Luxury holidays to Greece | Tailor-made tours and special interest holidays

An Expressions tailor-made holiday to Greece is ideal for any traveller looking to experience the diversity and splendour of this historic country. With 166 inhabited islands, a history spanning millennia of civilisation, distinctive and rustic cuisine often enjoyed al fresco with taverna-views out over the sea, as well as some of the most spectacular beaches in Europe, Greece offers a fantastic holiday for all tastes and budgets. The sum of an extraordinary diversity of parts, Greece has played host to countless empires, and the country today is fair littered with Roman ruins and Byzantine churches, Venetian fortresses and Frankish castles. Its music, food and even language are hugely influence by the Ottoman Empire’s 400-year rule. Scattered far and wide across the Aegean and Ionian Seas, the difficulty with Greece is in deciding which bit to visit. From the rugged hillsides of Crete to the long, wide beaches of Kefalonia, from the dramatic coastline of the Peloponnese to the ancient villages and tiny islands of the Dodecanese and Cyclades, Greece is so many different holidays rolled into one, endlessly multi-faceted country. Whether you just want to fly and flop or explore ancient ruins, whether you’re looking for water sports and nightlife, or wanting to hike between ancient villages, the famously friendly Greeks will be sure to have their welcome mat out for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Expressions Holidays offers hotels in Athens and on the Attica coast at Cape Sounion, in the western Peloponnese at Costa Navarino and Kyllini, and on the Halkidiki peninsula near Thessaloniki. The islands featured are Crete, Corfu, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini, Skiathos and Skopelos. These areas can be combined, for example Athens with an island or the Peloponnese, or Halkidiki with Thessaloniki, so that a beach stay sits alongside some of Greece's major archaeological sites.

Two or three nights in Athens allows time for its main sites without hurrying. The Acropolis and the Parthenon, best visited early in the morning, are complemented by the Acropolis Museum below, and the Ancient Agora, the Plaka district and the National Archaeological Museum are all within reach. The Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, around an hour south, is traditionally visited at sunset, and Delphi is a full-day trip into the mountains. Hotel Grande Bretagne, opened in 1874 on Syntagma Square, and Anthology of Athens, with 18 rooms beside the Temple of Olympian Zeus, are both central.

The western Peloponnese combines long beaches with some of Greece's most important ancient sites. Costa Navarino, in Messinia, overlooks Navarino Bay, with the harbour town of Pylos, the Venetian castle at Methoni, the Mycenaean Palace of Nestor and the walled site of Ancient Messene nearby, as well as Voidokilia beach and two golf courses. Further north, Kyllini is around an hour from Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games. A touring itinerary can continue east to Nafplio, Mycenae, the theatre at Epidaurus, Mystras and Monemvasia.

Halkidiki is a peninsula in northern Greece that divides into three fingers of land, Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos, with pine forests and long sandy beaches. Sani, on Kassandra, is a resort of several hotels set in a protected wetland reserve, around an hour from Thessaloniki airport. Mount Athos, a self-governing monastic community open only to male pilgrims, can be seen from the sea on boat trips from Ouranoupoli. Thessaloniki has UNESCO-listed Byzantine churches and the White Tower, and the royal tombs of Vergina, where the tomb of Philip II of Macedon was found, are within a day's excursion.

Crete, the largest Greek island, combines resort coastline with Minoan archaeology, mountain villages and gorges. The Palace of Knossos and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum together tell the story of Minoan civilisation, and from Elounda, on the north-east coast, boats cross to Spinalonga, a Venetian fortress island that later became a leper colony. Agios Nikolaos and the Lasithi Plateau are close by, and western Crete has the Venetian harbour of Chania and the Samaria Gorge. Cretan food and wine, based on olive oil, wild greens and local cheeses, is a highlight in itself.

Corfu and Rhodes each have a UNESCO-listed old town that reflects a different chapter of Greek history. Corfu Town, shaped by four centuries of Venetian rule followed by French and British administration, has two fortresses, arcaded streets and the Liston esplanade, and the island's north-east coast has associations with the Durrell family. Rhodes Old Town is one of the best-preserved medieval walled towns in Europe, built by the Knights of St John, with the Palace of the Grand Master and the Street of the Knights. On Rhodes, the village of Lindos is crowned by an ancient acropolis above the sea.

Mykonos and Santorini are the best-known islands of the Cyclades, each with a very different character. Mykonos has a whitewashed harbour town, the windmills above Little Venice and beaches along its south coast, and the uninhabited island of Delos, one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece, is a short boat ride away. Santorini is built around the rim of a flooded volcanic caldera, with villages such as Oia and Fira on the cliff edge, the Bronze Age site of Akrotiri and wineries producing Assyrtiko. May, June, September and early October are the most comfortable months, avoiding the peak summer crowds.

Skiathos and Skopelos are neighbouring islands in the Sporades, in the north-west Aegean, covered in pine forest and known for their quieter pace. Skiathos has an airport with flights from the UK and more than 60 beaches, while Skopelos, reached by ferry from Skiathos, has no airport and is quieter still, with a harbour town of whitewashed houses, monasteries and walking paths. The clifftop chapel of Agios Ioannis on Skopelos appeared in the film Mamma Mia!, and the Alonissos marine park, a protected habitat for the Mediterranean monk seal, lies nearby.

May, June, September and early October are the best months for most of Greece, with warm sea temperatures and comfortable weather for sightseeing. July and August are hot and busy, and the Cyclades are often windy in high summer. There are direct flights from the UK to Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Corfu, Rhodes, Mykonos, Santorini and Skiathos, many of them seasonal, and Kalamata airport serves Costa Navarino. Ferries and domestic flights link the islands, and a hire car or private driver is recommended for touring the Peloponnese.

Each Greece holiday is planned around your interests, whether a single beach stay or a combination of culture and coast. Popular combinations include two or three nights in Athens followed by an island or the Peloponnese, Halkidiki with Thessaloniki and Vergina, Crete with time for Knossos and Spinalonga, and Skiathos with Skopelos. Expressions arranges flights, ferries, transfers and private guides for the archaeological sites, and one specialist consultant looks after the arrangements from first enquiry to your return.

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

● Single centre or multi-centre
● Long or short stays
● Combine a number of different hotels in different regions
● Utilise a variety of transport arrangements to Greece and within Greece, combining flights, hire-car, rail, ferries and private transfers

Our special interest holidays to Greece

● Cultural tours for individuals
● Spa holidays
● Family holidays
● Watersports holidays
● Tennis and sports holidays
● Island-hopping holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday

Call us on 01392 441245

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.

Greece travel information

Greece is reached very easily from the UK by air.

By air

Greece’s 16 international airports are served by a number of scheduled, charter and low-cost airlines from the UK. Olympic, British Airways and British Midland all run scheduled flights to various destinations; flight time from the UK is about four hours.

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

Our special interest holidays to Greece

● Cultural tours for individuals
● Spa holidays
● Family holidays
● Watersports holidays
● Tennis and sports holidays
● Island-hopping holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday

Capital Athens

Airports Greece has 16 international airports, but only those in Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes and Iraklio (Crete) take scheduled flights; the other 12, scattered across the islands, are served by a variety of UK low-cost and charter airlines.

Currency Euro

Size 51,000 sq. miles

Population 10.5 million

Average temperature Greece can be divided into a number of main climatic regions. Northern Macedonia and northern Epiros have a climate similar to the Balkans, with freezing winters and very hot, humid summers; while the Attica Peninsula, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Crete, and the central and eastern Peloponnese have a more typically Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and milder winters.

Call us on 01392 441245

Here you will find a map of Greece showing the locations of the hotels that we offer

Our bespoke, luxury hotel holidays can be

Our special interest holidays to Greece

● Cultural tours for individuals
● Spa holidays
● Family holidays
● Watersports holidays
● Tennis and sports holidays
● Island-hopping holidays

Included in all our holidays

● Concierge service
● Handcrafted helpful hints and local information provided with all our holidays
● Personal service by your sales consultant who looks after all aspects of your holiday

Capital Athens

Currency Euro

Size 51,000 sq. miles

Population 10.5 million