Greek Islands in Top 10 Summer Destinations

You are going to have many options when planning vacationsin Greece. There are many choices to make, but perhaps the mostdifficult revolves around when to go. Are you aiming to travel Greecewhen Greece tourism is slow, or are you looking for the summer partieson the islands? The good thing about Greece travel destinations is thatmany of them are historic sites. The ruins that are thousands of yearsold will still be there whether it is February or August. Suffice it tosay that there is no bad time to go to Greece, as vacations in Greeceare rewarding regardless of the season. 

You may think that to travel Greece during the winter months means that the islands are closed completely and that there isn’t much to do around the mainland other than visit the ruins. It can get pretty cold and wet during the months of November, December and January, but often in Athens and in the islands you can catch some warmer, sunny days. The islands,and Greece tourism can experience delays or cancellations due to rough seas. The number off lights or ferries heading to the islands significantly decreases, but you can still visit the islands if you are determined. While many of the larger resorts and tourist restaurants close for the off-season on the islands, but there are smaller hotels and restaurants still open.And, many of the restaurants that are open are popular with the locals,meaning the food is likely to be better.

















Islands like Mykonos, Crete, Rhodes and Santorini attract visitors year round, and many who rent their houses out in the summer return afterwards and claim the off-season is their favorite time.You simply get all the views to yourself, and a beach can be rewarding in the winter if you don’t mind the fact that the water can be cold.Prices during the off-season, specifically in the winter, are way down and it is a good time to snatch up those cheap flights to Greece.If you are a skier, you will love Greece in the winter.The mountains on the Peleponnese peninsula and in northern Greece get their fair share of snow, and the skiing can be pretty good.Many just don’t know about it.Of particular interest in the winter are the performances at both the Athens Concert Hall and the Thessaloniki weather is fairly temperate, although it can get pretty cold at times, and winter shopping bargains are easily found.  

As with the winter months, the fall and spring months can be veryrewarding in Greece. These are great months to plan vacations in Greeceif you are looking to enjoy the outdoors. Walks or hikes through theGreek countryside in spring can be particularly rewarding. Spring flowers are blooming all over the countryside and birdwatching is atit’s best. Eco-tours are great Greek tours to enjoy outside of thesummer months. 

















If you are looking for an “outside the box” idea forGreece travel destinations, try heading to the Greek mountains in thespring and fall and take a jeep tour to some of the areas most don’tknow about. You can find a lot of great weather if you travel Greece inthe spring and fall, and you will also find great hotel rates. May andSeptember just might be the best months to plan vacations in Greece.The weather is great and prices are still pretty low. 

Alas, we come to the summer, when Greece tourism is at its peak. Itcan get pretty hot in Greece during especially the months of July andAugust. These two months are the busiest in the islands, and while theferries and flights to the islands can get pretty crowded, this is thebest season to find the most number of them. Greek festivals and events can be found throughout Greece in the summer.The Hellenic Festival is in full swing in Athens, and performances at the Odeon of Herodes Atticustheatre and on Lykavittos Hill are popular draws for both Greeks andtourists. In July, wine enthusiasts can enjoy the wine festivals onCrete. Greece travel destinations most popular in the summer are, ofcourse, the beaches. The beaches in Greece are wonderful, offering something for everyone, and island beaches like Paradise Beach have nightlife that goes well into the wee hours.

There really just isn’t a bad time to travel Greece. The ruinsspread throughout the country will be there any time of year, and whenit comes to weather, well you just take advantage of whatever you get.When planning vacations in Greece, it can be as simple as decidingwhether suntanning and swimming in the Aegean Sea is your main focus,then go from there.

Source: destination360.com

Athens, Greece *****

Athens (pronounced /ˈæθɨnz/^[2]; Greek: Αθήνα, Athina, IPA: [aˈθina]), the capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years.

The Greek capital has a population of 745,514 (in 2001) within its administrative limits^[1] and a land area of 39 km² (15 sq mi).^[3] The urban area of Athens extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3,130,841 (in 2001)^[1] and a land area of 412 km² (159 sq mi).^[3] According to Eurostat, the Athens Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) is the 8th most populous LUZ in the European Union (the 4th most populous capital city of the EU) with a population of 4,013,368 (in 2004).^[4] A bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis, Athens is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece and it is rated as an alpha- world city.^[5] It is rapidly becoming a leading business centre in the European Union. In 2008, Athens was ranked the world's 32nd richest city by purchasing power ^[6] and the 25th most expensive^[7] in a UBS study.

Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. A centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum,^[8][9] It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy,^[10][11] largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent.^[12]

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by a number of ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, widely considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city's long history across the centuries. Landmarks of the modern era are also present, dating back to 1830 (the establishment of the independent Greek state), and taking in the Hellenic Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy consisting of the National Library of Greece, the Athens University and the Academy of Athens. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics.^[13]

 ^{Source: Wikipedia}

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Santorini, Greece *****

Santorini (Greek: Σαντορίνη, pronounced [ˌsa(n)do̞ˈrini]) is a small, circular archipelago of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from Greece's mainland. The largest island is known as Thēra (or Thira, Greek Θήρα [ˈθira]), forming the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km² (28 sq mi) and a 2001 census population of 13,670. It is composed of the Municipality of Thira (pop. 12,440) and the Community of Oía (Οία, pop. 1,230, which includes 268 inhabitants resident on the offshore island of Therasia, lying to the west). These have a total land area of 90.623 km² (34.990 sq mi), which also includes the uninhabited islands of Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni, Aspronisi, and Christiana (all part of the Municipality of Thira).

Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current geological caldera.

A giant central lagoon, more or less rectangular, and measuring about 12 by 7 km (7.5 by 4.3 mi), is surrounded by 300 m (980 ft) high steep cliffs on three sides. The island slopes downward from the cliffs to the surrounding Aegean Sea. On the fourth side, the lagoon is separated from the sea by another much smaller island called Therasia; the lagoon merges with the sea in two places, in the northwest and southwest. The water in the centre of the lagoon is nearly 400 m (1,300 ft) deep, thus making it a safe harbour for all kinds of shipping. The island's harbours all lie in the lagoon and there are no ports on the outer perimeter of the island; the capital, Fira, clings to the top of the cliff looking down on the lagoon. The volcanic rocks present from the prior eruptions feature olivine and have a notably small presence of hornblende.^[1]














It is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc, though what remains today is chiefly a water-filled caldera. The volcanic arc is approximately 500 km long and 20–40 km wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around the region of Akrotiri.

The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption (sometimes called the Thera eruption), which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization. The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) to the south, through the creation of a gigantic tsunami. Another popular theory holds that the Thera eruption is the source of the legend of Atlantis.

The name Santorini was given to it by the Latin Empire in the thirteenth century, and is a reference to Saint Irene. Before then it was known as Kallístē (Καλλίστη, "the most beautiful one"), Strongýlē^{[citation needed]} (Στρογγύλη, "the circular one"), or Thēra.

Source: Wikipedia

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