híos § [map] exhibits outstanding domestic architecture in its fortified mastic villages, designed by the Genoese to protect the precious resin extracted from the mastic bush. More preserved medieval villages face the west coast, culminating in Vólissos with its castle overlooking fabulous beaches.
Lésvos ¶ [map] is a major olive-producing centre, but also draws visitors with its thermal springs, and resorts like Mólyvos, Plomári and Skála Eressoú, the last a mecca for lesbians due to Sappho having been born there. The capital Mytilíni’s Archaeological Museum (Tue–Sun) houses superb Roman mosaics. Languorous Límnos • [map] has the best beaches in the group, exceptional food and wine, and a Byzantine-Genoese castle dominating the port-capital, Mýrina.
Samothráki ª [map] to the northeast has an ominous, legend-cloaked mountain to climb, and the mysterious Sanctuary of the Kabiri (daily) at its base. Thássos q [map], which, like Samothráki, is most reliably accessed from the north mainland, offers beaches and characterful hill villages, although not much pine forest since a series of devastating fires.