HOTELS IN GREECE

GREECE – WHY GO?

Think Greece and you’ll conjure up pictures of rustic tavernas serving fresh-landed fish, donkeys tethered beneath trees, dazzling ancient sites, gutsy retsina wines and hedonistic beach life.

Greece boats an astonishing 10,000 miles of coast and 1,400 islands, scattered across the Aegean and the Ionian seas. You’re never more than 60 miles from the sea here.

The Cyclades islands are quintessential picture-postcard Greece – whitewashed cubist houses, windmills and olive groves set against an impossibly blue backdrop of sea. Take your pick from party-loving Mykonos, famed for its dusk-to-dawn nightlife,  and stunning Santorini, its glittering volcanic bay ringed by dramatic cliffs.

Greece's ancient wonders start with the Acropolis in Athens and Delphi's Temple of Apollo. Other unmissable sites include the ruined Minoan city of Knossos on Crete and the medieval towns of Rhodes and Corfu – both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

There’s endless scope for watersports on a Greek holiday (you can’t beat a day’s sailing in the islands, swimming or snorkelling from the side of the boat), while Crete offers some of the most rugged mountain walking terrain in the Med. The spring flowers of the Peloponnese and lesser-known Pelion are also unmissable.

Then there’s the hospitable charm of the Greeks themselves – whether it’s old men sitting chatting in the sunshine or the can’t-do-enough hosts of simple Greek island boutique hotels.