--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Greece (City Guides) Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Greece, Athens, Naxos and more cities and islands, mapped and filmed. When to go, which island to pick, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/greece type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-05 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Greece Six thousand islands, a mainland of mountains and ruins, and a capital lived in without a break for millennia. Greece is **a country you return to rather than finish**, and the ferry timetable does most of the planning. ## Quick answer Start in **Athens** with two full days, then pick one sea and stay in it. The **Cyclades** (Naxos, Santorini, Mykonos) are the postcard and the busiest. **Crete** is its own holiday, with Chania at one end and Heraklion at the other. The **Dodecanese** put a medieval walled town on Rhodes within reach of Turkey. On the mainland, **Nafplio** anchors the Peloponnese and **Kalambaka** sits under Meteora. Hop inside one group: ferries are frequent within a chain and awkward between them. Book **May, June or September**. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** May · Jun · Sep - **Ideal length:** 7–12 days - **Budget per day:** €90–160 - **Language:** Greek - **Getting around:** Ferries, buses & flights - **4** City guides - **10,482,487** People - **13** Regions Greece rewards travellers who pick a thread and follow it. Athens is the hinge every route runs through, and from its port and airport the Cyclades, Crete, the Peloponnese and the northern mountains are each a different holiday. ## 4 Greek city guides 1. [Athens](https://wimup.com/city/athens.md): Europe · 10 picks 2. [Naxos](https://wimup.com/city/naxos.md): Europe · 10 picks 3. [Meteora](https://wimup.com/city/meteora.md): Europe · 10 picks 4. [Chania](https://wimup.com/city/chania.md): Europe · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 10,482,487 - **Area:** 131,957 km² - **Density:** 79.4 / km² - **Capital:** Athens - **Major cities:** Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Piraeus - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Euro (€) Cards and contactless are standard in the cities and on the bigger islands. Small tavernas, village bakeries and island buses still run on cash, so draw some out before you leave the port. - **Language:** Greek Greek has its own alphabet, and signs on the main routes are transliterated into Latin script. English is spoken wherever tourism reaches. Efharistó and parakaló go a long way. - **Calling code:** +30 - **Power:** 230V · Type C & F - **Emergency:** 112 - **Visa:** Schengen area Greece is in the Schengen area, so a short stay counts against the whole zone. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes the current rules by passport. - **Getting around:** Ferries, buses & flights Hellenic Train runs the mainland line from Athens to Thessaloniki. Everywhere the rails do not reach, KTEL coaches do, and the islands are ferries out of Piraeus and Rafina or a short domestic flight. - **Ferries:** Book ahead in summer High-season sailings to the popular islands sell out, vehicle space first. Fast catamarans halve the crossing but cancel more readily in wind. Conventional ferries keep running through the meltemi. - **Tipping:** Round up Service is included. Rounding the bill up, or leaving small change on the table, is normal and nothing more is expected. - **Opening hours:** Long afternoons Many businesses shut through the early afternoon and reopen in the evening, and dinner rarely starts before nine. Archaeological sites keep shorter winter hours, so check the day before. - **Weather:** Hot, dry summers Summer is reliably hot and rainless, and the meltemi wind can cool the Aegean and disrupt sailings in July and August. Winters are mild at sea level and snowy in the northern mountains. - **Regions:** 13 administrative regions Greece is divided into 13 regions, plus the self-governing monastic community of Mount Athos. Most regions run their own tourism site alongside the national one. ## When to visit - **Jan** - **Feb** - **Mar** (good) - **Apr** (good) - **May** (best) - **Jun** (best) - **Jul** (peak) - **Aug** (peak) - **Sep** (best) - **Oct** (good) - **Nov** - **Dec** ## Fun fact Greece counts around 6,000 islands and islets. Only about 227 are inhabited, and the ferries that link them shape most Greek itineraries. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Greece is whitewashed cubes above a blue sea **Reality:** That is the Cyclades, and it is one architecture among several. Rhodes is a walled medieval town the Knights of St John built. Corfu is Venetian and French. Northern Greece is stone, timber and slate. The postcard covers a handful of islands out of thousands. - **Myth:** Everything shuts down and nothing runs on time **Reality:** The rhythm is different, not absent. Businesses close through the hot part of the afternoon and reopen into the evening, so dinner starts at nine. Ferries and coaches keep their timetables. What cancels them is weather. - **Myth:** Athens is a stopover on the way to the boat **Reality:** It holds the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum, plus the best food in the country and neighbourhoods worth an evening each. Two days is the minimum that does not feel like a transfer. - **Myth:** Greek food is a plate of moussaka and a Greek salad **Reality:** Those are the menu items written in English. What gets eaten is a table of small plates shared between everyone, and it changes island to island: fava on Santorini, dakos on Crete, bougatsa in Thessaloniki, gavros anywhere with a harbour. - **Myth:** Summer is the season **Reality:** Summer is the crowded season. The sea is warm from late May, the sites are walkable in spring and autumn, and September has both. August adds heat, full ferries and Greek domestic holidays to the same islands you were heading for. - **Myth:** One island is much like another **Reality:** Each group is its own country. The Cyclades are bare, bright and windy. The Ionians are green and Venetian. The Dodecanese look east to Asia Minor, and Crete is a mountain range with a coastline attached. - Order for the table, not for yourself. Small plates arrive in the middle and everyone reaches in, and ordering one main each reads as odd. - Dinner is late. Turning up at seven puts you in an empty room; nine is normal and ten is unremarkable. - Name days often matter more than birthdays, and the person celebrating is usually the one buying. - The bill comes when you ask for it. A waiter leaving you alone after the plates are cleared is politeness, not neglect. - Cover your shoulders and knees for monasteries and churches. Meteora and Athos-adjacent sites enforce it, and wraps are usually available at the door. - Take the ferry weather seriously. A cancelled sailing in a strong meltemi is normal, so leave a day of slack before an international flight. - Coffee is a seat, not a takeaway. A freddo espresso buys the table for as long as you want it, and rushing it misses the point. - Do not put paper in the bowl where a bin is provided. Older plumbing on the islands is narrow, and the sign means it. ## Famous Greek faces - **Socrates**: Athenian philosopher, tried and sentenced by his own city in 399 BC - **Aristotle**: Tutored Alexander the Great, then founded the Lyceum in Athens - **Homer**: The Iliad and the Odyssey, the two poems Western literature starts from - **El Greco**: Born Domenikos Theotokopoulos on Crete in 1541, and remade painting in Toledo - **Maria Callas**: Soprano born in New York to Greek parents, and the defining voice of 20th-century opera - **Mikis Theodorakis**: Composer of the Zorba the Greek score, and of the songs the resistance sang - **Melina Mercouri**: Starred in Never on Sunday, then served as Minister of Culture - **Giannis Antetokounmpo**: Grew up in Athens, and won the NBA title with Milwaukee in 2021 - **Plato**: Founded the Academy, and wrote the Republic - **Herodotus**: Wrote the Histories, and got called the father of history for it - **Hippocrates**: Physician of Kos, and the name on the oath doctors still take - **Archimedes**: Mathematician and engineer of Syracuse, on buoyancy, levers and pi - **Sappho**: Lyric poet of Lesbos, surviving mostly in fragments - **Pericles**: Led Athens at its height, and commissioned the Parthenon - **Alexander the Great**: King of Macedon, and took the Greek world to the Indus - **Nikos Kazantzakis**: Wrote Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ, and is buried in Heraklion - **Constantine Cavafy**: Alexandrian poet whose Ithaka is quoted anywhere Greek is read - **George Seferis**: Poet and diplomat, and the first Greek to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1963 - **Odysseas Elytis**: Poet of the Aegean light, and Nobel laureate in 1979 - **Theo Angelopoulos**: Director of long takes and borders, and Palme d'Or winner in 1998 - **Irene Papas**: Actress in Zorba the Greek, Z and The Guns of Navarone - **Yorgos Lanthimos**: Director of Dogtooth, The Favourite and Poor Things - **Costa-Gavras**: Greek-French director whose Z turned a political thriller into an Oscar winner - **Manos Hatzidakis**: Composer who won an Academy Award for Never on Sunday - **Nana Mouskouri**: Took Greek song international from the 1960s, and later sat in the European Parliament - **Vangelis**: Electronic composer, and the Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner scores - **Demis Roussos**: Sang with Aphrodite's Child before a solo career that crossed Europe - **Spyridon Louis**: Won the marathon at the first modern Olympics in Athens, 1896 - **Nikos Galis**: Guard who carried Greece to the EuroBasket title in 1987 - **Pyrros Dimas**: Weightlifter with three consecutive Olympic golds from 1992 - **Stefanos Tsitsipas**: Tennis player, ATP Finals champion in 2019 and a Grand Slam finalist - **Yannis Tsarouchis**: Painter who put Byzantine form and everyday Athenian life on the same canvas - **Giannoulis Chalepas**: Sculptor from Tinos, and the Sleeping Female Figure in Athens - **Takis**: Kinetic artist who built sculpture out of magnets and signals - **Georgios Papanikolaou**: Invented the cervical screening test that carries his name - **Constantin Carathéodory**: Mathematician whose work on measure theory is still standard - **Euclid**: Wrote the Elements, and set out geometry as a system of proofs ## Must-try Greek food - **Moussaka**: Layered aubergine, spiced mince and a thick béchamel, baked and served in squares. - **Pastitsio**: Tubular pasta and mince under the same béchamel, the Greek answer to a baked lasagne. - **Gemista**: Tomatoes and peppers hollowed out, stuffed with rice and herbs, baked until they collapse. - **Kleftiko**: Lamb sealed with garlic and lemon and cooked slowly until it falls off the bone. - **Stifado**: Beef or rabbit stewed with a kilo of small onions, red wine and cinnamon. - **Briam**: Summer vegetables roasted in olive oil until sweet, eaten warm or at room temperature. - **Tzatziki**: Strained yoghurt with cucumber, garlic and dill, and the first thing to hit the table. - **Taramasalata**: Cured fish roe whipped with bread or potato into a pale, salty dip. - **Melitzanosalata**: Aubergines charred over flame, then mashed with olive oil, garlic and lemon. - **Dolmades**: Vine leaves rolled around rice and herbs, cold with lemon or warm in egg-lemon sauce. - **Saganaki**: A slab of hard cheese fried in a small pan until the edges blister. - **Horiatiki**: The village salad: tomato, cucumber, onion, olives and a slab of feta, no lettuce. - **Fava**: Yellow split peas cooked to a purée, topped with raw onion and oil. Best on Santorini. - **Dakos**: Cretan barley rusk soaked in tomato, piled with mizithra cheese and oregano. - **Souvlaki**: Skewered pork or chicken grilled over coals, eaten off the stick or folded into pita. - **Gyros**: Meat shaved off a vertical spit into pita with tomato, onion, tzatziki and chips inside. - **Koulouri**: A sesame bread ring sold from street carts, and what Athens eats on the way to work. - **Spanakopita**: Spinach and feta between sheets of filo, sold by the slab in every bakery. - **Tiropita**: The cheese version, hot from the case, and the standard Greek breakfast on the move. - **Bougatsa**: Filo around semolina custard, dusted with sugar and cinnamon. A Thessaloniki institution. - **Grilled octopus**: Hung to dry in the sun, then charred over coals and dressed with oil and vinegar. - **Kalamari**: Squid floured and fried, or grilled whole when the taverna has it fresh. - **Gavros marinatos**: Anchovies cured in vinegar and oil, the cheapest good thing on a harbour menu. - **Barbounia**: Red mullet fried whole, eaten with fingers, and worth the bones. - **Astakomakaronada**: Spiny lobster broken over pasta in a tomato broth, split between two people. - **Baklava**: Filo, walnuts and syrup, cut into diamonds and sold by weight. - **Loukoumades**: Small yeast doughnuts fried to order, drenched in honey and cinnamon. - **Galaktoboureko**: Semolina custard baked in filo and soaked in syrup while still hot. - **Kataifi**: Shredded pastry wound around nuts, then syruped like baklava's rougher cousin. - **Yoghurt with honey**: Thick sheep's yoghurt, thyme honey and walnuts. The dessert every taverna can make. - **Ouzo**: Anise spirit that turns cloudy with water, sipped slowly alongside food. - **Tsipouro**: Mainland pomace spirit, served by the small bottle with plates that keep arriving. - **Raki**: The Cretan version, poured at the end of the meal whether or not you asked. - **Retsina**: Wine resinated with pine, once a punchline and now taken seriously again. - **Freddo espresso**: Espresso shaken over ice, and the drink that buys you a table for an afternoon. - **Assyrtiko**: Santorini's white grape, grown in basket-woven vines, dry and mineral enough to age. ## By theme - [Honeymoon escapes](https://wimup.com/honeymoon.md) ## FAQs ### How many days do you need in Greece? Seven days covers Athens and one island group without rushing. Ten to twelve lets you add either Crete or a mainland run through the Peloponnese and Meteora. Trying to fit Athens, the Cyclades and Crete into a week means spending most of it on boats. ### Should you skip Athens and go straight to the islands? No. Athens carries the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum and a food scene the islands cannot match, and two days is enough to do it justice. It is also where almost every ferry and domestic flight starts, so you pass through anyway. ### Which Greek island should you pick? Naxos for a working island with beaches, mountain villages and the best food of the Cyclades. Santorini for the caldera view, accepting the crowds that come with it. Mykonos for nightlife. Crete if you want somewhere large enough to drive around for a week. Rhodes for a medieval walled town. ### Do you need a car in Greece? On the mainland and on the big islands, yes: the Peloponnese, Meteora and Crete open up with one and close down without. On small Cycladic islands a car is optional, buses connect the main villages, and parking in the old towns is its own sport. ### Are ferries or flights better between the islands? Ferries within one island group, flights between groups. Naxos to Santorini is a couple of hours by boat; Santorini to Rhodes is a day of connections by sea and under an hour in the air, usually via Athens. ### When is the best time to visit Greece? May, June and September. The sea is warm, the ferry timetable is at full strength, and the sites are walkable before the afternoon heat. July and August deliver the heat and the crowds together, and the meltemi wind can cancel sailings. ## Related countries - [Italy](https://wimup.com/country/italy.md) - [France](https://wimup.com/country/france.md) - [All of Europe](https://wimup.com/europe) Part of [Europe](https://wimup.com/europe.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.visitgreece.gr/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.mfa.gr/en/services/schengen-visas/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Getting around](https://www.hellenictrain.gr/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.