The capital of Thessaly, Larissa is a fun-loving university town off the tourist trail. With 8,000 years of history the city rests under an acropolis that has layers of ancient, Byzantine and Ottoman remains. Hippocrates, the father of medicine spent the last decade of his life in ancient Larissa, and there’s a small monument at …
A green island laid with pine forest and olive groves, Thassos is in the North Aegean and counts as part of East Macedonia and Thrace. Thassos doesn’t grab the headlines as it isn’t a high-octane party destination and isn’t peppered with ancient wonders. But what you do get is a serene, family-friendly getaway with picturesque …
One of the largest municipalities in Greece, Kallithea is in the south of Athens bordering the Saronic Gulf and Athens’ historic centre. In 2016 Kallithea got a shot in the arm when the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre was unveiled close to the Faliro Bay in the south of the suburb. This ultramodern facility was …
South of Thessaloniki, Kalamaria is a suburb established in the 1920s with the arrival of Anatolian and Georgian refugees from the Greco-Turkish War. In Greece Kalamaria is known for Palataki, a Neoclassical mansion on a headland, once favoured as a residence by the Greek Royal Family and several Greek Prime Ministers, but now in need …
Affectionately known as the City of the Argonauts, in Greek mythology, Volos was where Jason boarded the Argo on a quest for the Golden Fleece at Colchis. As a nod to this ancient hero there’s a replica of an ancient Trireme ship berthed at the city’s port. An industrial port city in modern times, Volos …
A well-to-do resort on the Athens Riviera, Glyfada is where Greek tycoons, politicians and foreign oligarchs go for sun, sea and sand a short drive of the capital. To the uninitiated it’s a kind of Greek Marbella, with luxury boutiques, snazzy cocktail bars, a golf course and a string of private beaches. There’s enough nightlife, …
In eastern Athens Zografou is a municipality with a big student population, where you’ll find the campus for the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as the National Technical University of Athens. The neighbourhood is bounded to the east by the 1,000-metre Mount Hymettus and you can hike on the mountain through the …
The Mediterranean’s fifth-largest island was the birthplace of the oldest civilisation in Europe, blossoming in 2700 BC. To get to know the Minoans you can venture through Bronze Age archaeological sites across the island, and call in at the phenomenal Archaeological Museum in the capital, Heraklion. These Minoan palaces and cities blur the lines between …
Villages infused with the scent of jasmine and bougainvillea, a magical Medieval UNESCO-listed old town, superlative beaches with glistening waters: There are hundreds of reasons to come to Rhodes, but we’ll try to condense the tally to just 15. The largest of the Dodecanese islands in the southern Aegean, Rhodes has architecture that looks like …
The extraordinary island of Santorini in the Southern Aegean is on the eastern chunk of a collapsed caldera. Its villages have whitewashed cave houses with blue doors, carved in tiers at the top of menacing dark cliffs. These west facing settlements like Oia, Fira and Imerovigli enjoy front-row views of one of the world’s most …