Christmas Holidays to Greece
Seven bookable islands and two mainland bases cover very different weeks, so the terrain can match the trip.
Kos, Zante and the Kassandra villages keep most resorts inside a thirty-minute drive of arrival.
Knossos on Crete and the Acropolis in Athens sit close enough to the resorts for a morning trip.
Greece is in the eurozone, so there is no exchange cost and no card surprises on arrival from Ireland.
The islands run from April into October, and the two cities stay open when the resorts close.
Shoulder weeks cost noticeably less than August for the same room, which is worth planning around.
Where you base yourself shapes the whole week, so here is what each of the six main choices actually gives you.
The big one: Crete is the largest Greek island at about 8,300 square kilometres, with Knossos just outside Heraklion and the Samaria Gorge in the White Mountains. The north coast holds the resort towns, and anyone comparing all inclusive holidays to Greece will find most of the choice here.
The walled option: Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese, and its Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site still lived in behind the fortifications of the Knights of St John. Lindos and its headland acropolis sit about 50 kilometres down the east coast.
Greenest of them: Corfu sits closest to the Albanian coast and gets markedly more rain than the Aegean islands, which is why it stays green. Its Venetian old town is UNESCO listed, and Paleokastritsa on the west coast is a run of small cliff-backed bays.
Caves and coves: Two names, one island. Zante, also sold as Zakynthos, is where the west-coast boat trips matter most, taking in Navagio Beach in its cliff-enclosed cove and the Blue Caves near Cape Skinari, with Laganas Bay sitting inside the National Marine Park of Zakynthos.
The famous one: Santorini is the rim of a volcanic caldera, with Fira and Oia several hundred metres above the water and black sand at Kamari and Perissa. Anyone pricing luxury holidays to Greece tends to start here, and the Bronze Age site at Akrotiri is open under cover.
Open all year: Athens is the one Greek destination that does not need the beach season at all, with the Parthenon above the city and the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the rock. Piraeus below it is the main ferry port for the islands.
Seven outings worth building into the week, each one tied to a specific base.
Acropolis morning: The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Propylaea stand on the rock above central Athens, and the sculpture taken off the site for protection is displayed in the museum at its foot. Both are a walk from the Plaka district below.
Bronze Age capital: Knossos is the largest of the Minoan palace sites and lies a short way inland from Heraklion, excavated from 1900 under Arthur Evans. Its partial concrete reconstructions are debated, and much of the material sits in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
The long descent: Samaria is walked downhill from the Omalos plateau to the south coast at Agia Roumeli, roughly 16 kilometres and five to seven hours for most people. The Iron Gates narrow to a few metres, and the way back is by boat.
Inside the walls: Rhodes Old Town is enclosed by the fortifications of the Knights of St John and is still inhabited, which is rare at this scale. The Street of the Knights climbs to the Palace of the Grand Master, and the moat can be followed almost the whole way round.
Shipwreck cove: Navagio Beach can only be reached by boat, and the same trips usually take in the Blue Caves near Cape Skinari. Booking last minute holidays to Greece in September often lands you on a quieter sailing than August would.
Rim route: A marked walk follows the caldera edge from Fira through Imerovigli to Oia, about ten kilometres with very little shade and three to four hours at a steady pace. Most people take the bus back, and the light is best early.
Monastic coastline: Boats leave Ouranoupolis and run along the Athos peninsula, which is as close as most visitors get, since entry needs a permit and admits men only. Several monasteries are built directly above the water, and summer holidays to Greece often include one of these sailings.
Mild rather than warm: expect 12 to 16C on southern coasts and cooler in the northern cities, with a mix of bright days and rain bands. Outdoor lunch on a sunny afternoon is realistic. It is sightseeing weather, not swimming weather, and the mountains may carry snow.
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