If you travel to Greece, it’s almost sure that it’s where your itinerary will start, so take a few days (we personally thought that two nights were enough) to go visit the numerous temples and ruins in the city. Staying in Athens is literally staying on an archeological site. 

Chances are you’ll probably enjoy the city better if you’re a bit of a history geek or if you like visiting monuments as it is the main trait of the city.

Monastiraki Square

Even if you don’t have a lot of time, what you don’t want to miss is Monastiraki Square. It’s the heart of Athens, located just under the Parthenon and amongst the oldest and most historic neighborhoods.

The place is very busy and noisy, with tons of street artists, vendors, locals, and tourists. It’s super exciting to explore. Note that just next to the square, you will find the Roman agora and the Hadrian library. 

Of course, the Parthenon, the Acropolis, and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus are must-sees in our opinion and it’s worth paying the entrance fee. If you are a student, make sure to have your student card with you, visiting some of those places will be half price for you! 

Getting around

The city is vast, but you can pretty much see everything by walking if you’re motivated enough! At least that’s what we did and always love to do, it allows you to find some hidden gems in small alleys around the main streets. We enjoyed taking a walk in the National Garden to charge up our batteries with a little bit of nature!

Eating

At night, stroll in the city center to find where to eat, and don’t hesitate to bargain with the waiters for free stuff, it’s part of the game! Some restaurants will give you free wine, free fruits, free dessert… don’t hesitate to have fun and talk to them, they’ll offer plenty of things for you to sit at their table! Make sure to try out a moussaka, you won’t be disappointed. 

All that being said, Athens definitely has some interesting parts and is great for its historical richness. But if you’re looking for something that looks more like Mamma Mia!, it’s on the islands that you’ll rejoice in yourself!

The second stop of our itinerary was Naxos. It’s probably on this island that you’ll find the cutest beaches. Try Plaka and Agios Prokopios, where you’ll have kilometers of white soft sand and crystal clear water under blue skies. Even if you don’t rent a car or a scooter, you’ll find it easy to get around by bus.

Also, an absolute must is to run to the setting sun under the historical Arch of Portara. If you didn’t know it yet, Greece is one of the most famous places in the world for sunsets. 

While in Naxos, the arch is definitely the best spot to enjoy one. You will sit on the hill overlooking the sea and join the others in applauding the sun after it sets. Yes, it’s a thing people do for real! And believe me, it’s an amazing moment to experience. Bonus point, you get an amazing view of the island from there!

Sleeping

When we stayed on Naxos, we slept in a very tiny village in the east part of the island called Galanado. Now if you don’t rent a car this destination is quite remote, but it’s a cute place to stay!

That’s where we had the best traditional greek salad made by a Greek mama in the only restaurant in the village (to give you an idea of how small the village is!).

It was sooo good, we don’t know what kind of sorcery they used to make that salad but we are pretty sure we could live off of it. The perfectly sun-ripened tomatoes, the spices in the pure olive oil, the creamiest feta… just thinking about it makes us hungry!

You guessed it, IT’S PARTY TIME. Mykonos has been considered to be the second Ibiza, so expect lots of music, lots of cocktails and lots of people.

To be 100% honest with you, we can’t really tell you about loads of attractions to do during the day because we experienced more of the nightlife. After all, that’s what Mykonos is famous for!

When the sun is set, expect the whole city center to turn into a giant party. And if you really want the full CRAZY experience, go to the Tropicana Club Mykonos and brace yourself. 

Pro tip: if you wanna party hard, our friendly advice would be to pre-drink with alcohol you bought at the grocery store so you don’t completely ruin yourself. Most cocktails were around 16 euros, and if you are Canadian like us, buying those with the exchange rate will make you cry before you even get tipsy.

Another club with great music and a nice beach to get a tan (and maybe do a bit of day drinking 😉 ) would be the Paradise Club Mykonos. Dip your toes in the warm water and wait for the party to start again. If you want to rent a car, you can also explore the beaches all around the island. We are not even going to tell you the best ones, because they are all great. Just visit as much as you can while you’re there!

Catch the sunset at the famous Mykonos windmills and go grab a bite in the restaurants by the sea. Mykonos was honestly one of the biggest highlights of our trip because the energy on this island is like nowhere else. So go have fun!

If you follow the same itinerary as ours, it’s at this point that you might start to realize that -to some extent-, a lot of the islands look the same. It does not mean that you shouldn’t go, they are all beautiful, but you’re going to see a lot of white houses, a lot of rock floors and not much vegetation. So keep that in mind when choosing Greece!

But like every other island, Paros is a beautiful one. We stayed at the Beer House in Parikia, which is the main town on the island and a really cute one to stroll around. There is pretty much anything you want in there.

Looking for restaurants and coffee shops? Walk in the old town and near the port of Paros where you’ll find plenty of delicious traditional Greek food. Olives, moussaka, gyros, souvlaki… go ahead, indulge! Looking for a tan? Go get your vitamin D on Lavidia beach. 

Looking for a little (or big) party? Take the bus and then the boat to Antiparos, a tiny island in front of Paros filled with bars and clubs. Looking for the CUTEST fishermen’s village? Go to NAOUSSA.

While in Greece, the four of us (we were with our two cousins) collectively agreed that this was one of the prettiest places we had seen in our lives.

Take a bus from Parikia and make a day trip to the village, you won’t regret it. Use the KTEL Paros Island bus system. It’s an easy 20 min ride and it’s super cheap (around 3 euros).

We would like to tell you activities and actual things to do while you’re there, but to be fair, it’s the kind of place that you’ll enjoy the most just by walking around.

Definitely go take a stroll in the Old Port to hear the waves crashing and the octopuses drying in the sun, it’s quite an experience! 

Keeping in mind that what people think of each destination is rather subjective, we’ll be honest and say that we were a bit unimpressed by Crete.

The truth is we didn’t get enough time to explore and stayed mostly in Heraklion. Let’s just say that this place is definitely not a must-see in our opinion. We thought the city was quite drab with not much to discover or do.

Luckily enough, we found a day trip to the village of Bali (no no, not the Indonesian island!) and that saved the day for us. If you end up in Crete, make sure to reach that village!

It was the first time in weeks that we were seeing luxurious vegetation and we were so happy to be surrounded by trees again. We spent the day at the beach catching waves getting a tan and that reconciled us with our initial thought of Crete.

But again, Heraklion and Bali were the two only places we visited while in Crete, so don’t take our word for granted, there’s probably much more to see that we don’t know of!

We ended our itinerary on this stunning paradise. If you want to know more about Santorini, (you really do!) click here! We did a full article on it.