Stuff you need
With so many guests coming & going through our homes in Athens, I get a chance to review a lot of Greece guidebooks – here’s my top picks
My favorite Greek reads
If I could only travel with one book, I’d take a good travelogue over a guidebook. My all time favorite is Patricia Storace’s Dinner with Persephone.
Basil can’t make up his mind which of Patrick Lee Fermer’s books is his favorite – he says he’s take both (and carry them).
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese
Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece
My favorites for children traveling to Greece
A fun and engaging way to introduce the kids to Ancient Greece.
Most popular Greece guidebooks with our Greek Vacation Rentals guests
Lonely Planet guidebooks for Greece that we like
Rough Guide for Greece that we like
Michelin Travel Guides for Greece
Michelin Green Guide to Greece
If you like photos along with words, Eyewitness Travel Guides should be in your backpack
Eyewitness Travel: Athens & the Mainland
Greece, Athens & The Mainland
MAPS of Greece
Carnival 2012 Festival Schedule in Athens
Once more, despite the doom and gloom the international media continues to disseminate about Greece, the City of Athens offers a message of optimism and hope through a joyful feast of activities offered in celebration of Greece’s version of Carnivale, the celebration leading up to the lent period before Easter. In Greece, this is traditionally thought to be the equivalent of an American Halloween, since costumes are de rigueur, although unlike an American Halloween which lasts only one day, the Carnivale celebration in Greece lasts three...
read moreSmoke Thursday, “Tsiknopempti” – Meat, Meat & More Meat
**Tsiknopempti 2012 & Carnivale** Tsiknopempti or “Smoked Thursday” is February 16, 2012 Carnival Period begins February 5, 2012 Main Carnival Weekend: Friday, February 24 – Sunday, February 26, 2012 Clean Monday: Monday, Feb 27th, 2012 I know, Smoke Thursday, only in Greece could they have a holiday about smoke …. but erase that image of a Great Greek SmokeOut and think mega Memphis BBQ, only Greek style! Tsiknopempti, smoke Thursday, is all about eating meat, smoked, grilled, broiled, meat meat and more meat...
read moreSol Lewitt, Line & Color – Extended!
My favorite little museum in Athens has just announced an extension of the Sol Lewitt, Line & Color exhibit they’ve been hosting since the fall. The Sol Lewitt exhibit is now running until March 18, 2012. All the works, which were donated by the artist himself, are on loan from the New Britain Museum of American Art (Connecticut, USA). The exhibition is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Athens. The exhibition comprises 115 works by Sol LeWitt, mainly prints (such as lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts), but his first oil painting as...
read moreEver wonder about those late night Blues clubs?
I find it’s something a lot folks planning trips to Athens ask me about. And while there was a time long ago when I could stay up late enough to have an underground Greek blues night with friends in Athens, I’m not so good at those late nights anymore (and frankly most guests visiting Greece want to enjoy their days, not sleep through them, so rembetika until 4 AM doesn’t really work too well for the average tourist.) So I’m really excited about my return to Athens next week. I’ve just bought tickets for Aman...
read moreMusic at the Acropolis Museum
Visiting Athens this February? Plan your stay to include a Thursday afternoon at the Acropolis Museum and you’ll find yourself being serenaded. Every Thursday afternoon in February, the Acropolis Museum, in collaboration with the city of Athens’ Technolopolis organization, will host a series of concerts featuring the work of Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis as part of the museum’s “One Day at the Acropolis Museum” program. February 2, 2012 – the Echo String Quartet will perform work by Manos Hatzidakis as...
read moreSunday afternoon in the country
Sundays are for family and friends in Greece, and what better way to share it than around the table with good food and good...
read moreHotel alternatives Athens
Traveling as a family to Greece? Athens has a growing number of furnished short term vacation rental apartments within an easy walk of the historic center that provide a comfortable alternative to booking multiple hotel rooms. Self-catering apartments offer extra space, and allow parents to rest easy knowing the kids are safely tucked away in a bedroom just off the living room as opposed to in another hotel room down the hall. A full kitchen offers money saving opportunities since you’re not limited to eating three meals a day outside...
read morePsirri, where yesterday, today and tomorrow meet in Athens
Psirri is a neighborhood that is difficult to describe. In most travel guides it is described as a great tourist attraction with excellent restaurants, vivid nightlife and chic stores. That is all true. Psirri is a very old neighborhood which has seen many transformations, and today it is still a great place to see traditional market district merchants before they are completely displaced by more modern and contemporary methods, or priced out of the neighborhood by the ever increasing rents of the chic boutiques and trendy cafes and clubs and...
read moreDionysos – the Quick (Budget friendly) Greek
Dionysios Imittou 95, Pagrati – 210/75-11-001 Open daily from noon until midnight (or later) It probably isn’t much of a surprise that I’d fall for the Greek God of wine, revelry and dance, but the astonishing part is that it’s merely a simple souvlaki stand that bears this God’s name. There’s nothing fancy about it, but the selection and prices land this guy a place in my budget minded heart. Located on Imittou street smack dab in between our duplexes and our Acropolis View penthouses, the tables spill outside onto the...
read moreIs that a Greek bagel?
Koulouria, not bagels (the only bagel I’ve ever found in Athens was in the restaurant at the IKEA near the airport. Sadly they would not sell me a dozen, although one time I remembered to bring my own plastic bag and did actually walk up to the cash register with a plate stacked high with a baker’s dozen of them. The cashier looked at me a little strange, but being a wandering Jewess in Athens is hard work, and sometimes a gal needs a bagel.) So back to koulouria, those large round things you see being sold on every corner around the...
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