Luxury hotel holiday Grecotel Cape Sounio Greece

Highlights of Greece

The ancient sites of Athens, with the Acropolis merely the most famous; Halkidiki, three beautiful peninsulas stretching out into the Northern Aegean, dominated by Mount Athos, with volcanoes, beaches and monasteries; Pelios peninsula, well-known to Athenians, little visited by tourists, criss-crossed by ancient mule tracks, with ancient villages, fabulous remote beaches; the Peloponnese, Greece at its ancient (Agamemnon’s Palace at Mycenae and Temple of Apollo at Corinth) and modern (west coast beaches) best; Kos, with beautiful powder-soft beaches sandwiched between verdant interior and turquoise sea; Santorini, perhaps the most iconic island of all, with famous blue-domed churches, white-washed villages and cobalt bays; Corfu’s wonderful old town; Hydra, fantastically scenic, with tiers of stone mansions cascading down towards a perfect horseshoe harbour; Patmos, where St John wrote the Book of Revelations, now a laid-back artistic hang-out; the extraordinarily atmospheric Delphi; Greece’s fascinating second city Thessaloniki; Meteora, one of Greece’s most spectacular sites, with clifftop monasteries overlooking the sea; take a rack-and-pinion train journey through the stunning Vouraikos Gorge to Kalavryta; lobster tavernas of the Fourni islands, a wonderful archipelago with gently shelving islands and hidden coves; the national marine park of Alonnisos, superb snorkelling; turtles on Zakynthos; Ikaria’s bizarre rock formations; spring and autumn migrations, when the cliffs of Lesvos swarm with birds; semi-tropical Samos and pine-scented Thasos with super beaches; tiny, hidden islands of Inousses, Fourni and Psara.

Travelling around Greece & the Greek islands

Greece is an easy place to travel around thanks to a comprehensive public transport system. Buses are the mainstay of land transport, with a network that reaches out to the smallest villages. Trains are a good alternative, where available. To most visitors, though, travelling in Greece means island-hopping on the multitude of ferries that crisscross the Adriatic and the Aegean. If you’re in a hurry, Greece also has an extensive domestic air network. While exasperating ferry schedules make island-hopping here a challenge, the individual character of each island more than makes up for the effort.