To have a successful vacation in Greece, make friends with real Greeks, not those working in the field
We have already traveled to Greece 8 times and hope to go at least as many more. True, this is far from the only country we have visited. We went to Turkey twice for a summer vacation, then spat for a very long time and finally decided for ourselves: if you want to visit a country with specific intentions, then of course you can. But only in Greece you can truly relax, enjoy all the charms of nature, local culture, cuisine, the sincerity of human relationships and, which is also important, the contents of your suitcases upon returning to your homeland.
For the first few years, we just randomly took a ticket wherever we had to. Most travel agencies will immediately offer you Halkidiki and Katerini. In Halkidiki conditions are different. And even the beaches: near the hotel it’s just good, and if you ask the locals, it turns out that in some 10 km there is such a place that you never dreamed of! A small problem appeared a few years ago: almost all the staff of hotels in Halkidiki are not Greeks, but various migrants who do not speak either Russian or English and are generally problematic people. It is better to exclude Katerini from your plans right away. All hotels, restaurants and shops with consumer goods for tourists are heap built 20 km from the city of Katerini on the shores of the Aegean Sea. But the sea in this place is dirty (surf and crowds of tourists raise a layer of soil from the bottom and therefore the water is completely opaque). Hotels operate only in the summer, because they smell of mold and are cheap, which attracts tourists from the countries of the former socialist camp.
Once on the beach, we accidentally met a local woman who suddenly said: "Guys, don't break your language with your English, I understand you perfectly well in Russian. " That day was a turning point. Never again did we buy a ticket to where the travel agency offered us. After consulting with Mrs. Suzana, we choose a specific place where we have not yet been, and where we should definitely visit, and then we are already looking for a travel agency that will help us with this. Mrs. Susana at that time became our salvation and remained a good friend, probably forever. She is a wonderful person, a professional translator, she knows the history and customs of Greece very well, but most importantly, she is local. As nowhere else in the world in Greece it is important.
This small country with a population of about 10 million people receives approx. 16 million tourists. And even though Russians are still loved there (they consider Russia a big Orthodox sister), bargaining makes itself felt: a tourist can be charged big money for any little thing, because today he is alone, and tomorrow another will come, just as naive and ready fork out. And when a Greek enters the store, he pays less than what is written on the price tag. Because he is his own, he will always be here, and if he doesn’t like this store today, neither he nor his friends will ever come to it again. And although in recent years a lot of supermarkets and huge shopping complexes have appeared in Greece, traditional Greeks are still tied to some specific, long-familiar shops.
Here's a simple example for you: you bought a cheap ticket, arrived, the hotel organizes a trip to the store for fur coats. Fur coats are almost as expensive as in Moscow. The answer is simple: a fur coat factory, a hotel, a travel agency - a single cortel working together. Another solution to the same question: we go shopping with our Greek friend. She immediately explains which stores belong directly to manufacturers, and in which dealers sell stale goods to tourists. And in the store itself he warns: "Do not look at the price tags, choose what you really like, and we will agree on the price. " After that, one of our hotel neighbors, who had already bought herself a fur coat on an organized trip, had a tantrum: she overpaid twice and bought not what she dreamed about, but what she had enough money for. And so it is with almost all goods and services. Even in the monasteries-museums on the famous Meteora, she took us for free. Simply because the Greeks do not officially pay to enter there.
So, before you go to Greece, you need to decide for yourself what we want from this trip. This country is unusually rich in conditions for recreation for every taste and budget. A kind of "Orthodox Venice" is the islands of Corfu and Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea. Centuries-old Italian domination has left its traces here and created unique traditions. There are many museums and archaeological complexes in Crete, it is always very hot, but there are crowds of English youth around, arranging drunken orgies right on the streets. Sometimes it is not only scary, but also life-threatening. Mykonos is a blue paradise. For people with a prosaic sexual orientation, a one-day tour of the island will be enough. Santorini delights with its unusualness, due to the monstrous eruption of the Fira volcano about 3.5 thousand years ago. Samos will offer you the most delicious wines. . .
And if you still want to not just stupidly fall on the beach, but to get all the very best, then it’s better to go where the Greeks themselves go. This is the Magnesia region near the city of Volos (60 km southeast of Larissa). The long, curved Pelion Peninsula, with the eponymous mountain range, creates the Pagasian Gulf. This heavenly place has everything: ski slopes on the top of Agrioleukes, picturesque villages on the slopes of the mountains, the cleanest beaches where there are never waves - from the side of the bay, and on the north side of Pelion, overlooking the open sea, excellent conditions for surfing and other marine species sports. The service is just super, as I said, the Greeks themselves love themselves. The geographical location of the area allows you to go on an excursion anywhere in a day. In a word, after 7 trips to Greece, we finally found a REAL PARADISE. And in order to relax, combining the useful with the pleasant, in spite of that, we will only go there.