Status: Away – The Best of Greece

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Maggie G., from the Air Canada Vacations team, recently visited Greece with the help of one of our tour packages: The Best of Greece. She’ll be sharing some insider tips about visiting the land of the Hellenes.

Quick Tips:

• Wear sun protection and drink plenty of water in Athens because it gets very hot
• Almost every restaurant in Oia has a great view, so don’t be fooled by the signs
• Many people will speak English, but it’s good to learn a few phrases
• Many places in Greece have free WiFi, so a roaming plan isn’t necessary

Staff picks:

• The Attic Urban Rooftop in Athens has great sunset views of the Acropolis
• The seafood platter at Captain’s in Mykonos has a bit of everything
• Blue Domes Restaurant Oia has great views of the domes and the water

Greece

My family booked this tour package for June to celebrate my birthday because we wanted to minimize our planning. We thought a package like this would be great because all the flights, ferries and hotels are booked so you only need to plan the fun stuff, like where to eat or what to do. The nice thing about visiting in June is that the crowds are way smaller. We heard Mykonos and Santorini would be crowded but it wasn’t that bad at all.

Athens

There are two things you’ll notice when you first get to Greece. One is that it’s crazy hot, and the second is that the food here is crazy good.

Our hotel in Athens was on the main road which was nice because we could take a cab to the water or the historic sites easily.

One of our pre-booked excursions was an Acropolis tour. I’d recommend going with a guided tour because it lets you skip the line for tickets, and you get more context on what you’re seeing. The Acropolis Museum was also guided, but I think I would have liked to spend more time with some of the exhibits, though I’m not a huge museum person.

However, I am a huge foodie, and in Athens, we ate a ton of seafood. Our first night, we went down to the port because we wanted to be on the water where it’s windy. The second night was my birthday, so I did some social media research that led us to The Attic Urban Rooftop, which has an amazing sunset view of the Acropolis.

We also visited the flea market at Monastiraki, and the Temples of Zeus, Kronos and Rhea, and Apollo. You get a weird feeling when you’re there; this vague sense of how old everything is. When you see the baths, it's like you can see people back then living their lives.

Mykonos

After three days in Athens, it’s time for some island time. First stop is Mykonos, where we stayed at San Antonio Summerland. This hotel has a great view of the sea, and we had a nice balcony to ourselves. The food here was also superb, we had to force ourselves to eat away from the hotel because it was that good.

You’ll notice that the hotel isn’t in the city, which is nice because Mykonos is famous for its nightlife. You’re not far from the action either, as there’s an 8-minute shuttle that takes you right there. Some of the restaurants are right by the water, so you can run down and play chicken with the waves.

Compared to Athens, Mykonos is more foodie oriented. We ate at Captain’s, which serves you a seafood platter that you share family-style. Before visiting, I didn’t even like seafood, but now I’m obsessed. Everything in Mykonos was so good, we always got tzatziki, fresh squid and octopus. They make this fish egg dip called taramasalata which ended up being one of my favourite foods on this trip.

We also got to take a day trip to Delos, which is one of the oldest inhabited islands in Greece, but it’s mostly inhabited by cats now. They were renovating the museum when we visited, but it's open now..

Santorini

From Mykonos we took the ferry to Santorini. We stayed at the Santorini Palace in Fira, which has a hiking trail to Oia, which most people know Santorini for. The hotels were all nice, but we had a private pool here. Next door, there’s a pathway that takes you into town for restaurants, shops and cliff views.

My brother and I went to this famous lookout where you can get a picture with blue domes behind you. There’s a lot of blue in Santorini! The sky is so blue that you can’t even tell where the sea meets the sky. It looks unreal. And the sunset! It’s easily the highlight of the whole trip.

You’ll notice a lot of the restaurants here advertise that they have the best sunset, but the truth is every restaurant is going to have a great sunset view, so you should pick your restaurant based on the menu, not the view they advertise.

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Note: This interview was conducted on June 23, 2025. Information and details may have since changed.