The north by road, the Cyclades by ferry, Rhodes by air — pick the region first and the island second
Greece is chosen by region rather than as a whole, and that choice decides the rest — transport, number of days, month. The north, with Thessaloniki, Meteora and Zagori, is mainland touring by car; Athens is the hub for ferries and domestic flights; and the islands differ above all in how long they take to reach and whether you can manage without a car.
The north works as one loop from Thessaloniki. Ioannina, the town below the Zagori villages, is about three hours away on the Egnatia motorway; Meteora lies on the eastern side of the Pindus range and Zagori on the western, so a loop takes in both without doubling back. The Peloponnese is a separate trip: Monemvasia is about 300 kilometres and four hours' drive south of Athens, with no direct bus, so it only makes sense with a hire car.
Each place has its own page — what makes it worth the detour, and how long you need.
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Islands are chosen by journey length. Santorini is 5–9 hours by boat from Piraeus or about 50 minutes by air from Athens, so it fits a long weekend; Rhodes is 12–17 hours by ferry, which in practice leaves it to the plane. In July and August the meltemi, the summer north wind, blows across the Cyclades at its strongest: the small fast catamarans are cancelled first, the big ferries only in the strongest wind. With a flight home in those months, don't leave the crossing back for the last day.
How it actually was when we were there, and what was worth it.
On the Cyclades the sea is warmest in August. In September it matches July, in October it matches June — except that an October day is…
The bus and the car each cost a day in each direction, the plane an hour and a quarter. Which is why two days in Thessaloniki by bus…
The island is sold as a week in a hotel on the east coast. What that skips is a town inside four kilometres of walls where people…
That is the figure on Greece's official tourism site. Other counts start at about 1,200, depending on how small a rock can be and still count as an island.
About 13,700 kilometres, more than any other Mediterranean country and eleventh in the world — almost all of it owed to the islands rather than the mainland.
Twenty-four monasteries were built on the Meteora rocks between the 14th and 16th centuries; six still take visitors. UNESCO has protected them since 1988.
The palace outside Heraklion was the centre of the Minoan civilisation in the Bronze Age, more than a thousand years before the Parthenon.
The Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, built on the site of the ancient one, was restored for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and is made entirely of white marble.
As the story has been told since 1957, a Nestlé representative at the Thessaloniki fair had no hot water, so he shook instant coffee with cold water in a shaker — and frappé was born.
This isn't a ranking — it's a route. Any one of these could carry a whole trip.
The hub for the rest of the country: ferries to the Cyclades leave from Piraeus and domestic flights go from the airport to Crete and Rhodes, so Athens usually sits at the start or end of an island trip. If the city itself is the point, come in spring or late autumn — July and August are its hottest months.
For the cliff-top view over a drowned crater, not for the beach: the beaches are on the east side, at Kamari and Perissa, and made of dark volcanic sand. Anyone after a long pale beach does better on Crete; anyone with three or four days who wants the sunset from Oia is on the right island.
A day or two, best as part of a northern loop with Thessaloniki and Zagori. Without a car you depend on organised tours from Kalambaka, because the monasteries are spread across the mountain.
A week and a hire car, because public transport between towns is thin. The west, with Chania, has the gorges and beaches; the middle, with Heraklion, has Knossos; doing both takes the full week. Without a car, Crete shrinks to one town.
The base for the north rather than the islands: from Thessaloniki the road leads to Meteora and Zagori, and Halkidiki is within reach for a day by the sea. Its airport makes it the natural start of a northern loop.
Greece has around six thousand islands and islets, of which some two hundred and twenty are inhabited. Its coastline is the longest in the Mediterranean, though the country is smaller than the United Kingdom.
Mount Athos is an autonomous monastic state within Greece, with its own administration and a border crossed by permit. Women have been barred for over a thousand years. The ban still stands.
Short answers to what people ask most before setting out.
Crete, if you drive. Santorini is seen in three or four days, which leaves the rest of the week on a small island; in the same time Crete gives you the west coast, the southern beaches and the Samaria Gorge. The gorge opens only in season — some time in May, occasionally not until mid-month, until the end of October.
It can, but with about five hours of travel each way. The railway from Palaiofarsalos to Kalambaka has been out of service since the floods of September 2023, so you take the train to Palaiofarsalos and a rail-replacement bus on from there. Better to sleep in Kalambaka, or fit Meteora into a loop from the north.
Women need a skirt below the knee — trousers are not accepted instead — men need long trousers, and everyone needs covered shoulders. Most monasteries lend wrap-around skirts at the entrance, but in summer they can run short.
Keep going — these destinations and stories pair well with this one.
Leave your email and we'll let you know when a new destination or story goes up.
All photographs come from Wikimedia Commons and are used under the licence stated beside each one.
