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

LadyC

As MRS MCAWBER says Katelios in Kephalonia is really beautiful, it's quite a small town, more like a village really with a few nice little restaurants, there's a louder town to the East along the coast if you wanted a night out in noisier bars, but Katelios is perfect for the sort of holiday it sounds like you're after! I had never been to Greece before going here, and hadn't really appealed that much but I was an instant convert after staying here!

pennypitstop_2

Paros and Naxos are quiet beautiful islands... If you get the ferry from Pireaus, there will be people at the port waiting to get customers for their apartments/pensions. Within a couple of weeks you can visit a few islands this way. Ferries are pretty cheap and regular and adds extra excitement to the holiday if you're not sure where you'll be staying the following night!

Ios is only a short ferry ride from Santorini, if I rememmber right, which is also a great little island. I think the first route I did was Santorini, Ios, Naxos, Paros, Mykonos. It was fab! Have a great time!

Penny

davidlizard

Fully agree with Penny, MrSmartPrice and whotook.

We travel to Greece each summer for the best part of a month, and have now ticked off about 30 islands. Independent travel on the boats really is the best way to visit the Greek Island. Our favorites are in no particular order:

Naxos: IMO the best beaches anywhere in Greece, and with a good balance of local life and tourist amenities and top scenery. The island is large enough to have a beach more or less to yourself.
Serifos: 14km of beaches, popular with Greeks.
Agistri: Laid back and quiet, extremely handy for Athens and other antiquities (Corinth, Epidavros, Aegina).
Koufinissi (little Cyclades) - small and quiet, with good beaches.
Alonnissos (Sporades) - next one along from Skopelos. Decent beaches and more upmarket visitors.

We also enjoyed Ios last summer - its 45 minutes from Santorini (3 from Athens) on the fast boat, but one must pick accommodation carefully unless you like partying. Again, excellent beaches.

All of the above benefit from not having an airport that takes charter flights, and therefore the number of package tourists is low, so it does not feel like you have gone to Bournemouth (apologies to anyone who lives or goes on holiday to Bournemouth). Almost all of the Brits ones meets here are independent travellers. You get a great mix of nationalities.

However, as the OP has indicated that they prefer 7 nights, then unless one is lucky with flight/ferry times, you could spend the best part of a day (if not longer) getting to the island and back again, meaning time on the island is greatly reduced.

For this reason, I would go back on all of my recommendations and suggest considering one of the more popular but upmarket islands with convenient airports to maximise ones holiday time. Of these, I recommend Thassos, Skopelos, Agistri (and also recommend Andreas) or Kefalonia. However, at the end of the day, it really depends on what sort of things the OP enjoys (beach/culture balance, etc).

hostertlady

MRSMCAWBER,

I Have PM'D you, p.s. how far is the place from the beach?(walking)
whoops, just spotted your reply, thanks

MRSMCAWBER

Hi hosterlady

Have emailed you..let me know if it doesnt arrive..not sure if its playing up..will try again in the morning if not!!!!

The sea front is a max of 10-15 mins - and my mum walks realllllly slow, just up from that beach, if you walk over the rocks(or get the sea taxi) there is an even nicer beach...its the turtle beach and the sand is stunning - its very quiet and when we went on in the mornings i dont think we ever saw more that 12 people...... and the sea is soo clear you can see the fishies