This is one of the most anticipated blog posts, I swear! I’m not sure how I feel about that but I’ll take it as a positive. HA! I’ve been dreaming of the Greek and Italian coasts for as long as I can remember. I was so happy that it finally became my reality in 2019.

We took 2 weeks off to explore Greece + Italy during peak season. I always told myself that was the only way I would experience it…. full submerging myself into the culture and well, water. Boy am I glad we did!

I figured the best possible way to explain this trip for both those who just want to see pretty pictures and those who are actually trying to plan a trip; would be to break up into sections / cities and describe those within.

Thanks for following along and I hope you love these countries as much as we did. Make the decision to choose adventure!

Athens, Greece

We arrived in Athens at 10am, which was super ideal! I have no problems sleeping on a plane. We got in, went to a Vodafone to get international cellphone SIM cards, got back to our AirBnB (if you want the recommendation, let me know. We adored our host Yannis!) had some time to relax before heading out to a walking food tour. I would recommend either at the airport or the first currency exchange you can find, to pull some money. We had a hard time finding them throughout Athens.

This might have been the smartest thing I did this whole trip. It gave us the opportunity to walk leisurely around the cutest parts of Athens, including the town of Plaka. Our tour guide was amazing and took us to so many authentic places, let us try many meals, fruits, veggies and drinks. It was relaxing and stress free. Plus, it gave us an idea of the cuisine to expect throughout the rest of the trip. Don’t plan too much for your first day. Jet lag is real ya’ll and you will be a crank if you try to do to much on your first day.

A quick thing we noticed was that breakfast wasn’t served until later and that dinner wasn’t until 7 or 8pm. The portions are also huge. They want you to eat all of it! We were completely stuffed and they would still come around with a complimentary drink or fruit. Most of their authentic Greek dinners last hours, they were often surprised we were ready to go within an hour.

The second day in Athens was spent really exploring the history. We bought a pass to be able to get into all of the museums / ruins easily without having to wait in lines all day. Seriously guys, hydrate. We walked a good 25,000+ steps in the heat. The history and look on Ryan’s face was all worth it though. I mainly was in it for the snacks + gelato. This was probably one of the coolest cities I’ve been to with rich history. Even being a major epicenter, it was very clean!

Santorini / Oia, Greece

Any young person who is on social media has probably heard of Santorini. It was definitely at the top of the bucket list but I don’t love huge crowds. Which I have heard this had the reputation for. Because of this, we decided to book a Catamaran Tour for one of our days in the town of Santorini. Which again *pats back* was really smart! We ended up basically having a private boat tour during the day with another really fun, young couple, we had a blast! We stopped at some really cool locations, swam in clear blue water and ate some authentic greek food.

Later that evening, we ate at a restaurant on a cliff over looking the sea. We tried to get to sunset but literally, the streets are filled with people all trying to find a spot to watch. We ended up back at our cave hotel, which, I definitely was not complaining. We booked our cave hotel through airbnb.

The streets of Santorini were the cleanest thing all throughout Greece. We were up at 7am and there would be little old greek women mopping and cleaning the streets every morning. We only stayed for one full day and an early full breakfast the next day. I do wish we had 3 days in Santorini but now I know if I ever return, it won’t be in peak season.

Naxos, Greece