Greece

Meteora and Delphi

In our wordsMany people plan a day trip to Meteora. We recommend staying at least one night, to witness and explore the majestic landscape and its monasteries.

Our flight landed in Athens before six in the morning, and we spent the first days of the trip at Meteora and Delphi.

At Meteora, monasteries sit on top of giant rock towers. We sent the drone up over their red roofs and climbed out onto bare rock summits, where we sat looking across the pillars and stood arm in arm. We saw it under grey cloud and in bright sun, and at dusk an orange glow lit the sky behind a monastery on the cliff edge.

At Delphi the sun was out, and Meenu walked the ruins under a white umbrella. We climbed past the columns of the Temple of Apollo and the theatre to the stadium at the top. From the drone, the whole sanctuary steps down the mountainside below the cliffs.

We saw the six monasteries that are open to visitors: Great Meteoron, Varlaam, St Nicholas, Rousanou, Holy Trinity and St Stephen. There's no better way to see the serenity of Meteora than with the friendly Christos and his lovely dad Nikolaos. The food matched the views: the most delicious food, with real Greek hospitality.

Thank you, Christos and Nikolaos.

Athens

Back in Athens, Meenu had booked us two nights in an Airbnb loft in the centre with a view of the Acropolis. We watched it above the rooftops at sunset, and again once the floodlights came on.

We explored on foot. We climbed stepped lanes past taverna tables, took a selfie on a rocky hill with the Acropolis behind us, and watched the city lights come on around it. After dark we browsed shops full of evil-eye charms, bronze warriors, silk scarves and fridge magnets.

Crete

A 50-minute flight took us from Athens to Chania. Our first two nights were at Falasarna Bay, on the far west coast.

We spent a day on a sailing yacht with Falasarna Sailing. We anchored in a lagoon of clear turquoise water, went ashore to a beach of pink-tinged sand and waded across the shallows. Meenu posed on the bow. Lunch on deck was a Greek salad heaped with feta.

There was also a long sandy beach, where we played in the waves. At sunset Meenu stretched on the shore and Praddy kicked up spray in the shallows. Our last night on Crete was at Palazzo Duca in Chania's old town. After dark the harbour glowed, with the lighthouse lit at the end of the breakwater.

Santorini

We finished on Santorini, high on the caldera cliffs. We arrived to drinks waiting in the room, then wine and a fruit platter on a terrace with its own plunge pool above the caldera.

We walked the white lanes of Oia past the windmill, found the blue domes above the water, and sat on the whitewashed walls to look across the sea. Praddy settled into a hanging egg chair by a pool, and we had breakfast at a table above the cliffs.

We watched the sun go down behind Oia's white houses and stayed out until the lights came on along the cliffs. Our last night was at Oia Suites, and on 15 October we flew home through Athens.