Videographer Nikos Outdoor travelled to the Eastern Aegean island of Ikaria at the beginning of the summer — before Greece had ended its Covid-19 lockdown and reopened its borders to international tourism — and enjoyed what he described as “probably the most unique trip ever!”
“We had the whole island literally for our own as the the usually crowded places were missing! We took advantage of the closed borders and shot some magnificent scenery that even during winter it is difficult to catch them so pure!” he says in notes accompanying his drone video, which was published on YouTube July 10.
The 5-minute film features amazing aerial views of the island’s inimitable scenery, including interior and coastal landscapes, beaches, villages and sunsets.
At his Greece Summer 2020 press conference on Santorini on June 13, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis formally announced Greece’s re-opening for summer tourism. Impressive backdrops for the international media event included views of the island’s clifftop village of Imerovigli (top photo) and a glorious sunset over nearby islands (bottom). Greece went into lockdown in late March to protect its citizens from the Covid-19 pandemic, and on June 15 began reopening its borders to tourism.
By mygreecetravelblog.com
“Greek tourism is back.”
Those words — spoken by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during an international press conference on Santorini island June 13 — must have been sweet music to the ears of people around the world who have been hoping to holiday in Greece this summer.
Please click on the link below to continue reading on page 2 of this post.
If you ever get the chance to visit Samos, here’s a few sage words of advice: Stay for at least a week, and rent a car for either all or part of your holiday. You’ll need that time, and access to a vehicle, to see even just a few of the fabulous sites and scenic locations spotlighted in the video This is my island, This is Samos by Michali’s Films.
We spent 4.5 days on Samos during an island-hopping holiday through the Dodecanese and East Aegean regions of Greece exactly 10 years ago this month. (How time flies — we can’t believe a full decade has passed since that vacation).
We knew when we arrived that we would only be scraping the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, by basing ourselves in and near the island’s capital city, Vathy, and not having a car at our disposal. Samos is a big island, as evidenced by the fact it boasts three ferry ports and an airport; spellbinding mountain, valley and coastal landscapes; dozens of beautiful beaches; charming villages, churches and monasteries; noteworthy historic places and monuments (including UNESCO World Heritage Sites); vineyards that produce the island’s world-famous muscat wine; scores of tavernas serving delicious local and traditional Greek cuisine; and much much more.
We weren’t stuck in Vathy the whole time, though, since we did rent mountain bikes for a day. That gave us the opportunity to take a fun ride to and from the picturesque seaside village of Kokkari, and to explore the countryside north of the city.
Still, we missed out on seeing so much, as This is my island, This is Samos made clear.
The 4-minute film shows dozens of remarkable places all over the island, and captures impressive aerial views of:
♦ the villages of Platanos, Kokkari, Pyrgos, Miloi, Irion, Pythagorion (and its striking Blue Street), Mesokampos, Posidonio, Mitilinii and Ormos Marathokampou;
♦ the beaches Klima, Potami, Mourtia, Mykali, Proteas, Psili Ammos, Megalo Seitani, Klima, Glikoriza, Tarsanas, Remataki, Livadaki, Limnionas, and Balos;
♦ the Temple of Hera, Ancient Walls of Samos, an ancient observatory, and other historic sites;
♦ the 2,500-year-old olive tree “Eva” at Miloi village;
♦ numerous churches and holy sites including the Church of Profitis Ilias, Agias Triada Monastery, Agios Nikolaos Church at Pandroso village, Panagia Church at Mitilinii village, the Church of Panagia Eleousa, the Church of Profitis Ilias near Spatharaioi village, the Church of Agiris Chrysostomos of Smyrna at Mykali, the Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi, Agios Nikolaos Church at Posidonio, the Monastery of Panagia Spiliani at Pythagoreion, and Agios Nikolaos Church at Potami;
♦ a flamboyance of flamingos at Alikes Mykali;
♦ the islands of Samiopoula, Karavopetra, Agios Nikolaos, Diaporti and Vareloudi;
♦ Mount Kerkis and the Profitis Ilias mountain region;
♦ the statue of Pythagoras at Pythagoreion village;
♦ tour boats, and more.
If you’d like to see more of the island after taking this aerial tour, you’ll find nearly 20 other Samos videos to watch on the Michali’s Films channel on YouTube.
If Santorini is already on your list of places to visit, you’ve probably got a few main reasons for your choice — including the island’s world-famous sunsets and its breathtaking caldera scenery. But there are many additional features and attractions that make Santorini an appealing holiday destination, and local photographer, filmmaker and graphic designer Nikos Korakakis reveals them in his newly-released video 20 reasons to visit Santorini in 2020!
Produced in collaboration with the Santorini Archive Project, the 3-minute film spotlights the island’s fascinating historic sites, incomparable geological features and extensive range of activities for visitors. If you haven’t been considering Santorini for your next trip to Greece, the impressive images in Korakakis’s video might well inspire you to give the island a closer look.
CNN Travel has taken a look at what the summer tourism season might be like in Greece as the country re-opens after its Covid-19 lockdowns
Travel comeback?: Millions of people are on tenterhooks this month, wondering what will happen to their plans — and bookings — for summer and autumn vacations in Greece.
Many — including yours truly at mygreecetravelblog.com — have already had our spring holiday hopes dashed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We were supposed to fly to Greece a few days from now but, like hundreds of thousands of people who had booked trips to Greece for April, May and June, Covid quarantines and travel bans put the kibosh on those plans.
Millions more people who had scheduled trips for July, August and September are holding out hope that their holidays will still happen, now that Greece has announced a timetable to gradually re-open its economy, and to begin welcoming tourists back starting in July. But it’s still too soon for anyone outside Greece to know for certain if their vacations will in fact materialize, since Greece hasn’t yet determined who will be allowed into the country, or what sorts of tourism activities will be available.
Indeed, it appears extremely likely that some kind of medical testing will be required to gain entry into Greece (to show that travellers either have developed antibodies to Covid-19, or are not testing positive for the virus), and it also is likely that citizens from only a few select countries might be permitted to visit Greece initially. So while there is some promise that travel will resume in Greece this summer, it’s still a matter of wait-and-see for the all-important details.
What does seem clear, however, is that the Greek holiday experience could be drastically different from what regular visitors have experienced in the past — and what many first-time travellers might have been anticipating this summer, especially with regard to beaches and the legendary Greek nightlife. Because of social distancing requirements, for instance, crowded bars and party clubs could be out of the question for the foreseeable future, while organized beaches will have considerably fewer lounge chairs and umbrellas, with those available being spread 2 meters apart. (One beach bar on Santorini has already installed plexiglass screens between its sunbeds.) For their part, hotels and restaurants will have to adapt to stringent health and safety protocols as well as social distancing requirements.
To find out more, CNN Travel recently sent a team of reporters to Greece. They examined how Greece has handled the Covid-19 pandemic, and interviewed industry and government officials — including Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — to see what the country’s post-pandemic travel season might look like. Check out their May 7 2020 report, which consists of an article and a 4-minute video.
Hopefully more concrete information will come available within the next several weeks.
Join filmmaker/photographer Kostas Kostopoulos on an island-hopping ferry ride to four of the isles in the Small Cyclades
Ferry ride: If you haven’t visited the Small Cyclades yet, here’s a film that will show you exactly what it’s like to travel by ferry between four of the region’s isles.
Small Cyclades is a 20-minute video in which filmmaker Kostas Kostopoulos captures ferry deck views of passing coastal scenery, along with arrivals and departures from the picturesque ports at Irakilia, Schinoussa, Koufonissi and Donousa — the major tourist islands in the archipelago situated between Naxos and Amorgos (see map below).
Besides views of the quaint island harbours and their brilliant turquoise water, the video shows the ferry crew preparing to dock at each port, the speedy disembarkation and boarding of passengers and vehicles, and the ship’s smooth but quick departure from the pier.
Kostopoulos is a peripatetic photographer who has travelled to and extensively photographed more than 50 Greek islands. He shares his photos on social media, where you can view the images on either his @island_wanders_by_kostopoulos page on Instagram, or his Νησιωτικές Περιπλανήσεις_Island wanders by Kostopoulos Kostas page on Facebook.
Kostopoulos published Small Cyclades on his isalos channel on YouTube, which features dozens of videos of Greek island ferries at sail in the Aegean Sea.
This Google map shows the location of the Small Cyclades islands between Naxos and Amorgos
Are you trying to decide where to vacation in Greece once Covid-19 travel restrictions have been lifted? If your idea of a heavenly holiday destination includes beautiful island scenery, spectacular coastlines, stunning turquoise seas, plus plenty of swimming, cliff diving, water sports and other outdoor activities, YouTube contributor Stratos Zafeiriadis can suggest the perfect place to go — Zakynthos (also known as Zante). Check out the amazing scenery in his 5-minute aerial film and you’ll see why he highly recommends the island.
A rendering of the main swimming pool at The Royal Senses Resort & Spa, scheduled to open in late June on Crete. The Royal Senses was included on The Telegraph‘s list of 10 amazing new Greek island hotels to book in 2020.
The Four Seasons Astir Palace Athens, a legendary hotel on the Athens Riviera that re-opened last year following extensive renovations. The hotel was profiled this spring by World Traveller magazine.
Where to stay, dine and drink: Each winter and spring, major newspapers and travel magazines publish articles describing new and noteworthy places to stay and visit in Greece, and this year they’ve done it again, even though the Covid-19 pandemic turned international travel planning upside down and left everyone wondering if there would even be a tourist season in 2020. Would any of the hotels, resorts, restaurants and bars described in the travel media be able to open this year?
It looks like there might be part of a summer travel season after all, now that the Greek government has announced (on April 28) its plans for lifting lockdowns, gradually restarting the country’s economy, and possibly re-opening its tourism infrastructure and facilities as early as July. Although details about when — and which — foreign visitors will be allowed to enter Greece are still up in the air, it appears summer holiday travel to Greece will be a possibility for some people.
Given that hopeful prospect, we have compiled this post to highlight travel articles we have read over the past month during our own coronavirus home quarantine. It’s a round-up of recommendations and travel reports for hotels, resorts, villas and restaurants in Greece that captured the attention of international travel media experts.
If you’re among the fortunate people who get to visit Greece this summer and experience any of the properties and establishments described in these publications, do drop us a line once you’re back home, to let us know how you enjoyed them.
If you’re having trouble choosing where to go once Greece re-opens its borders to international tourists, The Times article 30 best places to stay might help you narrow your options. Then again, it could confuse you even more, since it describes so many outstanding accommodations to consider.
Whether it’s adults-only on Santorini, kid-friendly on Rhodes, eco-conscious on Crete, a rustic mountain retreat or a luxury hilltop villa, the newspaper’s top picks cover most travel lifestyles, though the list does lean mainly towards higher-end and design-forward hotels.
Hotel, resort and villa recommendations on the newspaper’s list include the following Greek island regions:
♦ Crete
♦ Antiparos, Folegandros, Mykonos, Santorini, Serifos and Syros in the Cyclades island chain
♦ Corfu, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Kythira, and Lefkada in the Ionian group of islands
♦ Hydra and Spetses in the Saronic Gulf
♦ Skiathos and Skopelos in the Sporadic isles, and
♦ Kos and Rhodes in the Dodecanese archipelago
For mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, the article suggests stylish accommodations for:
♦ The Athens Riviera
♦ Halkidiki
♦ Monemvasia, Nafplio and The Mani in the Peloponnese;
♦ Parga, Perdika, Sivota and the Zagorochoria areas of northwestern Greece.
Santorini hotels, restaurants and wineries
Canaves Oia Epitome luxury hotel was the shooting location for the cover photo for World Travel Magazine’s February/March 2020 issue
When Nasos Kouzelis wrote What’s New Santorini?, tourism-related businesses on the island were excitedly preparing for the launch of the 2020 travel season. “In just a few days’ time,” he said, restaurants would be setting their tables and wineries would be polishing their glasses to welcome their first guests of the year. His article was originally published in the February/March 2020 edition of World Travel magazine, so Kouzelis would have submitted it to the editors weeks before Greece went into lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Those opening plans have since been put on ice, of course, and at this time no-one knows exactly when Santorini’s tourist season for international travellers will finally start.
But by the time that happens, there will be even more built-up anticipation for the opening of some eagerly-awaited new restaurants and hotels that Kouzelis describes, along with the return of some much-talked-about accommodations and dining spots that made their debuts in 2019.
Among the hot spots Kouzelis mentions:
♦ in Oia village: the Canaves Oia Epitome and its Elements restaurant, and the Andronis Arcadia Hotel and its Opson restaurant;
♦ in Imerovigli village: Cavo Tagoo Santorini hotel and its restaurant, OVAC, plus OMMA Santorini hotel and restaurant;
♦ in Fira, the island capital: Katikies Garden hotel, Panigiri Restaurant, and the brand-new Kaliya restaurant;
The article is illustrated with beautiful pictures by Christos Drazos, one of the most sought-after professional hotel and restaurant photographers in Greece.
Please click on the link below to read about more travel publication profiles of hotels and restaurants on Santorini, Mykonos, Paros, Crete, Corfu, Rhodes, Ios and the Athens Riviera.
