There must be loads of nice beaches and whatnot in Greece, surely? So could one simply grab a road atlas and head down there and find something nice? Or does one really have to know the sweet spots?
I've seen pictures of idyllic islands of course but is the rest of it really crap or what?
I've absolutely loved Greece (more rural areas)but I like arid, remote secnery.
Go there, hire motorbike, follow nose and any dirt track you want, always had a brill time.
*Don't go near military establishments (see, stop, turn around, leave, and don't take photos).
Beware leccy and water cables hung through trees.
Don't pretend to be German.
A lot of nice places are marketed via road side signs. (and some not so nice ...)
Can you get by with English?
Yes you can pretend to be English 🙂
Can you get by with English?
In the less touristy areas you may struggle, but you should be able to get by. I just came back from [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Plastiras ]Lake Plastiras[/url] in Northern Greece last week, and would have struggled if I had not been there with my Brother, who lives in Athens, and his wife who is Greek. One of the biggest problems will be deciphering signs due to them being in...well....Greek.
Are you thinking about doing the islands or mainland?
Personally, I can take or leave beaches as I am more a lakes/mountains kinda guy. Especially monasteries built in crazy locations....
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Don't pretend to be German.
Do people do that ?
What does it involve ?
goose stepping, funny salutes, general sculduggery,
Argh - you can't beat a spot of xenophobia. Is that monastery riglos?
Don't pretend to be German.
If you learned some history you'd realise that it is no great thing to be British, from a Greek point of view, [url= http://www.athensinfoguide.com/history/t9-93decemvriana.htm ]for example[/url].
Luckily the Greeks don't hold grudges.
Not xenophobia , merely British humour , having visited Cyprus , kos, rhodes,leros,lipsi,kalyminos,Patmos,sifnos,milos,Paros and the main land , I quite like
the Greeks , have just booked a villa for April - may 2011 in Cyprus and can't wait ,
The best island by far IMO is Leros, stunningly quiet , knights of st John castle,Italian neo-
Classical buildings, a few tavernas , amazing bays , and a wealth of history from ww2 as it
Was the sight of a vicious battle between the LRDG (sas) , the early SBS and the german
Fallschirmjäger & Brandenburg mountain troops,
How about cars/caravans on inter-island ferries?
I lived on an island called Samos for a summer a few years back, it was brilliant in every way. I'd highly recommend a visit.
i freakin love the greek beach scene
motorbike or car is good but
great way to find an exclusive little beach is to hire a boat for the day managed to find some corkers even on corfu
it helps if you have the body of a chiseled greek god...
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if your heading for the cyclades then Pireaus (athens) is your port, for the dodecanesse then Kos or Rhodes is a good starting point,
Pireaus is the biggest port i have ever seen with litrally hundreds of ferrys going everywhere, the islands have several ferry hubs Kos is one, Paros is another, i've personally used fast ferries (just as quick as a seacat if not quicker at full chat), vodafone seacats (they have two sizes of these, one type takes only around 10 vehicles the larger has a much bigger capacity but not sure how much) there are also slower ferries these are old fleet and a little iffy quite a bit slower but bargain basement cheap, they carry anything, ive seen the greek army unloading from them before.
do some internet searching, ferry time tables are published but they are seasonal(very) and also can change due to local weather conditions, i was once stuck on Paros because nobody would go out in the chop, so the thing with the ferries is you need to be flexable, also i don't thnik there are many campsites in greece, it's not something they do, but i may be wrong.
Was in Keffalonia earlier in the year, Myrtos is meant to be one of teh most beautiful beaches in Europe if not the world. I think I would agree.
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There are some nice beaches to the east of Athens (Thessalonika) IIRC but you would be best heading to Athens harbour (Piraeus) and getting one of the many ferries over to the islands where you have (literally) thousands to choose from.
Aegina is closeby and has some beautiful beaches, Santorini is easily accessible with a direct ferry but it is a longer trip and the beaches are black (volcanic) but the architecture is typical Greece (little white and blue painted domed-topped houses).
But the sheer choice is astounding and the ferry service is fantastic so if you don't like one place, just go to the next.
I can't quite believe it was 20 years since I went island-hopping :-O
also i don't thnik there are many campsites in greece, it's not something they do, but i may be wrong.
Lots of campsites but they are usually quite tucked away and not easy to get to - but if he is driving it won't be a problem. Of camp on secluded beaches like we did a bit - nothing quite like walking out of a tent and straight into the sea...
Oh god, I want to go somewhere hot. Anywhere will do
What are the roads like? Is caravanning even remotely possible?
How about cars/caravans on inter-island ferries?
Absolutely fine - think about it, what do you think the locals do to get around? Most ferries are primarily vehicle ferries to move cars and trucks around. Foot passengers are secondary.
If you learned some history you'd realise that it is no great thing to be British, from a Greek point of view,
Well it depends which side of the political divide they happen to be on. Certainly Britain's past interference in the internal affairs of Greece doesn't go down a treat with communist supporters. However, I will always recall when on my first visit to Greece, how me and my mates were rescued, having got lost and in a bewildered state, by a Greek bus driver who by his own volition, stopped and transported us free of charge to our destination. He informed us that he was more than happy to help us as Churchill had helped the Greek people in their hour of need, and he then proceeded to sing the praises of Winston Churchill. Needless to say, my rather left-wing views led me to conclude that the geezer was a fascist sympathiser, although I resisted sharing with him my opinion that Churchill was in fact, a reactionary imperialist.
What are the roads like? Is caravanning even remotely possible?
I think it will restrict you from certain places. I would recommend camping over caravanning.
What are the roads like? Is caravanning even remotely possible?
I think it will restrict you from certain places. I would recommend camping over caravanning.
I reckon it would depend on what island he was on - most of the bigger islands now have half decent road networks - it isn't all really the dirt tracks image Shirley Valentine would have you believe.
what do you think the locals do to get around?
They might go by boat as in other watery areas, plus the roads might be poor quality I dunno, hence the questions 🙂
I'd take a caravan for ease of travelling - it's a 2,000 mile journey down there for a start. As long as it was feasible to get around with the thing. If it's mostly single-track road then it'd be an issue, but it sounds like it'd be ok if I choose carefully.
How do you go about planning bike routes in Greece? The maps are £2500 jobbies from the russian military!!!
Sat nav is brilliant out there or some kind of digital map gps thing (I had a nokia phone), even when walking, as you won't always be able to read road signs. I found that tourist paper maps often had english script, whereas road signs often only had Greek letters.
If you happen to have done degree level maths, it is dead handy, as you're used to looking at the funny letters / have an idea of what they might sound like!
Don't drive the sort of car that you mind anyone (motorbikes, other cars etc.) bumping into - or at least that was the case in Athens (Although you probably don't want to drive into Athens with a caravan anyway, would be mentalist.)
Joe
I've cycled from Athens around the Peloponnese and a few of the islands, mostly camping, occasionally staying in tavernas. There were enough campsites to make it viable although on some of the less touristy parts you would find yourself having to put in a few extra miles as the sites would get a bit further apart. Lots of campsites are not marked on the maps but those that were marked tended to be reliable so treat any maps as showing the minimum of sites.
There were a couple of absolutely stunning beach front campsites which were a distance from the general tourist areas, where you could literally step out of the tent and onto a beach. i got by with just English and a smattering of basic greek words, although in some of the areas German would have been the preferred second language. A lot of the areas that the British don't go to might be popular with other nations, Scandinavians and Germans seemed to flock together almost as much as the British.
If I had complete choice of travel options I would probably do it on a motor bike, seemed to be the best compromise between being able to cover some miles when needed while maintaining the freedom to be flexible about where you go i.e. easy on and off ferries, able to pitch up where you like with a minimum of fuss.
I reckon it would depend on what island he was on - most of the bigger islands now have half decent road networks - it isn't all really the dirt tracks image Shirley Valentine would have you believe.
I am aware of that, but how annoying would it be to be restricted on going somewhere due to having a caravan in tow?
You can un-hitch the caravan if need be of course..!
I guess I am coming from a slightly biased point of view, having never seen the point of caravans vs cost of cheap B&Bs/Camping.
We've had this discussion before. I like caravans, if you want to know why look up the past threads 🙂
We've had this discussion before.
What is life, but the same set of discussions repeated over and over again before we die eh? 😉
Have you worked out how long it will take you to get there with a caravan on tow???
Be quicker to go to an airport today and wait for the snow to melt 🙂
But by different people.. unless you're my Father in Law.
Have you worked out how long it will take you to get there with a caravan on tow???
Well that's kind of the point, isn't it?
The Peloponnese seemed to have more Caravan friendly sites than the islands, what I did see a lot of were motor homes / camper vans, they seemed to be equally distributed between the mainland and the islands.
But by different people.. unless you're my Father in Law.
Molgrips....
I am your Father (in-law).
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Anyways, getting back on topic. This is the ferry I got to [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sifnos ]Sifnos[/url], which is one of the smaller islands, so you should be ok moving a caravan around from island to island at least:
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Well that's kind of the point, isn't it?
I don't know, is it?
Camping in summer is a no-go IME - far too hot. You have to get out of bed at about 6 am unless you want to fry!! I'd imagine the same is true of caravans, but maybe they are better. I see a lot of German and Italian motor-homes getting in the way.
Well it depends which side of the political divide they happen to be on.
Yes, the British intervened on one side of a civil war, so naturally there are some who support that intervention, but my point was that in some quarters the British are not looked on very kindly. I spent some time in the NW of the country near where the "allies" dropped napalm, for the first time in modern conflict, and the attitude to Churchill was not entirely positive, shall we say ... 🙂
A lot of Greeks you meet grew up under the Junta, which was supported at least tacitly by the US-UK, so they may also not have a very rosy view of British foreign policy ...
I don't know, is it?
Are you not familiar with the concept of a road trip?
Are you not familiar with the concept of a road trip?
Yes, I am not familiar with caravanning though - is the point of going somewhere actually being there or the time spent getting there? If it is a road trip do you have to have a destination?
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of camping, caravanning and road trips - I'm just not sure that taking a caravan to Greece is either one or the other (IMO of course).
I love Cephalonia, but Myrtos was a rubbish dump the one time I went there - glorious from the cliffs, grotty on the beach 🙁
Skala is (was) lovely - I last went about 8 years ago, and there was a lot of development work starting - prior to that it was hippy little village, very relaxed, outdoor cinema screen in one of the bars, lovely beach etc
I think you can get a ferry to Sami from Italy, so maybe it's an easier drive?
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of camping, caravanning and road trips - I'm just not sure that taking a caravan to Greece is either one or the other
Driving down through France, Switzerland and Italy.. what's not to like? Great scenery, cool stuff to see... The caravan is simply a matter of choice versus camping and B&B etc - each with their advantages and disadvantages.
For sure Molgrips but your OP focussed on Greece so it appeared to me you wanted to get to Greece then 'start' your caravanning holiday on a beach there.
Whatever you do, when you get there, find a nice taverna and order gigantes as a starter followed by kleftiko.
Food of the Gods I tells ya'.
My caravan needs a run before the tyres go square...
Enjoyed some of the best times of my life in Crete. A fantastic place to get on a motorbike and do some riding in the mountains. Riding through all the little non tourist villages is good too. I can still smell all the herbs growing on the side of the road baking in the heat and wafting up my nose. Greeks are decent folk too. The food always seems to be good and not too expensive. Also I feel much safer on the roads when I ride a motorcycle in the greek islands than in this country and the cops are far more forgiving! I have found Crete to be the best island in Greece up to now anyway. I have been to quite a few and thats the only one I have been back to and I will go again too!