Winter in Greece | MY GREECE TRAVEL BLOG

Category: Winter in Greece (page 4 of 5)

The snowcapped ‘Naxian Alps’ on New Year’s Day

Snow-covered mountains on Naxos are seen from Marpissa village on nearby Paros island today, in this photo posted on Facebook by ΜΑΝΩΛΗΣ ΡΟΥΣΣΟΣ. The picture has been shared in numerous New Year’s greetings on social media by people on both islands, many of whom describe it as a view of the “Naxian Alps.” Naxos, Paros and several other Greek islands experienced snowflurries as storms swept across Greece on New Year’s Eve (see my post Snowfalls & cold temps bring Greece’s 2015 to a turbulent close for photos of winter scenes in Greece yesterday.)

Here’s another view of the snowy Naxos mountains, this time seen in a telephoto image shot from Amorgos island. It’s one of several photos that the Amorgos News website published of the Naxos mountains dressed in white. Click here to see the other images.

Snowfalls & cold temps bring Greece’s turbulent 2015 to a wintry close

December 31, 2015 / admin / 3 Comments

Snow blankets the ground beside a chapel in Lefkes village on Paros following light flurries on December 31 2015. Μαρία Ραγκούση shared this image on the Lefkes Paros public group page on Facebook.

Petros Anamateros shared on Facebook this image he captured showing New Year’s Eve snowflurries at Halki village on Naxos

From green to white: Every day this month, I’ve been feeling green with envy seeing social media posts showing sunny skies and gorgeous summer-like scenery in Greece. Only three days ago, in fact, I was jealously admiring beach and seashore photos from the Athens Riviera that a friend had taken during balmy 18 degree Celsius temperatures.

But when I logged onto my blog’s Facebook newsfeed first thing this morning, I was stunned to see pictures and read reports about light snow falling at various places on the Greek mainland, in Athens, and on such islands as Amorgos, Crete, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini and Skiathos.

On Rhodes and other islands in the Dodecanese, people had posted comments about chilly temperatures and strong, cold winds. The We Love Rhodes page, for instance, reported that temperatures of only 3 degrees and winds reaching level 5 on the Beaufort scale had brought the “first day of winter for Rhodes at the last day of 2015.”

And in an article entitled White New Year’s Eve in Greece, the news website Protothema described snowfalls in northern and central Greece and Attica, and reported on weather-related disruptions to ferry service to the Saronic Gulf islands and other places. (Click on the article title link to see photos and videos that Protothema included with its story.)

Snow isn’t unusual in Greece

Snowflurries aren’t unheard-of either on the mainland, in Athens, or on many of the Greek islands. Severe winter weather conditions including snow and sleet can and do strike virtually all parts of the country from time to time.

But it is perhaps fitting that what has been an extremely turbulent year for Greece seems to be ending just the way it began — with dark, brooding stormclouds bringing cold temperatures and light snow to many parts of the nation.

As I reported in my posts Wild winter weather wallops Greece and Snow scenes from the Cyclades, Greece got this year off to a stormy start with severe winter weather that started just before New Year’s Eve 2014 and carried into early January. There were More weather woes during the second week of February. After that, the country experienced a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, with national elections, financial bailout negotiations, the ongoing refugee/migrant crisis and record tourist visits, to name just a few of the many events that put Greece in the international media spotlight throughout the year.

Now, as 2015 comes to a stormy close, I’m anxious to see if the new year will bring better times. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that 2016 will indeed be a Happy New Year for Greece.

Please click here or on the link at the bottom of this post to see more New Year’s Eve snow scenes from Greece on page 2 of this report.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Christmas sparkles at Syntagma Square in Athens

December 23, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

I love this photo that Flickr contributor Chris Maroulakis shot of a Christmas tree and festive holiday lights at Syntagma Square in Athens. The photo is from his Flickr photostream, which features nearly 2,000 beautiful images of Greece, and is reposted here with his kind permission. Click here to open the Chris Maroulakis Flickr page and enjoy his other photos.

Santorini sets its sights on year-round tourism

December 19, 2015 / admin / 1 Comment

Click on the arrow to view Santorini The One, the lead video in a series of clips produced earlier this year to promote Santorini tourism. The island now hopes to become a popular travel destination all year long.

Four seasons of splendour: If all goes according to plans currently under development, winter won’t be “off season” on Santorini anymore. That’s because the island has set its sights on becoming a year-round travel destination, beginning in 2016.

And it’s already off to a good start — around 100 hotels will be open on the island this winter, as will a number of restaurants and shops.

Santorini’s plans fit nicely with the Greek government’s own announced goal of extending the country’s tourism season to 12 months a year and upgrade the quality of Greece’s tourism product. (On many islands, the season presently lasts only from late April until the end of October, with most tourist-related businesses closed the other months.)

More than sun and sea

Although many travellers associate Santorini and other Greek islands with summer sunshine, beaches, warm weather and water sports, the mayor of Thira Municipality, Anastasios Nikolaos Zorzos, says Santorini has many more features and attractions to offer tourists regardless of time of year.

“Santorini’s tourism model is not based on ‘sun and sea’ but on ancient treasures, geology, traditional architecture and gastronomy — features that are guaranteed to attract visitors throughout the year,” Mayor Zorzos said, according to a December 1 news report on the Greek Travel Pages (GTP) website.

The GTP report said the tourism development plan, branded as “Santorini: Year-Round Destination,” is a collaborative effort between the municipal government and island businesses. The program will promote alternative forms of tourism and will seek to establish “new products and activities” to draw visitors during what are now off-season periods.

Online ad campaign underway

To promote the initiative, GTP says, Santorini has kicked off a 3-week online advertising campaign on European versions of some of the world’s top travel websites, including TripAdvisor, Airbnb, Expedia and Lonely Planet. Special banner and videos ads also will appear on various sections of the National Geographic website accessible to web users in the program’s target markets — the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Italy and Scandinavia.

Seeing Santorini’s stunning scenery, architecture and archaeological sites without the crowds and heat of summer appeals to me, and people I’ve spoken to who have been to Santorini in late fall and late winter have told me they found the island just as spectacular if not more enjoyable at those times.

The large number of hotels remaining open this winter will be comforting news to people worried they will have trouble finding accommodations if they decide to pay Santorini a visit sometime between now and the spring. Last year, I saw online travel forum posts in which people who could only take winter holidays said they were considering last-minute trips to Santorini, but feared they would have few if any choices of hotels. They certainly won’t have such cause for concern this winter.

Winter restaurant and wine bar listing

For visitors wondering where they will be able to dine if they do take a winter trip to the island, Santorini photographer Anna Sulte has posted on her website a list of more than a dozen restaurants and wine bars that will be open. The list includes establishments in Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli, Oia, Exo Gonia, Megalochori, Akrotiri beach and Ag. Georgios Perivolos.

Another good reason to go to Santorini in the winter — bargains on air transportation, which can be hugely expensive during the regular travel season. A few days ago, a friend in Athens told me she saw flights from Athens to Santorini available this month for as low as €9.99. If I had been able to travel now, I would have purchased plane tickets to Santorini in a snap!

Santorini photographer Anna Sulte posted this photo of Fira on her Anna’s Photo Facebook page on January 20 2015, with the caption: “This is how green it is right now.” It drew a response from one viewer who wrote: “Looks like there is just no time of year when it isn’t breathtakingly beautiful!” Indeed!

More weather woes as wind & waves thrash the Greek Islands

February 14, 2015 / admin / 2 Comments

The ancient Temple of Apollo monument on Naxos is barely visible as winds carry sea spray up and over the Palatia peninsula. This amazing shot was one of three photos shared on Facebook by Manolis Lykouropoulos.

Wild winter: While it was the ongoing economic turbulence and political bluster in Greece that made headlines around the world this week, surprisingly severe winter weather conditions in many parts of the country were just as wild, crazy and unpredictable.

For several days, and especially on February 10 and 11, Mother Nature thrashed many of the Aegean islands and parts of mainland Greece with an unusually vicious torrent of wind, waves, rain, sleet, snow and cold temperatures.

The latest barrage of bad weather came slightly more than a month after a similarly brutal storm system brought icy temperatures, freezing rain and heavy snowfalls to many of the Greek Islands in early January (see my posts Wild winter weather wallops Greece and Snow scenes from the Cyclades to view photos and videos that were shared on social media during and after that storm).

Snow falls on the Parthenon (top) while two pedestrians walk past the Odeon of Herodes Atticus next to the Acropolis in Athens. Flowmagazine posted this photo on its Facebook page February 11.

This week’s weather disturbances dusted Athens and surrounding areas with light snow, while various islands including Skiathos, Samos, Karpathos, Crete, Naxos and Tinos experienced either light flurries or significant snowfalls in some regions, particularly in mountainous areas. Freezing rain accompanied chilly temperatures in many places.

But it was relentless gale-strength winds that wreaked the most havoc, flooding popular waterfront tourist areas on Crete, Samos, Mykonos and Naxos.

Gusts registering force 10 and higher on the Beaufort wind scale raged across the Aegean, pushing powerful waves against coastlines, ports and harbours. Particularly hard-hit were the Chania harbourfront on Crete, the Little Venice seafront of Mykonos Town, the Naxos village of Apollonas, and the Long Beach area of Kokkari village on Samos, where seawater surged ashore, flooding streets, shops and restaurants and leaving muddy debris — and even the bodies of drowned animals — in its wake. The winds and water also caused extensive damage to the port of Evdilos on Ikaria.

Waves and water damage at the Chania waterfront on Crete are shown in these photos posted to Facebook by βαγγέλης διαμαντακης

Please click on the link below to continue reading page 2 of this post, which includes more news, photos and videos of storm activity and damage on several islands.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Snow scenes from the Cyclades

January 17, 2015 / admin / 4 Comments

This might look like Alaska or the Arctic, but it’s actually Tinos in the Cyclades islands of Greece. Achim Eckhardt shot this amazing photo from a vantage point on nearby Mykonos island after a severe winter storm passed over the Cyclades last week. Click on the picture to enlarge the image.

The storm dumped a thick blanket of snow up to 2 meters deep on some mountain areas of Tinos. This image of snowdrifts towering above a 4WD vehicle is a screen capture from a video posted on Facebook by Emmanuel Delasoudas from Tinos.

Snow wonder: Mention the words “Greek Islands” to people around the world, and many instantly think of the Cyclades, recalling iconic postcard images of rustic villages with white “sugar cube” houses clinging to steep slopes high above the sparkling Aegean Sea.

Last week those scenic towns and buildings looked breathtakingly whiter and brighter after a ferocious storm system swept rain, sleet, snow and below-freezing temperatures across the Cyclades on January 6, quickly transforming the region into a winter wonderland.

While some isles got dusted with a light blanket of snow that soon melted away, the storm thumped mountain areas of Andros, Tinos and Naxos with heavy snowfalls, leaving parts of those islands looking more like the Alps than Aegean islands.

Islanders shared dramatic storm images on social media

Residents quickly took to social media to post dramatic photos and videos of snow scenes that resembled winter images depicted on Christmas cards people exchanged during the holiday season. Though both shocking and delightful to many viewers who have only seen the islands in warm seasons, Cyclades residents pointed out that snowfalls, while rare, do occur about once or twice a decade — most recently in 2008.

But while the snow-laden islands look pretty in pictures, the storm had calamitous consequences for Andros and Tinos, which bore the brunt of the brutal weather conditions and received the heaviest snowfalls as the unexpectedly strong storm cut a wide swath across the Aegean.

Authorities declared a state of emergency after an electrical grid failure left many residents on both islands without power and running water for up to four days, and snowplows had to be shipped from the mainland to clear roads to remote villages rendered inaccessible by the snow that measured two and a half meters deep in spots. Schools, shops and businesses were forced to close, while emergency personnel had to rescue senior citizens and ill residents who were snowbound in mountain hamlets. On Tinos, farmers suffered extensive snow damage to fruit and olive trees and greenhouses, while livestock breeders lost sheep and other livestock that perished in the cold.

What follows is a selection of photos and videos I have collected from social media, showing scenes from several Cyclades islands in the aftermath of the storm. I have endeavoured to credit the original sources for all images and videos; however, some photos were widely shared without naming the source. Please let me know of any inaccurate credits so I can make immediate corrections.

You can view additional photos of winter scenes in my January 2 2015 post Wild winter weather wallops Greece, and in my December 15 2013 post Greece gets winter, too!

Andros

Leonidas Triantafyllakis posted this video of Apikia on January 6

Scenes from Apikia in a January 8 clip by Leonidas Triantafyllakis

Mixalis Karelis posted this on January 7. It shows views from a terrace in the midst of a heavy snowfall, but the location on Andros is not mentioned.

Click on the 2 in the link below to open page 2 of this post. It contains dozens of startling snow photos and videos from Tinos, Mykonos, Milos, Santorini, Paros, Syros, Naxos and Sifnos.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Athens: A hot travel spot on a cold winter day

January 8, 2015 / admin / 0 Comments

Central Athens as seen from Mars Hill near the Acropolis, in a photo by Athens Walks. Click on the image to view a full-size version of the photo.

View from the hill: My friends at the Athens Walks tour company captured this exhilarating view of Athens last Saturday (January 3 2015).

Shot from a vantage point on Mars Hill near the Acropolis, the image was posted to the Athens Walks Facebook page shortly before 8 in the morning, with the caption: “Winter Athens is so cool! -2 C this morning.” Brrr!

But even though it may have been bone-shivering cold on that crisp sunny morning, travel experts consider Athens one of the world’s hottest destinations to visit in 2015. Just last month, Condé Nast Traveller magazine included Athens in its list of the Top 10 Destinations to Watch in 2015.

City is experiencing a ‘cultural revival’

The magazine noted that Athens is basking in a long-overdue “renaissance” thanks to artists and young entrepreneurs who are leading “a cultural revival with pop-ups and start-ups and creative ventures, cool little shops and exciting hotels.” Major new cultural venues are opening, too, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

Athens is a year-round travel destination, and by visiting in low season periods like January you can avoid the tourist crowds and long lineups that travellers encounter from spring to fall.

The many monuments and historic sites in Central Athens are best explored on foot, something you could do on your own provided you have a detailed map of the city. Speaking from experience, however, I recommend taking a private tour offered by firms such as Athens Walks who will show you fascinating places you probably would never discover on your own.

Mars Hill is a great spot to view the Acropolis, too, seen here in a photo I shot on May 30 2014.

Wild winter weather wallops Greece

January 2, 2015 / admin / 7 Comments

Photographer Costas Andreou captured this photo of Skopelos after a winter storm left the island covered in a blanket of white. On December 30, snow fell on Skopelos and the neighbouring islands of Skiathos and Alonissos.

Winter wonderlands: I was envious when a friend in Athens told me it was sunny and 17 degrees Celsius there on Christmas Day. But I didn’t feel jealous just a few days later when I logged into Facebook to find my news feed filled with reports and photos of wild winter at places all over Greece — including several islands.

Beginning this past Monday (December 29), storm systems blasted many parts of Greece with a wide mix of severe weather conditions that included icy cold temperatures, gale-force winds, rain, sleet, and snow.

On Tuesday (December 30), friends in Athens posted pictures of snow-dusted mountains near the city, while numerous individuals and Facebook groups like Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce posted links to websites and Instagram pages featuring photos of snowy scenes on the islands of Skopelos and Crete, and such mainland locations as Attiki, Kastoria, Meteora, Florina, Tripoli and Arachova.

Online videos showed gale-force winds pummelling island coastlines and harbours with relentless tall waves, while photos showed pretty Christmas card scenes of snow-covered mountain villages in Crete.

This photo shows the city of Tripoli (in the Arcadia region of the Peloponnese) following a snowfall on December 28. It was posted on the Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce Facebook page.

This pic of snow at the Ancient Theater of Epidaurus was circulated on numerous Facebook profiles and pages, including Amazing Greece/Incroyable Grèce

A January 1 report on the Newsbomb website said fierce winds caused power outages at such diverse locations as the cities of Chania on Crete, Mytilini on the Northeast Aegean island of Lesvos, and Ioannina on the western Greece mainland. Heavy snow caused power failures and road closures at numerous spots on the mainland and in northern Greece, where temperatures plummeted to -10 Celsius and colder. A January 1 report on Protothema News also described how the New Year got off to a frigid and snowy start in many parts of Greece.

Some of the most-shared items on social media were reports and photos of snow and brutal winds at Skopelos, Skiathos and Alonissos in the Sporades island group. Many people seemed surprised that it snowed on Skopelos and Skiathos, which they’re familiar with from the hit movie Mamma Mia!, where many scenes were filmed.

A dog plays on snow-dusted Achliades beach on Skiathos in a photo posted on the theseus.aegean Instagram feed.

Another widely shared image was this shot of snow-covered fishing boats in a harbour at Alonissos island

However, it’s not unusual for snow to fall in the Sporades, or for the mercury to plummet to bone-chilling temperatures on other Greek islands, too. This fact often comes as news to many people, like someone in the United States whose December 30 post on the TripAdvisor Santorini forum asked why the Bahamas are more popular in winter months than Greek Islands like Mykonos and Santorini. After several people explained that Greece doesn’t have a tropical climate, the poster replied: “I guess I got the wrong feeling from looking at the postcards and watching the History Channel as I had the impression that the “eternal summer” is the norm in the islands!!”

They aren’t alone in thinking that way — as I noted in my December 15 2013 post, Greece gets winter, too!, many friends and acquaintances of mine in North America think Greece is a balmy beach destination all year round, too.

Although winter is off-season for travel to many parts of Greece, especially smaller islands, the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki are year-round tourist destinations, as are many locations on the Greece mainland. And as a December 29 2014 CNN Travel article pointed out, winter is an excellent time to visit Greece for “romantic escapes,” “city breaks,” “dramatic scenery” and more. “Falling temperatures sprinkle new magic on stone-built villages lost in deep forests and medieval castles built into that beautiful Greek coastline,” the CNN feature story says.

The Amazing Greece Facebook page posted this photo showing a dog in the snow at Ippokrateios Politeia in Attiki on December 31 2014

Michael Kokkinos posted this Facebook image of a long line of sheep trudging through deep snow near Psiloriti on Crete

Should you be interested in taking an off-season holiday to Greece, be sure to read the article Top 5 winter destinations on VisitGreece, the official website of the Greek National Tourism Organisation. It provides information about visiting Mount Pelion, the Zagorochoria villages, Arcadia, Arachova and Karpenissi.

For information about skiing and snowboarding, the Discover Greece website offers advice on where to enjoy mountain ski holidays.

If you’d rather just view winter scenes in Greece, you can see more photos of snow on Skopelos on the Potami House photo blog and on the Skopelosnews blog, as well as on the Facebook page for photographer Costas Andreou. On Instagram, check out the theseus.aegean page to see several pictures of snow falling on Achladies beach on Skiathos. There’s a few photos and a couple of video clips of storm scenes elsewhere in Greece in a December 31 post on the Protothema News website, too. And for those of you who use Facebook, don’t miss the excellent photos in the album White…snowy vineyards all over Greece!, posted by New Wines of Greece.

Keep warm and enjoy!

Category: Winter in Greece (page 4 of 5)

The snowcapped ‘Naxian Alps’ on New Year’s Day

Snowfalls & cold temps bring Greece’s turbulent 2015 to a wintry close

Christmas sparkles at Syntagma Square in Athens

More weather woes as wind & waves thrash the Greek Islands

Snow scenes from the Cyclades

Athens: A hot travel spot on a cold winter day

Wild winter weather wallops Greece

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