Greece is the word

I have always wanted to go to Greece, like always, always, always. From the moment I saw Blake Lively and Alexis Blendel in the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. So, when my husband and I decided that we wanted to take a trip out of the country I was hoping that this would be the place we would go. Even though I knew that I wanted to go to Greece someday, in true Greek fashion we decided to leave it up to fate.

We chose where we would be going on our next trip by each picking out 3 places we would like to visit, placing them in a bowl and then we would grab a piece of paper, the country chosen would be our next trip. I was so nervous about this, but I had luck on my side as my husband picked one up and said, “BABE WE’RE GOING TO GREECE!” I was so excited!  We quickly booked our flights and spent the next three months planning our trip.

We went to Greece during the first 2 weeks of March and it was PERFECT. We went during the off season and in my opinion that is the only way to travel. There was hardly any people and the weather was in the 60’s-70’s degrees Fahrenheit. Having the place to yourself is never a bad thing!

We started our trip off in Athens and stayed at the Athens Tiare Hotel. This hotel is located near shopping, restaurants and public transportation. This was a perfect location for us. We LOVED staying here because not only was it close to everything they offered a smart phone called “Handy” that they gave us during our stay so we would have access to the internet when we were out and around the city. We could even make international calls for free. At first, it almost sounded to good to be true but, it totally worked out and we loved it.  This was perfect for us when checking in with family back home and posting pictures to Instagram. We booked all of our hotels for our trip on booking.com which had options that included breakfast with our stay and OH MY GOSH! The breakfast buffet was amazing! Can you say Cheese Please?! I think my husbands favorite part was the cheese for breakfast! So delicious, and so many options!. My husband was in heaven as he is all for croissants and cheese and trust me they had plenty of that. We loved starting out day off over looking the city below us. This hotel has a modern feel to it and it was super clean, a perfect place to start out our vacation. 

In Athens we decided to get tickets and do the hop on hop off bus to see the city and this literally saved us so much time and we were able to see so much of the city . We have done this in a couple of other cities and it is a great way to not only see everything but a great cost effective way to get around. Plus, its a great time to rest your tired feet. A two day ticket was about $20 euros and there was a stop right outside our hotel. A total win-win. The great thing about the bus was that it was a double decker so you feel like your outside seeing all the things and smelling all the smells. (Its debatable whether or not thats a positive though!)  The bus also offers a guided tour that you could listen to via headphones and it was offered in a variety of languages. There was about 15-17 stops and took about 2 hours to make a full loop of Athens. In Athens we saw the Acropolis-Parthenon and it was something that I will remember the rest of my life. We got there around 8:30 in the morning because we wanted to be one of the first people to get there. After paying and going through the main entrance it took about 20 minutes to walk up to main level. The Acropolis is located on a bluff in the middle of the city, and the views are to die for. It is so cool to see the mix of modern and ancient Athens where ever you go. 

In Athens we also took a couple of day trips. The first one we took was a train ride to the beautiful monasteries of Meteora. This 5 hour train ride from Athens was totally worth it. The monasteries of Meteora are built on top of cliffs and it is so inspiring to see these beautiful structures built into the tops of mountains. We took a taxi to the top of the mountain and once we got there we went to one of the biggest monasteries there which took about 15 minutes of climbing stairs. Check out our trip video to see us tackling these stairs. Trust me, we had to take a couple of breaks. Even though we spent most of our day on a train, this day trip was TOTALLY worth it and something I am glad that we took the time to go and see. If you have more time you might spend the night in Meteora which will allow you more time to explore and see what Meteora has to offer. 

Another day trip that we took in Athens was to Poseidon's Temple. We decided to do this at sunset so that we could see the sunset over the ocean.  Poseidon's Temple is about and hour and half away from Athens. The drive to the temple is beautiful as you wind along the cost. There is a restaurant there that you can eat at if you would like. It cost us about $3 euros to get in and see the temple. We liked this day trip because if allowed us to see a different side of Athens. 

Our next stop on our Greece trip was to the island of Santorini. OH MY GOSH! This place stole my heart. Like literally STOLE MY HEART! We stayed at the Rocabella Hotel and the views from this property look like something from the travel channel. Since we were there during the off season we were one of the only people there and it was amazing! The staff was so friendly and treated us like King and Queens. They have a bunch of different rooms to choose from. We decided to reserve the room with the best views. Check out our video to see what the views from our room looked like. In Santorini we used Taxi's to get around. We visited the city of Oia which consists of the iconic blue and white buildings and churches built on the side of cliffs. We spent about half a day working our way around this city. Make sure you wear good shoes because you are going to be stepping up and down a lot of stairs. Don't worry though because there are a lot of areas where you can take breaks and rest up a bit (just watch out for the donkey poop).  When we were there they were building some new building at the bottom so we saw donkeys all day long carrying building materials, they were so cute but they looked so tired. The streets of Oia are filled with restaurants, art galleries and souvenir shops. In Santorini, we also visited Fria which is the islands capital. Fria offers you a more flat laying city but is still filled with Santorini charm. We got gelato here and it seriously tasted so good. When we travel we always try to find a Christmas ornament for our travel Christmas tree. We looked all over the island but thank goodness for Fira because this is the only place we could find Christmas ornaments. They say Santorini is for romance. I 100% agree with this statement. The views are beautiful and its the perfect place to snuggle up to the one that you love. 

TRAVEL TIP | Have phone battery chargers and extra batteries for your camera. You will seriously want to take a photo everywhere you look.

TRAVEL FACT | The plane ride from Athens to Santorini is about 35 minutes. So, it won’t take you to long to go to this beautiful place.

After we went to Santorini we got on a plane and  flew to the island of Mykonos. Unlike Santorini Mykonos is right on the beach and the island is a lot flatter. We stayed at the Leto Hotel located on the beach. We loved staying at the Leto hotel because it is 10 minute walk to all the iconic courtyards and windmills of Mykonos. We loved eating at Marias pizza restaurant and actually ate there two different times. The pizza was delicious. The pier of Mykonos is a fun place to hang out and lined with shops and restaurants. The courtyards and side streets are painted mainly white but accented with beautiful bright colors. Mykonos has a more upbeat attitude as it’s more of a party destination. We were so happy that we got to be on the beach and views of the ocean from Mykonos are something I will never forget.

We loved every second of our trip to Greece, the people were very friendly and we had a blast making it our own. If you’re looking to book a trip to the beautiful country of Greece I would recommend seeing Athens and choosing a couple different islands to see. We felt like we saw everything we wanted to see. Thank you, Greece, for providing me with memories that I will remember the rest of my life.

If you want to see more of our travels watch our travel video.

If you have any questions drop me a note in the comments below.  Thanks for reading.

xx

Stefani Nicole