When making holiday plans, many turn their heads to the warm shores of Greece and its islands, and for good reason. With a hot, but not uncomfortable climate, beautiful seas and vibrant culture, there’s enough on offer to keep anyone satisfied on their weeks away from reality. However, such variety also causes a dilemma, where should you set up camp? The most popular options are those that sit on the coast of either Greece’s beautiful mainland and its exotic islands. Why? Perhaps it’s that ocean breeze, the soft Mediterranean sand or tropical-esque beach huts. Or maybe it has to do with the history of Greece, its proud naval tradition and bustling trade ports eventually evolving small settlements into the vibrant and prosperous towns we know and love today.

Whatever the reason for their popularity, here’s our pick of the best Greece has to offer:

For anyone visiting Greece, a trip to Athens is a must; which is handy because most international flights flow through this hub. Known for its stunning ancient architecture, including the Theatre of Herodes Atticus, the Pantheon and even the world famous Acropolis. However, while it is home to some 3,000 years of history, modern-day Athens has its own merits. With ample opportunities for water sports, some of the world’s finest cuisine, stunning beaches and pumping nightlife, Athens of today can be just as exciting as Athens of the past.

Oia is perhaps the most beautiful town in all of Greece. Famous for its whitewashed architecture and blue-domed churches, the town sits on a gentle cliff that overlooks the turquoise Med below. Known for being a serene and quiet location, Oia is the perfect place to enjoy a peaceful break from the modern world, although there are plenty of shops, restaurants and other bits to keep you busy if need be. The town can also be used as a sort of base camp for those looking to explore the many exciting hiking trails of Santorini, an island formed of volcanic rock, giving it a distinctively dark look. Lastly, if you’re only visiting Oia for the day, make sure you stick around until sunset, as the town’s location makes it the perfect vantage point for one of nature’s most spectacular shows.

Famed for its exotic culture, Mykonos is probably one of the most well-known locations in Greece. While the town itself is locally known as Chora, it is often the place people are referring to when they talk about Mykonos, rather than the entire island. A cosmopolitan town, Chora combines traditional Greek culture with aspects of modern-day lifestyle, which has led to it being world-famous for its legendary nightlife. Along with its vibrant atmosphere, Chora is also a simply beautiful city with stunning architecture. However, most people come for the beaches, with numerous options located just a short distance outside the town.

To read more, please visit: Greek Reporter

by

Cliff Blaylock

October is the ever-important olive harvest in Greece and many of the country’s entrepreneurs see a tremendous opportunity for growth and a rare opportunity to take a chunk out of Number 1 Spain and Number 2 Italy— the word’s top two olive oil producing nations.

Italy’s crop has been decimated by a fruit fly that eats olives and a rare tree disease. Nearly a million trees in the Puglia region alone have been infected with a disease dubbed by locals as “olive ebola” which slowly kills trees. And this is coming from a 1/3 decrease in production from the 2014-15 season, according to data from the Madrid-based International Olive Council (IOC).

Things are so bad that the Italian government has declared a “state of calamity” in the provinces of Lecce and Brindisi on the heel of the country.

The same organization points to a 50% decrease in production in Spain due to a drought that has effected much of the Iberian peninsula.

But resilient Greece has seen its olive oil output double since last season to just over 300,000 tons and the problems Italy and Spain are facing are making Greece’s wholesale prices competitive. According to a June report from the council, wholesale prices for extra-virgin categories from Italy and Spain have surged 114 percent and 84 percent this year, respectively, to €5.66 ($6.25) per kilo and €3.59 per kilo. In contrast, prices for Greek oil have climbed just 24 percent, to €3.09 per kilo.

The IOC reports Greek exports from the most recent harvest to the U.S., now the world’s top olive oil consumer, rose 28 percent from October 2014 through June of this year, while exports from Spain and Italy both dropped more than 50 percent.

Costco Wholesale is one company that recently got on the Greek olive oil bandwagon in a major way.

To read more, please visit: Pappas Post

Veteran Corfu author Effrosyni Moschoudi shares with is her local recipe, as featured in The Flow, book 2 in The Lady Of The Pier trilogy:

3-4 eggs

1 large onion, chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

1 large (or two medium) ripe beef tomatoes

1/3 teaspoon of sugar

Salt, pepper

 

Grate the tomatoes (leave out the skin)

In a large frying pan, fry the onion in the olive oil until soft, add the tomato, salt, pepper, sugar, and a small amount of water (about 1/4 of a wine glass). Cook in medium heat for about 15-20 minutes.

Break eggs and place in a bowl.

When the sauce has thickened (only oil left, no water), add the eggs in one go, then quickly start stirring with a fork or wooden spatula.

Serve immediately with a salad and fresh bread.

To read more, and to find out more about The Lady Of The Pier Trilogy, please visit: Effrosyni Writes

At London's Heathrow Airport, a traveler to Greece is offered a deal by Aegean Airlines: the flight is booked solid, take a different flight and get 400 euros ($440) and a free round-trip ticket to anywhere in Europe.

Some hours later in Athens, a long queue moves slowly forward to passport control, while smiling but harried officials shout out "Santorini", "Mytilene" and the names of other sun-drenched Greek destinations as they try to herd tourists quickly toward connecting flights.

Greece, despite all its economic and political strife, is heaving with foreign tourists.

"On TV they said we can come, there was no problem," said Thibault Larhant, a tourist from Normandy, in France, who was resting at an open air cafe in Athens' Syntagma Square, cooled by a fan spraying water vapor.

"We came to go to the islands, for the countryside," he said, adding that he and his companion had had no problems.

Nearby, another French tourist sat on the "Athens Happy Train", a road vehicle with carriages that swings visitors around the main sights in Greece's capital, such as the Acropolis.

"My friend loves history and culture," said Christelle Fourdinier, from Perpignon, indicating her companion.

Greece's ancient sites and holiday playground islands have been little changed -- from a tourist standpoint -- by an economic crisis that led to the closure of banks and the country coming within a hair's-breadth of leaving the euro zone.

It is just as well, given that tourism accounts for around a fifth of Greek economic output -- perhaps more now that the economy is shrinking again.

"Tourism is ... our heavy industry, it is the main economic source of income today and also the main source of jobs for many Greeks," Minister of Tourism Elena Kountoura told parliament this week.

"Today it offers 750,000 direct jobs, numbers that rise to 1.5 million jobs including indirect tourism-related jobs."

To read more, please visit: Reuters

Greece is the most popular luxury travel destintion in the world, according to an index for 2015 drawn up by global booking engine Switchfly.

According to the booking engine, the country ranks as the most popular with three cities in the top 15: Athens, coming in at the fourth most popular luxury travel destination, whilst Crete and Mykonos come in at numbers 12 and 13 respectively.
 

Switchfly notes that Greece's popularity is no doubt due to its dramatic isles and historical interest, but also to the economic crisis that, whilst creating hardship for local people, "also made travel to the country more affordable - extending the opportunity for luxury travel to those travelers who might otherwise go economy, and incentivizing luxury travelers who like to save a buck."

To read more, please visit: Greek Travel Pages

Here, we examine the Daily Telegraph's pick of the top 10 food and drink holidays in Greece for 2015, including wine tasting, olive harvest and traditional Greek cookery courses, in destinations such as Santorini, Paros, Crete and the Cyclades Islands.

Sífnos in the Cyclades has one of the more distinctive, scrumptious island cuisines, and was the birthplace of Nikolaos Tselementes (1878–1958), author of the first Greek cookbook and Greece’s answer to Mrs Beeton. He documented such local dishes as revytháda (baked chickpea stew), mastélo (lamb and red wine clay-pot casserole), and kókoras krasáto (cockerel in wine sauce). Course participants will get to grips with these and other recipes as well as mastering a repertoire of local herbs. Courses can be booked on the spot through the concierge service of the comfy Verina Suites in Platys Gialós or the equally cutting-edge Verina Astra just outside Artemónas. 

Courses: £16 per day including ingredients and lunch. Verina Suites and Verina Astra from £80 a night

Santorini is the other Cyclade with a notable local cuisine, relying on indigenous white eggplants, fava (split yellow peas, not the sound-alike broad bean), baby tomatoes, caper greens, cheeses and sausages from neighbouring islands.  Yiorgos Hatziyannakis, head chef at Pyrgos village's acclaimed Selene Restaurant and Bisto, has been instrumental in the revival and promotion of traditional island cooking.  Selene offers three foodie experiences. The most popular is the guided folklore museum visit, short cooking demonstration and set bistro menu.  There is also a one-day hands-on cooking course (every Thursday from 10:30am) at the upstairs restaurant.  And the three-day course, which includes winery and cheese-factory visits, a fishing trip and various meals, is available for groups only by pre-arrangement.

Museum visit/cooking demonstration£35, drinks extra; one-day course £65 or £110 with gourment meal; three-day course from £275

Cooking courses on the Cycladic island of Tínos, famous for its dovecotes and marble relief sculpture, or in the historic Thessalian hill-town of Ambelákia with its ornate mansions are offered by Cooking Lessons Greece. Tínos is a short ferry ride from either Piraeus or Rafína (the latter close to Athens airport). Ambelákia, 150km south of Thessaloníki and 350km north of Athens, is best accessed with a hire car as part of an extended mainland trip. The one-day (10am–5pm) Tínos lesson involves ingredient-shopping for a three-course lunch and then preparing it.

The two-day course includes a tour of a local winery or the local Nisos brewery (same group size, price €290–350).
The one-day Ambelákia course (9am–5pm) is similar (same group sizes and prices) but includes breakfast.
The two-day course throws in a winery visit. 

One-day courses from £120, two-day courses from £230

Since the 1990s, Crete has been a leader in the promotion and revival of traditional Greek cooking and ingredients. With its long growing season and established pastoral culture, the island was a natural for the role. The bistro-deli Bakaliko, in the central square of Arhánes village 14km south of Heraklion, offers light sit-down menus as well as local products to take home – wine, raki, the rusks much loved across Greece, olive oil and paste, carob products, cheese, charcuterie and more. It also runs single-day cooking courses (9.30am–3pm) each Tuesday from May to October inclusive. After a welcome snack and pitches by local producers, the lesson begins in earnest with five pan-Hellenic recipes given a unique Bakaliko twist, ending with participants consuming the feast produced.
 

£85 a head for 4–5 people, otherwise £70, to a maximum of 12

The luxurious Kinsterna Hotel, 7km south-west of fortified Monemvasiá, opened in 2010 in a painstakingly restored 17th-century mansion. Its spa, rooms, suites and “residences” have since set a new quality benchmark for the Peloponnese. Kinsterna hosts short demo courses run by its head chef. In Session I, participants select fresh ingredients from the gardens, which find their way into hearty filo-pastry pies. There’s a fish dish to tackle too. Session II focuses on spoon sweets, marmalades and a sweet tart. 

Rooms from £170, lessons from £60

To read more, please visit: The Daily Telegraph

For over a decade Steve Kriaris, and his company Kolonaki Group, has been promoting the modern wines of Greece in Canada in the most innovative of ways.

Much of Steve’s emphasis has been the lobbying and educating of Canada’s Liquor Control Boards, which control the sale of wines and spirits in teh country (or LCBs) and most notably the LCBO, in his home province of Ontario. Largely as a result of Steve’s efforts, the LCBO has selected Greece as the flagship country in its new “Products of the World” campaign at the LCBO shop located at 200 Danforth Avenue.

The massive exposure that Greek wines will receive is critical for a country and an industry that is reeling from years of recession and financial crisis and the fact that its happening in one of the biggest cities in North America is a huge push for Greek wineries.

Consumers will now be able to find over 90 wines and spirits from all over Greece, creating the largest selection of Greek wines available in one store outside of Greece.

To read this article in full, please visit: PappasPost

More than 140 events are expected to take place at dozens of archaeological sites, monuments and museums across Greece on Saturday, August 29 – the night of the full moon. The special events and activities include music and theater performances, puppet theater productions, guided tours, exhibitions and film screenings as well as stargazing. A number of sites and museums will offer free admission on the day and in many cases visitors will be welcomed up until 1 a.m.

Although there are no events taking place at the Acropolis in Athens (the site will be open during its regular opening hours, until 8 p.m.), the archaeological site of Sounio will welcome visitors with free admission until midnight!

There will also be an event from 8pm at the Acropolis Museum - Tango At The Acropolis

To read this article in full, please visit: eKathimerini

Greece is quite well known for its alcoholic beverages including wine, ouzo and raki, but what's been brewing in recent years is a very strong Greek beer culture (and rightfully so). With a fairly long tradition of beer brewing in Greece, here's a run down of the history from ancient to modern, as well as some great Greek beers that you should try... if you haven't yet!

Beer In Ancient Greece
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, considered beer to have valuable medicinal qualities. Homer provides a vivid description of how Alkinoos, king of the Phaeacians, kept gold and silver kraters in his palace filled with wine made of barley. Zythos, the Greek word for beer, is also found in texts of the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, as well as mentions by the ancient Greek historian Diodorus (from Sicily). The word 'zythos' comes from the verb 'zeo' which means to boil; zythos was also the name of an Egyptian drink made of barley.

The Birth Of Modern Greek Beer
When Otto, the first king of Greece, settled in the country in 1833, he brought with him scientists and beer specialists from Bavaria – his native land, with a view to boosting the domestic beer industry. According to reliable sources, the first manually operated brewery was set up in Greece in 1840 in order to cater to the needs of the Bavarian officials and military men who were stationed in the country at the time. 

It is not quite clear who among Melcher, Fischer, Waweck and Seel was the first to run this particular brewery, as they had all opened up beer businesses during the 1840’s in Athens. Ioannis Fix (Fuchs) came to Greece in 1850; he stayed and worked as an apprentice in Melcher’s brewery which he bought from his heirs in 1866. Fuchs is the founder of one of the most well-known and oldest Greek beers (FIX). The factory he built in 1893 was later enlarged by his son Karl. On the site of the old installations a newer building has was constructed which still stands on present-day Syngrou Ave. Works are currently under way to house the National Museum of Contemporary Art in the exact premises.

If you're interested in learning more about the history of beer in Greece, you may like to visit ATHINEO - the first beer museum in Greece!

Here Are A Few Of Our Favourite Greek Beers:

Alpha Beer
It is one of the first 2 beer brands ever produced and marketed in the Greek market and its history goes back to 1960’s when it was first launched. It is a high quality, authentic, traditional Greek lager with light gold color and rich foam. It is refreshing, easy-to-drink and pairs well with traditional Greek food tastes and recipes.

FIX Hellas Lager
Founded in 1864 by the Fuchs family from Bavaria, the brewery went out of business in 1983. Experiencing something of a revival in 2009 thanks to a buyout, this Hellas-style lager is back. If you’re looking for a reliable and slightly cheap drink and want to try a quality beer, order one of these guys - you won't be disappointed! The malty brew doesn’t overpower the meat, but rather balances out just perfectly.

Volkan Grey
Volkan Grey, a well-spiced hefeweizen, is pretty much bursting out of the bottle with citrus zest. It’s best to drink this on Santorini because it’s where it’s from, but if you're not on the island it's still a great taste and can be found all over Greece.

Mythos Lager
Essentially the Budweiser of Greek beer, it has a biscuit-y sweetness that tastes a lot better than its American equivalents. As with any beer, freshness is key, so Mythos will taste a lot better in its homeland than your own. This easy-drinker is ubiquitous in both finding it and best occasions for drinking it—during or after tanning at any one of Greece’s gorgeous beaches or when you’re strapped for cash in Athens and have only one euro to spend on beer. Don’t leave Greece without trying a Mythos!

And here are some great microbrewery Greek beers to try:

Siris: www.sirisbrewery.gr
Volkan: www.volkanbeer.com
Septem: www.septem.gr
Nissos: www.nissosbeer.com
Delphi Beer: www.delphibeer.com
Chios Beer: www.chiosbeer.com
Corfu Beer: www.corfubeer.com
Magnus Magister: www.magnusmagister.gr


Sources used for this article:Arttable Visit Greece  Paste Magazine