friends first time to greece- where shall i take her?

hostertlady

I love Greece and i have been to Kos, Crete and Corfu,
my friend has never been to Greece and i want to convince her how beautiful it is and the people are so friendly..
So we want to go somewhere that i haven't been, was thinking Kephalonia/santorini/ some where that's not commercialised as such...
we dont want party party, just lovely beaches, tavernas, watch the world go by etc.. we are having a special birthday coming up, that's not to say we are pushing the boat out tho!! lol,
we are thinking may 2008, from birmingham, SC for 7 nights
anyone been to this place or heard of such a place?
i would welcome ideas please...x thank you

newlywed

I've been to Zante (very loud and busy), Kephalonia and also Santorini.

Santorini is more expensive - we stayed on the beach area of the island and it is beautiful and fairly quiet (although we didn't go to Fira except during the day and this may get busy). The main towns have lots of expensive gold jewellery shops and generally the cost of meals seemed more pricey than the other islands I have been to. The main cruise ships land by the main town so it is filled with lots of american tourists for a few hours in the day. The bus service is too many people crammed into the bus but very cheap and regular.

Kephalonia is lovely, clean, peaceful, relaxed. The beaches are nicer than those in Santorini as they are soft sand (Santorini is black sand and some pebbles from the volcanic rock and gets very hot). Argostoli (main town) is nice for shopping - not nearly as expensive as Santorini and very relaxed feeling (but was only there in daytime). We hired a car and driving was a great way to tour the whole island.

Hope that helps a little

hostertlady

yes, it has helped thank you, i dont fancy Rhodes anyway, i want a nice apartment, near the beach, lots of walks to do, quant, etc etc. you get the picture? i can see it now but where is it??

Rikki

I went to Halkidiki click here and it was a beautiful place .

We staid at the Sani Beach Hotel

Edit: Just checked the hotel out and it now has a SPA. :cool:

newlywed

Try this website for Cephalonia http://www.geocities.com/gotocephalonia/

This one for Santorini: http://www.united-hellas.com/tourism/santorini/

digger3_2

thanks for the Santorini link newlywed.We're going there for 2 nights at the end of September.Hope the caldera view is worth the premium rates!

Zorba_2

Hi
I have to say Corfu as there is so many relaxing locations, All very laid back and you have the choice of loud areas or the more quiet, I prefer Messonghi as it has the best of everything fantastic tavernas with great food, and a short walk or taxi ride away you have the village of Moraitika which is much more lively but if its the heavy disco scene your after then jump in a taxi to Kavos and you wont be disappointed.
I would recommend Messonghi Corfu for a very relaxing holiday.
I found this which may help > http://www.holidaycorfu.org
It has some nice pictures in the gallery and some good information on it's forums.

hope it helps

Zorba

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there

I went to kefalonia.... katelios was the area . it was my 1st time... my brothers 8th.. it is stunning...we also flew from Birmingham.... i think we went with manos the appartments were called eraphilli - owned by nichos - he is a great host and has a barbecue meal once a week and does a couple of set meals by the pool if you want to go..this year they were 10euros for a 3 course and wine...and his food is cracking... we would never go anywhere else now i dont think...
If you like i can PM you and even send you some photos of where we stayed and give more details if you like...where is good to eat where to avoid etc... brother is an expert on the place . A real place to chill out, relax, eat drink and watch the world go by...

I dont work for them by the way.. just read my post and i sound like a rep:rotfl:

Ok im back...i can't spell
It is Eryphilli...if you put it in google and choose the manos option it shows you the apartment and pool ... can still give you more pics though

If you pick the "my travel" option you get 3 pics... the 3rd one is of the new accomodation..we had those two shown.... they are beautifull and have air con too

whotook316

I just got back from visiting a few Greek islands on an island hopping holiday. I have to say that each of the islands I went to had something special about them in their own way, but some of the best were Santorini, Naxos and Rhodes.

Santorini is really beautiful - and the Caldera views are worth the premium prices IMO - but Fira is extremely commercial and gets very crowded. The whole place is genrally quite pricy as well. The beaches are nice but they are either rock or black sand beaches.

Rhodes is great as well, but my favourite was Naxos. It has such a great atmosphere and doesn't feel too commercial. The food was great, nice beaches and the people were the most friendly and relaxed of anyone I met in Greece. The other nice thing is that most of the other tourists there seemed to be Greek.

MrSmartprice

We have been island hopping a few times and I believe the nicest islands are the ones without airports. That keeps out the union jack & lager brigade, but it takes a bit of effort and planning to get there.

Our preference is to fly to Athens by Easyjet, then get the airport bus to either Rafina or Piraeus. Then hop on a ferry and off you go. No need to book accommodation, there is plenty on offer at the port on most islands. Favourites are Andros & Tinos, from Rafina, and Paros/Antiparos from Piraeus.

We also love Angistri, a tiny island which is only an hour by catamaran from Piraeus. This is the place where we always stay, usually relaxing for a week after a fortnight doing the 'hopping' bit.

http://www.andreashotelagistri.com/index.htm

Rachie_B

Rikki wrote: »

I went to Halkidiki click here and it was a beautiful place .

We staid at the Sani Beach Hotel

Edit: Just checked the hotel out and it now has a SPA. :cool:

:rotfl: I always seem to follow you, on threads about Greece

we stayed in the same hotel as Rikki for our honeymoon.It was fab :T

we hired an open topped jeep and went exploring on 3 of the days ,some lovely secluded beaches etc along the way

a lovely part of the world