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Athens & The Aegean, Slowly
Article by
Duncan Greenfield-Turk
When you think of a Greek holiday, most people will describe it the same way: whitewashed buildings, a ferry across blue water, and a list of islands to rush through before heading home.
But what if there was a different way of experiencing it? What if instead of the itinerary of items to rush through, you arrived and spent an afternoon drinking coffee, eating pastries and taking in the sounds of the city?
What if you travelled the Greek way: taken slowly and enjoyed?
Athens: The unskippable city
If there’s one thing the Greeks know, it’s to avoid Athens during the middle of the day. That hot, very sweaty, and quite uncomfortable bit of the day. Athens is unskippable, but you need to embrace it at the right time.
Start with the one thing everybody is doing, but most get very wrong. The Acropolis is worth every second, but it comes with a disclaimer few share: go at opening or go in the last two hours before it closes. First prize would be going in the evening when the marble reflects the golden light and slowly turns pink as the sun sets.
Book it
Private Mythology Tour of Acropolis & Acropolis Museum
Site first, museum second, which is the order that makes the Parthenon sculptures make sense when you finally reach them.
Prices and availability are shown on the operator's page.
After you’ve seen a perfect sunset, walk down to the Acropolis Museum. The top floor is built to the exact dimensions of the Parthenon and aligned with it, so the sculptures sit at the exact height and spacing they were carved for.
Athens in the morning is special. It’s a city so it starts early, but it’s also Greece so it’s a little different. Head into the neighbourhoods like Plaka and the streets climbing above it at Anafiotika. It’s a bit like time travel: one minute you’re in a capital city of millions of people, and the next you’ll find yourself surrounded by a village of whitewashed island houses.
When midday does come around, and you aren’t ready for some time at your hotel, give the Central Market at Varvakios a try for a very Greek experience. Not at all bothered by tourism, you’ll eat standing up, among people doing their daily or weekly grocery shopping.
Book it
Semi-Private Athens Night Food Tour and Wine Tasting
Tavernas the neighbourhood actually eats in, after dark, with five Greek wines poured alongside.
Prices and availability are shown on the operator's page.
By the time the sun goes down, Athens comes alive again. The heat lifts, the kitchens open up, and there’s something for everyone: modern Greek kitchens working with the same six ingredients their grandmothers used, natural wine bars in Koukaki, or a classic taverna tucked away down a side street that not even Google has mapped.
Plan to spend: Four days, and give it all four.
Best for: Ruins at the right hour, the best eating in the eastern Mediterranean, and a capital most people never actually meet.
Where to stay: Hotel Grande Bretagne, on Syntagma.
Next stop: The Athenian Riviera
After a few days in the city, you’ll be ready for that island life. Except, why take a ferry hours away when just twenty-five minutes away you get everything you wished for and more?
The Athenian Riviera runs from Glyfada down past Vouliagmeni to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. Along that route are hidden coves, quaint marinas, and every possible version of a Greek island beach club you could possibly wish for.
Book it
Athens Riviera Half Day Cruise with Swimming and Lunch
Five hours down the Riviera with swim stops at Vouliagmeni that you cannot reach from the road, and lunch on board.
Prices and availability are shown on the operator's page.
One of our favourite hotels just so happens to be in Glyfada: the One&Only Aesthesis opened in 2024 on the site of the old Asteria beach club. It’s private and luxurious, with bungalows and villas scattered through the grounds, each with its own pool.
It’s exactly the island life but with the possibility of the Acropolis before breakfast. No packing, no ferry and no internal flight.
Plan to spend: Two or three days, or fold it into the Athens stay and drive down.
Best for: Swimming, long lunches, and the Temple of Poseidon at sunset, all inside half an hour of the Acropolis.
Where to stay: One&Only Aesthesis at Glyfada.
Blue Water: The Aegean
It wouldn’t be a Greek holiday without some impossibly blue, clear water. You could do the conventional: four islands in ten days, with ferries between each one. Repacking your suitcase at every stop, and never quite getting the chance to experience any one place properly.
Or you could continue our route past Athens, around two and a half hours south, to Amanzoe. This unique property sits on a headland above Porto Heli and doesn’t feel like any kind of hotel you’ve been to before.
The best part is Hydra is under an hour away, and Spetses is just fifteen minutes by boat. Island life without packing a single bag.
Book it
Hydra Island from Athens, with a Private Guide
The island with no cars, on foot with a guide rather than in a convoy. Under an hour by boat if you are already at Porto Heli.
Prices and availability are shown on the operator's page.
Plan a day in Hydra. There are no cars at all, and the town is beautifully wrapped in stone. The moment the harbour opens up in front of you, an amphitheatre of stone houses stacked around a bowl of water, is just about the moment you’ll start planning your return.
Don’t leave without a trip to Spetses for a quieter, greener and more authentic waterfront experience.
Plan to spend: Five nights minimum in one place.
Best for: Doing very little, on purpose, somewhere that rewards it.
Where to stay: Amanzoe, on the headland above Porto Heli.
Siga, Siga
There's a Greek word that gets translated as 'hospitality', but it doesn’t quite cover the whole meaning of it. Philoxenia is love of the stranger, and it's the obligation to feed and shelter whoever turns up before you've even asked who they are.
And it’s something you will feel if you embrace Greece in the right way. Give in to it. That's the trip.
Tell us how long you've got and we'll build a Greece that fits it rather than one that races it. Or jump on The Hotel Desk and book the rooms yourself, and we'll still be here for the parts that are harder to look up.
I’m Duncan Greenfield-Turk, and I’ve spent my life crafting extraordinary journeys that leave lasting impressions. Born in South Africa, my roots are steeped in diversity and adventure, and this inspires my approach to luxury travel design.
