Greece revisited

These past couple of weeks have been quite relaxing. Wouldn't mind if life offered more of these type of weeks. The vacation was great and was just the enough amount of summer I needed to be able to handle a northern European winter in the coming months.

Here's some pictures of the trip, because I'm sure my words cannot describe the colours and tastes of the trip better than pictures.

Beaches

Each morning we tried to head to a different beach than the day before. We got to see quite a number of different beaches.

Food

The food was really tasty, I loved being able to eat all different types of fresh seafood and fish. The big range of grilled meats was also fingerlicking good. After 10 days though each menu looked the same as the previous one and I was starting to want to taste something different.

Travelling

During the trip we went to a different island, Patmos, with the catamaran. We were slightly unlucky since it was very windy on the day and I was really sea sick. It was basically 3 hours from hell for me. Luckily going back the sea was calmer and I really enjoyed the trip. On the islands we decided to rent a moped and a quad bike. It was enough to go around to different beaches and to explore all the little towns on the islands.

Diving

On every trip at the sea we try to go Scuba diving. This year we went for an afternoon on a sailing boat from which we dived from. The dives were not the most impressive, but what can one expect if the previous dive was done in the Carrebean sea!

What Greek islands should you visit?

This summer we're planning to visit Greece, specifically a couple of its islands. I love planning holidays and deciding which places to visit in a country but with Greece and it's tons of islands it gets harder to make a decision which works out well. So I compiled a list to ease my decision.

What do you need to keep in mind when choosing your island/s:

• Do you want to fly directly to the island from your home country? In that case it has to be one of the bigger islands that has an international airport. Many of the islands which do have an airport cater only for internal flights. Remember also that some eastern islands are very close to Turkey and can be reached via ferries from Turkey.

•  If you're visiting only for a week stick to a small amount of islands. Visiting an island every 3 days seems good enough. Island hopping can then be done by very short plane rides, ferries or catamarans (faster than ferries). You could also rent a boat with skippers and sail from one island to another.

• Do you want to party? Then chose one of the party islands in which you can lie on the beach till 5pm and then start partying directly at the beach since the music will be too loud for you to sleep anyway! I think islands like Mykonos, Kos and Crete (quite popular with the Dutch) are great for partying hard.

• Do you want the authentic feel of Greece in the Mediterranean setting? Then visit those islands which are not yet too popular with the tourists and haven't lost their authentic touch due to commercialism and tourism. A few years ago I had visited the island of Ios early in summer and it was such a lovely place with few people on the white sandy beaches. 

•  Do you want some history and archaeology? Then make sure to fly to Athens before heading to your island and try and visit Delos. Remember though that visitors in Delos cannot stay overnight.  

• Do you wish fantastic views? Most islands offer fantastic views however Santorini is a must see with lovely, albeit extremely crowdy sunsets and breath taking views of it's cliffs. I believe I had the best view ever from a restaurant while eating at Santorini. Beaches though were black and even though impressive to see there were horrible to swim at.

Now, after writing this maybe I can make a decision on which islands to visit this summer!

[Image Credits: I Help Greece]