The atlas

Regions

Greece is not one destination. These twelve regions differ in landscape, architecture, food and season more than most European countries differ from each other. Start here, not with a list of hotels.

the month to come
good
possible

Islands

Santorini, before the ships
Naxos Chora
Image slotThe caldera by boat, not by road — Cyclades (classic). A private caïque out to the volcanic islets and the hot springs, leaving mid-afternoon and back for sunset on the water.
Image slotAssyrtiko in the vineyard — Cyclades (classic). Basket-trained vines lying flat in volcanic ash, tasted in a cellar with the person who made it.
Image slotDelos — Cyclades (classic). An entire uninhabited sacred island, thirty minutes off Mykonos. The most complete ancient city you can walk through in Greece.
Image slotInland Naxos — Cyclades (classic). Marble villages, a Venetian tower, an emery mine, a kouros lying unfinished in a field where it cracked.

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Cyclades (classic)

Santorini, Mykonos, Paros, Naxos. Famous for good reason, and entirely manageable if you get the hours right.

Sarakiniko, Milos
The Sifnos paths
Image slotMilos by boat, all day — Cyclades (off-grid). Kleftiko's sea caves, Sykia's collapsed roof, and coves with no land access at all.
Image slotThe Sifnos footpath network — Cyclades (off-grid). Two hundred kilometres of waymarked old paths between villages, monasteries and bays.
Image slotPanagia Hozoviotissa, Amorgos — Cyclades (off-grid). A white monastery pinned to a vertical cliff three hundred metres above the sea.
Image slotClay-pot cooking — Cyclades (off-grid). Revithada and mastelo, cooked overnight in a wood oven, eaten on Sunday like everyone else.
Image slotThe Lion of Kea — Cyclades (off-grid). A smiling archaic lion cut from the rock above Ioulida, reached on foot in twenty minutes.
Image slotKolona, Kythnos — Cyclades (off-grid). A sandbar with sea on both sides, best swum to from a boat before the afternoon wind.

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Cyclades (off-grid)

Milos, Folegandros, Sifnos, Amorgos, Serifos, Kimolos, Kea and Kythnos. Same light, same sea, a fraction of the people.

Western Crete, out of season
The Lefka Ori
Image slotSamaria or Imbros gorge — Crete. Samaria is sixteen kilometres and a full day; Imbros is eight and family-manageable. Both end at the Libyan Sea.
Image slotKnossos, early, with an archaeologist — Crete. Evans's reconstruction is controversial and much better with someone who can explain what is real.
Image slotBalos and Gramvousa by private boat — Crete. A hooked sandbar between two seas, best reached before the day boats.
Image slotA village kitchen — Crete. Wild greens picked that morning, snails, and a raki still made in the yard.

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Crete

Not an island so much as a small country: four mountain ranges, a Bronze Age civilisation, and its own kitchen.

North-east Corfu
Off Antipaxos
Image slotA day boat to Antipaxos — Ionian (Eptanese). Two beaches with Caribbean water, twenty minutes off Paxos, empty by six.
Image slotThe Myrtos road — Ionian (Eptanese). Kefalonia's west coast from above — one of the great European coastal drives.
Image slotCorfu Town on foot — Ionian (Eptanese). Venetian fortresses, the Liston arcade, and a Sunday philharmonic band that has played since 1840.
Image slotIthaca, slowly — Ionian (Eptanese). Two harbours, a hill village, and the least developed island in the group.

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Ionian (Eptanese)

Corfu, Kefalonia, Lefkada, Zakynthos, Ithaca, Paxos. Green, Venetian, and the closest Greek islands to Malta.

Lindos, first entry
Symi harbour
Image slotThe Street of the Knights, after six — Dodecanese. Walked when the ships have sailed, with a guide who can join it to Malta's own story.
Image slotLindos acropolis at opening — Dodecanese. A Doric temple on a rock above two bays, and the village white below it.
Image slotThe Nisyros caldera — Dodecanese. Walk onto the floor of an active volcano, hissing and sulphurous, then eat in the village above it.
Image slotOlymbos, Karpathos — Dodecanese. A ridge village that kept its dress, its ovens and a dialect with pre-classical roots.

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Dodecanese

Rhodes, Symi, Patmos, Karpathos, Nisyros. Medieval, Italian, monastic — the Aegean's most layered islands.

Koukounaries, Skiathos
Skopelos
Image slotThe marine park by boat — Sporades. Uninhabited islets, a Byzantine monastery on Kyra Panagia, and a real chance of monk seals.
Image slotWalking Skopelos — Sporades. Old mule paths between monasteries and plum orchards, in pine shade.
Image slotSkyros carnival — Sporades. Goat-bell dancers and masked figures in late February — one of the oldest surviving rites in Europe.

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Sporades

Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonnisos, Skyros. Pine forest to the waterline and Europe's largest marine park.

Mainland

Athens, arrival evening
Hydra, out of season
Image slotThe Acropolis before the gates open — Athens & Argo-Saronic. First entry with a licensed archaeologist, then the museum, then out before the heat.
Image slotThe National Archaeological Museum — Athens & Argo-Saronic. Two focused hours with someone who knows it beats four hours alone.
Image slotCape Sounion at sunset — Athens & Argo-Saronic. The Temple of Poseidon on its headland, with Byron's name cut into a column.
Image slotEating off the square — Athens & Argo-Saronic. Koukaki and Petralona — the kitchens Athenians keep for themselves.

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Athens & Argo-Saronic

The city, the coast below it, and four islands an hour from the port — Hydra, Spetses, Aegina, Poros.

The Mani, late autumn
Nafplio
Image slotEpidaurus — Peloponnese. Stand at the centre of the theatre, speak normally, and listen. Summer festival performances still fill it.
Image slotMystras — Peloponnese. An abandoned Byzantine city on a hillside above Sparta — frescoed churches, a palace, and almost nobody.
Image slotThe Vyros gorge, Mani — Peloponnese. Old kalderimia from Kardamyli up into the Taygetos, walkable in half a day.
Image slotNemea in September — Peloponnese. Agiorgitiko at harvest, tasted with the winemaker in the cellar.

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Peloponnese

Mycenae, Olympia, Epidaurus, Monemvasia, the Mani. The densest concentration of history in Greece, and you can drive it.

Zagori, in the rain
Vikos, from the rim
Image slotThe Vikos gorge floor — Epirus & Zagori. Monodendri to Papingo, six hours, one of the great European day walks.
Image slotRafting the Voidomatis — Epirus & Zagori. Clear, cold, gentle water through the gorge — genuinely suitable for children.
Image slotThe stone bridges — Epirus & Zagori. Kokkorou, Plakida, Kalogeriko — three arches, and a walking route that links them.
Image slotA pie made in front of you — Epirus & Zagori. Filo rolled by hand at six in the morning, the way it has always been done here.

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Epirus & Zagori

Forty-six stone villages, the deepest gorge in Europe by ratio, and arched bridges over glacier-clear water.

East Pelion, October
Damouchari
Image slotThe Pelion railway — Pelion & Magnesia. A narrow-gauge line designed by Evaristo de Chirico, father of the painter, over stone viaducts.
Image slotKalderimi walking — Pelion & Magnesia. Tsagarada to Damouchari, downhill through forest, ending at a sea you swim in.
Image slotSki Agriolefkes, then swim — Pelion & Magnesia. A small ski centre at 1,500 metres, forty minutes from a beach. In February both work.
Image slotA tsipouradiko in Volos — Pelion & Magnesia. Order by the round; the food arrives on its own logic.

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Pelion & Magnesia

The mountain of the centaurs: chestnut forest running down to two different seas, and skiing above a beach.

Thessaloniki, evening
Sithonia, September
Image slotEating Thessaloniki properly — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. A morning in the markets, bougatsa, and a long evening of small plates in Ladadika.
Image slotThe Athos coastline by boat — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Twenty monasteries seen from the water, some of them a thousand years old.
Image slotVergina — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Descend into the tomb of Philip II, with the grave goods displayed where they were found.
Image slotSailing Sithonia — Halkidiki & Thessaloniki. Diaporos and the islets off Vourvourou — shallow, clear, and easy water.

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Halkidiki & Thessaloniki

Three peninsulas of pine and clear water, and the best eating city in Greece behind them.

Prespa, first light
Naoussa, November
Image slotSkiing Kaimaktsalan — Macedonia (north). The highest slopes in the country, above a crater lake, on a border ridge.
Image slotPrespa by boat — Macedonia (north). Out to the hermitages and the submerged church, with pelicans on the water.
Image slotThe Arcturos bear sanctuary — Macedonia (north). Rescued brown bears in forest enclosure at Nymfaio — serious conservation, not a zoo.
Image slotPozar thermal baths — Macedonia (north). Steaming natural pools in a snowbound gorge below Kaimaktsalan.

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Macedonia (north)

Prespa's lakes, Kastoria's furs and frescoes, Nymfaio's bears, and the highest skiing in Greece.