Hi all,

I've been lurking this subreddit for a while in preparation for my trip that ended just yesterday so I wanted to share my experience in hope that its useful to some of you planning your own trips. Its going to be a long and detailed post.

These are my personal experiences\*
This will be a long read\*

I flew to Athens the 26th of April and arrived around midnight after a 1 hour delay. Sadly, this meant that we couldn't take the metro to arrive to our Airbnb, we went to the taxi queue, which was a mess of drivers waiting and having very heated discussions, we took a taxi and the driver was a bit crazy... she was speeding way over the limit. But we reached our destination.. it was 60 euros + tips.

We took a semi-private tour for the acropolis and it was really good. Definitely recommend it because there is a lot of information you can miss if going alone. The plaka neighbourhood was nice, a bit packed but fun to walk around nevertheless. The next day we took a guided tour to the temple of Poseidon at cape Sounion and it was worth it, we stopped first at an old theater before going to watch the sunset at the temple.

We flew from Athens to Mykonos, it was very windy but the town is beautiful with the painted stones, white houses, and colourful bougamvilleas. We took a bus to the Paradise beach early morning. Because it was not high season it was ok. The beach is beautiful but I can see it getting full in high season. The night life was great in Mykonos. We did not rent a car as the bus got us to where we wanted to go and we only stayed 2 nights there. I felt that in Mykonos you can easily get to the main places (airport, new port, beaches, etc...) by bus for cheap or taxi if you dont mind spending more and being more free.

From Mykonos we took a "fast ferries" ferry to Naxos, my personal favourite place. We rented a car for 3 days and it was great. We stayed at a beachfront hotel in the southern part of the town. A lot of nice places to eat or have a drink, not too full of tourists. We drove to most of the beaches from the main town towards the south and all of them were beautiful. Agia anna was easy to reach, plaka beach as well, both amazing for swimming in the ocean. The hawaii beach was really nice as well, felt more secluded, with very few people. We also drove to the temple of dyonisus which was empty, we were the only couple visiting so we got a really nice personal tour around for free where they explained the history behind the temple. Beware when driving because many roads are not paved and the speed limit is 30-50 km/h in most places.

The night before our ferry from Naxos to Heraklion we got a message from "seajets"that they cancelled the ferry for bad weather, which sucks but it is what it is. Sadly when we went to the agency they told us that the next available ferry was 4 days from that day. So after a couple of hours of stress we decided to take a 5.5 hour "blue star" ferry back to Athens that evening because to the north there was no bad weather and take a flight to Heraklion the next morning. Funnily, we didn't know that the 1st of may was a special day in Greece, and when we got to our hotel in Piraeus port and went to sleep to rest for the next day's early flight we were woken up by the ferry sirens and many many fireworks at midnight. the next day we took the flight to Heraklion and arrived there at noon, grabbed a rented car and drove to our hotel in Heraklion.

Heraklion itself is fun to walk around, sadly that week many stores were closed due to the holidays, but it gave us time to drive to nearby beaches, we went to Agia Pelagia peach, which was super nice. The next day we drove 3 hours and a half to Elafonisi pink beach and it was just amazing. By far the most beautiful beach I've ever been to in my life. Crystal clear water, pink sand, no waves, lots of free space to lay in the sand, and the asphalt road reaches here. Only a 10 minute walk down form the parking lot that charges 5 euros for the whole day. Definitely worth it to go there.

The next day we went to the temple of Knossos and in my personal opinion this was definitely not worth it. The place was discovered by the british sir Arthur Evans, what he did was reconstruct many areas of the temple, and paint it, which to me is not a good practice. I'd rather look at ruins and foundations over reconstructions made 100 years ago... Some people like this, but its definitely not for me. I was more angry about what he did to the place than amazed at the architecture. I'd encourage people to do some research before going there. If I had known this maybe I would have thought twice before booking it.

Next we took a "seajets" ferry to santorini which was a bit under 2 hours. I was one of the big ones so it didn't move as much as I thought it would. Once we arrived at Santorini port we took a taxi for 30 euros to our hotel just outside Fira. We decided to stay only 1 night in Santorini as we were warned by locals that its super touristy and we don't usually love this. And they were right, the place is beautiful, the houses on the side of the mountains are beautiful, white with the occasional blue roof church in between I'll give it that. But the amount of tourists and tourist catered restaurants and places is overwhelming, prices were higher everywhere. We went to Oia with a bus departing from Fira center for 2 euros to watch the famous sunset form the castle. We arrived 2 hours before and it was not very crowded but as time passed the place got full and it was a uncomfortable, too many people coming for the "instagram photo" and the people that have no sense of personal space, to people that tried to push us out of our first row spot anytime we slightly moved, it was definitely not the best experience. The sunset was beautiful, but the experience stained it a bit. The bus back to Fira was full and if you didn't get the bus you'd have to pay 40-50 euros for a taxi we were warned by the hotel staff. So we rushed to grab the bus as soon as the sunset ended.

Finally we took a flight the next day to Athens and then to our final destination to end the trip.

Overall, I return very happy. I can say that Greece became my N1 favourite place in the world so far. In regards to food it was amazing, mediterranean food with amazing flavours. Plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. The landscapes in both the mainland and the islands is amazing, the beaches were as taken out of dreams and the people super friendly and everyone basically spoke english so no problem communicating.

In regards to food what we loved the most were the greek salads, we had it at least once every day. The fava dip, vine leaves, fried feta saganaki, zucchini balls, tzatziki, and the pita bread is amazing. We had mushroom/falafel souvlaki as well as vegetarian Gyros and they were amazing. What surprised us was that everywhere we went the restaurant always gave us something as complimentary, sometimes we got some dips plus homemade bread, orange pie with ice cream, may times we got Ouzo, Raki, or my personal favourite, Mastiha as a digestif after the meal. this detail made our lunches/dinners way better. Tipping was not mandatory but we always rounded up the bill because every one was so nice to us.

As far as places to eat I'd recommend:
Athens: Kafeneion 111
Mykonos: Niko's taverna
Naxos: Taverna Naxos, Avli in agia anna
Heraklion: Olive trees in the center
Santorini: FalafeLand

Feel free to ask me if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. And sorry for the long read!