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Greece Holidays Guide - Greece Cheap Flights
GreeceHolidays & Cheap Flights Guide. Browse travel information on Greece
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Greece Holidays, Greece Holiday Packages Overview
The Olympic Games were spawned in ancient classical Greece, along with democracy and the fundamentals of philosophy, science and mathematics. Modern Greece is better known as a great place to vacation rather than a centre of learning and culture. Today the country attracts by offering simple pleasures: delicious food at reasonable prices, local wine, beautiful beaches, sunshine, quaint villages, a seemingly endless lacework of coastline and little islands full of scenic surprises.
The country exudes traditional charm, particularly on its ever-popular islands, which cling to their stereotypical architecture and way of life despite being often over-run by tourists. Black-clad women still deliver vegetables to island tavernas on panniered donkeys, while bronzed, lined fishermen sit in the sun, drink thick coffee, and play dominoes or dice. The tourist infrastructure has intruded in many respects, but the timeless aspect of whitewashed buildings clustered on hillsides around narrow pebbled alleys has been retained. The myriad islands in the Aegean Sea are easily accessible from Piraeus, the historic harbour of Greece's mainland capital, Athens, by ferry or hydrofoil, offering a unique chance for 'island-hopping'. Many of the larger islands also have airports with connections to Athens or seasonally with major European cities.
On the mainland the city of Athens in the south is sprawling, overcrowded and polluted but nevertheless enthralls visitors, while Thessaloniki in the north is vibrant and modern with a Byzantine flavour. Athens is dominated by its major landmark, the Parthenon: the remains of other wonders of the ancient Greek classical world are to be found mainly on the Peloponnese Peninsula, south of Corinth, the gateway to a veritable treasure trove of history.
Greece and Greeks welcome with open arms the thousands of visitors that flock to admire their national assets every year - no-one leaves without having been warmed, both by the sun and the hospitality.
Greece Regions, Provinces & Travel Destinations
Athens
Athens exudes a unique charm, its lively character winning over tens of thousands of visitors every year. Street markets, vine-covered tavernas, souvenir stalls and ancient monuments all form a conglomerate with buildings old and new in this city, which one out of four Greeks call home. For tourists the greatest advantage is that most attractions are accessible on foot in the central area around the landmark Acropolis. Walking is the best way to soak up the Athenian atmosphere because the traffic can reach nightmare proportions.
Peloponnese Peninsula
The southern part of mainland Greece, known as Morea, consists of the large Peloponnese Peninsula, now divided from the mainland by the Corinth Canal. The peninsula plays host to virtually every tourist that comes to Greece, because most of the country's important and imposing ancient sites are found on its landmass, which is dominated by two mountain ranges, the Taygetos and Parnon. The peninsula is a playground, too, for the Greeks themselves. Summer sees thousands of Athenians heading south at weekends to enjoy the seaside resorts and beaches of the Peninsula. Besides ancient ruins, the fertile coastal strip of the Peloponnese also serves as Greece's market garden and centre for wine production. Many tourists enter Greece by sea from Italy and other Mediterranean ports through the Peloponnese port of Patras, the third largest town in Greece. The Olympic torch is ritually lit at Olympia by a high priestess, just as it was in ancient times, and carried across the continents of the world to the host country to mark the start of the Games.
Thessaloniki
Greece's second largest city, capital of Macedonia in the north, was the realm of Alexander the Great and named after his sister, Thessaloniki, when it was founded in 316 BC. It sits in a bowl framed by low hills, facing a bay on the Gulf Thermaikos. Despite being one of the oldest cities in Europe, today Thessaloniki is lively and modern, more attractive than Athens with wide avenues, parks and squares. In 1917 most of the city was destroyed in a massive fire, and rebuilt later. This is not a high-rise city, though, because the area is prone to earthquakes and regulations have been imposed preventing the building of skyscrapers. This means that residents and visitors alike can enjoy the seaside situation of Thessaloniki, with views aplenty from the city streets. The main squares are Platia Elefterias and Platia Aristotelous, both on the waterfront and alive with cafes and restaurants, children playing or people just strolling. Thessaloniki, having been under Ottoman rule for long periods in its history, has been left a legacy of numerous Byzantine churches, and museums housing Byzantine art and artefacts. The city also has a heritage of early Christian communities, particularly the renowned monasteries of nearby Mount Athos.
Corfu
The island of Corfu, best known of the seven Ionian islands that lie off the north-west coast of Greece, differs markedly from the other popular Greek islands because not only is it green and lush, but also very developed with tourist resorts and hotels. Summer time is hectic on Corfu, with charter flights arriving daily from European cities, ferries disgorging travellers from Italy, and cruise ships docking.
Crete
The island of Crete is equipped with more tourist facilities than any other Greek island, which is fair enough because it is the largest. The reason why thousands of foreigners visit Crete each year, however, is not so much for the traditional Greek island experience, as for investigating the remains of the archaic Minoan culture that flourished here thousands of years before Christ. Some parts of the island have been overpowered by tourist resorts and massive hotels, but fortunately Crete does still allow for exploring endless beaches, numerous villages, remote mountains and some natural curiosities like caves and gorges for those who take pains to avoid the 'madding crowds'.
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