05_165386 ch01.qxp 1/3/08 10:57 AM Page 7 1 The Best of Greece Greece is, of course, the land of ancient sites and architectural treasures—the Acropo- lis in Athens, the amphitheater of Epidaurus, and the reconstructed palace at Knossos among the best known. But Greece is much more: It offers age-old spectacular natu- ral sights, for instance—from Santorini’s caldera to the gray pinnacles of rock of the Meteora—and modern diversions ranging from elegant museums to luxury resorts. It can be bewildering to plan your trip with so many options vying for your attention. Take us along and we’ll do the work for you. We’ve traveled the country extensively and chosen the very best that Greece has to offer. We’ve explored the archaeological sites, visited the museums, inspected the hotels, reviewed the tavernas and ouzeries, and scoped out the beaches. Here’s what we consider the best of the best. 1 The Best Travel Experiences • Making Haste Slowly: Give yourself island boat schedules! See chapter 10, time to sit in a seaside taverna and “The Cyclades.” watch the fishing boats come and go. • Leaving the Beaten Path: Persist If you visit Greece in the spring, take against your body’s and mind’s signals the time to smell the flowers; the that “this may be pushing too far,” fields are covered with poppies, leave the main routes and major daisies, and other blooms. Even in attractions behind, and make your Athens, you’ll see hardy species grow- own discoveries of landscape, villages, ing through the cracks in concrete or activities. For instance, seek out a sidewalks—or better yet, visit Athens’s church or monastery such as Moni Ancient Agora, which will be carpeted Ayios Nikolaos outside Metsovo— with a dazzling variety of wildflowers. you may be rewarded by a moving See chapter 6, “Exploring Athens.” encounter with the church and its • Island-Hopping in the Cyclades: caretaker. When you visit the Cycladic Though the Cyclades are bound by Islands, consider a base on Tinos or unmistakable family resemblance, Syros. Both are very popular with each island has a unique personality. Greeks but attract hardly any foreign- DistancesCOPYRIGHTED between islands are small, ers. MATERIAL See chapter 10, “The Cyclades.” making travel by ferry pleasant and • Exploring the Naturalists’ Greece: logistically straightforward (at least in There is a Greece beyond the columns principle). If you are traveling in the and cafes—a land of rugged terrain off season, when you do not need and wildflowers and birds and other hotel reservations, don’t plan too natural phenomena. Sign up for a much in advance and allow yourself special tour (see chapter 2, “Planning to go with the flow—a tactful way of Your Trip to Greece”), or go it alone preparing you for the unexpected in with one of the several beautifully 05_165386 ch01.qxp 1/3/08 10:57 AM Page 8 8 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE Greece 0 25 mi Tirana MACEDONIA 0 25 km Serres Kilkis Adriatic ALBANIA MACEDONIA Sea Giannitsa Edessa Pella Thessaloniki Kastoria Vergina Stratoni Kozani Mt. Olympus Dion ZAGORI Kalpaki Elassona Metsovo Meteora Ioannina (Kalambaka) Larissa Igoumenitsou Trikkala EPIRUS LLakeake THESSALY Pelion Corfu PPamvotisamvotis Karditsa Peninsula Volos Skopelos GREECE Paxos Arta Praveza Skiathos Karpenissi Lamia Ionian Loutra Sea Vonitsa Edipsou Lefkada CENTRAL Mt. Agrinio GREECE Parnassus Astakos Messolongi Delphi Livadia Kefalonia Ithaka Patras Thebes IONIAN ISLANDS Megara Kyllini Corinth Athens Zakinthos PELOPONNESE Piraeus Mycenae SARONIC Pirgos Olympia GULF Argos ISLANDS Tripoli Nafplion Andritsena Epidaurus AAegeanegean Megalopolis AAthensthens SSeaea Mistra Sparta Kalamata Mediterranean Pilos Sea CCRETERETE Githio CRETE Areopolis Monemvassia Chania Sea of Crete Rethymnon Ayios Iraklion Nikolaos Kythira Ayia Galini Ierapetra 05_165386 ch01.qxp 1/3/08 10:57 AM Page 9 THE BEST TRAVEL EXPERIENCES 9 BULGARIA Drama Xanthi THRACE Komotini Kavala Alexandroupolis Sea of Marmara Thasos Samothraki Mt. Athos Limnos AEGEAN SEA Lake Pamvotis GGREECEREECE Alonissos Lesvos (Mitilini) SPORADES TURKEY Skyros NORTHEASTERN AEGEAN ISLANDS Kimi EVVIA Izmir Hios Karystos Andros Samos Sounion Ikaria Kea Tinos Mykonos Siros Aegean Patmos Sea Delos Athens Naxos Paros Serifos Donoussa Kalimnos Antiparos Sifnos CRETE CYCLADES Kos Amorgos Ios Milos Folegandros Simi Anafi DODECANESE Santorini To Crete Rhodes (approx. 60 miles from mainland) Sea of Crete Karpathos 05_165386 ch01.qxp 1/3/08 10:57 AM Page 10 10 CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF GREECE illustrated handbooks available, such (preferably from the Aegean, illumi- as Oleg Polunin’s Flowers of Greece nating the islands). Then watch it and the Balkans (Oxford Univ. Press); sink over the mountains (anywhere in or Birds of Europe (McGraw-Hill), by Greece, but try not to miss the sun- Bertel Bruun and Arthur Singer. And sets that change the Ionian Sea from don’t forget your binoculars! the deepest blue to a fiery red). • Sunrise, Sunset: Get up a little ear- lier than usual to see the sun rise 2 The Best of Ancient Greece • The Acropolis (Athens): No matter levels, stairways and corridors, in how many photographs you’ve seen, addition to frescoed walls—this is the nothing can prepare you for watching Minoan Palace of Knossos. It can be the light change the marble of the packed at peak hours, but it still buildings, still standing after thou- exerts its power if you enter in the sands of years, from honey to rose to spirit of the labyrinth. King Minos deep red to stark white. If the crowds ruled over the richest and most pow- get you down, think about how erful of Minoan cities and, according crowded the Acropolis was during reli- to legend, his daughter Ariadne gious festivals in antiquity. See p. 194. helped Theseus kill the Minotaur in • Nemea (Peloponnese): This gem of a the labyrinth and escape. See p. 332. site has it all: a beautifully restored • Delos (Cyclades): This tiny isle, just stadium, a handsome museum, even 3.2km (2 miles) offshore of Mykonos, picnic tables with a view of the was considered by the ancient Greeks romantic Doric temple. Look for the to be both the geographical and spir- three long-standing columns—and itual center of the Cyclades; many several newly restored and reerected considered this the holiest sanctuary ones. If you’re lucky, you may see in all of Greece. The extensive remains Nemea’s archaeologists at work lov- here testify to the island’s former splen- ingly reconstructing and reerecting dor. From Mount Kinthos (really just more columns from the temple’s a hill, but the island’s highest point), north facade in their ambitious you can see many of the Cyclades restoration project. See p. 289. most days; on a very clear day, you • Olympia (Peloponnese) & Delphi can see the entire archipelago. The 3 (Central Greece): Try to visit both hours allotted by excursion boats Olympia, where the Olympic Games from Mykonos or Tinos are hardly began, and Delphi, home of the Del- sufficient to explore this vast archaeo- phic Oracle. That’s the only way logical treasure. See chapter 10. you’ll be able to decide whether • Vergina (Northern Greece): In the Olympia, with its massive temples brilliantly designed museum here, you and shady groves of trees, or Delphi, can peek into what may have been the perched on mountain slopes over- tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, looking olive trees and the sea, is the Philip of Macedon. Nearby, more most beautiful ancient site in Greece. than 300 burial mounds stretch for See chapters 8 and 12. miles across the Macedonian plain. • Palace of Knossos (Crete): A seem- See p. 635. ingly unending maze of rooms and 05_165386 ch01.qxp 1/3/08 10:57 AM Page 11 THE BEST BEACHES 11 3 The Best of Byzantine & Medieval Greece • Mistra (Peloponnese): This Byzantine cathedral dome are works of extraor- ghost town has streets lined with the dinary power and beauty; even in the remains of homes both humble and half-obscurity of the nave, they radi- palatial, as well as some of the most ate a brilliant gold. Check out the beautiful churches in all of Greece. If small museum, and take some time you have the energy, climb to the top to explore the extensive monastery of the defense walls for the superb grounds. See p. 657. view over the plain of Sparta. Try to • Monemvassia (Peloponnese): Long visit in spring, when Mistra is car- called “The Gibraltar of Greece,” this peted with wildflowers. See p. 298. rocky promontory crowned by a • Church of Panagia Kera (Kritsa, medieval citadel and church has only Crete): Even if Byzantine art seems a one real street (just wide enough for bit stilted and remote, this striking two donkeys to pass each other), chapel in the foothills of eastern no cars, cobbled lanes, beautifully Crete will reward you with its unex- restored stone houses (some of which pected intimacy. The 14th- and 15th- are now hotels), and views that stretch century frescoes are not only stunning seemingly forever over the sea. See but depict all the familiar biblical sto- p. 301. ries. See p. 367. • A Clutch of Castles: Acrocorinth, • The Churches of Thessaloniki Argos, Methoni, Koroni, Mistra & (Northern Greece): Thessaloniki’s Nafplion (Peloponnese): Some of Byzantine churches are the finest not these castles have ancient founda- just in Greece but in the entire world. tions; all were added onto by the From tiny Osios David to towering Franks, Venetians, Byzantines, and Ayios Dimitrios, these churches boast Turks. Several were used as fortresses mosaics and frescoes that give you as recently as World War II; one, astonishing glimpses of the artistic Koroni, has a convent and settlement grandeur of the mighty Byzantine within its walls.