Photograph: AlamyDespite the economic storm, the sun is still shining in Greece, and the tavernas, beaches, ancient sites and vineyards are open for business. The country needs your help – so get a fistful of euros and go and have a good time with the help of our in-depth guide to the best deals, hotels, food and wine
Mykonos, Santorini and Ios form the tourist heart of the islands, each fulfilling the Greek island dream with their own unique selling points. Some reports have suggested these first two islands will always be busy, so head beyond these (there are 56 in the group), and even beyond Naxos, Paros and Milos – three lovely but popular islands – and choose somewhere less well-known. Folegandros, to the south, once remote behind its tall cliffs, is becoming increasingly trendy, whereas nearby Sikinos, with its tiny population of under 300, is still little visited.
The northern Cyclades are within easy reach of Athens and normally get plenty of Greek tourists, so will be struggling. Kea, with its oak forest, and Kythnos, with its hot springs, are both quiet. Andros is one of the largest Cyclades, with a varied, rugged landscape. Meanwhile, peaceful Serifos, Tinos with its pilgrimage site, remote Anafi, and Amorgos, immortalised in the film The Big Blue, all have something special to offer.
Getting there and deals There are airports on some of the bigger islands (Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Syros and Milos) with flights direct or via Athens. Easyjet flies direct in summer to Mykonos and Santorini from the UK. The islands are all linked by ferries to each other and to mainland Greece. For more details of how to get there, the best places to stay and the best tavernas, see our online guide at gu.com/p/4vgpt.
A four-suite, adults-only hideaway in Kini, on Syros, Pino di Loto (i-escape.com), has a seven-night stay in summer from £496pp (was £620pp).
Kostantakis Residence (apartments from €100 a night until the end of August,kostantakis.gr) is a complex of six bungalows, two studios and a suite set in a farm overlooking the beach in Pollonia, a fishing village on Milos.
At the Verina Astra boutique hotel (from €100 B&B, verinahotelsifnos.com) on Sifnos, there’s 15% off all online or phone bookings for July-September. Or, on Andros, Aegea Blue Cycladic Resort (secretescapes.com) is a four-star bolthole near Zorgos beach, with suites down from £147 a night to just £65 B&B, including a dinner.
Alternatively, packages include a seven-night yacht holiday with skipper with Incrediblue (020 3695 0409, incrediblue.com), for four people in two cabins for £446pp leaving 18 July from Heraklion, taking in the Cyclades.
The north-east Aegean includes a hodgepodge of islands stretching from verdant Samos in the south, just off the coast of Turkey, up to Thasos 400km to the north, which is closer to Bulgaria than it is to Athens. In between is an isolated stretch of islands, often far apart from each other and not very well connected, so they are often overlooked, which means they tend to be uncrowded and unspoilt.
Samos is the nearest thing this group gets to a well-known destination, but it is still more easily reached from Turkey than from Greece. It does have its resorts but it is big enough, and diverse enough, still to be the most instantly attractive of the group.
Heading west, little Fourni is an unspoilt gem, larger Ikaria is a different kettle of fish, not immediately pretty but the locals have an independent and proud streak that sets them apart.
Chios and Lesbos lie near the Turkish coast. The former hides many gems away from its beach resorts. Lesbos is one of the biggest of all the islands, and proper exploration will reveal why it is still beloved by artists, historians, and modern Sapphos.
In the north, there’s a scattering of volcanic islands that remain firmly off the beaten track. Limnos has recently become fashionable among mainland Greeks, but remains beautiful and authentic. Samothrace is one of the most dramatic of the Greek islands and is home to a stunning and world-class ancient site. Finally, if you want to see how the Greeks party, Thassos is your place.
Getting there and deals The southern, and larger, islands of the chain can be reached by ferry and plane from Athens and other places in Greece. In the summer, charter flights run from abroad. Limnos can be reached from Thessaloniki by ferry. The two northern islands of Thassos and Samothrace are a more difficult prospect. Ferries run from the northern mainland ports of Kavala and Alexandropouli respectively.
One of the few small hotels on Samos, Klima Paradise (klimaparadise.com) has eight whitewashed apartments overlooking the sea, with beachfront studios and apartments, and ground-floor family rooms for two adults and two children from €65 B&B July-September.
At the Lida Mary Hotel on Chios (doubles from €52, lidamary.gr), exposed stone walls and a crisp decor match the boutique eight-room hotel with its home in the maze-like medieval fortified village of Mesta.
The most famous, and largest in the Dodecanese (which means “12 islands”), is touristy Rhodes, home to maligned Faliraki, but also Rhodes Town, full of alleys to wander and a great market in the new town for cheap eats. Kos, too, is infamous for package tourism, but has fantastic beaches, and Kos town’s late medieval crusader’s castle. Recently, it’s become famous as a landing point for refugees.
Canny visitors head to the lesser-known islands. Karpathos has a stunning coastline with beaches and bays in the south. Smaller Kalymnos, Kasos, Kastellorizo and Symi have elegant harbours – a legacy of their trading past – and rocky interiors that offer good walking. Nisyros, built on an active volcano, has dramatic, blackened landscapes for geology lovers. Low-key and little-visited Tilos is charming, while Patmos is popular with the cognoscenti – it’s historic with stylish places to stay. Take your pick.
Getting there and deals For indepth details of how to get there, the best places to stay and the best tavernas, see our online guide to the Dodecanese: gu.com/p/49evp. Both Easyjet and Ryanair fly direct to Rhodes and Kos.
On Patmos, there’s Villa Malandrakis (€700 a night B&B, sleeps six in three bedrooms, soulofpatmos.com), which also has a Honeymoon Suite (€300 a night B&B) – a 100-year-old triple-height annexe with roof terrace. Both properties have some availability between now and September.
You can camp for free at Eristos beach on tiny Tilos (one of the only places in Greece where it’s allowed).
The Ionian islands lie off Greece’s western coast, in a line from Zakynthos in the south to Corfu in the north. Part of the latter is closer to Albania than the mainland, and all reflect the influence of nearby Italy. Corfu also has a distinct British tinge. It was a British protectorate in the 19th century, but also has a long history of package tourism. The island is big enough to cope with this, though, especially in the off season, and still has some gems.
Paxi consists of two small islands, Paxos and Antipaxos, and is where adventurous tourists moved on to as Corfu became busier. The beaches of Antipaxos are more than worth the effort of getting there (especially Voutoumi). Lefkada is much less touristy, perhaps because it sometimes feels like part of the mainland (it is connected by a bridge).
Kefalonia is known to millions from best-selling novel and film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, but its beautiful landscapes are mostly untroubled by their new-found fame.
Zakynthos could act as a distillation of the whole Ionian group – bits of the coast have been overtaken by package tourism but there are isolated coves and a mountainous interior.
Getting there and deals For details of how to get there, the best places to stay and the best tavernas, see our online guide: gu.com/p/3q7ay.
EasyJet, Ryanair, Thomas Cook and Thomson offer direct flights to Kefalonia. For villas, try ionian-villas.co.uk. In Fiscardo, Holiday Lettings (holidaylettings.co.uk) has seven nights at Fiscardo Villas from £1,101 a week sleeping eight. On Corfu, Thresher’s House, high above the hamlets of Porta and Megoulas, is now priced at £1,650, saving £700, for a week for up to six people from 20 July with Vintage Travel (01954 261 431, vintagetravel.co.uk).
Olympic Holidays (0844 576 2386, olympicholidays.com) has a week on Zakynthos flying from Gatwick on 16 July in family-run Astoria Hotel, down to £335pp B&B from £454pp. A new boutique hotel, Ionian Sun (doubles from €117, uniquekefalonia.com), opened last week in Lourdas in the south of Kefalonia.
The largest Greek island, Crete has the most diverse mix of landscapes and stands far to the south of most of the rest of the country, with its own unmistakable culture and atmosphere.
The north coast of the island is the most populated area and the most well-known to tourists. Heraklion is the island’s capital and main entry point. A working city, it can be off-putting at first, but it has a world-class museum. Rethymnon and Hania to the west are much more pleasant and retain a distinct Venetian influence. To the east, Agios Nikolaos (or Ag Nik to Brits), is one of the island’s major resorts but still retains some character.
The interior is home to the White Mountains, which soar to over 2,000m and offer some spectacular hikes and drives. The mountains are a bit more gentle to the east and, in their midst, they hide the extraordinary basin of the Lasithi plateau with its white windmills. The south coast is much more rugged and less visited than the north, criss-crossed with gorges and dotted with isolated villages and coves. It is also the stepping off point for the solitary islets to the south of Crete.
Getting there and deals For details of how to get there, the best places to stay and the best tavernas see our online guide: gu.com/p/4v5g7.
Hotel Splanzia (doubles from £99 a night B&B or £624 for seven nights,splanzia.com) has eight rooms with neo-classical furnishings in an authentic Venetian building set in the quiet maze of back streets behind Hania’s harbour.
Sunvil Holidays (020 8758 4758, sunvil.co.uk) has 15% savings on a week’s stay at the Mimayia Apartments in the delightful village of Paleochora in the south-west, near a kilometre-long golden beach and wide range of tavernas, and access to inland walking. Departing on 28 July, seven nights’ self-catering now costs £639pp (two sharing), down from £754pp, including flights from Manchester and transfers.
People wanting to travel alone could choose a week with Solos Holidays (0844 371 8860, solosholidays.co.uk) at the Iraklis Apartments in Gouves. It includes three dinners, welcome drink and information meeting, and costs from £859pp including flights from Gatwick, transfers and accommodation for single use. The 11 August departures are from £875pp and the 18 August departures from £869pp.
The Sporades, off Greece’s eastern coast, consist of 24 islands, but only four of these are permanently inhabited: Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos and Skyros.
Skiathos is the most travelled, thanks to its international airport. It’s famous for its beaches but, inland, you can still find isolated hiking trails and the odd Byzantine monastery. Skopelos is larger but less visited than Skiathos. Its scenery is perhaps more beautiful and certainly less developed. Much more rugged Alonissos lies in the middle of a marine park, surrounded by a group of uninhabited satellite islands. Skyros is by far the least visited of the Sporades, at least by non-Greeks (there is a domestic airport). Those who make the trip, however, are rewarded by an atmosphere that blends village life with a trendy “alternative” vibe.
Although not strictly part of the Sporades, Evia also lies off Greece’s eastern coast. The second largest island in Greece after Crete, and conveniently close to Athens, it should be much better known. From its fertile north to the mountainous south, it offers a wealth of travel opportunities.
Getting there and deals For details of how to get there, the best places to stay and the best tavernas see our online guide: gu.com/p/3zkj2.
On Skopelos, the family-run Artemis Bungalows (doubles from €65, skopelos-artemis.gr) is where the production crew stayed during the filming of Mamma Mia! The 15 apartments have a pool and are 10 minutes’ walk from Stafilos beach.
The Argo-Saronic islands hug the coast between Piraeus, the port of Athens, and the Peloponnese, the stunning southern mainland of Greece. They could easily fill a holiday on their own but, combined with Athens and the mainland, would make for a trip that summed up the very best of Greece.
Having said that, and unless you’re keen to see the site where the Greeks defeated the Persian navy in 480 BC, Salamis is probably not worth the effort. Aegina (an hour by ferry from Athens) is a much better bet. The classical temple of Aphaea is everything you imagine a Greek temple to be and is far less visited than some.
Heading south around the Peloponnese coast, the islands become more upmarket and expensive, and are best out of season. Poros, only a long stone’s throw from the mainland, attracts some package tourism but is beautiful, nonetheless, and a great base for exploring the famous sites on the mainland (the theatre of Epidaurus and Mycenae among them).
Hydra ramps up the stakes, not even allowing cars or bicycles to spoil the island’s tranquillity. If you can afford it, its charms are obvious and have not gone unnoticed by the world’s artists, writers and musicians.Spetses, a little further on, is an outpost for the remaining rich Greeks and the yacht crowd. Away from them, the interior is almost entirely unpopulated and hiking will allow you to savour the mysterious atmosphere that inspired John Fowles’ The Magus. Lastly, Kythira is strictly part of the Ionian islands, but is most easily reached from the Peloponnese. If you can make it here, you will be rewarded with one of the most authentic and beautiful Greek islands there is.
Getting there and deals
These islands are best approached by flying to Athens and then either driving into the Peloponnese and hopping over, or getting the ferry or hydrofoil from Piraeus. Kythira can be reached directly from here as well, but you are better off taking the chance to explore the Peloponnese and then get the ferry from Neapoli in the south (although you can fly from Athens).
Alternatively, tour the Saronic islands on a Seamaster Yachting (seamaster.co.uk) holiday, including skipper/instructor, and return flights from Gatwick to Athens, departing 1 August for £865pp (based on six sharing).
The Peloponnese
Photograph: Alamy
It is easy to think that Greece is all about the islands. Apart from Athens, and a few of the major classical sites, the mainland is often ignored. This is a huge mistake. Mainland Greece has the same glorious weather, the same hospitable people and the same world-class beaches as the islands. It is also less crowded, has a variety of ancient sites, is strung with dramatic mountain ranges, and gives you a much more authentic view of Greece than most of the islands can ever
To really get to know these areas, hire a car and explore. The Peloponnese peninsula, connected to the rest of Greece by the original Isthmus, can almost be treated as the country’s biggest island (it’s the size of Wales). It is popular with tourists, but most don’t make it past the big archaeological sites. To be fair, these are a must-see and include Olympia, Ancient Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus theatre and Sparta.
There are many less famous, but equally stunning, remnants of the past. Near Sparta, the remains of Mystra deserve a mention – the world’s best preserved Byzantine city is a treasure trove of architecture and frescos.
The peninsula is also blessed by nature. Its mountains are crossed by hiking trails and, down on the plains, possibly the finest olives in the world grow. In springtime, especially down in the famously rugged Mani region, the bare hillsides are painted with a staggering profusion of wild flowers. Finally, the beaches are at least a match for anything the islands can offer.
Getting there and deals Scheduled flights run to Kalamata. A week’s package in Skafidia, west Peloponnese, costs from £649pp including flights (from Gatwick, Birmingham or Manchester), transfers and all-inclusive accommodation at the five-star Aldemar Olympian Village for late July and August with Fleetway (fleetwaytravel.com).
The northern mainland only became part of Greece in the 20th century, and retains its own character, much influenced by the Balkans to the north and Turkey to the east. It is an intriguing area that rewards proper exploration. Most of the beach resorts are on the two western prongs of the Halkidiki peninsula. For more privacy, and stunning Byzantine architecture, head to mount Athos, a semi-independent “monk’s republic”. Just make sure you have your permit beforehand (and that you are male – not even female cats are allowed). The rest of this little-explored region includes intriguing possibilities, such as hiking up mount Olympus, seeing the tombs of Alexander the Great’s family at Vergina, the cliff-hugging wooden houses of Edessa, and the natural beauty of the Prespa lakes. This is a Greece that most ignore.
Getting there and deals Scheduled flights run to Thessaloniki. Koukouli Guesthouse (doubles from €40,koukouli.com) is a cosy hiking hideaway, surrounded by forest, near the Vikos canyon. Sivota, in mountainous Epirus, is near hills covered in pine, cypress and olive trees and has a pretty harbour looking across to Corfu. A trip there, departing from Manchester on 23 July, flying to Preveza airport and staying in the three-star Albatross Hotel now costs £495pp (was £632) through Olympic Holidays (olympicholidays.com).
For a different way to visit the Halkidiki peninsula, while also enjoying island life, stay on nearby Ammouliani, a 4.5 sq km isle fringed by a string of Caribbean-like sandy beaches with shallow waters. Departing 31 July, seven nights’ B&B at the peaceful Ismini Hotel, with Sunvil (020 8758 4758, sunvil.co.uk) now costs £589 pp (two sharing, was £838pp) including flights from Gatwick and transfers. Or DialAFlight (0844 556 6060, dialaflight.com) has 20% savings on a week for departures 25 September to 24 October at the five-star Eagles Palace & Spa on the Mount Athos peninsula. Prices from £475pp half-board (two sharing) including flights from a choice of UK airports.
Delphi is the jewel in the crown of the central heartlands of Greece. It can be reached in a long day trip from Athens, so it can be crowded. Don’t be put off – the ancients decided that this spot was the centre of the world and it is heart-stoppingly beautiful. Stay in one of the nearby towns or villages (far nicer than the tourist town by the ruins), and visit the site early in the morning and late in the evening to enjoy it to its full. North from Delphi are many lesser-known, but equally beguiling, places. Meteora is a fairytale landscape of monasteries, perched on rock pinnacles. To the east is the increasingly popular Pelion; a wooded peninsula of fine walks and sheltered beaches where the centaurs used to play. Over the crags of the Pindus mountains lies the old Ottoman capital of Iannina beside its tranquil lake. Here the ferocious Ali Pasha played amiable host to a young Lord Byron. All of these can be visited from the beaches of Parga on the west coast.
Getting there and deals Fly to Athens and hire a car. Minelska Resorts (suites from €100, minelska.gr) on the Pelion is a richly decorated B&B with views over the seafront at Kala Nera. Or Sunvil Holidays (020 8758 4758, sunvil.co.uk) has a week self-catering for £609pp (down from £716pp) departing 31 July from Gatwick, at the modern Melograno Apartments, also in Kala Nera.
Athens is still a peaceful city; the bars and restaurants will appreciate visitors and all the sites are open as usual. Any potential protests are likely to be confined to small areas in the centre. See our latest guide to Athens online: gu.com/p/3q3ef.
As well as the classical sights, buy hip souvenirs from Forget Me Not (Adrianou 100), a haven amid a sea of tourist tat in Plaka. The Museum of Contemporary Art, expected to open later this year, will also be worth a visit. There’s availability in August and September at the four-suite Alice Inn Athens hotel (€100-€200 for three people, aliceinnathens.com).
Andrew Bostock, author of the Bradt Travel Guide Greece: The Peloponnese – new edition out spring 2016. Additional reporting by Gemma Bowes.
• This article was amended on 14 July 2015 to clarify that the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens has yet to open.
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