rappar wrote:
It looks like I get to spend the better part of three weeks in Greece this spring, late February and early March. While I have bought a guide book to help with planning, if any out there that can provide some 'first hand' help, that would be great. Two areas:
1. Are there any spots I should be sure to add to the list of places I would like to visit.
2. I have a Sony A7iii, it has the kit lens but I tend to leave the FE4/24-105 G on it most of the time. Any other suggestions? I have yet to purchase my own Christmas gift so a new lens might be an excellent idea.
Thanks,
Ron
It looks like I get to spend the better part of th... (
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Hi rappar,
This is a native Greek writing.
February and March may not be quite like spring in Greece.
You might be lucky and have great weather conditions but it might be snowing as well
depending on the location and the altitude.
But you seem to be from Ontario so anything above 0 degrees Celcius could be like spring to you :) .
Greek islands are quite nice to visit but the period you plan to visit Greece is way off-season for most of the islands.
Good time to pay a visit would be around Greek Easter and till June (afterwards it is high season too hot and they are very crowded)
and best time is from September to October (still like summer but with much more comfortable temperature and not very crowded).
If you are going to hire a car choose something that is not excessively big and can move in not optimal road conditions.
If you plan to visit mountainous places you will have to deal with many u-turns and uphills.
Make sure that you have snow chains because on remote places the roads are not cleaned regularly if there is heavy snowfall.
Also make sure that you have a GPS with updated maps if you are not going to use built in cellphone GPS and google maps or the likes of it (road signs do not help that much).
Keep in mind that in remote places cell signal is weak or even non existent and you might not be able to connect to any cell network or use online maps.
A few recommendations:
-Athens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ParthenonParthenon museum is a must. Walk around Plaka and the whereabouts.
Avoid Omonoia square especially at night.
You can visit Delphi from Athens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi-Peloponnese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nafpliohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitsanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia,_Greece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canalhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Corinthhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirynshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycenaehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EpidaurusAround Dimitsana are many traditional vilages. Watch out for snow.
You can visit Olympia from Dimitsana but the road is full of turns (around two hours driving as far as I can remember)
Ancient Corinth and the canal are about an hour drive from Athens.
You can take the touristic boat that crosses the canal.
Naflpio is a nice town to stay and use it as your base to visit Epidaurus, Tiryns (Tirintha) and Mykines (Mycenae).
There is a castle on the town citadel and a very small island (Bourtzi) which was a prison that you can visit if you take the small boat that takes you across from Naflio's harbour.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourtzi_Castle-Central Greece:
Watch out for snow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trikalahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeteoraTrikala is near Meteora and is a nice small city to stay and visit around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PelionPilio (pelion) is a compound of traditional settlements near the city of Volos.
-Epirus:
Watch out for snow as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioanninahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metsovohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DodonaMetsovo is a traditional settlement with many picturesque villages around.
-Northern Greece:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessalonikihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verginahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XanthiThessaloniki is the second Greek greatest city.
-Crete
The biggest Greek island that is worth visiting anytime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaniahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heraklionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KnossosKnossos is near Heraklion (Iraklio) and was the centre of Minoan civilisation.
In general if you exclude Omonoia in Athens all places are safe to move and should have nothing to fear even late at night.
Choose restaurants and taverns that the locals prefer (avoid "too-much-touristic" restaurants to get a better taste of Greek cuisine)
Hope you are not vegetarian :) .