Delos is an uninhabited island, Rich in History & Culture and only a few Kilometers from the Island of Mykonos.

According to legend Leto gave birth to Apollo on the island of Delos bringing to this world the music of light.  This invisible harmony burst over the Aegean turning to stone and bringing the Cyclades to life.  Deriving their name from the word ‘kyklos’ meaning circle they surround the uninhabited sacred island of Delos forming an island group that is known for its ability to enchant, entertain, and soothe the spirit of both man and god alike.

The island of Delos has been a land of the Gods and served both as a religious and economic center back in Ancient Greece and no mortals would ever be allowed to die on the island, and women on the brink of childbirth would be carried to the neighboring Greek Island of Rineia to give birth.   Today there is no place on this earth like Delos and it not just an open museum, but a natural archaeological site of great importance.  No other island on Earth hosts so many monumental antiquities from the Archaic, the Classical, and the Hellenistic periods.

When visiting Mykonos make sure to set a half a day aside for a day trip over to Delos for an experience of a lifetime.  There are no Hotels on Delos so day trips are the only way to experience this magical island.

Getting to Delos: The island of Delos is accessible on a daily basis by boat from Mykonos and during the summertime there is ferry service from the Greek Islands of Tinos and Naxos.

Sightseeing Tour of the Greek Island of Delos

Click Here for Photo Gallery of Ancient Delos in Greece

photo credit

What if want to stay in Athens, but want to feel like you are on a Cosmopolitan Greek Island?  Below Sofia LaBoheme gives her suggestions for the Athens Riviera.

Question:  Where to stay?
Answer:  The Margi versus Astir Palace.  Both are situated in the most exclusive area of the so-called Athenian Riviera, Vouliagmeni and both have equally luxurious accommodations for the sophisticated traveler.  The difference is that the Margi is a trendy and intimate boutique hotel with a candlelit pool area and numerous cocktails bars within walking distance to the beach; whereas, Astir Palace is a legendary resort with a private peninsula.  The Margi and its chic poolside bar is a great place for a late-afternoon snack and its signature pomegranate mojito; whereas, Astir Palace is the perfect place to dine with a view at its sushi restaurant Matsushisa by celebrity chef Nobu Matsushisa.

The Margi
11 Litous Street, Vouliagmeni 16671
Athens, Greece
TEL:  +30 210 8929000

Astir Palace
40 Apollonos St.
Athens, Greece
TEL: 30 210 890-2000
TEL: (800) 937-8461

Question:  Where to eat?
Answer:  There are many restaurants in the Vouliagmeni area.  Depending on your mood you can find almost anything from sushi by celebrity chef Nobu Mastushisa to authentic Greek cuisine.  For a great view and sophisticated dining, go to:

Matsuhisa Athens Restaurant 
Astir Palace Resort, 40 Apollonos Street
Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece
Telephone reservations:
+30 210 8960510

Ithaki Restaurant
28 Apollonos street
Lemos Vouliagmenis, Athens, Greece
Telephone reservations:
+30 210 8963747

Cafe Tabac
The Margi, 11 Litous Street, Vouliagmeni 16671
Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece
Telephone reservations:
+30 210 9670924

Labros Restaurant
Leoforos Poseidonos 20, Vouliagmeni 16671
Simpler Dining with No Reservations Needed
Tel: (+30) 210 89 60 144

Question:  What Beach to go to?
Answer:  Go to Asteras Vouliagmeni Beach 15 miles south of Athens in Vouliagmeni – On the shores south of Athens are known as the Athenian Riviera, with beaches spanning roughly 25 miles. One of the nicest of these belongs to the Astir Palace resort, on its private peninsula south of Athens. Urbanites willing to pay an entry fee that’s three times that of other beaches ($37 on weekends) head to sea-and-be-seen Vouliagmeni Beach for its clean, deep waters, private cabins, sun chairs, volleyball nets, restaurant, water sports, and access to resort facilities.

Question:  What to do?
Answer:  Visit the Vouliagmeni Lake Hot Springs–Natural hot springs continually fill this saltwater/mineral-water lake from below, keeping the brilliantly blue waters at a temperature of around 75 degrees year-round. A hydrotherapy center ($12 entry fee) offers treatments, and underground caves attract the occasional diver. The lake is just south of the town of Vouliagmeni, across Poseidonos Avenue from the ocean.

Vouliagmeni Lake
15 miles south of Athens
Vouliagmeni, Greece
TEL: 30 210 896-2237

Click here for more on the Athens Riviera

Today was a spectacular day for Greece.  Up Greek Tourism pulled off its mission with great fanfare in New York’s Times Square Today.  The much anticipated Electronic Billboard has gone Live and will surely lead the way to many more grass roots campaigns promoting Greece and the Greek Islands.    The Billboard will be live for 30 days starting today Starting on March 24th and for 30 days after.   Next time you are near Times Square take a look at the Up Greek Tourism billboard located over Mc Donalds for an amazing multimedia presentation featuring the splendor of Greece.

During  a lunch gathering which followed today’s event in New York City’s Kellari Restaurant, there was much excitement over potential future cooperation and projects amongst Greek Tourism Officials, Media, Business People and Travel Industry Professionals.   The Media also came out to support this great cause from both Greece and the USA.   It is great to see the Main Stream Media now focusing on positive facets of Greek Economic Crisis both in Greece and the USA.

Stay tuned for more privately funded endeavors and for those of you that cant stroll down to Times Square, click below to view the new Up Greek Tourism Campaign.

Up Greek Tourism on Skai TV Live

If you plan on visiting Greece and will only have a short time in Athens we recommend visiting the fully renovated National Archeological Museum which is one of the biggest and most remarkable archeological museums in the world.   With its numerous and outstanding exhibits the visit will give you the opportunity to travel back in history in a day.   However for those that will be planning on exploring Athens a bit further and some of the Greek Islands Visit here for some Greece Sightseeing Ideas.

For 100 years, Gray Line has been the trusted name in sightseeing tours around the world.   With tours and excursions in more than 700 locations, spanning six continents, they are the largest sightseeing company in the world.    According to Gray Line the Top 10 Archaeological sites in Greece are as follows:

More Sightseeing Tools to Plan your Trip to Greece

Museums of Greece
Description Archaeological Sites in Greece
Photos of Greek Islands

The wealth and diversity of the Greek seas, the endless kilometers of the Greek coasts and the thousands of Greek islands make Greece an ideal sailing Region.   The mild climate, the high percentage of sunshine and its interesting and varying landscape also provide the perfect ingredients for the perfect sailing holiday.  When sailing you need no hotel, you can budget your vacation accordingly and you can pull up to the most amazing coves that are not accessible by foot or car.

Chartering a yacht in Greece is an excellent way to travel around the magnificent Greek Islands.  Landscapes that has given us thousands of postcard images but remains incredibly vibrant and impossible to capture.  Advantages of Sailing in Greece are: the Greek seas are safe, distances between coasts are small, while conditions related to wind strength, ambient and sea temperatures are equally favorable.

Greek Island Travel Tip:  June through September is considered the high season, however May and October are ideal months to travel to the Greek isles offering both ideal climate and limited crowds

Click Here for Some Greek Island Sailing Itinerary Suggestions

Maps of Sailing Regions of Greece

Greek Island General Information

Photos of Sailing the Greek Islands

Greek Tourism has significant potential in supporting and restarting the Greek economy, and Up Greek Tourism is a grassroots campaign for the Greek people, by the Greek people.   They have taken matters into their own hands to jump start the Greek tourism Industry.  The main objective of the ‘UP Greek Tourism’ campaign is to promote Greek tourism abroad in two ways: directly, through the outdoor advertising campaign, and indirectly through the word of mouth created through traditional and social media who will re-produce the campaign.

The Organization has managed to negotiate an electronic billboard in the heart of Times Square worth of US $45,000. This means that for every $1 contributed, Up Greek Tourism will buy 3x the value in media exposure.  The organization is Led by a great team of individuals who donate their time to Up Greek Tourism, and their goal is to mushroom this grass foots campaign funded by Greek Diaspora to get the Greek Islands and Greece back on its road to its historical greatness.

To Donate to Up Greek Tourism Please Visit Here

The Greek islands of Santorini, site of one of history’s most colossal volcanic eruptions, are rumbling again.  Santorini’s volcanic activity during the past 2-500,000 years has been dominated by very large explosive eruptions at intervals of few tens of thousands of years.   The present-day crescent shape of the island of Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion dated back 3,600 years and which created the current geological caldera.

According to Science News, “Since January 2011, earthquakes have shaken the landscape and the Santorini volcano’s surface has lifted by about 140 millimeters — possibly because magma is rising from the deep and filling an underground chamber, scientists report in an upcoming Geophysical Research Letters. “  Newman and his colleagues, including several at the University of Patras in Greece, began studying Santorini in 2006 and there is a lot of speculation that the Island of Santorini will erupt again one day.   However the Science News Article went on to say, “If Santorini does erupt, it will probably be a small eruption like those seen there over the past few hundred years, most recently in 1950. Those eruptions have built up a pair of islands in the center of the now-drowned remains of the volcano, or caldera.”

Even if the Volcano on Santorini does erupt, the eruption won’t be anything like the infamous blast that occurred around 1600 B.C., says Andrew Newman, a geophysicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.  That blast incidentally is the one associated with the Lost City of Atlantis.

The islands are Greece’s chief morphological trait and an integral part of the country’s civilization and tradition. The Greek territory comprises 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Sea, a truly unique phenomenon on the European continent; of these islands only 227 are inhabited.

The Greek Archipelago takes up 7,500 km of the country’s total 16,000-km coastline, offering a highly diversified landscape: beaches stretching along many kilometers, sheltered bays and coves, golden stretches of sand with dunes, pebbly beaches, coastal caves with steep rocks and black sand typical of volcanic soil, coastal wetlands… Many Greek beaches have been awarded the blue flag under the program Blue Flags of Europe.  Apart from swimming, they offer scuba diving, snorkeling, water skiing, sailing and windsurfing.   The Greek Islands are home to some of the most ancient and prosperous European civilizations, therefore the islands boast unique archaeological sites, an outstanding architectural heritage and centuries-old local traditions of a multifaceted cultural past.

All the above, combined with the ideal climate, the safety of Greek waters and the short distances between ports and coasts, have rendered the Greek islands extremely popular among Greek and foreign visitors.

Most islands lie in the Aegean Sea and are divided in seven groups listed below from furthest north to south.

• The Northeastern Aegean Islands: Agios Efstratios, Thasos, Ikaria, Lesvos, Limnos, Inousses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara.
• The Sporades: Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros
• Evia
• The Argo-Saronic Islands: Angistri, Aegina, Poros, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra and the coastal area of Methana.
• The Cyclades: A group of 56 islands, its most important ones being Amorgos, Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Tinos, Folegandros, as well as the “Minor Cyclades” comprising Donousa, Irakleia, Koufonisia and Schinoussa.
• The Dodecanese: Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kastelorizo, Kos, Lipsi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Halki.
• Crete
  

The Ionian Sea is home to only one island group:

• The Ionian Islands: Zakynthos, Ithaca, Corfu, Cephallonia, Lefkada, Paxi, Antipaxi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki, Meganissi, Othoni, Strofades.
  These islands, together with Kythira, which is however cut-off from the rest, opposite the southern Peloponnese (Lakonia), as well as neighboring Antikythira, they constitute the Eptanissa.
• General Information on the islands with Island download brochures: CLICK HERE FOR INFO

The islands of Gavdos (situated south of Crete), Elafonissos (in the Gulf of Laconia) and Trizonis (in the Gulf of Corinth), although not forming part of any group, are of unparalleled natural beauty.

Mt Pelion was said to be the summer residence of the 12 gods of Ancient Greece and today is one of Greece’s best ski resorts from November till the Spring time.  Pelion also boasts many adventure activities for those looking for something to do other than sun and beach; although many say the Pelion area of Greece has some of the best beaches.  Unlike other adventurous sports, horseback riding remains unchanged since antiquity and according to Greek mythology, Mount Pelion was the home of the mythical Centaurs, creatures who were half-men and half-horses.  Ancient Greek heroes such as Achilles, Jason and Theseus came to Mount Pelion to master the art of riding taught by the Centaurs.

Today horseback back riding trips typically start in Argalasti, an attractive village on the south of the peninsula of Magnesia that is hilly and covered with groves of olive and plane trees, far from the usual tourist routes where the cobblestone trails between villages making this area ideal for horseback riding.  From here you can reach beaches on both sides of the peninsula  and get a bite to eat in picturesque seaside taverns.

Image courtesy of gnto.gr

While horseback riding in Pelion you can explore such locations as Kalamos, Lefokastro and the impressive beaches near Argalasti. On the outer or Aegean side of the peninsula, there is Paltsi, Potistika and Melani featuring remote, quiet and sandy beaches.  On the inner or gulf side of the peninsula you can trek to a beach called Marmaro which lies next to Kalamos.

For more information on Pelion Horse back riding trips contact FOM Horseback riding  @ 2421041201  Visit here to explore the geography of Mt Pelion

Greece has always been about art and creation. Ceramics, sculpture, goldsmiths and silversmiths have decorated the tradition of Greece with inspiration and artistry. Throughout the country and since the ancient times, the Greeks have embraced art.

Watch the Video below to see what people from around the world are saying about Greek Culture and the Greek Islands.

Click here to read about Greece’s Top Archeological Sites