Dear All: You did a great job of selecting hotels and making our arrangements for this trip.
The hotels were all in great locations.
Overall we had a wonderful vacation in Greece
– Lloyd & Bobbie Ferguson USA
I find your Greek web site amazing! I like getting hints from local people, these are more helpful than travel guides – Ilona Mersdorf DE
Greece has once again secured its position as a top destination for pristine beaches, maintaining its second-place ranking globally in the coveted Blue Flag awards for 2024. This accolade, announced last Friday by the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature (EEPF), underscores the country’s commitment to environmental excellence and high standards in beach tourism.
The Blue Flag program, headquartered in Copenhagen, is a prestigious international award system that assesses beaches, marinas, and tourism vessels on stringent criteria, including water quality, beach cleanliness, and facilities for visitors, such as accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
The EEPF, Greece’s national operator for the Blue Flag program, revealed that the country received 625 Blue Flags for its beaches in 2024 – up from 617 last year – in addition to 18 for its marinas, and nine for its tourist boat operators.
Three foreign tourists died and two are missing in Greece during hikes on the Aegean islands as the country is baking under the early June heatwave.
Fears are growing that foreign visitors are not aware or being properly informed of the risks posed by overexertion in the searing heat.
Dimitris Kalatzis, who heads the Samos rescue team for a missing Dutch tourist, said missions were often made more difficult because tourists, frequently unaware of the risks, “veered off track” to see sites and then got lost.
“We saw a couple [of foreigners] walking a trail in 41C without hats,” he said. “It defies logic.”
The list of tourists found dead or still missing in Greece June 5: A 67-year-old Dutch tourist collapsed and died of a heart attack while crossing the Mylon gorge in Rethymno, Crete as temperatures reached 40 degrees.
June 6: A 70-year-old French tourist collapsed and died while walking on a deserted beach – between Kouremenos and Zakros in Sitia, Crete. Emergency services that reached her were unable to save her life.
June 6: British TV presenter Michael Mosley, was found dead on the island of Symi. The 67-year-old Brit left on 5/6, at 1:30 p.m., on foot, from a beach to return to his accommodation in the capital of the island, Gyalos. His body was found on the beach of Agia Marina.
June 6: A 74-year-old Dutch tourist disappeared during a hike on Samos and is still missing. The official search and rescue operation ended on Friday although volunteers and friends are still looking for him.
June 11: 59-year-old American tourist Eric Albert Calibet has been missing since midday Tuesday on Amorgos after starting a long hike across the island.
The new lift is on the north slope of the Acropolis promenade Dionysios Areo Pagitou and availible to those people with disabilities and the elderly. It goes to the top of the monument for access to the Acropolis and replaces the previous elevator.
The results are in and the online readers of Condé Nast Traveler UK Magazine (CN) have voted Greece the best country in the world in their Readers’ Travel Awards, which will be featured in CN’s October issue.
The honor of holding the number one country in the world for tourists is a great one and perhaps bitter-sweet for Greeks as it comes amidst several crises impacting the country.
More than 600,000 have voted for their best European destinations for the eleventh edition of the competition this year. Athens received 2nd Best ranking of the trendiest European destinations 2020.
Harry's Greece Guide is for foreign travelers to Hellas (Greece) who want to get it right the first time or even make changes if need be.
Get a free quote from us without obligation and compare!
If touristic and travel services are needed then we can provide them! On a budget?
Budget Greece used to offer many time honored options now complicated like you read about or see on TV
HGTG offers plenty of free information about travel to Greece.
For up to the minute pricing use the inquiry links at the top of each page.
Featuring the Greek Islands and classical mainland, we offer conventional Greece tourism such as tours and cruises and alternative
xxx 
Greece tourism including self walking tours, guided walking tours, hiking and rafting in Greece.
You can also discover many Greek travel ideas using the drop down menu above. If you want to book your rooms on line yourself or through a computer hotel portal compare their prices and ours!
Please compare our prices before you book through a hotel site or portal. Upon consultation we will co-ordinate your hotel reservations and ferry tickets including transfers on request. Dont be misled.
Visit our Greek Island Ferry schedules resource links.
Then learn how and when to reach the port of Piraeus from ATH or Athens Eleftherious Venizelous Airport.
Or we can arrange transfers in a/c comfort.
For Greek Island voyagers coordinating Greek island ferry schedules with accommodations both coming and going is dicey in high season June-Aug!
In general for first time visitors, High Season is when you'll appreciate your informed travel professional and having used our services the most.
What would Henry Miller or John Fowles do before evoking Greece on the printed page? I tell you what I do!
Down a sfee-nakee or two of Greek brandy, ouzo or raki with appetizing mezedes. Grilled Octopus if I can get it!
Because Greece has a long history of distillation, occasionally, counterfeit name-brand, imported liquor, called 'Bomba' maybe be foisted upon you. Drinking the local Greek distillations ensures authenticity.
Imbibers will gain new respect for the kefi inducing power of these ancient Greek cultures refined to time honored levels. Each domesticallity and island, in fact, often has it own local liquor.
Usually focused on indigenous flavours using various herbs such as the palette cleansing mastich of Chios Island. Gum Mastic from Chios is the original Chewing Gum.
Mastich (a bushy plant) refuses to be transplanted and wont grow anywhere else but on Chios.
Similarly also in ancient and not so ancient time, the wine, 'Malmsey' loaded from Monemvasia Peloponnese was highly prized by those affluent enough to drink it.
c.1400, type of strong, sweet white wine, from Provençal malmesie or Middle Dutch malemesye, both from Medieval Latin malmasia, from Medieval Greek Monembasia "Monemvasia," a town in the southern Peloponnesus that was an important center of wine production in the Middle Ages, literally "only one entrance," from monos "alone, only" + embasis "entering into," from en- "in" + basis "a going, a stepping, a base" .
Corinthian Currants and Grecian grapes as well as wheats and grains have been cultivated here from antiquity and which knowledge was part of the Elysian Mysteries. Lets preserve and honor this unique Hellenic heritage and in more ways than one and build on this tradition of innovative excellence and astuteness. Meanwhile....
>For those really planning a last minute visit and even hard boiled, confirmed, sun worshipping, island idolators, feverishly mapping their itineraries, Y'all know to stay within one island group. Keep things simple - avoid travel time.
This way you will receive free of charge, Oracle like insight using this nifty ferry schedules Greek islands route map.
There are 7 Greek Island groups. The Cycladic archipelago grouping is ideal. If you're planning a whirlwind tour of the islands in three days.... that's something best left to a travel professional who will be on top of things if need be. And hopefully talk you out of it. You know who you are!
Invariably flights and ferries get delayed and canceled due to high winds and other reasons.
Since 1999, HGTG has been offering full service travel arrangements from 5 star luxury on down. Hotels, walking tours, guided tours, cruises, transfers, ferry or domestic flight tickets and even private taxi tours planned around the sights you have always found romantic.
Want to know how to get to the Greek Island ferries from the (ATH) Eleftherious Venizelous airport? Allow 2-3hr transit time.
If you'd like to return there are three ways to reach this page, each more memorable than the last.
http://www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.com | http://www.harrys-greece-travel-guide.com | http://www.harrys-greece.com
Why not enjoy Harry's Free Musical Compositions while you read this site? (opens seperately)
©Harry's Greece Travel Guides