Greek weddings are legendary as one of the most vibrant celebrations in the world, so when my friend Lia invited David and I to her wedding in Greece, I was delighted. I love celebrating my friend’s weddings to begin with, but the chance to experience the joyfulness of a Greek wedding was the icing on the cake! The wedding was held in the bride’s hometown, Chalkida, which is an hour outside of Athens.

David and I decided to make a trip out of it, so after the wedding we spent 10 nights at three islands in the Cyclades:  Paros, Sifnos and Milos. We added two nights in Athens on to the end of the trip, because this was David’s first trip to Greece and I think Athens is a must-visit when you’re in Greece, even though it is often out-shone by the islands.

After the wedding, the focus of the trip was relaxing and slowly exploring a corner of the Cyclades island group, capped off with a couple of nights in the capital. It was one of the most amazing trips I’ve ever taken, and I still can’t quite believe how beautiful it was. And I’m still dreaming of the food!

This was my second trip to Greece, and it cemented the country as one of my favourite travel destinations. (Update: I’ve since returned for a third trip, to Crete!)

Itinerary

• Chalkida – 2 nights
• Paros – 3 nights
• Sifnos – 3 nights
• Milos – 4 nights
• Athens – 2 nights

This was the first time I’ve been to Europe but only visited one country, which I’m really glad I did. I’d really like to travel this way in future, cutting down the country hopping in favour of spending more time exploring a region. Initially, I was tempted to split our time between Greece and the south of France. I’m so glad we settled on spending the whole two weeks in one country, because each island was so different and I felt I got a much better feel for the diversity of the Cyclades as a result. Even when I limited our range to Greece, planning this trip was surprisingly difficult because I was overwhelmed by the number of alluring Greek islands to choose from!

We considered travelling between two different island groups, because I wanted to visit the islands of Skiathos and Skopelos, which are part of the Sporades island group in the northwestern Aegean. They’re nowhere near the Cyclades, so we would have wasted a lot of time transferring through Athens. Some friends were also going to travel to Zakynthos after the wedding, which is in Ionian islands off the west coast of Greece, but the island wasn’t easily connected to other islands we wanted to visit in the region. We had our heart set on visiting Milos, so it was much easier to stick to the Cyclades group and visit islands nearby. It really helped narrow down our choices, from 200+ islands to around 20. Luckily, the islands we settled on are only a 20-40 minute ferry ride apart from each other. When you’ve only got two weeks, keeping travel time to a minimum is essential!

We flew in to Paros from Athens, and then at the end of the trip, flew from Milos back to Athens. In between, we took the ferry between the islands. I highly recommend flying between Athens and far-flung islands in peak season, because the summer winds can wreak havoc on ferry schedules (delays of 4+ hours are not uncommon) and fellow travellers described their own 4-5 hour ferry journeys between the islands as something out of a horror movie (huge waves and 200 people vomiting). The ferry was a breeze for our short journeys between islands, because the routes are more sheltered when you’re not travelling as far into the open sea.

Planning a trip to the Greek Islands is super overwhelming, due to the number of island groups, islands within each group and transport options, so I’ll write a post with more travel planning tips soon.

Why didn’t we visit Santorini or Mykonos?

When you tell people you’re going to Greece, they assume you’re travelling to the country’s most famous islands, Santorini and Mykonos. Both are beautiful, and are located in the Cyclades island group not from the islands we visited. There are a number of reasons we chose not to visit Santorini or Mykonos on this particular trip.

Both islands, but particularly Santorini, have been making headlines for over-tourism and overcrowding this year. Santorini is truly like nowhere else, so I can appreciate why people want to visit. Obviously, Santorini in peak season is expensive and since we were booking our accommodation very last minute, we weren’t going to have great options in these popular spots. David hasn’t visited either island, and so we’re keen to visit Santorini together one day, preferably in shoulder season. I can totally understand why people visit, but it was just wasn’t the right fit for us for this trip. We wanted to relax, spend time in places that were quieter and where we could explore at our own pace.

While Paros and Milos are hardly off the beaten track, I was very excited to visit islands that I knew a lot less about. The bigger beaches and major towns were busy but overall the numbers of tourists felt manageable. It didn’t feel overcrowded, which The most crowded place was Naousa, which is a gorgeous village in Paros, but as it’s not a cruise port it never felt like it was over capacity.

Quite frankly, I was also much more excited to see somewhere with my own eyes for the first time. Every influencer and their dog (literally!) post thousands of photos from Santorini and Mykonos every summer, and I feel like both islands are over exposed. I was excited to see places that were new to us both!

I’ve got a lot more to say on the topics of over-tourism (which I am fascinated by), how Instagram has changed the way people travel and how my own travel style has changed over the last few years, but I’ll save that for another post. Travelling slower, and deeper into one region has become a lot more important to me in the last few years, and I’m really glad we had the time to explore this pocket of the Cyclades.

Highlights From 2 Weeks in Greece

• Celebrating Lia & Dim’s wedding in Chalkida <3
• Seeing sunset over the water in Parasporos beach in Paros and from our balcony in Milos
• Seeing a sky full of stars every night – especially in Milos
• Greek food & hospitality
• Beach hopping every day – my dream day, as it turns out.
• One particular day spent beach hopping in Paros and having the best lunch in Prodromos
• Swimming at Chernoissos in Sifnos
• Walking between beautiful Faros & Glyos beaches in Sifnos
• Spending a day on a beautiful boat sailing around Milos
• Waking up to the sounds of cows mooing and sheep bleating in Paros and Sifnos – beats waking up to New York traffic!
• The gentler pace of life. Not being rushed to order another round of drinks or pay the bill.
• Feeling more like myself than I have in a long time

Favourite Beaches

The Greek Islands are renowned for its hundreds of beautiful beaches, and these three islands did not disappoint. On every island, we had more beaches to choose from than we could visit in a few days. On each island, we found a range of beaches from popular beaches with beach clubs, tavernas and facilities, to tiny deserted beaches where we had the place almost to ourselves.

Read more: The Best Beaches in Milos

• Cheronissos, Sifnos
• Aghia Kiriaki, Milos
• Faros, Sifnos
• Parasporos, Paros
• Santa Maria, Paros
• Sarakiniko, Milos
• Molos, Paros

Favourite Meals

Greek cuisine is one of my absolute favourites, because it lets beautiful, fresh produce shine. Two weeks of eating fresh Greek food was one of the things I was most excited about for the trip, and it was easily a highlight. One of the best meals of the trip was only 17 euro for the two of us, for a lunch at a tiny taverna in a tiny, tourist-free (except for us!) town in Prodromos, in Paros. Obviously the Euro is much stronger than the AUD, which makes things more expensive than they seem for us, but even so the price of eating & drinking good food in Greece is much cheaper than in Australia and the US.

• Tsitsanis taverna in Prodromos, Paros
• Sigi Ikthios in Naoussa, Paros
• Astakas in Klima, Milos
• Enalion in Pollonia, Milos

Favourite Villages

Traditional Cycladic villages are a major drawcard for many visitors to the Cyclades. The villages of Mykonos are the most famous, but every island we visited had a few villages built in the traditional style, and there were several in Paros and Milos that were postcard-perfect.

• Parikia, Paros
• Lefkes, Paros
• Naoussa, Paros
• Plaka, Milos
• Pollonia, Milos
• Klima, Milos
• Mandrakia, Milos

Chalkida: 2 Days

Our first stop was the wedding, in the bride’s hometown of Chalkida. I met the bride, Lia, a few years ago when we worked together in Melbourne. Since then, she’s moved back to Bali, where she grew up, and I’ve moved to New York, so the wedding was a mini reunion for her and our former colleagues from Melbourne. The pretty waterfront town is an hour away from Athens and is the largest on the island of Evia, which is the second-largest island in Greece after Crete. The island is only separated from Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait, so on a map it looks more like a large peninsula surrounded mostly by water, rather than an island.

Because it’s so close to the mainland, and so large, if I didn’t know better I would never have guessed we were on an island. I was so excited for the wedding that I hadn’t done much research into what Chalkida would be like, and I was happy to be surprised – it’s rare that you have the opportunity to travel somewhere for a reason other than touristing! It was fun visiting a town I’d never heard of before the trip and getting a glimpse of a destination in Greece that is less overrun by tourists. We stayed right at the end of town on the water, and I loved our few days there. It’s quiet and relaxed, with several nice beaches and restaurants.

We arrived late on the day before the wedding, and pretty much went straight to sleep. We hadn’t slept on the overnight flight from New York, so we accidentally slept til 2pm the next day! Luckily, the wedding didn’t begin til 8:30pm that evening. The ceremony and the reception were so beautiful and joyful – there were some similarities with western weddings, but I think the Greeks have really perfected the art of a celebration. There was rice throwing as the newly-wedded couple left the church, the bridge and groom entered the reception flanked by fireworks along the footpath, they popped a bottle of champagne and cut the cake at the beginning of the reception, followed by their first dance which was also to a backdrop of fireworks over the water. There was lots of plate smashing, dancing and too much good food!

We made it til 4am at the reception, but the bridge and groom, and a handful of others, pushed through to 7am! I was very impressed.

Paros: 3 Days

Paros is the closest I have come to paradise. This island is popular with European tourists, but is nowhere near as over-crowded as nearby Mykonos or Santorini. We stayed in the charming capital, Parikia, which has a labryinth-like old town that rivals those of Mykonos, a pleasant beach and plenty of restaurants and bars. Paros is easy to get around by bus or car, and we used both – we caught the bus one night to the cosmopolitan harbour village Naoussa, and used the car one day to drive to beaches all over the island. I really loved Paros and would definitely like to return one day!

Paros had my favourite villages of the trip; Parikia, Naoussa and Lefkes. I also had one of the most blissful days of my life on Paros, when we spent a day driving between beaches, had one of the most delicious meals of the trip in a tiny taverna in a tiny town, Prodromos, and watched the sun set over the ocean at Parasporos beach at the end of the day.

We both agreed that even if the other two islands were even half as nice as Paros, we’d be in for a great trip!

Read my itinerary for 3 days on Paros

Sifnos

Sifnos is the smallest and least-known island that we visited on our trip, with a population of only 2500. It rises out of the Aegean as a series of dramatic, steep mountains which adds to it’s isolated atmosphere as you’re constantly in the shadows of towering cliffs. We spent 3 days in Sifnos and stayed in Apollonia, which is not on the water, but is tucked up in the mountains.

We weren’t able to hire a car in Sifnos as we didn’t have an International Drivers Permit, so we relied on the bus which took us everywhere we wanted to go. Luckily, most of the bus routes cross through Apollonia, so it was easy enough to get around if we kept an eye on the time.

Sifnos is famous for being the birthplace of Greece’s most famous chef, Nikos Tselementes, who was born on the island in the late 19th century. In 1910, he published his Cooking Guide which is still a staple in Greek kitchens today. Tselementes was known for introducing western techniques, often French, into Greek cooking and bringing sophistication to the cuisine. However, many of the principles of French cooking (lots of sauces, lots of butter) are at odds with traditional Greek cooking (ie the use of olive oil and simple dishes that let the produce shine), and so not everyone is such a fan. Sifnian cuisine stays true to it’s Greek roots rather than following Tselementes’ lead, but the island is still renowned for it’s flavourful and fresh food.

Some highlights from Sifnos include two of my favourite beaches from the trip, Faros and Cheronissos, which are both in tiny fishing villages. Faros was more popular, as it’s near a few other beaches – it’s a short (and stunning) walk to the beach at Chrissopiggi, and a longer (and less fun) walk to major beach Platis Gialis. Cheronissos is the northernmost settlement on the island, and much less busy. There’s no beach club, just two taverns on the water. When we arrived, there was hardly anyone on the beach and for a good half hour or so I had the water to myself! I would love to come back to Sifnos and just hide out in Cheronissos for a few days.

Read my Sifnos Travel Guide

Milos

We spent 5 days in Milos, and I’m so glad we had the extra time – there is so much to see here! Milos is a large island, but only half of it is accessible by car without a 4WD. The western half of the island is mostly dirt tracks, which means we were limited to the eastern half of the island during our trip. This was a blessing in disguise, because there was already so much to see on the eastern half that we were overwhelmed by choice as it was!

The roaring wind rules over Milos, and every day it will be either a northerly or southerly wind. If it’s a northerly, only the beaches on the south side of the island are good for swimming, because they’re sheltered by a chain of mountains running across the middle of the island. Every day while we were there, a northerly wind was blowing, so we visited a few of the northern beaches but didn’t swim at them. With 70+ beaches, Milos has the most beaches of any island in the Cyclades, so no matter what the wind does, you’ll have plenty of options.

Read More: Milos Travel Guide

We had four nights on Milos, and stayed in a beautiful apartment in Pollonia, which is the pick of the villages to stay in. Pollonia is at the northeast tip of the island, sits on a small harbour with a quiet beach, and has the best restaurants on the island. We only had a car for one day in Milos, but we could have used it every day – there are buses, but all the routes run through the port town, Adamas, which made it a little inconvenient when staying in Pollonia.

Highlights from our time in Milos were dinners in Pollonia, the jaw-droppingly picturesque fishing villages of Mandrakia and Klima, gorgeous beaches like Aghia Kirikia and Sarakiniko, which is famous for landscapes that look like the moon.

Read about 5 Days in Milos

Athens

Our last two nights of the trip were spent in Athens. This was my third trip to the sprawling Greek capita and I still find the city fascinating. Like many European cities, it’s not built for the heat, and it was exceptionally hot – I would recommend visiting outside July and August if you can, but it’s not unbearable.

The highlight of my time in Athens was not the Acropolis, but the Urban Adventures walking tour we took of the Exarcheia neighbourhood. I’ve taken Urban Adventures food & history walking tours all over the USA (you can read about the tours I took in New York and Miami here). I really love these tours, because they’re hosted and designed by local guides who champion local businesses and are so passionate about their city. The groups are small, and for the second time, David and I were the only people on our tour! It was a three-hour history & cultural lesson about modern Greece and Athens, with plenty of delicious sweet snacks along the way. I learned so much about modern Greece and walked away with a much more nuanced picture of the city and country. I wouldn’t recommend wandering around Exarcheia without a local guide, but it is very interesting. Highly recommend, full post coming soon!

We had some great meals, visited the Acropolis and I picked up a cute leather backpack and a handmade bracelet at the Monastiraki flea market. I wish I’d had more room in my luggage for homewares, there are some great antiques stalls at the market. The only thing I’d do differently in Athens was the Acropolis – you should definitely find a guide. Inside the complex, the only signs have information about the renovation of the site, rather than how the buildings were used in antiquity. I’d rather know about how the buildings were used and what happened there, rather than how they renovate them.

Have you been to Greece, or would you like to? What’s your favourite part of Greece? Have any questions? Let me know in the comments! 

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