As we look towards booking our educational for 2023, we’re reflecting on our educational trip last year. Back in April 2022 the CT4N Travel team travelled to Greece, so that we could build our knowledge of the country, that over the past year had quickly become our top seller. Since we launched The Greek Specialist in August 2021, it has gone from strength to strength. Devised by and built on the back of our Director Chris’ considerable knowledge and experience of travelling to and around Greece, The Greek Specialist offers over 80 islands and mainland destinations. To be clear we never recommend doing the amount we did in 5 nights, but we weren’t able to be out of the office for any longer and had to maximise our time. We’re writing this in the hope that this gives you some ideas of an itinerary and where you can go and what you can do in Greece. Day 1 – Travelling and Athens To maximise our time, we caught the 06:30 Jet2 flight from Birmingham to Athens, which got us in for just after 12pm. This was at the time when airports in the UK were experiencing severe staff shortages and delays, especially when passing through security. For those of you who haven’t travelled since COVID, this is no longer the case and you can arrive around 2 hours before your flight departure as before. If haven’t travelled since COVID and you would like to hear more about our experience going through Birmingham Airport that day then read our blog by clicking here. After arriving, we took a private transfer to our hotel in Athens. At The Greek Specialist, we can book the whole holiday for you, including ferries and transfers. If you do not want a transfer you can easily catch the metro, which runs from the airport right into the centre of the city. We stayed in the Hermes Hotel just off Syntagma Square. This excellent hotel has a central location near to popular areas such as Plaka and Monastiraki as well as popular attractions such as the Acropolis, Forum and National Gardens. After staying here it is now one of our favourite properties to use for our customers. Great for those looking for a 3* property with a perfect location and breakfast included. It also has a roof terrace which has a view of the Acropolis, which is especially great at night. Once we had dropped our bags in the hotel, we ventured out to explore the city, walking through the streets of Plaka and Monastiraki, taking in the flea market and Monastiraki Square. We stopped for a late lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the Roman Forum and ordered a range of Greek small plates to share including a Greek salad, fried Courgette balls and cheese. After this we circled back up Ermou Street (Athens’ main shopping street) and into Syntagma Square where we watched the changing of the guards. That evening, we grabbed a cocktail at a bar in Plaka before going for dinner at Trattoria, a Greek restaurant in a small square further into Plaka. The square has a number of other restaurants and bars, one of which we went to after dinner. On our way back to the hotel we grabbed some drinks from a convenience stand (you can find them on every street in Athens) and took them to the roof of our hotel where we drank them overlooking the Acropolis. Day 2 – Exploring Athens We were up early the next day to explore Athens. We ate breakfast at the hotel, which was an excellent continental with some Greek dishes thrown in. Then we made sure we were at the Acropolis for 9am to beat many of the crowds. Entry is €20 per person, if you want to see all the archaeological sites across the city, it is far cheaper to get the combined ticket which is €30 per person. Entry to the Acropolis also means you can explore the surrounding hillside including the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. After the Acropolis, we went to see Hadrian’s Arch and then the Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. We ate lunch nearby and walked back to our hotel through the National Gardens. After further exploring around the city in the afternoon, Chris took us to Thai Zab, a Thai restaurant in Kerameikos where he had been many times and the owners know him. The quickest way to get there using the metro. Which is very straightforward to use. We had to be up early for our ferry so we got an early night. To learn more about Athens, read our blog here or its page here. Day 3 – Travelling to Sifnos & Exploring Kamares Breakfast at the Hermes Hotel is usually served from 7am but as we had to be out before that, they kindly set some up for 5:30am so we could eat before getting our transfer down to Piraeus port. Piraeus is the main port of Athens and one of the largest passenger ports in Europe. The first sailing for most routes departs at 7am and there are usually plenty leaving Piraeus at once with thousands of people piling onto lots of ships. We took a ferry whose route runs between Piraeus and Milos and is operated by Seajets. At The Greek Specialist we can book all the ferries for you and help make sure you have clear instructions of where to collect your tickets if necessary, where to go and much more. You have seats but if you’ve never been before we recommend watching it from the outside deck as it is a site watching all these ferries leave at once as the sun comes up. Our ferry took around 3 hours between Piraeus and Sifnos and stopped at Serifos on the way. We walked off of the ferry and into Kamares, the small port town of Sifnos. A tranquil island that isn’t commercialized, the towns and villages of Sifnos are made up of the typically Cycladic whitewashed square buildings. As we walked off the ferry we were greeted by our hosts, the owners of Xerolithia, who Chris knows very well as he has been staying there every year for a number of years. As he has been going to the island for many years, Chris knows many people there and this became even more apparent the longer we spent on the island. Everywhere we walked, especially in Kamares, we were greeted by big smiles and even bigger hugs. After a long journey from Athens, we checked into our hotel and had a few hours to ourselves to relax. Xerolithia is a picturesque hotel, sitting on a small hill on the outskirts of Kamares, it overlooks the harbour and town yet is only a 5 minute walk from the waterfront. It is a traditional Greek hotel with whitewashed walls and is accented with lime green. After a few hours relaxing time, Chris took us around Kamares, pointing out good spots to eat and the hotels that we offer in the town. When it reached nighttime we walked into town and got some food at Da Claudio, and Italian restaurant with scenic indoor and outdoor seating and serving great food. Day 4 – Exploring Sifnos We were up early for breakfast and hired a car to begin our trip around the island. We started off by visiting Agios Symeon, a small church that overlooks Kamares and offers some spectacular views of the surrounding region. We carried on north up to the village of Cheronissos, a quaint little spot with a gorgeous beach, a few accommodations and some shops and restaurants. After this we headed back down the island to Kastro. Kastro is a common name for villages and towns in Greece as Kastro translates as ‘castle’ but is infact more a walled, hilltop village with very narrow streets that look like something out of a postcard. On the edge of Kastro is the Church of the Seven Martyrs a small church on a rocky outcrop at the bottom of over 50 steps. When we arrived in Kastro we stopped for a drink and some cake in a local café. After leaving Kastro we went over to Apollonia, the islands capital. It, as with much of the island was pretty quiet, due to the time of year that we went. We walked around and Chris pointed out more of what you could do and things to mention to customers. We then went up to Artemonas where we had lunch. After a lunch of traditional Greek small plates, we took off south towards Faros. Faros is a small village on the south coast, it has some accommodation and a few lovely sandy beaches. Further down the south coast is Chrisopigi Monastery. It is the most beautiful (possibly rivalled by the Church of the Seven Martyrs) on the island. We stopped here for a look around before continuing to Platis Gialos. It is a large village with lots of accommodation, a gorgeous stretch of golden sandy beach and some cafes, restaurants and tavernas. After looking around we left and headed back to Kamares. It was a pretty fast paced day, but it is important to point out that Sifnos is not a large island, and you can drive from one end to the other in 30/40 mins. We recommend staying on any island for at least 4 nights, to get a feel of it. If you’re staying on Sifnos for 4 nights, we recommend hiring a car on at least two days to explore the rest of the island. To learn more about Sifnos, read our blog on the island here or its page here. Day 5 – Leaving Sifnos & Exploring Mykonos Town. Our ferry to Mykonos was not until 8:40 so we had some time to eat breakfast and make our way down to the port. We took a smaller ferry from Sifnos to Mykonos, on a route that runs between Milos and Mykonos, stopping at Sifnos and Paros on the way. When we arrived at Mykonos, we took a water taxi across the harbour to the town and went off to find our hotel. We stayed at a small boutique hotel called Hotel Carbonaki which is located in the middle of Mykonos Town. From the hotel’s excellent location in the centre of the town, we explored the town, seeing the windmills, Little Venice and the rest of the waterfront amongst others. Due to the time of year that we went, it was quite an overcast day with spots of rain. We went at the end of April and start of May. To guarantee good weather, we recommend the going between June and September. We finished our day by having dinner in a restaurant near the windmills and then watched the sunset from a bar in Little Venice with a cocktail. Mykonos was lovely and we wished we could of spent more time there but it gave us an idea of a more commercial island such as Mykonos when compared with a less commercialized one such as Sifnos. Day 6 – Flying Home The next day we had breakfast in the hotel and then walked to the bus stop where we got bus for a short route to the airport. All in all it was a great trip, we learned a lot that we could pass onto our you, our customers and had a great time. Again, we must stress that 5 nights is not enough to do this itinerary in. If we were putting this together for a customer we would recommend you do this in 10 nights. Spending 3 nights in Athens, 4 nights on Sifnos and 3 on Mykonos. We hope you have enjoyed hearing about our trip to Greece and it has given you some ideas of what you could do on your holiday. To find out more about any of these places or the rest of Greece, take a look around our website or call us on 01157843388. If you know where you’re wanting to book, call us, email enquiries@ct4ntravel.co.uk or fill in our contact form with what you’re looking for. Don't forget to follow us on social media to find out what our Destination of the Week is and for all your Greek Holiday needs. If you've been to any of these places, where was your favourite place? What was the best thing you did, or do you think we missed anything? 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AuthorGreece is a love affair for The Greek Specialist. Our first visit to the country came in 1997 and since then Blog Destinations
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