Island Hopping in Greece
Our annual family summer trip, this year was a vacation in Greece! My parents, younger sister and I arrived in the Athens airport on June 26 and spent our first couple of days exploring the city where we stayed in an Airbnb apartment. We chose this family friendly Airbnb due to its location in the historical area with close proximity to the Acropolis, just a 10 minute walk away. It also has many restaurants on its neighboring street. In Athens, we visited many both historical and scenic locations such as the Acropolis, the Panathenaic Stadium, and Mount Lycabettus. Getting to the other two locations was more complicated. My family decided to tour the city by using the Hop-on-Hop-off bus to get to the stadium and explore the city of Athens. In order to get to Mount Lycabettus we had to take a taxi (it was very far away), but we chose to use Lime scooters on the way back which turned out to be a very fun experience. After our stay in Athens we began our island hopping journey where we went from Athens → Mykonos → Naxos → Santorini → Athens. We did one-way by ferry, and chose to fly on our way back to Athens from Santorini. (We used Ferryhopper to book Blue Star Ferries and Seajets in advance, these ferry rides took between an hour and 3 hours each).
Our first island stop was Mykonos, which is known for its beautiful beaches and lively nightlife where we stayed at Petinos Hotels (offering connecting rooms for families) which provided us with a breakfast buffet and was just steps away from two gorgeous beaches (Paralia Platis Gialos and Psarou beach). We spent our days swimming and tanning, enjoying the beach portion of our vacation. We also tried some incredible restaurants, including Scorpios which is known online for its celebrity presence and amazing service. (The service was in fact great but unfortunately we didn’t see any famous people). One of our days at Mykonos, we even rented ATVs and explored the actual Mykonos city where we spent some time shopping for linens, dresses, jewelry, and bags (I recommend stocking up on linens and jewelry when you go to Greece as they have many great options). Overall, the stay at Mykonos was a perfect mix of both adventure and relaxation.
Next, we headed to Naxos, a less touristy island. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment called Kapris House, a two-minute walk from the beach (Agios Prokopios Beach). For transportation, we rented UTVs (a more sheltered version of an ATV) to explore the island. We enjoyed hiking to beautiful viewpoints like Mount Zeus( Zas), visiting the Ancient Temple of Dionysus, and stopping at scenic locations during our drives. Before leaving, we explored the Naxos City where we got a snack and hiked up to the Temple of Apollo as we waited for our ferry to arrive at the port.
Our final island stop was Santorini, known for its iconic white and blue architecture and breathtaking views. We stayed in the city Fira, in The Lithos Villa by A Terre Caves & Villas, giving us easy access to explore the island due to its central location. One of the highlights of my family’s time there was an incredible boat tour (booked through Santorini Excursions - Dakoutros Bros J.V.) where we anchored at two different swimming spots (including a hot spring), hiked a volcano, and enjoyed dinner on the boat where we got to watch the sunset over the Aegean Sea. We also visited the city Oia where we went to take the viral “blue dome” photos that Santorini is known for. (I would definitely recommend getting to the photo location earlier in the day because the line to get the photo is typically very long. Thankfully we only ended up waiting around 20 minutes!)
To conclude our trip, we flew back to Athens for a final night where we stayed at Villa d'Irene (which was a property of multiple apartments and a shared swimming pool), before catching our flight home. Overall, Greece definitely lived up to the hype, and I can’t wait to go back someday!
By Veronica Libov, Campanile Luxury Travel intern
