Greece - Need advice

[Fractiontoomuchfennel]

I’m trying to plan first summer sun holiday since pre-Covid. We fancy trying Greece for the first time and I am hoping for some advice from some well travelled Mumsnetters. I am absolutely bewildered and just don’t know where to start. I normally love researching and planning holidays (almost as much as actually going!) but just can’t find a starting point on this.

Our previous holidays have been in Croatia - Dubrovnik and Istria and those are pretty much my perfect holiday destinations. I love resorts with a slightly old fashioned but upmarket feel. My budget is £3-4k.

We have an 11 year old but he is not super sporty and has announced that he is now too old for kids club :)

Broadly our interests and requirements are:

-no pref on islands or mainland but must be able to travel direct from Glasgow or Edinburgh
-Beach (doesn’t matter if rock or sand)
-hotel rather than apartments/villa-I am partial to a resort hotel. DH prefers boutique/independent type places as he stays in corporate style hotels for work so much. Basically either is good
-an old town within walking distance with nice restaurants/shops/ harbour
-Fairly quiet - a nice family resort
-We prefer quiet activities like reading, short walks and visiting churches - so doesn’t need a lot of sports activities
-having said that we are quite fond of a water park visit and a bit of mini golf and maybe the odd excursion.
-happy to jump on local buses to get to things

I know Greece inspires real passion in people so I’m hoping I’ll get some great advice.

Please throw me some ideas. Thanks!

We loved Crete - have a look at Chania, the town itself is lovely and the airport is nearby.

Rethymnon in Crete sounds like it would suit you

Thanks. A couple of older threads are popping up at the bottom of my page asking similar about Greece and Crete seems to be coming up in those too as a clear winner. I have a starting point!

The waterpark nearest Chania is very good, there's a karting circuit next door to it which looks great. We always book excursions/trips out as well, they are usually sold by quite a few agents in each locality so you should find things to suit easily. You can do activities like horse riding, snorkelling, water sports - every beach has pedalloes, canoes, stand up paddleboards for hire as well.

We also like Kassiopi in Corfu, it's a developed fishing village so has a harbour but there are beaches and coves all round which are great for snorkelling and seeing beautiful fish and sealife. There are tons of shops and all kinds of restaurants and cafes. We hire a car for some of the time so we can explore further afield and pop to sandy beaches a little further down the coast, but you could manage with the buses and excursions are usually on coaches. Corfu's Aqualand waterpark is great too, there's a donkey sanctuary (we went by car to that) and numerous fortresses and castle ruins and lovely churches.

We have hired a little motorboat and gone up or down the coasts to have lunch in tavernas there (or you could make a picnic to take), it's not as expensive as you might think and we never use as much fuel as the deposit covers, so get most of that back.

Last time we did a trip by boat to Corfu Town to enjoy the evening there, it was enchanting - I've always wanted to see the Liston by night and the restaurant we had dinner at was fabulous - and I can't wait to do it again. We love Corfu, Crete is glorious as well but Corfu has a special place in our Greek loving hearts ❤

Corfu sounds lovely. I’ll look into that too.

@Fractiontoomuchfennel

Hi there 😊

We love Croatia and Istria too 👍

But we also love The Greek Islands and have visited both Crete and Corfu a few times, Crete coming out top over Corfu personally for us.

However, we have also visited a smaller Island too, Kos, which was gorgeous 😍

Stayed in a village/town - Tingaki in early May - lovely warm temperatures during day, cooler at night, but both sea and pool were freezing.
Apparently June & Sept are best for Kos day and water temperatures.

We found the Greeks very welcoming and friendly, the atmosphere in the little town at night calm with very reasonable meal deals on offer, Kos Town is worth a visit and a hire car will take you all around the island ( although buses are cheap too) and up into beautiful mountain villages 😊 and an archaeological site where Hippocrates built his first hospital.

Kos Town is about 8 mins taxi ride away ( buses go regularly) and we'll worth a visit.

You can also take a day trip across to another Greek Island- Rhodes or Bodrum in Turkey.

Tingaki has a salt flat 5 minutes walk away where wild flamingoes gather before migrating - We saw hundreds in May and that was pretty special ❤️

We chose an aparthotel where the was the option of B&B /Half Board or All inclusive.

We chose the latter but did also eat out in the evening at some lovely tavernas a few times too ❤️

For a bit off added luxury the aparthotel also offers the option of rooms with private or shared swimming pools , along with the use of the main complex swimming pool.

We treated ourselves to one with a private pool and various staff more than happy to provide you with drinks to take back to your room and enjoy by your own pool ❤️

We loved Kos overall and hope to return later this year.

Enjoy - wherever you decide 🥰

The Peloponnese. You could fly to Athens from Edinburgh. Hire a car and drive over. Nafplio is a very pretty little city with nice beaches nearby and a good base for sites like the theatre at Epidaurus, and Mycenae. Or a bit further afield, in the Mani Peninsula, Kardimyli. You might be able to get a flight to Kalamata and then drive down. It’s a charming little town and a great base for exploring the Mani. Both are busy in the summer, it has to be said.

Kardamyli

We stayed in Stella palace in Crete, it's beautiful. Lots to do including private beach, small on site water park, near to the town, multiple restaurants.

Also got married in Kefalonia, some amazing beaches and caves out there.
Stayed in Skala which is a gorgeous town but no water parks afair.

Rhodes we did TUI holiday village in a private on site villa, had great activities for kids but ours were younger when we took them.

Corfu we also stayed at a TUI water park hotel. Brilliant water park but not loads nearby and food wasn't great but again it was a long time ago so may well have changed by now.

Look at elounda in Crete. Stunning and easy boat trip to spinalonga

Cyprus

Have a look at Creta Maris in Crete. I highly recommend

We have booked to stay in a lovely little resort called Georgiopolis which is near Chania and Rethymno in Crete. Never been before but it looks lovely. Has plenty of tavernas, shops and a beach but also easy to get to Chania and Rethymno. Have a look and see what you think. We are staying in some basic traditional Greek apartments but there are lots of nice hotels there too. It will be our first Greek holiday too and I did a fair bit of research. Can't wait!

Oh, we’re looking at this for May half term, I’m guessing you had a good experience? We’ll be taking DCs 9 & 5, and it looks ideal but I always read too many reviews and muddle my brain!

Sorry, I meant to quote @Restlessinthenorth’s post about Creta Maris

I'd recommend corfu too.

For peace and beauty Paleokastritsa is stunning but no real old town to walk to. If driving, corfu town is half hour away.

Anywhere bar the very south of corfu is beautiful. Such a wide rage of accommodation types too.

Corfu is beautiful, and has such a lovely feel, friendly people and great food!
We stayed at a hotel called The Kontokali which was wonderful, and it was very close to the old town.

@RAINSh0wers absolutely completely recommend. I went with my 9 and 11 year old. Options of doing as much or as little as you like. Stunning resort, more like a Greek village than a holiday resort. Food was incredible. Staff, especially the ones the kids interacted with, were fantastic

There's a decent bus service in and around Chania and plenty to see and do. Skiathos and the Peloponnese are lovely too. You can't really go too far wrong so long as you avoid the
main touristy beach resorts.

I've just booked to go to Sidari in Corfu. I've been to Corfu twice before, but not this particular resort. We really loved it - there's quite a lot to do there, good options for boat trips, like Corfu Town a lot, beautiful beaches, great food and not too busy.