Kat’s Views of Greece 🇬🇷

We’ve spent a lot of time in Greece over the years, and every time I go, I realize how much more there is to see. My husband Chris’ family is from Greece, so for us it isn’t just a vacation destination. It’s family, memories, little towns most tourists have never heard of and a place we’ve really fallen in love with. One of our most special family memories happened in Vouliagmeni at our daughter’s wedding, which is also when we completely fell in love with the Athens Riviera.

I’m definitely not Greek, and I’m not pretending to be a professional travel expert. 😂 These are simply the things I’ve learned from spending time there—the things we love, mistakes we’ve made, things nobody warned me about and all the little hacks I now tell friends before they go.

My biggest lesson is this: you cannot “do Greece” in one trip. Athens, Santorini, Paros, Naxos, the Riviera, Mykonos and the little towns of the Peloponnese can feel like completely different vacations. Go see the famous places, but leave yourself a reason to come back.

I have separate pages with all of my favorite places, hotels, restaurants, beaches and things to do. This page is really about everything I wish someone had told me before my first trip to Greece.

Before You Go

Greece gets HOT, particularly in July and August. Also, August can also be extremely busy with tourists and the locals holiday month. Pack light, airy clothes and don’t worry about being overly dressy. The most important thing you can bring is GOOD SHOES. Greece is full of hills, ancient marble, cobblestones, uneven sidewalks and stairs. Think old city in the 1900’s. 😂 Sneakers and comfortable flat sandals with straps will make you very happy.

My other must-haves are baby wipes, hand sanitizer, a small rechargeable fan, portable phone charger, sunscreen, bottled water and European plug adapters. Baby wipes are useful for hands, sweat, sticky gelato, questionable bathrooms and, yes, bums. 😂 The little fan may become one of your favorite things because it keeps you cool and can help with bugs and cigarette smoke too.

Be careful with American electrical appliances, especially hair tools. Europe uses different voltage, so make sure anything you plug in is compatible. We’ve shorted out clippers, lost a expensive hair dryer and had a friend actually burn her hair with an incompatible appliance. Europe does not care how expensive your Dyson was. 😂

If you forget something, don’t panic, Greece has pharmacies EVERYWHERE, and stores such as Jumbo (like a dollar store) sell just about everything you suddenly realize you should have packed. Pharmacies are also worth going into because products and medication rules are different from the States.. Just ask the pharmacist, you can get lots of needed things. I stock up on azithromycin and tretinoin.

Before leaving your hotel each day, download your maps and screenshot anything important—reservations, tickets, addresses, ferry information, transportation details and meeting points. Wi-Fi and cell service can be choppy exactly when you need them most.

Greece Runs on Greece Time

This takes a little adjusting if you’re used to doing everything at USA speed. Greeks are sloooooow compared with the States, particularly on the islands. Meals can take hours, service isn’t rushed and nobody is trying to turn your table over. At first you’ll wonder, WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG?! Then you realize everyone is sitting around eating, drinking wine and actually enjoying each other, and maybe they’re the ones doing it right.

When you’re finished eating, ask for the check. They aren’t ignoring you. They just aren’t going to drop the bill on the table to tell you it’s time to leave. Tipping is also different from the U.S. Tips for good service is extremely appreciated, particularly in places that aren’t overrun with tourists, but you don’t need to approach it like American tipping but it might make someones day.

Everything happens later too. Dinner at 9 or 10 PM is completely normal. People shop late, children are still outside, cafés are full and entire families are sitting around the plateia, or town square, at midnight. The flip side is that some businesses slow down or close during the afternoon, especially outside major tourist areas. Plan for Siesta around 2–5 PM, places will be closed. Plan accordingly or you may suddenly be starving in an empty little town wondering where everybody went. They’re sleeping. 😂

Smoking is also much more common than many USians are used to, especially outside at restaurants and cafés. If you hate cigarette smoke like I do, this is yet another reason that little portable fan earns its place in the suitcase.

Prepare to Become Addicted to Greek Coffee ☕️

There seems to be a coffee shop on every corner in Greece. Try a freddo espresso or freddo cappuccino, especially when it’s hot. Somehow getting several coffees a day starts feeling completely reasonable within about 48 hours. 😂. Get a bottle of water to make it last longer. Everyone does this.

The difference is that Greeks don’t just grab coffee and run. Coffee is something you SIT with. You talk, people-watch and enjoy it. Coffee is an activity. This is one habit I have happily broughtvhome.

Greek bakeries are another obsession, theres a lot of options. Stop for a spanakopita, tiropita or basically anything that looks delicious. Bakeries are also great for grabbing breakfast or snacks before a long sightseeing or ferry day.

Greeks are the MASTERS of the Beach experience 🏖️🇬🇷

I absolutely think Greece does beaches the best. I am completely obsessed with their organized beaches. Every beach has amenities. Once you experience a beach this way, dragging chairs, umbrellas, coolers, food and half your house across the sand in the US starts to seem absolutely ridiculous. 😂

At many organized beaches and beach clubs, you pay either a fee or a minimum spend and basically everything is taken care of. Prices vary enormously—from inexpensive local beaches to very fancy beach clubs (10-50 Euro)—but you can often get two comfortable lounge chairs, your own little table and a large umbrella, plus bathrooms and sometimes showers or changing areas. Its totally worth it. There’s usually a restaurant or beach bar, and many places bring food, coffee and drinks directly to your chair. Some even have a button to summon your server. Yes, A BUTTON. You’re lying there looking at the Aegean, decide you need a freddo cappuccino or lunch, push the button and someone appears. WHY are we dragging half our house to the beach in the US?! 😂

Some organized beaches are practically little resorts for the day. You may find inflatable obstacle courses floating in the water, slides, play areas and rentals for paddleboards, kayaks or pedal boats. Depending on the beach, there may also be tubing, banana boats, jet skis, parasailing and all sorts of water activities. The kids or adult kids can be climbing around on some giant inflatable thing while the adults are sitting under an umbrella having lunch. Amazing!

What impresses me most is how EASY they make it to stay all day. Get there in the morning, choose your chairs and order a coffee. Swim, come back and let the sun dry you, order lunch right to your chair, read, nap, swim again, maybe go tubing, have a cocktail and eat something else because what we do in Greece is eat. 😂 Suddenly it’s late afternoon and you’ve been there seven hours. Nobody is bored, nobody is hungry and nobody is asking, “Can we go home yet?”

And every Greek beach feels different. The water changes from bright light turquoise to deep blue or almost emerald. Some beaches are bath water warm and shallow, others deeper and slightly cooler. Some are completely calm while others have waves. Even the saltiness and texture of the water seem different depending on where you are.

The actual beaches are different too. You can find powdery sand, golden sand, tiny smooth pebbles, black volcanic sand and enormous rocks in different colors. Some of the rocky beaches have water so unbelievably clear that you can see every single pebble underneath you. I recommend bringing water shoes if you plan to explore the rocky beaches but most of the beaches are sand.

And don’t forget to look BEYOND the water. Sometimes you’re lying there looking at mountains, enormous cliffs, little villages, another island or boats sailing across ridiculously blue water. It’s like Greece decided gorgeous turquoise water wasn’t enough and thought, let’s put a mountain and another island behind it too. 😂. This is great for selfies, group pics and my signature jump photos.

Honestly, you don’t need much for a Greek beach day. Bring sunscreen, sunglasses, your portable fan, water shoes when needed and preferably two towels—one to lie on and one that actually remains dry enough to dry yourself with. You’ll see Carroten tanning products everywhere in Greece too. I love how tan they can make you, but the Greek sun is STRONG, so keep this in mind.

Before taking the prettiest front-row chair, ask how the pricing works. Some places charge a fixed amount for the loungers and umbrella, others have a minimum food-and-drink spend, and premium front-row chairs may cost more. There are also plenty of public beach areas where you don’t have to rent chairs at all but I think renting the chairs just makes sense. Before you sit, ask, “How much are the chairs or is there a minimum spend?” Then there are no surprises.

Most importantly, give yourself at least one day where THE BEACH IS THE PLAN. Don’t squeeze it into two hours between three tours and a museum. Get there, order coffee, swim, eat, nap, play on the inflatable obstacle course, get dragged around the Aegean on a tube if that sounds fun, swim again and watch the light change over the mountains. There’s something about the Greek sun, salty water and those views that just melts everything away. You stop checking your phone, stop worrying about the time and suddenly understand why Greeks aren’t rushing around all day.

Sometimes the entire itinerary should simply be: Get a chair. Order a coffee. Jump in the Aegean. Eat something fabulous. Lie in the sun. Repeat. And the funniest part is that all you really needed to bring was a towel. 😂🇬🇷❤️

Weird Things Nobody Tells You

A lot of Greek hotel rooms require you to put your room key card into a slot to turn on the electricity so we keep one from the first hotel so we can use it to keep the electricity on when needed. When you leave and remove it, the electricity—and sometimes the AC—turns off. This is environmentally responsible but you come back after hours you thought were charging something and it isnt then you are sad. 😂 Ask for a second key card if you do not have one. Keep in mind this happens if you leave your porch door open too. Its not broke, close the door.

Wi-Fi can also be questionable if you’re trying to upload lots of photos and videos, so clear plenty of storage space on your phone before going just in case. There’s so many things to take pictures of. I LOVE pictures and learned this one the hard way.

And then there’s the toilet paper. In many places in Greece you’re asked not to flush toilet paper because the plumbing is old as dirt. That’s why there’s a little trash can next to the toilet. I know. GROSS 🤮 !!! I may or may not have occasionally ignored this until Chris informed me I was probably personally destroying the Greek sewer system. 😂 This is another reason baby wipes and hand sanitizer are permanently on my Greece packing list. It is a big adjustment and I will say something I appreciate about back home. I actually sigh when I return to US plumbing.

Walking is also a REAL thing. Don’t trust Google Maps when it casually tells you somewhere is a 15-minute walk without mentioning that the 15 minutes involve a cliff, polished marble and approximately 400 stairs. 😂

Money, Cards & Euros 💳💶

Pretty much everywhere we go in Greece accepts credit cards, so you don’t need to carry tons of cash. We still like having some euros for small shops, kiosks, tips, taxis and markets but it makes you less likely to loose your money.

One VERY important tip: when a card machine gives you the choice of being charged in U.S. dollars or euros, choose EUROS. Let your own credit-card network handle the conversion rather than accepting the merchant’s dollar conversion, which can come with a worse exchange rate and you wont be charge for converting twice. Notify you phone and bank you are traveling and check before leaving home to see whether your credit card charges foreign-transaction fees. If you have one without those fees, that’s the card I’d use.

I also recommend downloading a currency-converter app. The euro and dollar are not equal, and the euro can be stronger than the dollar. It becomes very easy when you’re shopping to look at something marked €100 and mentally think it’s $100. It isn’t necessarily. 😂 Check the current exchange rate while you’re there.

Cash can also sometimes help when you’re politely bargaining at flea markets or small independent shops. Just don’t carry a huge amount at once.

The Greece Most Tourists Never See

If you fall in love with Greece, come back and explore beyond the famous islands. Some of the places that mean the most to us are places most US tourists never put on their first itinerary.

Chris’ mom is from Tripoli in the Peloponnese, where you get to experience a Greek city that hasn’t been developed primarily around international tourism. Chris’ dad is from Gargalianoi in Messinia, surrounded by beautiful towns and beach areas where you can sit beside the water, eat fabulous food and spend an entire day enjoying yourself without spending a fortune.

We also love Kalamata—and not just because of the olives. 😂 The waterfront, beaches, restaurants and cafés are wonderful.

That’s the Greece I really want people to discover after they’ve seen the famous places. Rent a car. Explore the Peloponnese. Stay at a little hotel. Find an organized beach. Have a two-hour lunch. Sit in the plateia late at night.

At some point, you stop sightseeing in Greece and start experiencing Greece.

A Few Greek Words 🇬🇷

You absolutely do not need to speak Greek in the main tourist areas, but people appreciate when you try.

Yassas (Γεια σας) means hello and is pronounced YAH-sahs.

Kalimera (Καλημέρα) means good morning and sounds like kah-lee-MEH-rah.

Kalispera (Καλησπέρα) means good evening, pronounced kah-lee-SPEH-rah.

Efharistó (Ευχαριστώ) means thank you and is roughly ef-hah-ree-STOH.

Parakaló (Παρακαλώ) means please or you’re welcome and sounds like pah-rah-kah-LOH.

Nai (Ναι) means yes and is pronounced neh, which will completely mess with your brain at first. 😂

Ohi (Όχι) means no and is pronounced OH-hee, and

Yamas! (Γεια μας!) is cheers, pronounced YAH-mahs.

Learn yassas, kalimera, efharistó and yamas, and after your second glass of Greek wine you’ll feel practically fluent. 😂

My Advice wrapped up ❤️

Bring good shoes, baby wipes, your little fan and the right adapters. Drink the local wine. Become addicted to freddo cappuccinos. Eat ALL the tomatoes. Learn to say efharistó. Plan around siesta. Watch your belongings in crowded tourist areas. Spend an entire day at the beach. Stay out late. Ask for the check. Keep a few euros in your pocket. Use your hotel staff to help arrange transportation and reservations. And most importantly, don’t over-plan every minute.

You’re going to eat and eat and eat, walk and walk and walk...and then eat again. 😂

We love how Greece eventually forces you to slow down. People sit, eat, talk, rest, stay out late and spend time together without constantly worrying about what they’re supposed to accomplish next.

Greece makes you slow down—and once you do, you realize how badly you probably needed it.

So see the famous places. Go to Athens. See Santorini. Spend time on Paros and Naxos. Explore the Riviera. But also leave room for the little town you didn’t plan on visiting, the lunch that accidentally lasts three hours and the beach day where you accomplish absolutely nothing.

Those may end up being the parts you remember most. Take lots of photos!