Discover the Greece You Never Expected to Find

When we headed to Greece, we were expecting to hit up the top sights that everyone talks about. We wanted to get that Instagram photo of white-washed towns and a gorgeous sunset. But there’s another Greece that most international tourists have never even heard of. It’s a place with ancient monasteries, historic villages and hidden beaches. And that’s the Greece we discovered on our latest trip.

We usually visit the world’s best known destinations. There’s a reason they’re so popular. Since we started traveling full time, we’ve walked the walls of Dubrovnik, we visited the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, we crossed Ponte Vecchio in Florence. The downside of this is that we end up fighting for elbow room with all the other tourists. 

We always knew we would go back to Greece one day. We’d visited Crete a few years ago and knew there was just so much more to explore. We booked a one-way ticket to Athens and thought we’d figure out the rest once we got there. 

We rented a gorgeous apartment in Athens. And we took a month to see the city while planning our next move. We spent our days visiting the top sights: the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, Plaka and the Agora.  And of course we totally treated ourselves to all the Greek classics. We had lots of grilled meat, seafood, spanakopita, spit-roasted lamb and delicious kebabs.

Meanwhile we spent our evenings trying to figure out where we could possibly go once our month in Athens was up. We initially thought we’d get to one of the islands that everyone talks about, whether it was Santorini, Corfu or maybe Naxos. 

But we quickly discovered that spending a whole month on any of these islands during peak season was totally unaffordable. Why did we need to stay a whole month? Why not just a week or two? 

We’re slow travelers. We spend a month or more in each destination. And we do this for a couple reasons. First, it lets us really settle in and get to know a place. When we stay a month, we don’t have to rush around trying to see all the sights in one day. Instead, we get to take our time and see everything at our own pace. 

The other reason is our budget. When we stay for a whole month, accommodations become 30 to 40% cheaper. And we can put those savings right into having more of the good stuff: dining out, entertainment and everything else that makes travel fun. 

When we realized that a month on one of the popular islands would totally blow our budget, we felt stuck. We wanted to experience more of Greece but we weren’t ready to break the bank to do it. We also weren’t ready to be in a less comfortable airbnb for a whole month just for a chance to see Santorini.

Just as we started to think about abandoning Greece altogether and flying off to another country, we discovered northern Greece. 

We’d been combing through the guidebooks and online forums trying to find our next destination. We were looking for a memorable Greek experience that was also affordable. That’s when we heard about a region of Greece filled with ancient monasteries, historic villages and beautiful hiking. This was the Greece we’d been hoping to find the whole time; it sounded authentic, rustic and totally spectacular.

But it also sounded really difficult to get to. When you travel off the beaten path, logistics become a lot more complicated. When we dug into the details, we discovered that the train could only take us so far into northern Greece. And we couldn’t take the bus with our two little dogs. We considered flying but that would have made it even more expensive than going to the islands. We were stuck again.

Finally we realized that renting a car was the only way to make this trip possible. If we were going to see what northern Greece had to offer, it had to be a road trip. However the cheapest car we could get was also the smallest car we’d ever been in. So we all piled in — two humans, two dogs, tons of luggage — and the first stop on our journey was Meteora. 

Meteora

This is an area of Greece known for monasteries that are perched on top of unusual rock formations. The best way to take in the views of the monasteries is on foot so we spent our days hiking and visited a few along the way. These monasteries are awe-inspiring. They’re hundreds of years old and were built to give the monks complete isolation at the very top of the rocks. 

After a couple of days exploring, we ended our time in Meteora by watching the sunset over the rocks. That was it — we knew that we were in for an unforgettable month in northern Greece. From there we headed to an even more remote part of Greece.

Zagori

This is an area famous for historic stone villages that are tucked throughout the mountains. These are connected by stone bridges, and back in the day it was the only way people could get from village to village. While we were there — and since we love a challenge — we couldn’t resist hiking the Vikos Gorge. This gorge has 20 km of epic views and we had it all to ourselves.

Zagori was even more perfect because we stayed in a charming guest house and got a taste of village life. Eventually we were ready to return to civilization, and made our way to Ioannina.  

Ioannina

This is a city on a lake that is absolutely spectacular in the fall. Most of the downtown is pedestrian only so it’s perfect for shopping, dining and enjoying a very relaxed lifestyle. Apparently Ioannina is all about the cafe culture. From 11am onward, every single cafe was filled with people taking their time over a coffee. We found that it was very easy to do like the locals and settled right into freddo cappuccinos afternoons. And, of course, this was the perfect place to get our fill of traditional Greek flavours. We had the pastry that Ioaninna is famous for: the bougatsa. We also had moussaka, grilled lamb and some of the best souvlaki we’ve tried so far. 

While we were there, we managed to unofficially achieve a first. We are most likely the only people who have ever explored one of Greece’s largest caves with two toy poodles. We will say that both dogs were exceptionally well behaved during our tour of Perama cave although they were likely just very confused.  

Since we were in Greece, of course we had to get to the beach. But not just any beach. We wanted to find one of those hidden gems that only the locals know about. After researching every beach within an hour’s drive of Ioannina, we discovered the one: Alonaki Fanariou. We found ourselves on the perfect beach on the perfect day with only a few locals around. And that was it — we knew we had our reward for making the effort to get off the tourist trail. 

Was it easy to make our way to northern Greece and find all these sights? No. But was it worth the extra effort? Absolutely. And it cost way less than staying on one of Greece’s most popular islands for a month. 

As we did that long drive back to Athens, there was plenty of time to reflect on our month in northern Greece. We had learned that there’s a big payoff for going where the locals go. They’re not fighting for elbow room at Santorini’s most famous instagram site. Instead they’re enjoying their favourite spots and there are just so many of these favourites to discover. 

We’ve come to appreciate that a country is much more than its top 10 sights. We still want to see those famous sights but we don’t want to plan our entire stay around them. Instead, we want to give a lot more time to the hidden gems.