Things to do in Greece: 38 experiences worth the trip

1 hour, or 3 hours with the rim walkFree

Santorini's caldera sunset is the island's big moment; skip the crush in Oia and watch it from Imerovigli or the Akrotiri lighthouse.

2 to 3 hours with the slopesTimed entry

Take the first entry at 8:00 and you see the Parthenon in the morning cool, before the heat closes in.

2 to 3 hours at the tableNo booking needed

On Naoussa's Venetian harbour the ouzeries set tables at the water's edge: a good place on Paros for a long round of meze.

A full day on the boatBook ahead

White volcanic stacks, arches and sea caves that no road reaches: Kleftiko is a swim you earn with a day on a boat.

A full day for three monasteriesGo alone or with a tour

Monasteries on top of rock pillars, six of them still active; each closes one day a week, so pick your day before anything else.

Half a day with the islandNo booking needed

Grilled fish at the water's edge, looking across a narrow channel at Spinalonga: lunch in Plaka rounds off a morning on the island.

Half a dayNo booking needed

A walled town the Knights of St John built, still lived in: walk the Street of the Knights up to the Grand Master's Palace.

A week or more for three or four islandsBook ahead

In the Cyclades the ferry is the road: a classic hop runs Paros, Naxos, then Ios or Santorini, timed around the summer wind.

4 hours with the museum, a full day from AthensNo booking needed

The oracle's sanctuary climbs a terrace of Mount Parnassus, from the Sacred Way past the Temple of Apollo up to the stadium.

An evening, from 21:00 past midnightNo booking needed

Thessaloniki dines late and moves between streets: meze in Ladadika, trigona at Elenidis, a seafront walk, then bars until late.

1.5 hours on the rock, 2 hours in the museumTimed entry

Know what to look for on the Parthenon, then see its surviving sculptures lined up in the museum just below the rock.

1.5 hours, plus 2 for the museumBook ahead

Walk the largest Minoan palace in the morning, then see its original frescoes, bull-leapers included, in Heraklion the same day.

1.5 to 2 hours in the museumNo booking needed

Delphi's museum holds what the site lost, the bronze Charioteer above all, and explains how the oracle worked.

1.5 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Walk out to Chania's Venetian lighthouse before dinner, then start with dakos and let the raki come on the house at the end.

An afternoon into the nightBook ahead

Sunbeds and clear water by day, a beach-club DJ party into the night: Super Paradise is Mykonos at full volume.

1 hour at the viewpointFree

Swimming under the wreck was banned all through 2026; see Navagio from the cliff-top platform above the cove instead.

6 to 7 hours walking, a full day from ChaniaNo booking needed

Crete's great one-day hike: down through the White Mountains from the Omalos plateau to the Libyan Sea, then home by boat.

1 to 2 hours on siteBook ahead

A free fall of about 70 metres between the rock walls of the Corinth Canal, from a platform on one of its bridges.

1 to 2 hoursFree

Breakfast the Thessaloniki way, a crisp custard bougatsa dusted with cinnamon, then walk it off in the Modiano and Kapani food markets.

An evening, or 2 hours on the site by dayBook ahead

Greek drama on the stage it was made for: in summer the Athens Epidaurus Festival plays tragedies and comedies here on weekend nights.

1 to 2 hours by boat from Agios NikolaosNo booking needed

Sea arches and grottoes at the northern tip of Zakynthos, where the water in the deepest hollows turns a strong blue in morning light.

3 to 4 hours with both museumsNo booking needed

Walk the tunnel the athletes used and run the original stadion at Olympia, the track that gave the Greek unit of distance its name.

An hour, or a half day with PalamidiFree

A Greek coffee on Nafplio's harbour front, looking at the Venetian fortress on its islet, then the 857 steps up to Palamidi.

2 days with a night at Refuge ABook ahead

Greece's highest summit in two days: forest to Refuge A, a night up there, then an exposed scramble to Mytikas, 2,918 m.

Half a day for two or three wineriesBook ahead

Taste Assyrtiko where it grows, from vines woven into baskets in Santorini's volcanic ash, ideally on a terrace over the caldera at sunset.

Half a day, better with a night inside the wallsNo booking needed

A walled Byzantine town on a rock, reached through a single gate, with an abandoned upper town and a church on the cliff edge.

A day trip from Kos, better a night on the islandNo booking needed

Walk down onto the floor of an active volcano's crater, among steaming fumaroles, on a small island just south of Kos.

2 to 3 hours on footNo booking needed

Start at the Ottoman fortress on the hill and follow Thessaloniki's Byzantine walls down through the old quarter, with the bay below.

Half a day including the mealBook ahead

Roll dolmades in a village kitchen near Chania: Cretan cooking built on plants, and a fold that takes a few tries to learn.

Half a day for the museum and two parksNo booking needed

Whole trees turned to stone by volcanic ash, many still standing on their roots, across the dry west of Lesvos.

6 to 7 hours, Monodendri to VikosNo booking needed

Hike through the Vikos Gorge, which Guinness lists as the deepest for its width, on a full-day trail in the Zagori villages.

A day trip from Athens, better one nightBook ahead

An island with no cars: walk Hydra's coastal path west to Kamini and Vlychos for a swim, and take a water taxi back.

2 to 3 hoursBook ahead

The finds from the Acropolis under one roof, ending on a top floor where the Parthenon stands in view through the glass.

2 to 3 hours with the tomb and museumNo booking needed

Homer's Mycenae, rich in gold: enter through the Lion Gate, then walk under a 120-tonne lintel into the Tholos Tomb of Atreus.

Half a day from AthensNo booking needed

A Doric temple on the cliff at the southern tip of Attica, and the sun going down into the sea that Aegeus gave its name.

Half a day with the boat from MykonosBook ahead

Where myth places the birth of Apollo and Artemis, later a Roman free port: today an island of ruins, a short boat ride from Mykonos.

3 hours with the villageNo booking needed

A car-free village of whitewashed captains' houses below a knights' fortress wrapped around a temple of Athena; come after lunch.

Half a dayNo booking needed

Corfu's Venetian old town, from the café row of the Liston across the sea moat into the Old Fortress on its twin rocky peaks.