The 8 best Greek cities to visit

If your idea of a Greek vacation is an island getaway – all the blue skies, limpid seas, and white sand beaches, with the strange sun-bleached marble ruin and a touch of culture, it’s time to take a glance. The fascinating cities are scattered throughout Greece, and you would be surprised what you can discover.

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Athens

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Athens is an obvious first choice for tourists heading to Greece. Its airport is usually the first stop for visitors from northern Europe and North America heading to the islands. And maybe they take a tour of the Acropolis and the neighborhood known as Plaka before sailing or flying to soak up the sun and sand.

But it is really worth exploring Athens for at least a few days. After you’ve seen the Acropolis and Ancient Forum, enjoy the coffee culture of Kolonaki, Thissio, or Makrygianni near the New Acropolis Museum. Explore the fantastic street art in Psyrri. Try some of the best modern cuisine in Europe. Climb Mount Licabeto to enjoy the best views of the city. And that’s just scratching the surface – Athens will surprise you and you might fall in love with it.

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Thessaloniki

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The second largest city in Greece is a disorienting mix of old and new. Compact and set around a beautiful curving promenade, it is the gateway to Macedonia and the country of Alexander the Great. The entire city is a UNESCO site, listed as an Open Museum of Early Christian and Byzantine Art. You can spend your time there exploring the 15 different buildings and sites that trace the transition from Roman times to early Christian Byzantine times and also the Ottoman occupation. The symbol of the city, the White Tower, depicted here, originated as an Ottoman fortification from the 15th century.

Or, you can ditch the past entirely and immerse yourself in Thessaloniki’s youth culture. This is a college town with a lively nightlife and live music, a reputation for excellent street food, and an extraordinary variety of festivals. There is an international film festival, various music festivals, celebrations of Greek culture, and a festival of European street entertainment.

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Piraeus

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Pireaus, widely known as the port of Athens, may be on the Athens metro and only 12 miles from the center of that city, but it is one of the major cities in Greece in its own right. Visit to explore the streets that were originally laid out in the 5th century BC. C., when Temístocles, a politician in the first years of the Athenian democracy, chose it as an important port for the state of the city. Today there are three ports.

The central port is the main industrial and ferry port, and you can see some of the oldest walled fortifications in the city, at Freatida.

If looking at some of the most fabulous yachts in the world is your thing (and we’re talking about something fabulous, just think of all those legendary Greek billionaires), head over to the Zea Marina area. Also good for high-end cafes, bars, restaurants, and shops. There is an archaeological museum with objects found in the harbor, including several massive bronze statues, and next to it, the Ancient Theater of Zea, dating from the 4th century BC. C. Mikrolimano is the place to see fishing boats and small sailing yachts and to eat the freshest fish in the area.

Head to Kastella to see quaint houses with great views, or explore 3,000 years of Greek maritime history at the Hellenic Maritime Museum, the largest, albeit surprisingly small, in Greece.

It is unlikely that you will make a special trip here, but coordinating your flights to Greece with the departure of the ferry from your island can leave you a lot of time to kill in this port city. Instead of thinking of it as an inconvenience, plan it out and enjoy the amazing pleasures that Piraeus has to offer.

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Kalamata

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Kalamata stretches its arms around the Gulf of Messina in the southwestern corner of the Peloponnese. And yes, this is the region that produces those fat purple olives of the same name. But there is much more to discover.

A small archaeological museum was created in the city market in the mid-1980s after an earthquake destroyed the market building. Finds from the local area include rare antiquities and jewelry from an ancient Mycenae tomb, the ancient and legendary period of heroes, Helen of Troy, and the Trojan War.

Before relaxing in one of the many bars and cafes along Navarinou’s seafront, head to the center of the old town at Pl. 23 Martiou, or 23 de Marzo Square, to discover the birthplace of the modern Greek republic. . Kalamata was the first city to be liberated from the Ottoman Turks in the Greek War of Independence. The Greek Declaration of Independence was signed in the 11th century Church of the Holy Apostles in the center of this square. Amfias Street is lined with comfortable taverns and cafes. While in Kalamata, try to refine a little lalagia to dip in your strong Greek coffee. These fried dough strips, flavored with orange zest and cinnamon, are a local specialty.

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Patras

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Patras, the third largest city in Greece, is a busy port that handles much of Greece’s trade with Italy and Western Europe. It is also a college town with two free universities and a large student population. The nightlife, as you might guess, is quite lively.

The city carries its four millennia of history almost coincidentally, but you wander up the great stairs towards the upper part of the city, and there is much to see, such as a Roman theater that still hosts performances of Byzantine churches and Venetian-style houses. Starting as a Mycenaean settlement, Patras has lived through a Hellenic and Roman period to Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman. It was one of the first cities to join the Greek War of Independence; Revolutionary soldiers besieged the Ottoman garrison for almost eight years before it fell in 1828.

But you will find history almost everywhere in Greece. Visit instead for Carnival, Patrino karnavali , in February. They have been celebrating it for 180 years. It’s one of the biggest carnivals in Europe, and it seems to go on forever.

And on the outskirts of Patras, visit one of the wonders of modern Greece: the Rio – Antirrio Bridge, opened in 2004, which connects the northwestern corner of the Peloponnese with the rest of mainland Greece via the Gulf of Patras. At almost three kilometers, it is one of the longest multi-span cable bridges in the world. It has a walkway and visitor center and welcomes pedestrians.

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Heraklion

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Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and, unlike the others that have one or two major and large cities, Crete has three cities. The largest of these and the capital of the island is Heraklion. It has a Venetian port for fishing boats and yachts overlooking a Venetian fortress, Rocca a Mare, as well as a ferry port and several large commercial piers. To make matters more confusing, the fortress is also known by its Turkish name, Koules, and by its original Venetian name, Castello de la Mare.

This is a busy and working city. It is where the international airport of Crete is located, so it is usually the first place visitors see. And it’s a bit shocking. First-time visitors who are not used to Eastern Mediterranean architecture may be surprised by how unsightly and dirty it looks. But Heraklion has a lot to do with it, and it requires a bit of patience.

• It was the home of Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece’s leading literary figure of the 20th century, author of Zorba the Greek and the Last Temptation of Christ, as well as the birthplace of El Greco.
• The Historical Museum of Crete is next to the Venetian port and displays the history of the various civilizations that occupied this island.
• The Natural History Museum is a great family attraction with such kid-friendly features like dinosaurs and an earthquake simulator.
• The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is the oldest and probably the most famous museum in Greece, as well as one of the best archeology museums in the world. That’s because it contains most of the existing artifacts from the Minoan civilization, discovered on Crete at Knossos and Phaistos. It’s a must see, just for the Minoan frescoes. Heraklion is the closest Cretan town to Knossos, about half an hour away by car.

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Chania

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Chania is the second largest city in Crete and has a completely different character from Heraklion. Its Venetian port is absolutely charming, and its streets are lined with brightly painted houses. This is a lovely little town for walking and sailing. There are good shops, many restaurants and taverns, and several luxury hotels.

Like the other two cities on Crete, it has its own Venetian fortress, known as Firka, which now houses the National Maritime Museum, which houses a display of ancient and modern shipbuilding along the seawall. And most people take a selfie near Chania’s Instagram-ready 16th century Venetian lighthouse. It is not only picturesque, but also one of the oldest working lights in the world.

Chania’s old town is lined with narrow, cobbled streets that just want to be explored. And when you need to get away from it all, Crete’s most famous hike, Samaria Gorge, begins a few kilometers from the city.

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Rethymno

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Rethymno, on the north coast of Crete, halfway between Heraklion and Chania, is another of the island’s Venetian gems. Its old Venetian port is small and full of restaurants, bars and shops that light up the water at night. It has a fairly important mosque, the Neratze Mosque, now used as a music center. This is an impressive remnant, of multiple domes from Ottoman occupation, complete with a dramatic minaret. The Venetian fortress here, called Fortezza, was created as a citadel to protect all the residents of the city during the Ottoman-Venetian wars. It was never big enough for that, so walled fortifications were created on the land side of the city. The Ottomans eventually briefly occupied this irregularly shaped citadel, but aside from turning a small church into a mosque,

Rethymno is the place to go if you are looking for urban pleasures like shops, restaurants, bars, museums and galleries alongside a tropical beach vacation. The longest beach in Crete stretches for 12 miles east of the city.

If you are looking to go shopping, get away from the promenade and the old town, which abound in souvenir shops, and head to Dimakopoulou Street and the area around the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete.