About Us

The Greece Guides is an independent travel resource built on first-hand experience across Greece. Between us we have made more than thirty trips to the country, covering Athens across multiple seasons, island-hopping routes from the Cyclades to the Dodecanese, Crete from Heraklion to the Samaria Gorge, and northern Greece from Thessaloniki's food market to the monasteries of Meteora. We write the guide we wished existed before our first visit - one that is honest about the Santorini vs Mykonos crowd question, specific about ferry logistics, and clear about when shoulder season is worth the tradeoff.

Who writes this site

Athens and mainland history writer - a classical historian and travel writer who has visited Athens more than a dozen times and knows the Acropolis site across different times of day and year. She has timed the visit to the Parthenon before the main tour groups arrive at opening, explored the Monastiraki flea market on a Sunday, and spent extended time in the Koukaki neighbourhood south of the Acropolis Museum rather than staying in the more expensive Plaka hotels. Her mainland coverage includes Delphi, Olympia, and the Peloponnese peninsula, all based on direct visits.
Island hopping and ferry logistics researcher - a contributor who has navigated the Greek ferry system from Piraeus to the Cyclades, Dodecanese, and Ionian Islands more than twenty times and has direct experience of Blue Star Ferries, Hellenic Seaways, and the smaller island-to-island connections. He covers the practical differences between high-season and shoulder-season ferry availability, how to read the schedules on openseas.gr and ferryscanner.com, and which island combinations work as itineraries versus which require too much backtracking.
Crete and northern Greece editor - a travel writer who has spent over three months total on Crete, dividing time between Heraklion (Minoan Palace of Knossos, Heraklion Archaeological Museum), Chania's old harbour and Venetian lighthouse, and the eastern end of the island around Elounda. She has also covered Thessaloniki with detailed attention to the Modiano Market, the Byzantine walls, and the city's reputation as the best food destination in Greece - a claim she finds justified. Her Meteora coverage is based on two visits, including the early-morning timing that avoids the worst of the summer tour bus crowds.

Athens: where to actually spend your time

The Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum together justify a full day, and neither should be rushed. The Acropolis Museum at the base of the hill is one of the best-designed archaeology museums in Europe - the top floor's glass walls align with the Parthenon itself, visible on the hill above. Below the Acropolis, Monastiraki and Plaka are the tourist-facing areas; Koukaki and Mets to the south have the neighbourhood restaurants that locals actually eat in, at prices roughly half those of the main tourist drag. The Piraeus ferry terminal is the departure point for most island routes and is a forty-minute Metro ride from Athens city centre on Line 1 - understanding this is the single most useful logistical fact for planning a Greece trip.

Santorini, Mykonos, and the crowd question

Santorini and Mykonos are the two most-photographed islands in Greece and in July and August they are genuinely very crowded. Santorini's caldera views from Oia are real and worth seeing; the queue for sunset photographs at the windmill end of Oia in high season is also real and worth knowing about in advance. Mykonos's nightlife and beach clubs are legitimate attractions for the audience they serve; the island is expensive by Greek standards and makes no pretence of being otherwise. For visitors who want Cycladic architecture and Aegean light with fewer people, Naxos and Paros offer comparable scenery with significantly lower prices and more manageable visitor numbers. The shoulder season months of May, June, September, and October give the best combination of weather, open infrastructure, and reduced crowds across most of the islands.

Our editorial standards

We visit in person. Our coverage of the Acropolis and Crete is based on being there across multiple visits, not summarising other people's accounts. We verify against official sources: destination and attraction information is checked against Visit Greece (GNTO), weather and seasonal data against the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS), and visa and entry requirements against the Ministry of Migration and Asylum. We update when conditions change: Acropolis entry fees, ferry timetables, and visa requirements are reviewed each quarter, and individual pages carry the date of their last substantive revision.

How we keep the lights on

Some links on this site are affiliate links - if you book through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This keeps the site free and independent. We only link to services we would use ourselves, and affiliate relationships have no influence over which islands, hotels, or ferry routes we recommend.

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