Andros Greece Cyclades is a 3.5-minute video published June 21 by click
Andros revisited: If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you probably have seen some of the photos and posts I published following our visit to Andros in late May 2015. (If you missed them, click here for a quick link to the articles.)
I haven’t looked at any of my Andros posts or photos for a few months, but this morning discovered a newly-published video that instantly made me feel like I was right back on the island, enjoying it all over again.
Andros Greece Cyclades is a short video that Epameinondas Marmaras filmed, in part, with a drone. His camera captures many of the beautiful sights and scenes that we got to see during our holiday last year, as well as some that we just didn’t have enough time to experience for ourselves.
Take time to watch the clip to see the impressive Andros landscapes and coastal scenery. Andros isn’t one of the mainstream tourist islands of Greece, but one viewing of the video may make you wonder why more people don’t go there– and why you haven’t yet gone yourself.
The fascinating fortress town of Monemvasia, where we spent three days and nights in early June
Amazing experience: I only need one word to describe our first-ever visit to Greece’s Peloponnese region and Hydra island this month: Wow!
We weren’t even halfway through our holiday when we noted that the trip was shaping up as one of our best vacation experiences ever in Greece. Now that we’re back home, recalling all the places and sights we encountered and sorting through our photos, we’ve agreed that it was our favourite trip of all.
The Argolida and Laconia districts of the Peloponnese far exceeded our high expectations, while a spur-of-the-moment trip to Hydra impressed us immensely as well. The sights and scenery everywhere we went were simply amazing.
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We enjoyed exhilarating views of sparkling turquoise seas and mountains extending as far as the eye could see. We roamed around charming villages and towns, visited historic archaeological sites, and walked dozens of kilometers along scenic coastal paths. We saw vast groves of olive trees, thousands of citrus trees laden with fruit, and dozens of picturesque churches, chapels and monasteries. We explored ancient castles, even spending three nights in a fortress town and swimming in the sea below its formidable stone walls. And we drank good wine and dined on delicious traditional and contemporary Greek cuisine.
I will tell you more about our trip in detailed posts to come, but will launch my 2016 trip report with a series of photos showing some highlight sights and scenes from our travels.
Please click on the link below to view the pictures on page 2.
The Monastery of Elona, which clings to the face of a cliff on Mount Parnon, was a breathtaking sight during our drive from Nafplio to Monemvasia
Best of Mykonos ♥ – Greece 2016 is a short but sweet personal travel film that spotlights some of the gorgeous sights and scenery a couple and their young son enjoyed during a visit to Mykonos this spring
Age appropriate: Here’s a newly published video I’m sharing on the blog primarily for any parents out there who might be wondering: Should we take our kids to Mykonos?
Concerned by its well-established reputation as a “party island,” readers regularly ask me if Mykonos is suitable for families with toddlers, young kids and teens. These parents say they would love to visit the island, but they’re worried about exposing their kids to the drunken debauchery, street brawls and public sex they’ve heard about or seen on television shows like the What Happens in Kavos series on Britain’s Channel 4 several years ago.
Although Mykonos is justifiably famous for its adult-oriented attractions of restaurants, shopping and nightlife, the island does have attractions and activities suitable for people of all ages — and its popular party scene can easily be avoided.
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True, Mykonos has a few beaches where celebrations can sometimes turn wild, crazy and salacious — Paradise, Super Paradise, Paraga and Psarou among them — but the parties usually don’t start until 4 p.m. That means mornings and early afternoons are ideal for families to enjoy the sun, sand, sea and sensational scenery at each of these picturesque beaches. Moreover, there’s plenty of “non-party” beaches that are perfect to take kids, including Platis Gialos, Ornos, Agios Stefanos, Kalo Livadi, Kalafatis, Agia Anna/Kalafatis and Agios Ioannis, some of which offer a variety of water sports activities in which children can participate.
And unless they take the kids on a midnight (or later) stroll through the labyrinthine streets of Mykonos Town, parents probably won’t even notice the night-time party scene at the dozens of bars and clubs scattered throughout the town center. (Families can avoid peak party season altogether — and peak crowds and prices — by travelling to Mykonos in late April, May, the first half of June or during September and early October.)
Getting back to the video, you’ll join the Pfeifer family — Vanessa and Ben, and their young boy, Vincent — as they experience picture postcard-perfect places like the Little Venice seafront and the charming lanes of Mykonos Town, as well as the impressive coastal scenery and stunning turquoise sea at Agios Ioannis (better known to many people around the world as “The Shirley Valentine beach”).
Ben is a professional photographer with Fotostudio Lichtecht in Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany, and his skills are on full display in the video as he captures beautiful scenes and images from around the island and at their accommodations, the luxurious Mykonos Grand Hotel at Agios Ioannis– one of the island’s top resorts.
The video is only three and a half minutes long, so it offers a rather quick glimpse of Mykonos. But besides highlighting some of its most popular attractions, I think it shows parents that Mykonos is a place their kids will be able to enjoy, too.
Next stop Nafplio: It’s holiday time at long last, and my partner and I are now on our way back to Greece to explore part of a region we have never visited before — the eastern Peloponnese.
Our first destination will be Nafplio, the former capital of Greece, which is often described as one of the most beautiful towns in the entire country. We have heard so many good things about Nafplio, and the many impressive attractions nearby, that we figured it was high time we checked it out for ourselves.
I’ll post photos from Nafplio if I’m in a blogging mood while we’re there. In the meantime, I’m sharing this Stefanos Kyriazis timelapse film of Nafplio so readers who aren’t familiar with the town can see what it looks like.
Naxos: The island that will enchant you is a mesmerizing 4-minute area film by Naxos Times
Here’s an intriguing video of Naxos that’s unlike any I’ve seen before. Released just this week by Naxos Times, the 4-minute film features breathtaking aerial views of Naxos Town as well as Cape Agios Prokopios in the Stelida district of the island’s northwest coast.
What’s unusual is that the film captures Naxos in the golden light of daybreak and sunset, when the seas are smooth as glass and barely a soul is in sight anywhere in the town. There’s an eerie and almost haunting, mysterious atmosphere to the video, but that’s what makes it even more captivating and fascinating.
Santorini’s Red Beach is seen in an image from EscapeGreece.com
[Editor’s Update: If you plan to visit Santorini in 2018, please beware that Red Beach is officially closed to the public. Click here to read about a landslide that occurred on Red Beach in April 2018 and led island authorities to re-issue warnings that the beach is off limits because it’s too dangerous to visit.]
Rockfall risk: Since Santorini enjoys a worldwide reputation for superlative natural scenery, it’s not surprising that the island’s remarkable Red Beach regularly garners glowing accolades from international travel publications and leading lifestyle websites — along with ample attention on social media, where thousands of people have posted selfies that they shot on and near the colourful coastal attraction.
During my routine online work and research, I frequently find articles in which travel magazines and websites declare Red Beach to be one of the world’s “best,” “most beautiful,” “most unusual” or “most colourful” beaches, and recommend it as a “must-see” for anyone visiting Santorini. Photos of the distinctive strand, which is also known as Red Sand Beach, appear even more often on websites and social media pages dedicated to travel in Greece, and in particular for hotels and tour companies operating on Santorini.
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What the articles, posts and photo captions rarely mention, however, is that Red Beach is a veritably perilous place to sunbathe, swim or stroll. In recent years, there have been several significant rockfalls and landslides from the crimson-coloured bluffs that rise behind the narrow strip of scarlet-tinged pebbles and stones, and geological experts believe it’s possible that more cliff sections could collapse onto the beach at any time. (There are anecdotal claims that two beachgoers were killed by a landslide a few years ago, but I couldn’t find any news reports confirming the fatalities or date of the accident.)
Red Beach is seen on a sunny April afternoon in a photo by TripAdvisor review contributor Chris B
During peak season in past years, sunbeds have been available for rent, as seen in this photo from the Santorini Hotels Facebook page
In April, Facebook member Cecil Ramirez captured this photo of the imposing red stone cliffs that tower above Red Beach
Major rockfalls have occurred at Red Beach several times in the past decade. Two of the larger landslides are clearly visible in this photo shared on Facebook by Daena K Nicholas
Red Beach has been “closed” since August 2013 because of fears more landslides could occur, and since stones and boulders loosen and plunge from the cliffs on occasion. But warning signs like this one, shown in a Facebook photo by Jc Male, have not deterred thousands of people from going to the beach.
Sunbathers sit near the foot of one of the larger landslides, seen in a Facebook photo by Daniel Dias da Silva. Fences were installed to keep people from climbing the cliffs and landslip rubble because that could trigger further collapses of the rock face.
The safest way to see Red Beach is from the sea or from a distance on a hilltop vantage point like this one captured in a Facebook photo by Nikky Dudek
Please click on the link below to continue reading about Red Beach on page 2 of this post, where you can view videos and dozens more photos of this singular Santorini beach.
Scenes from Millenium GAZI, one of dozens of clubs, bars, restaurants and cafes within walking distance of the Karameikos metro station in the buzzing Gazi entertainment district of Athens
After dark: Wondering where to find a great party scene while you’re visiting Athens? Check out the article Athens nightlife: where do locals go? published recently on the Odiporikon travel tips website.
Written by an Athens-born blogger, the article notes that Athens offers “a very rich variety” of places to enjoy a night on the town. “Avoid the tourist traps and try out places a little further from the usual path,” the article advises.
To that end, it describes the top Athens party districts and how to reach them using the local public transit system and taxis.
Areas listed in the blog post include:
♦ Thissio
♦ Ag. Eirini Square
♦ Kolokotroni Street
♦ Gazi
♦ Psirri
♦ Exarcheia
♦ Chalandri
♦ Glyfada, and
♦ Mikrolimano
Be sure to bookmark the guide to keep on hand for your trip to Athens.
OPUS Inner Pleasure is one of many hot hangouts in the Glyfada coastal suburb of Athens. It’s a restaurant-cafe by day and a party club at night.
Drone tour: Here’s a video to excite and inspire those of you who will be going to Santorini this summer — or possibly sometime in the future.
Created by NPro+ Aerial Production, the two-and-a-half minute film will take you on an exhilarating aerial tour of the western side of Santorini, renowned for the picturesque villages that cling to the peaks of rugged caldera cliffs towering nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters) above the Aegean Sea.
Although dozens of drone videos of Santorini are available for online viewing, I particularly like NPro+’s Santorini from the Sky because it starts with a superb view of Agios Theodori, the church that has been pictured on countless Santorini postcards, posters and travel guides.
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Instantly recognizable by its shiny blue dome and brilliant white belltower overlooking the volcano island of Nea Kameni, Agios Theodori church was the first fascinating sight we saw moments after arriving at our hotel in Firostefani village on our first visit to Santorini in 2004. The video goes on to show other remarkable scenes that amazed us throughout that holiday, including views of four clifftop villages — Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia — and beautiful Amoudi Bay below Oia. Of course, the film also shows some of the sensational sunsets for which Santorini is famous around the world.
Scenes from some of the shop-lined streets in the heart of Fira, and from a few of its many cliffside cocktail bars and cafes, also made me feel like I was right back on the island experiencing it in person all over again.
The only thing I didn’t like was the brief view of tourists riding donkeys on the path that winds down the cliff from Fira to the cruise ship tender port. Click here to read why you shouldn’t take a donkey ride if you visit Santorini.
Even if you’ve never been to Santorini, you’ve probably seen Agios Theodori church — it has been pictured on scores of postcards, posters and travel guides. Located in Firostefani village, it was the first impressive sight we saw on our first visit to Santorini back in 2004. There’s a great view of the church, and the Nea Kameni volcano island (upper left), at the beginning of the Santorini from the Sky video I posted above.
