Greece 2023 Notes

Some notes on things discovered while travelling in Greece in 2023.

Sites and Tours:
Chat Tours. I did the Chat tour 9A - 3 Days Classical Tour which tours the southern Peloponnese and it was excellent. It covered Epidaurus, Mycenae, Nafplion (beehive tomb), Olympia and Delphi (and includes a short stop at the Corinth Canal at the start of the tour). The tour was well paced and the guide was excellent, and it was good value. The hotels and meals were very good (included in the price for some meals, I think). The motels were all of the Amalia group (pickup and return was at Amalia, Athens). It was a great group of people, mostly Americans. We were fortunate that there were only 14 people on the tour; the guide said she has done tours of 40. I would not want that but not sure how to arrange unless you go with a company that specializes in small tours, but those are usually quite expensive. The tour cost €397 (which included the single supplement) which I thought was a good price.

Restaurants:
(These first two restaurants I visited in Athens served top quality food and I would definitely go back to them.)
ManiMani (ΜΑΝΗΜΑΝΗ in Greek), 10 Falirou, Athens (in the Plaka district) – Fantastic modern variation on a Greek salad with dried cherry tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, lemon foam and the best black olives I have ever tasted -- sweeter with a pulpy center like a grape. Sea Bream was also very good.

Seawolf, 35 Dimitrakopoulou, Athens – Marinated fresh anchovies were great. For the main I had what they called “crayfish” (actually small langoustine) with a risotto of tomato and other minced ingredients. Excellent! They also served a nice white Greek wine: Lyrarakis Winery PGI*, Crete. It was made from Moscato Spinas and Vidiano grapes. It was just off-dry, somewhat like a pinot gregio with a very slight floral aftertaste, perhaps lilac or hibiscus, Very good. They gave me a small after dinner sweet wine from Samos that was vidal-like similar to Canadian icewines.
[* - PGI = Protected Geographical Indication]

Taverna Dion, 30 Apollonos, Delphi – Simply family run restaurant. The €15 meal included Greek salad, moussaka, chicken souvlaki and baklava. Had a 500ml carafe of white wine for €5-6.

Manjar Wise Food Coffee & Wine Bar, 16B Demokratias Ave, Heraklion, Crete was very good and I have a very nice recommended wine. (The sign on the restaurant just says "Manjar W.)

Acropolian Spirit, Syntagma Sq., Athens, has a very nice breakfast buffet for only €10 (You don’t have to be staying there - just walk in and go to 7th floor.)

Hotels:
Astor Hotel, 16 Karageorgi Servias, Athens
Central Hotel, 21 Apollonos Athens
Acropolis Select Hotel, 35 Falirou, Athens

Galaxy Hotel in Heraklion, Crete was fantastic and cheap for a 5 star hotel. Also they had no problem in my leaving my luggage there all day after I checked out.
Amalia Hotel, Olympia and Delphi - both good quality 3 star lodging (they also have hotels in Kalambaka, Napflio and Preveza).

Laundry:
Easy Wash, 14 Tsagkarola, Athens – self-serve with detergent dispenser and bill changer. (I used)
ΚΑΘΑΡIΣTΗΡIO “ZENIΘ” (“Zenith” Dry Cleaner), corner of Apolon (AΠOΛΛΩN) & Pendelis (ΠENTEΛHΣ), just off Syntagma Sq., Athens (full service. Sign on store says “We Do Laundry.”)

Luggage Storage:
LeaveYourLuggage.gr. Two locations in Athens: 3 Filellinon St. (just off Syntagma Sq.), and 4 Mnisikleous (in the Monastiraki district). Ph: +30 698-077-5871 or +30 694-817-1792, €6/day.
Left Luggage, 3 Veikou, Athens. 24/7
Heraklion, Crete – at the ferry port: the luggage storage at the port is not in operation; the closest storage is at the bus terminal which is about a 3-4 minute walk south of the port.

Shopping:
PUBLIC, Syntagma Sq., Athens. For electronic supplies include phones and associated cables and power supplies and power plug converters, also earbuds and headphones.

Miscellaneous:
Many restaurants would give out a free after dinner drink. A small portion of Mastika or Mastiha (sometimes pronounced "mastic"). It is is sweet with a very faint pine or cedar aftertaste - not as unpleasant as it sounds. I wonder if this is the flavour in Retsina wine?

Take the #6 bus from Thessaloniki town centre to Kalamaria to visit the British Cemetery. The bus stops only a few meters from the entrance.

Crete

From the Telegraph article The 30 Greatest Holidays in Greece:

Knossos

On Crete, visit Knossos and the Archealogical Museum of Heraklion.

Visit Knossos offers combined tours of Knossos Palace and Heraklion archaeological museum from £37 per person, transport included. 

See also The Wines of Crete. I had some very good wines while in Greece.

Heraklion Food

A three-hour gourmet walking tour with an experienced local guide through the busy backstreets of Crete’s capital city Heraklion is the perfect way to get to grips with the food: you can stop off to meet the man behind the city’s best tripe restaurant, sample the island’s succulent thyme honey, and eat plenty of meze snacks en route.

ToursByLocals runs full-day Cretan Diet Past and Present private food tours from £80 per person.

Hiking

Mount Olympus is the mythical home of the 12 Olympian gods. At 9,570 feet it is a challenging climb to reach its peak, but amateur hikers who’d like to experience a taste of adventure can drive to Prionia – the highest location that’s accessible by car – then make the strenuous hike to Skala, one of the lower peaks, to get a glimpse of the spectacular views that once upon a time only the Gods could enjoy.

Trail Path offers small‑group two-day hiking tours, leaving from Thessaloniki, from £102 per person.

 

Thessaloniki

While I'm there to visit the British Cemetery, try a tour of the great food available in the gastronomic capital of Greece. From the Telegraph article The 30 Greatest Holidays in Greece:

Often overlooked in favour of Athens, the port city of Thessaloniki – radiating out in an easy-to-navigate grid of streets from its historic centre and Ladadika district – has long been known as gourmet heaven by Greeks. 

Since Greece is the home of the healthy Mediterranean diet, foodie indulgence is fairly guilt-free, which is just as well: from cinnamon and custard filo pastry bougatsa – best enjoyed at the century-old pastry shop Bantis – to the meat-skewer treat souvlaki and meze snacks served in a string of low-key family-owned taverna known as koutoukia, there is plenty to tempt those tastebuds.

Eat and Walk runs half-day food tours of Thessaloniki from £32 per person.

Thessaloniki w. Electra Palace Hotel

Travel Info

Get an Athens City Pass that is good for one or more days and allows entrance to sites - skipping the line of popular sites like the Acropolis, and the hop-on, hop-off bus. Get the TurboPass (also available for Rome, Florence and Venice).

A must see is the great theatre of Epidauros. Key Tours has guided day trips from Athens to Epidauros and the neighbouring site of Mycenae from £77 per person. They also have a 3-day tour of Epidaurus, Mycenae, Olympia and Delphi from Athens for $469 (3* hotel*) or $553 (4* hotel), and 4-day tour of Epidaurus, Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi, Meteora from €482.

Visit Olympia & its museum with its statue of Hermes by Praxatilies! My Tours offers full-day tours from Athens from £62 per person.

On Crete, visit Knossos and the Archealogical Museum of Heraklion; Visit Knossos offers combined tours of Knossos Palace and Heraklion archaeological museum from £37 per person, transport included.

Take a short ferry ride to uninhabited sacred island of Delos with DelosTours. 

While visiting Rhodes stay at the Ottoman-era boutique hotel Marco Polo Mansion, Agiou Fanouriou 40-42, Rhodes (Old Town). Doubles from £75, breakfast included.

Lesbos has more than a dozen wineries, but Methymneos Wines – which was the first to revive the chidiriotiko grape on lava-rich soils from Lesbos’s petrified forest – is a leading light. Methymneos Wines offers free wine-tasting tours from August 1 to September 20, between 10:00 and 14:00.

From the Telegraph article The 30 Greatest Holidays in Greece.

Greek language

Modern Greek words and phrases:

Hello (casual) - Γειά σου (YAH-soo)

Hello (formal) - Γειά σας(YAH-sas)

Good morning - Καλημέρα (Kah-lee-MEH-rah)

Good evening - Καληνυχτα (Kah-lee-NEEK-tah)

Goodbye - αντιο σας (AHN-dee-oh)

Thank you - Ευχαριστώ (i-PRAYER-is-toe) (note: the initial "i" is a soft "i" like the "i" in "hit")

Please - παρακαλούμε (per-a-ka-LOW-may)

Excuse me (Sorry)- συγνώμη (Sig-NOH-mee)

How much? - Πόσα; (Poe-saw)

0 - μηδέν (me-VEN)
1 - ένας (A-nas)
2- δύο (VE-oo)
3 - τρία (TREE-ah)
4 - τέσσερις (TESS-e-rees)
5 - πέντε (PEN-day)
6 - έξι (EX-ee)
7 - επτά (EP-ta)
8 - οκτώ (AWK-toe)
9 - εννέα (HEN-a-ah)

 

10 - δέκα (VAY-ka)
20 - είκοσι (EE-ko-see)
30 - τριάντα (tree-AH-da)
40 - σαράντα (sa-RON-da)
50 - πενήντα (pen-EE-da)
60 - εξήντα (EX-ee-da)
70 - εβδομήντα (e-VO-me-da)
80 - ογδόντα (OGG-vo-da)
90 - ενενήντα (EN-e-me-da)
100 - εκατό (EK-a-toe)

Athens sites

This tourist map provides the locations of major sites and the bus lines to each. Mainly the Acropolis (A4), The Museum of the Acropolis, the National Archeological Museum (A11), Hadrian's Arch & the Temple of Olympian Zeus (A5). 

A different tourist map showing additional sites and train stations.

Here is Athens Metro information. Buy 3-day Tourist ticket at airport for €20. I will get you from the airport to the city centre and then within the city.

Athens Metro Map

Try the City Sight Seeing hop-on, hop-off bus which you can catch at any of the stops on the map. It runs 08:30-17:30 every 30 minutes.