Athens first, then the water.
Caldera sunsets, Balos in the morning, Meteora above the plain, and a taverna table at the end of it. What each tour is really like, what it costs, and where to book.
The seven a first Greek trip runs on.
First summer or fifth, these are the days that hold a week together: the Acropolis before the heat, the Kissamos boat out to Balos and Gramvousa, the long caldera sail that finishes with the sun going down behind Thirassia.
Athens: Acropolis Ticket with Optional Audio or Live Guide
Timed Acropolis entry with a phone ticket plus Old Town audio, optional Acropolis audio or live guide, and Parthenon views.
From $42 per person
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Greece does its best work offshore.
Kissamos at nine for Balos and Gramvousa. Out of Fira for the caldera, the hot springs and Thirassia. Symi and back from Rhodes before dinner. The sea is flat until early afternoon almost everywhere, which is why the morning departures are the ones worth the alarm.
Cyclades, Crete, Dodecanese or Ionian?
Every Greek trip comes down to this one choice, and the ferry timetable decides most of the rest. Four groups, four completely different weeks. Pick the one that sounds like your summer and the whole list is behind it.
Caldera and whitewash
The Cyclades
5 hours (approx.) · from $114 · 3,933 reviews
Santorini for the cliff, the wine and the sunset, Mykonos for Little Venice and the boat to Delos, Naxos and Paros when you want the same light without the queue. Fast ferries leave Piraeus most mornings and one island rolls straight into the next.
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A country of its own
Crete
8 - 11 hours · from $44 · 4,416 reviews
Big enough that the driving matters. Chania and the Venetian harbour in the west, Balos and Elafonisi for the water, the Samaria gorge for your legs, Knossos and Heraklion for the Minoans. A week here still leaves things undone.
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Walled town, short crossings
The Dodecanese
from $55 · 2,333 reviews
Rhodes keeps a medieval city you can still walk the walls of, plus the fast boat to Symi and its ochre harbour. Kos runs the three-island cruise and the Nisyros volcano. Everything here is close, and most of it is reached by water.
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Green and Venetian
The Ionian
from $61 · 2,963 reviews
Corfu is green in a way the Aegean never is, with shuttered Venetian streets and the Paxos blue caves an hour offshore. Zakynthos holds Navagio and the loggerhead turtles. Softer water, shorter crossings, cooler evenings.
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Greece saves its best hour for last.
Sounion turns gold about forty minutes before the sun touches the water, and the headland empties as it does. On Santorini the whole caldera rim faces west, so a boat is the only seat with nothing in front of it. Book the evening, not the afternoon.
Dinner is the long part of the day.
Athens eats late and eats out: a market walk that turns into ten small plates, a rooftop with the Acropolis lit behind it, a Cretan kitchen where the raki arrives before you ask for it. Book the food day early in the week and everything after it eats better.
The stones are still standing.
Delphi sits on its shelf of mountain with a valley of olive trees below. Mycenae keeps the lion gate, Epidaurus the theatre where a coin dropped on stage carries to the back row, Sounion the temple that watches the shipping lanes. Go early; the marble gets loud by eleven.
Meteora was built to be hard to reach.
Six monasteries still stand on the rock pillars above Kalambaka, and all six are working religious houses rather than ruins. Visitors are welcome inside during opening hours: shoulders and knees covered, wraps handed out at the gate, quiet in the chapels, and no cameras where the signs say so. Most day trips run from Athens or Thessaloniki and take you into two or three of the six.
Each island wants a different week.
Greece works island by island, and each one wants a different week. Santorini for the cliff and the sunset. Crete for the drive and the gorge. Rhodes for the walled town and the run across to Symi. Corfu for green hills and Venetian shutters.
Boat, table or broken marble.
Each tile is a different shape of afternoon. Pick the one that sounds like yours and the whole list sits behind it, priced and dated.
The mainland is closer than it looks.
Delphi is three hours up the mountain road and worth every one of them. Meteora is a long day nobody regrets. Sounion is a half day that ends with the sun going into the sea behind the columns. Nafplio, Mycenae and Epidaurus fit into one loop.
Do these three in this order.
You cannot do Greece in one trip, and trying is the classic mistake. This is the order that works: the city first while your legs are fresh, the long mainland day second, the water on the third.
Day 1
The Acropolis before the heat
Up the hill at eight while the marble is still cool and the light is good, the Acropolis Museum after, then Plaka and a long lunch. Athens gets loud by noon and this is the way around it.
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Day 2
The day up the mountain road
Delphi up the mountain road, or Meteora if you can give it a whole day. Both leave early, both come back late, and both are the day people talk about afterwards.
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Day 3
Get on a boat
Hydra, Poros and Aegina in one run out of Piraeus, or the fast ferry to an island and the caldera sail from there. Morning departure, flat water, lunch on deck.
Plan day three →
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