A roadtrip around Greece
In late September, we spent two weeks driving around Greece. It was an awesome experience and one of our favourite countries we’ve visited.
Athens #
Before we picked up the rental car, we spent three nights in Athens. It has a bit of a reputation for being a bit of a dirty & ugly city, but we really enjoyed it. The food was amazing, there’s lots of interesting neighbourhoods to explore, and it is more alive at night than anywhere else in Europe.
I also think it has a lot of accidentally good urbanism. Most buildings are around six floors, but on quite narrow streets which really helps with the shade. It’s actually a little bit like Japan: not going to win any architecture awards, but it’s a nice place to walk around.
Both the Acropolis and Acropolis Museum are must visits when going to Athens. The ruins are well preserved and restored, and the views from the top over the city are amazing. Just don’t forget to bring a bottle of water up with you.
The Acropolis Museum is one of the best museums I’ve been to. The galleries are really interesting and well explained, and the entire building sits over an archeological site that you can walk around on catwalks. It’s a shame that many of the artifacts from the Acropolis are in the British Museum in London, because controversy aside, the displays in Athens are much better.
Food #
- LUKUMAΔΕΣ: The best place we found for Loukoumades. They have a number of different branches in Athens.
- Kapsa Souvlaki: We thought the Gyros here were particularly good. They don’t have fries in them, which honestly makes them better.
- Guarantee: The sandwiches here are really nice. There’s a huge number of toppings to choose from, but they have a whole lot of suggested sandwiches too.
Corinth #
Our first stop outside of Athens was Corinth. There’s a narrow and deep canal that separates the Peloponnese from the mainland here. I managed to spot it while driving but I didn’t stop to take a photo. Oops. It’s probably worth a visit.
We went to the ancient city of Corinth, which we were very much visiting because a decent amount of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey takes places here. I enjoyed the ruins, and the museum was good too. I would say it’s more of an optional visit, but there’s a couple of places that overlook the ruins where you can go for lunch.
Our next stop on the way to Nafplio was Mycenae. This site was really cool as it sits on top of a hill with spectacular views out to the coast. The excavation here is really good, and you can get a good feel of what the city was like. Like the Corinth site, there is also a museum included in the ticket which showcases some of the artifacts and explains the history in a bit more detail. We would really recommend a visit here.
Napfilo #
We stayed two nights in Napfilo, which is about two hours drive from Athens. The old town here is very pretty, and it doesn’t feel too touristy. Most of the shops are open until quite late (around 10pm), so you can definitely walk around after you’ve done things for the day.
There’s two fortresses you can walk up here, one significantly higher than the other. We walked up the smaller one closer to the old town (Acronauplía), which doesn’t have any entrance fees but still offers good views. There’s also a path around the coast at the bottom of the fortress which has some nice views of the coast.
We also visited the Ancient Theatre at the Asklepieion of Epidaurus, which is about a 30 minute drive from Napfilo. This has a remarkably well preserved Greek theatre, and definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
Food #
- Pidalio Tavern: The food here was really unique and tasted great. They had some cultural heritage dishes which were their own spin on classic greek dishes. Similar to what you would find at a more upscale restaurant, but not expensive at all: around €10-15 per dish.
Kalamata #
We drove over the hills on the way out from Napfilo rather than taking the motorway. The drive had some incredible views, but unfortunately very few places to stop and take photos.
Kalamata was nice enough, but we really enjoyed driving down along the coast to Kardamyli and Stoupa. There’s good views along the way, and both these villages are cute places to stop. We had dinner in Stoupa, which was very memorable with a beautiful beach and the sun setting into the ocean.
There’s a number of other places that I’ve heard are worth visiting near Kalamata, but we wanted to take a little bit of a break from driving. I would love to come back to visit the area again. One of the places that comes to mind is the fortified town of Monemvasia, but it is quite out of the way (around 3 hours from Kalamata).
Patras & Olympia #
Our next long drive was to Patras, although it will definitely get better soon with a new highway that is nearly completed. On the way, we stopped in Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games. You do get a good feel of what the games were like thousands of years ago from walking around the ruins, and there’s also a couple of couple of museums included in the ticket. However, it’s not super different from other historical sites so I wouldn’t say Olympia is an essential visit.
We also wouldn’t consider Patras to be an essential visit, but we just generally prefer to stay overnight in larger cities instead of smaller towns. We didn’t get up to too much here, but the walk up the hill to Patras Castle had some good views.
Delphi #
Our next stop was Delphi, which was an easy drive due to a massive bridge that crosses the Gulf of Corinth. On the way we had a nice lunch in Itea by the water (Alexandra Fresh Fish) before driving up the hill to Delphi.
The Temple of Apollo is definitely cool, especially if you’ve played AC Odyssey. The ruins are in good condition, the included museum is great, and the views over the valley are incredible. On this trip, we visited the museums after visiting the archaeological site as it really helps fill in the blanks to what you just saw.
The Delphi town centre seems to mostly be hotels and staying the night here was ridiculously cheap. We stayed in a massive room here for only €20 for the night.
Chalcis & Artemida #
After Delphi, it was a relatively short drive to Chalcis. This is technically on the Greek island of Euboea, but it’s connected to the mainland by a very short bridge (it’s maybe 30 metres long). We were getting to the end of our time in Greece at this point, so we just spent two nights relaxing here.
We then finished off our time in Greece in Artemida. It’s very close to the Athens airport, but also has a large beach. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great while we were there so we didn’t get a chance to swim.
We would recommend driving around the Peninsula to the south as it has many nice beaches and places to stop. The Temple of Poseidon is also in this area. We didn’t go in as the €20 entrance fee for historical sites starts to add up, so we just took photos from a distance.
Food to try #
You will definitely eat a lot of gyros in Greece, which are honestly great wherever you go. There are also a few other specific dishes that stood out.
- Kolokithokeftedes: I fell in love with these courgette fritters and started ordering them as a side everywhere. They’re mixed with feta and lots of herbs to make them really tasty, and usually served with tzatziki.
- Loukoumades: These are fried dough balls that are very QQ, actually quite similar to the fried taro balls you get at night markets in Taiwan.
- Dakos: This is a salad with essentially very hard croutons soaked in oil, topped with lots of tomatoes, feta, olives, and herbs.
Driving in Greece #
Driving can be a bit hectic, but it isn’t too bad outside of the cities. I would recommend picking up a car after visiting Athens and driving straight out of there as it’s definitely the most difficult place I’ve ever driven. The other cities weren’t so bad, but the streets can be a little tight (we had a Yaris, which was great).
I managed the entire roadtrip without any accidents, but there’s a few things that make driving particularly difficult:
- Traffic lights are only on one side of the intersection, so it can be hard to see when it’s your turn.
- Greek drivers drive very fast. They’re usually 20-30km/h over the speed limit.
- The lane markings are almost impossible to see. I don’t think they’ve ever been repainted.
- The road surface is pretty poor. There’s plenty of potholes, and bumps where the potholes have been filled.
In contrast, the motorways are really good (and the speed limit is 130km/h!) but are tolled. It’s a good idea to set Google Maps to avoid tolls to check how much time the motorway saves you. In total, we spent €36 on tolls for 11 days of driving.
etc #
- Public Transport: Greece isn’t covered in rail like much of Europe is, which is part of the reason we rented the car. You will also probably struggle to get to many of the historical sites without booking a tour. Within Athens, the metro is good for tourists: you can take it from the airport easily and just use contactless without having to buy tickets at a machine.
- Payments: Contactless payments are accepted everywhere. I don’t think we used any cash at all.
- Languages: Most people in Greece speak very good English. The only real struggle I had was trying to get a haircut. It’s also fun to learn the Greek alphabet, as it’s pretty easy and shares many similar sounds.
- Food: We appreciated that the culture is more to share food in Greece, but it wouldn’t be limiting if you visited by yourself.
- Air Conditioning: Is everywhere. It was hot throughout September, except for the last few days.
- Laundromats: Plenty of coin laundries within walking distance.
Where should you go? #
We honestly enjoyed everywhere we went but if you have to prioritise places on the mainland, we would recommend Athens, Napfilo, the peninsula south of Athens, and Delphi. If you are after a Greek Island, I visited Rhodes a few years back which I thought had a bit of everything. It’s also a good place to rent a car for a day to have a look around.
There’s so many places we didn’t get to, so we would love to come back to Greece in the future.
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