Hi all,

Heading to Greece for about 10 days at the start of March with my girlfriend. Starting and finishing in Athens, the rough idea is a couple days in Athens, then hire a car and drive around the mainland for a week. Not bothering with islands due to tight schedule and it not being beach season.

– On a tight budget
– Want to see a mix of historical “stuff” and natural sights
– Want to do some hiking/walking – nothing too strenuous, but not a walk round a park either.
– Something like white water rafting or similar would be fun.
– A couple days of skiing would be fun (maybe Parnassos?), but aware that it will be the end of the season, and with full kit hire and pass it may be too expensive.

Current plan:
– 2 or 3 nights/days in Athens
– Head roughly north west to Meteora, maybe via somewhere else, do some hiking around Meteora.
– Slowly make our way back to Athens via (maybe) Filippiada, Olympia, Corinth. It would be nice to see some snowy mountains and nice coastal areas.

Any specific (or general) suggestions on places to go or avoid? I hear there is good walking on Peloponnese so keen to check that out.

Accommodation wise we are thinking airbnbs, unless anyone has any better ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Duane

I was in Athens on business last year. First Impressions are pretty grim but take a walk up into the old part of town and it gets very picturesque. Obviously you want to get up to see the Parthenon which is impressive despite all the scaffolding. I took a walk along to the original Olympic stadium too.

My favourite part was ordering coffee and being supplied with cakes and biscuits for free. 🙂

do not under any circumstances rent something. they will try everything under the sun to get you to pay heavy penalty fees.

Don’t rent a house, a car, or either?

Could be an interesting trip 🙂 If you continue past Meteora you get to the Pindos mountains and the Vikos gorge where there is some terrific hiking and white-water kayaking, but not for the faint-hearted on account of vicious “sheep dogs”.

Otherwise, I think trying to “do” Peleponnesos as well as the mainand is too ambitious.

rmacattack – Member
do not under any circumstances rent something. they will try everything under the sun to get you to pay heavy penalty fees.

We rented cars, twice a year, for about five consecutive years, from Auto Union at Markopoulo (about five minutes from Eleftherios Venizelos airport, they will come and collect you/drop you off) and we have nothing but good to say about them. Obviously do a proper check of the car, including tyre sidewalls etc, with the company guy there and get any defects checked off but you’d do this anyway?
Tel. 0030 21 0602 0162

If you’re having a couple of days in Athens first then I’d just get the bus into the city from the airport (about an hour, €5 per person) and then go back out to the airport when you want to pick your rental car up. The Metro is quicker, but more expensive – we always just get the bus but we’re cheap…..X95 bus anyway, from the airport to Syntagma.

We always stay here – http://www.hotel-nefeli.com/en/ – it’s basic but they’re nice people, it’s in Plaka and it’s only five minutes walk from Syntagma Square. If you want to book a room there, then phone direct, don’t go through any booking agencies. Good bars and tavernas right on the doorstep too.

Any more info you need just ask and I’ll try my best to help.

Right oh, lived in Athens for 9 years.

It’s rough around the edges, but it’s a proper hectic city and has crud loads of history.

Don’t hire a car until you leave Athens, use the Metro (probably one of the best kept things in Athens and dirt cheap). Cabs are dirt cheap too.

Get up the Acropolis, also go up the other hill “Filopapou”, nice walk, good views of the Acropolis and down to the coast, actually most of Athens.

Come out of Thessio station, few nice places for lunch, forget Monistaraki for dinner…very touristy. If you fancy a good fish place, catch a cab down to Micro Limano.

Gazi, loads of bars and stuff down there.

As for skiing, forget it, just not worth it, too late in the season and won’t really be worth it.

Head out to Pelaponisos, beach, mountains and pine forests. You’ve got Delphi (definitely worth a visit), ancient Olympia And don’t miss out on Epivdaros, very intersting for ancient stuff.

March you say, might be sunny, but won’t be overly warm, take coats and woolies just in case…the sea will be COLD!!

Best thing about Greek cuisine is having lots of bits. Don’t really go for starters mains, get lots of bits and bobs.

Just remember “Yia (ya) sas” when saying hello and goodbye and you are laughing.

Accommodation wise we are thinking airbnbs, unless anyone has any better ideas?

Somewhere legit that isn’t a part of the black economy. 💡

Thanks for the replies all.

Yeah, will only hire car when we are leaving Athens.

Latest vague plan is:

3 nights in Athens
2 nights on East of Pelopponnese, for Corinth, Nafplio, Epidavros, Mycenae etc
2 nights on West of Pelopponnese, for Olympia, Louisos Gorge hiking etc
2 nights up by Ionnina (gf is currently living there) and Meteora
1 night near Delphi on the way back to Athens

How does that sound? Pretty rushed I know. What are the best bits of coastline to get to? And the best mountainous spots in the above areas?

Thanks,
Duane

I was in Athens on business last year. First Impressions are pretty grim but take a walk up into the old part of town and it gets very picturesque. Obviously you want to get up to see the Parthenon which is impressive despite all the scaffolding. I took a walk along to the original Olympic stadium too.[/I]

We had a week in Athens last summer, stayed central (Grand Bretagne for those that know it). Had a fantastic time, spent most of our time at the sights and wandering the old time – food ace.

Couldn’t recommend it enough, although I’d always avoid warm places when it’s cold.

As you say – quite rushed. We drive from Athens to Peleponnesos very frequently. The roads are good now, so you can go fairly quickly. I would probably look to stay in Nafplion, with a range of hotels and restaurants. Getting back up to the Ioannina area might be more of a slog. The area I mentioned (Vikos Gorge) is still further, but it is the standout hiking location.

Grande Bretagne is nice as br says – good old fashioned hotel with a really nice restaurant. Bit pricy 🙂

Just as an aside, the best travel book about Greece is “Flight of Ikaros” by Kevin Andrews. It’s now available on Kindle. It’s not a book for holiday tips, but it really conveys the spirit of Greece as I see it (MrsJ is Greek, btw 🙂 )

Hi all,
Thanks again for all the replies.

Think we have decided to skip going to Meteora, so will just stay on the south half of the country. So if we have 3 days/nights in Athens, that gives us 8 more nights before I need to be back in Athens to fly out.

How would you guys split up those 8 days/nights? Anything better than 4 nights around Nafplio, 3 around Olympia, and 1 around Delphi? We would really like to do some hikes along the coast, and hire some kayaks or motorboat and check out some islands if thats possible!

Thanks,
Duane

Also, while you could get decent quality food at reasonable prices, alcohol was UK restaurant price.

check out some islands if thats possible

A long time ago there was a hydrofoil from Tolon (near-ish to Nafplion) to some of the closer islands.

Rather than spend 4 nights in Nafplion I think I would drive down the coast to Monemvassia. It’s a long day drive but spectacular.

recently back from the peloponnese and looking at exploring further over the next few years, so found this thread on a google search. we’ve just done stoupa for a week with a day in gialova, so fancy a bit of time in the western part next i think. i like the look of elafonissos island down the bottom.

considering same as OP, a couple of days in athens, then hire a car, make our way down there via nafplion, monemvasia etc.

i hear plenty about the good roads, and after driving from stoupa to gialova and back i totally agree, theyre a pleasure to drive on, but its still a good few hours in the car to get to each place, thats the only thing putting us off.

what did you decide in the end OP? oh and DrJ, id be happy to pick your brains on the area sometime. got half an eye on that salamina island as a short hop from athens too…..