The Best First Time Greece Itinerary (Athens, Santorini, Naxos): 10 Days

Published on by Art

Greece was on our bucket list for a long time, but we kept pushing it to the bottom for some reason. There were always other exciting destinations on our bucket list.  One day, after re-watching the teen flick “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” and seeing Lena riding a donkey in Santorini, we decided it was time to go.

About This Itinerary

We traveled to Greece in May, 2019. The timing was perfect: the weather was not hot yet, but warm enough to swim, the crowds were not there yet (other than in Santorini, see our “dislikes” later) and all of the restaurants were open for the season.

We wanted to see Athens and hop through the islands, but felt it would be very hectic combining too many stops in one trip. Eventually, we settled on one night in Athens, and it was the right choice in our opinion. One and a half days were enough to see the main attractions. Santorini was beautiful but overcrowded. Naxos was by far our most favorite destination in Greece – we will be coming back! 

10 Days in Greece

Day 1 – Athens (Acropolis)

We arrived to Athens International Airport (ATH) around 10 am. Public bus X95 to Syntagma Square – City Center stopped right outside the airport (Eur = 6.00 per person one way; tickets can be purchased right at the bus stop with a credit card). The ride took about 45 min, and we got off at the last stop. Our hotel was .2 miles walking distance from the bus stop. We stayed in the New Hotel, Marriott property (can book for points, but there are no other Marriott perks available).

After a little rest and a nice long shower, we set out to explore with the first stop at the small family run bakery shop Ariston (ΑΡΙΣΤΟΝ ΛΟΜΠΟΤΕΣΗ). We read raving reviews on TripAdvisor, and we weren’t disappointed. Delicious small pies filled with cheese, veggies, apples & nuts. Great as lunch or snack (no seating available). We had mushrooms-cheese and apples-nuts. Both were tasty and not expensive. By the way, “tasty and not expense” can be applied to every meal we had in Greece!

Our goal for the first day was to see the Acropolis. On our way there, Google Maps (offline maps are our best friends when we travel, especially when we don’t have the data plan) took us through the hilly historic neighborhood of Plaka located right under the Acropolis. This residential neighborhood is full of shops, restaurants and cafes, and we planned to come back here for dinner.

Tip: Many shopping and dining establishments in this area are closed June-August as locals head to the beach for the summer.

The best (and free) view of the Acropolis is from the Areopagus Hill which is located right across from the main entrance to the Acropolis. While looking for the ideal spot to take the pictures of the magnificent antient citadel, be careful: this little hill is very slippery.

There are different types of tickets you can buy to see the Acropolis and other antient sites. We used this useful site to decide what best suited our schedule. We went for a single EUR 20 per person ticket. Expecting a long ticket line to the Acropolis we were pleasantly surprised to see only couple of people at the ticket counter. The only explanation we could think of was the time of day, 5 pm, when most of the tourists were done with sightseeing and getting ready for dinner.

There were a lot more tourists and groups once we entered the site and some of them were very loud and annoying. Parthenon was everything we imagined it would be and more. Even with the crowds, you can feel that there is something special about this place. Perhaps, this is because we’ve studied Greek history as kids, and we were finally seeing the place where so much of it happened. We had a similar reaction on our first visit to Rome.

Tip: To enjoy this sacred place in peace and quiet and to get the best lighting for your photos, visit an hour before closing (7:30 pm in the summer and 3 pm in the winter). We wanted to come back later, but didn’t realize that our tickets only allowed one entry. While buying the tickets, we were told the tickets were valid for 5 days. We learnt later that you can only enter the Acropolis once during these 5 days. Don’t make the same mistake and enter the site near the closing time.

The next stop was Greek Agora (the downtown of antient Athens), about 15-20-minute walk from the Acropolis. EUR 8 per person. In our opinion, a must see, equally amazing, historic and free of hordes of tourists.

For dinner, we came back to Plaka, and ate at this Rick Steve’s recommended restaurant. We split a Greek salad and each had dorado with potatoes and vegetables. Wine and dessert were on the house.  This was another nice surprise in Greece: every meal includes some free extra, typically a small desert. The picture below is Orange Cake, which became our favorite.

The food was delicious. The only disappointment was a huge cockroach in the restroom (hope it did not find its way to the kitchen). I was scared and a little disgusted, but my husband tried to convince me that it was a bug, like it was any better!

After dinner, we took another stroll up to the Acropolis to see it lit up at night. It was a beautiful sight, very romantic and a great finale for this long but eventful 1st day in Greece.

Day 2 – Athens (City Walk) and Flying to Santorini

We had a filling yummy breakfast at Fresco yogurt bar, 15 min walk from the hotel, delicious Greek yogurt with various toppings. We chose one with honey/strawberry/walnuts and another one with cherry/walnuts.

Then back to the hotel, showed, checked out, left our luggage, and picked up a map for our next activity – the city walk.

We used Rick Steves’ Greece travel book (don’t buy it, pick it up at the library instead, it doesn’t have to be the latest edition) and followed his “Antient City Walk”. This walk lasts about 3 hours and takes you through the 3 distinct sections: the modern Athens, Greek Orthodox Athens and Antient sites.   

The walks starts at the Tomb of the Unknown Solder, where Evzone Guards perform an elaborate dance every hour to much delight of the crowd. Of course, they are not dancing but changing guard – who cares? It is all entertainment, although the solders take it very seriously and so do the police officers, who tell the eager tourists to keep their distance. The ceremony starts five minutes before the top of the hour, and it is worth the wait.

We stopped for lunch at Greek tapas place, near Plaka (not far from the Acropolis). Had “lunch for 2” for EUR 30. We really liked beef with carrots and lemon sauce, Greek salad, tzatziki, orange cake and ouzo liquor. Don’t order fried sardines, these were nothing special. Overall good place for lunch.

In the late afternoon, right after the walk, we got back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and hopped on the bus back to the airport to catch a 50-minute flight to Santorini. We couldn’t wait to see this Instagram sensation with its white-washed villages and azure domes. The flight was short, and we saw several islands below us as the sun was starting to set.

We decided to stay just outside the town of Oia on the northern tip of the island and arranged for a pick up with our hotel. Our first impression of Santorini was not the best, to say the least.  It was just after the sunset and as we were driving to our hotel, a myriad of tourist buses was leaving the town. Be prepared: it feels like the whole tourist population of the island gathering in Oia to watch the sunset!

After settling into our room, we walked to Oia along the same road. It was dark with few cars, but we generally felt safe. We wanted to see the famous cave hotels. Oia was deserted, most of the shops were closed, and the tour groups had returned back to their hotels to post their hard-earned sunset photos on Instagram.

Our hotel was called Kiklamino Studios and Apartments, located about 15 min walk from downtown Oia and run to around $120/night. We would not recommend staying here, instead (and this is the only time we are going to say this), don’t be cheap and “invest” in the best hotel you can afford in Oia. You will be rewarded with your own sunset view instead of watching it with the crowd of strangers. Our hotel bed was so hard and uncomfortable and the sounds of passing cars were so loud that Art got up in the middle of the night and wanted to move.

Tip: Don’t try to save money on the accommodations in Santorini. You are only there once (we wouldn’t go more than once), so treat yourself to a nice room with the view.

Day 3 – Santorini

After a simple breakfast that came with the room at Kiklamino, we took the public bus to Fira, Santorini’s main town (20 minutes) and set out on a hike from Fira back to Oia. This useful site has all the information you need about the hike, one of the most popular activities on the island, with the stunning views of the volcanic caldera (crater) and white-washed/blue domed Oia.

The walk took us 5 hours including an hour detour to Skaros rock. Start early if you are doing it in the summer; it gets hot by 11 am and have plenty of water with you.

The most important piece of advice we read on this topic: plan this hike on a day when there are no cruise ships in the port. This schedule will help you with the planning! The hike is fairly easy but can be tiring in the summer due to the distance it covers.

Once you near the end of the hike, you will see some donkeys waiting for you to ride them. Okay, not really waiting for you… yes, you will see the donkeys but animal activists are urging us, the tourists, not to ride the donkey. They have been mistreated, not properly fed, and doing long 8-10-hour shifts. So please be kind and humane and join the “Donkeys suffer for tourist, don’t ride them” campaign.

We ended up in Oia around 4 in the afternoon, hungry and tired but not regretting a single second of doing the hike. Settled on one of the restaurants on the main street overlooking the crater. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the restaurant but most of the restaurants in downtown Oia serve similar food: traditional Greek cuisine.

After getting some food and giving our legs a little bit of rest, we walked toward Oia Old Castle and took the steps down to Amoudi Bay beach. We’ve read about this quiet and peaceful place away from the crowds, and wanted to check it out.

We also read about great restaurants down at the harbor, but unfortunately, we weren’t hungry anymore. This is a long way down (200 steps), and you can’t help thinking about going back up. At the bottom, there are donkeys again – same issues apply, we didn’t want to contribute to the animal abuse.

We walked to the left, past the restaurant to the small diving area and watched crazy people jumping from the high rocks while other, also crazy people were taking thousands of selfies with divers on the background.

When we climbed back up to the main street in Oia, it was close to sunset time, in other words the time to get out. We started moving in opposite direction to the massive flow of people coming to watch the sunset from the iconic viewpoint at the Old Caste. We decided to watch the sunset in a more private setting. We walked back to our hotel via the hiking path that went along the crater and watched the sunset on one of the hills along the path. Right next to us, a recently married couple was having a photoshoot, which was fun to watch (almost as much fun as the amazing sunset).

Our smart watch showed over 33,000 steps for the day; we were so tired that didn’t even notice the uncomfortable bed and the road noise that night.

Day 4 – Ferry to Naxos (and catching a cold)

My throat felt ticklish the night before, but I thought it was dust I inhaled while hiking. When I woke up, I knew that I had a cold. Art felt it about an hour later, same exact symptoms. We had a 3pm ferry to Naxos, and we had no choice but to take it easy, try to rest and fight the illness.

We checked out of our hotel, left our bags at the reception and took the walking pass to Oia. We hang around the village taking a few more pictures, had another nice Greek lunch before heading back and taking the taxi to the port.

Getting on the ferry was an interesting experience. We watched with awe how the huge trailers were offloaded in the narrow space with precision and efficiency. People were directed to board in between, and we had to run the short distance from the waiting line to the ferry so the next trailer can start backing off the ship. The whole process took about 15 minutes.

We had a nice, 2 hour ride on BLUE STAR FERRIES to Naxos. We probably had a fever, so sitting outside and breathing refreshing sea air was a nice remedy.

When we arrived, we expected to pick up our rental car from MotoPower at the port. Unfortunately, Art forgot to let them know that we were taking a later ferry. Our gracious Airbnb host Randy helped us resolve this situation – she actually called the company for us! By the way, after that small incident we had a great experience with MotoPower, so definitely recommend them if you need a car on the island (which you do).

As we were waiting for the car to arrive, Randy texted us the picture of their beautiful villa (below) with caption saying, “Just a few more minutes before you are here”.

It was almost 8pm when we got to the villa, and it didn’t disappoint. We had an amazing view, all the amenities and the sunset, which was even better than at Santorini.. with no crowds. I almost hesitate to give you the name of this villa because once discovered, we will never be able to book it again: Vista Ariadne. We were totally in love with it, and with the hosts Randy and Maki.

While we were very tired and still weak from the cold that night, we weren’t ready for bed yet. We jumped in the car and drove to Naxos Town, about 10 min away. There, we walked the maze of brightly lit white streets, dotted with the cute shops and cafes.

The town was almost deserted, which made the experience even more special. After some wondering around, we found ourselves at Venetian Castle up on the hill. The castle was spooky and silent, except for muted laughs of the local teenagers, who apparently make it the place of their evening hangouts.

Day 5 – Cove Beach, Hora and Agios Prokopios

On the next day, we woke up feeling a bit better, but still not 100%. This cold wasn’t going away easily, so we had to adjust out plans. We decided to spend the day on the beach, which is very uncharacteristic of us. Maki told us about the secluded coves just below the villa, and we headed there. When we found this small beach, it became our favorite.

Warning: You may see some nude people at the Naxos beaches. Be polite and don’t stare.

We ended up spending almost the entire day on the beach. Around noon, a huge wave came out of nowhere and flooded the area. We barely escaped up the rocks, but some of our clothes got washed away. As we found out later, this happens every day at the same time. We have no idea why.

Later in the day, we went to the famous Agios Prokopios beach, about 5 min drive from the villa. It is a nice, wide beach with chairs and umbrellas for rent. It was after 6pm, so almost everybody was gone. After the quick swim, we drove to the Old Town to check out The Apollo Temple (or what’s left of it). Apparently, only the entrance pillars survived because the stones from the rest of the temple were used to build houses in the town. We stayed there almost until the sunset and escaped when things started to get too romantic.

Our Airbnb hosts recommended Irini’s restaurant, which had a great selection of seafood and of course, the traditional Greek salad. What else would one want?

Day 6 – Kouros, Panagia Drossiani, Chalkio and Temple of Demeter

We had a full day planned as we were feeling better and up for some exploring. We didn’t want to be too ambitious, however, and were really happy to have a car. Naxos is a big island, and while buses do run regularly between the villages, in our opinion a car is a must. Also, car rentals are not expensive at all, and they bring the car to you and as well as come to you to pick it up.

Our first stop was the 3000 year old Kouros of Apollonass. It is a giant statue laying in the shade, only a short walk from the road. There is no fence, no guard, no tickets to buy – just come and look at this amazing accomplishment by our ancestors. It is hard to believe that they knew a fraction of what we know now, but could carve a man out of stone with such elegance.

There is another, larger statue further up the mountain, but getting to it was unfortunately still beyond our strength.

We then drove to Panagia Drossiani, which is a beautiful Byzantine church. We used Google Maps to navigate, so we didn’t have any issues finding it – we read some reports that it is kind of hidden, not very well visible from the road.

Near the church, we saw some old ladies dressed in traditional black clothes. They wanted to sell us their crafts and weren’t happy with our lack of interest. We also saw hikers resting in the shadow as this church is a stop on Seven Churches Hike. We really wanted to do this hike (about 2 hours), maybe next time.

We continued driving for another 20 min to the village of Chalkio, where we had lunch on the main square and walked around some more down the path to the Church of Agios Georgios Diasoritis (follow the signs). This church is also part of the same Severn Churches Hike, and one of the best preserved on the island. Somebody told us that there are 300+ churches on Naxos.

Our final stop of the day was Temple of Demeter, which was only recently excavated and restored. We were lucky to arrive later in the day when it was quiet and peaceful. There is a small museum on site, which is worth visiting to learn how this temple evolved over the years and different religions transformed it, made it their own by building on the same foundation, even using the same stones.

We sat near the temple for a while, resting and listening to silence around us. There is definitely something magical about this place.

We were tired by the time we got back to Naxos Town. On that night, we discovered our favorite restaurant on the island – Doukato restaurant. We ate their twice during our stay, both times sitting outside. Their Chicken Doukato (for 2) is to die for! It comes on a skewer suspended above a bed of salad and Naxian potatoes. Delicious!

Day 7 – Eggares Olive Press Museum, Abram Beach

Most of Naxos’s attractions are East and South of the Old Town, and we were feeling like doing something off the beaten path. We read good reviews for Olive Press Museum in Eggares on TripAdvisor, so we decided to drive North East and see it.

The museum is located in a pretty church, so we almost missed it. Inside, two nice women give you a free tour, explaining how olive oil was made hundreds of years ago. We didn’t know that extra virgin oil is made from olives, which are not ripe yet, hence still green.

You don’t have to buy anything at the small store, but most people do to thank them for the tour. You can also try some interesting jams made from olives.

We continued north until we reached Abrams Beach. We had to get off the main road and drive down on a very narrow road, which terminates at the small cliff. It wasn’t scary, but we were glad to have no cars coming in the opposite direction. The beach was small and deserted, with a cute restaurant, which was of course closed.

On the way back, we stopped at Monastery Faneromeni. The monastery is hard to see from the road (again, good thing we had our Google Maps). We were the only people there, but the grounds were open.

I was excited to discover a garden with lemon trees. I had to get one (sorry, if I wasn’t supposed to). It smelled so good!

Day 8 – Hiking Mt. Zeus, Apeiranthos Village

We read a lot of blogs about hiking Mt. Zeus and went thought almost every review of this hike on TripAdvisor. AllTrails app has this hike mapped starting from Filoti (easy path), and that’s what we did.

The easy path option is a bit longer (9km) because you have to hike about 40 min to Agia Marina church where many people start, but that portion is not too difficult and very pretty. It also avoids driving on a narrow road if you are not comfortable with that sort of thing (we weren’t). The best advice we got was to leave early. We started just before 9am and didn’t have any issues with heat. But we did feel bad for people we met on the way down around noon.

There was some shade on the trail, but not much. We were still feeling weak from the cold, and I was worried about being able to make it. There was one section, about 30 min before the summit which was steep and a bit tough, but otherwise it was not bad. The path was better marked than many other hikes in Greece. Another great advice was to look for small signs with number 2 and for pyramids made of stones.

The view at the top was amazing. We got lucky with the weather, no clouds at all, so we could see for miles around, including Paros and other islands.

It was easier coming down, but at times I felt like a mountain goat, maybe a little less graceful. We also ran out of water mid-way down, so we were pretty happy to finally get to our car.

We were getting hungry, but instead of trying to find a place to eat in Filoti, we drove to Apeiranthos village to have lunch there. This village is famous for hundreds and hundreds of stairs, which give you a real workout, especially after hiking a mountain. We were smart and parked at the top of the village. The trick is to drive all the way to the end, instead of finding parking right away. This saved us a lot of steps!

After lunch, we subjected ourselves to the famous stairs because our experience wouldn’t be complete without some suffering.

We ended the day with dinner at Scirocco Café in the center of Naxos Town. As everywhere else on Naxos, food was great, and atmosphere very easy-going: mothers with strollers and kids playing at the square, near the colorful fountain.

Day 9 – Last Day On Naxos

We were sad to be leaving Naxos. Our flight to Athens was at 5:30pm, but we opted to just stay at our favorite beach and relax.

We always plan our trips so that the last couple of days would be filled with less activity. This way, we come home rested. Art’s mother has this saying: “We had a great holiday break, but now we need another one to rest”. We never want to be in that position. On our last day on Naxos, we did absolutely nothing.

The flight to Athens was short and uneventful. We recommend flying instead of taking a ferry, which is almost 4 hours. We read one travel report when the waters were rough, and this journey spoiled the entire vacation. Our plane was surprisingly big, although Naxos airport looks more like a bus station (and security is about as tight).

Day 10 – Athens and Flight Home

We spent the night at the forgettable, but convenient Apartments Tina. The best features of this place are very reasonable price ($65 per night) and a free shuttle to the airport.

Highs and Lows

Highs

  • Hiking Mt. Zeus on Naxos
  • Hiking Fira to Oia at Santorini
  • Secluded beach on Naxos
  • Out villa on Naxos
  • Food: Greek salad and chicken souvlaki

Lows

  • Getting sick with a cold
  • Hotel at Santorini
  • Crowds during sunset at Oia

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