Even the names of the Tavernas, Mini Markets, Boat Hire and property services are unchanged, Paxos Property Agency, Thalassa Travel to name a few. But this time instead of just drinking in the bars of 20 years ago we decided to explore around Loggos by walking along the tracks that criss cross above Loggos harbour. Walking along the sea front before heading into the alleyways behind we pass Taverna Vasalis it has full WI-Fi service with a wap key and a notice board showing the weather prediction for the next few days all neatly laid out in BBC Shipping forecast style. Further along is Mini Market Centre on the waterfront run by Babis Dendias (Tel 26620, 31597) they do free deliveries to your yacht handy if you don’t want to walk in the heat with your shopping. There’s also a derelict building with a tall chimney that was once an olive oil soap factory, at one time it employed many of the Islanders, producing aromatic Olive Oil soaps.

Heading into the Olive tree covered hills behind Loggos on our mini excursion, we’re able to skirt around the harbour looking down amongst the roof tops into the bay. Walking past the Villas, Planos Holidays, Simply Travel, Travel a la carte and Agni Travel seem to have the monopoly on the Island when it comes to Villa rentals. Ending back on the coastal road near to Lavrechio Beach we’re back in the harbour front within an hour of leaving, are desire to return to the water was compelling in this heat.

Paxos is ideal for the adventurous traveller, there are plenty of foot paths and dirt tracks that takes the adventurous walker all over the Island and using Loggos as a base to cover the north of the Island would be an ideal choice. However, if you choose to explore on foot – you’ll soon find yourself being drawn back to Loggos harbour and its tranquil location. Ideal for chilling by the sea.

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Looking Northwest from our vantage point we could see many yachts lying in a sea of green/blue with Northern mainland Greece behind. In the very far distance you can just make out the mountains of Albania.

Looking down a couple travelling the world in their yacht have swam to shore to read and swim. In the next small beach there is a small makeshift Tavern, it’s seats and rickety tables are distributed amongst the olive trees. Well sheltered from the sun, this Taverna can be seen from the anchored yachts and is very popular judging by the amount of tenders along the shore.

Walking further along; the dirt track becomes overgrown and care should be taken by covering up, but if you make the effort to explore you’ll be rewarded with an idyllic view of Lakka’s village with the yachts anchored in the foreground. Lakka has become very popular over the years and a haven for many Italians during their August annual holidays. It’s at this time things become a little too crowded. If you want to avoid a crowd then visit Lakka outside of August. The commerce in Lakka is tasteful and restrained, however it does suffer from too many day hire boats but then’ its the same for all of Paxos as these day boat with bimini and outboard are used to explore the myriad of undiscovered beaches and very popular for snorkelling. Lakka is an idyllic location that must not be missed, its colours and rustic, restraint style of tourism is its main attraction.

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Of course, if you really do not want the hassle of going it alone, you can always pay for package holiday where everything is all taken care of, or at least should be. But where’s the adventure in that?

Most Greek tourism offices around the world provide plenty of information for these wishing to go on a package tour of Greece and much more. So here is a good place to start.

If you want to be unique and do the planning and the itinerary on your own, Here are some tips that can help you.

1. Search the internet
The world wide web is a treasure throve of information. Blogs will give you a lot of information about hotels and restaurants that you can go to in Greece. Other websites will also give you tips on how to go to certain places, what to pack and basically how to live in Greece. There are also sites where you can get the greatest and cheapest deals in hotel accommodations, airfare and even package tours. There are also websites that even have ratings so that you will know what other people think about the hotel or the restaurant being featured. The internet can also give you huge discounts in airfare if you buy online and early. You can take advantage of these offers if you are planning your trip and will not be going there until maybe the end of the year.

2. Ask other people
Another great source of information about a trip is to ask people who have already gone to Greece. They will be able to give you a personal account of what restaurants are good to visit and what hotels offer great deals. They will even be able to advise you on where to go and the places to check out. Try to ask people who you know have the same interests as you. That way, they will be able to recommend on activities that you will love to do,

3. Books on Greece
You may not be think that they can help but books published on Greece are wonderful sources of information when you want to go there for a vacation. Often, these books will not only contain a rundown of the possible tourist spots that you can go to when in Greece but it will also have lists of restaurants, shops and really valuable tips on how to go about town.

Some will even have maps and some phrases that you will find useful when you are on a city tour..

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Things are quiet in the old Venetian harbour in Chania. It’s a sunny Sunday morning after the Saturday night before and the lively restaurants and tavernas lining the harbour have not quite woken up. The sea is clean and clear, with a surprising number of fish swimming around moored boats. Large shoals of tiny sprats flow as if carried on currents; a few flip sideways suddenly, flashing silver sides. Long narrow fish with sharp pointed noses ripple by like ribbons. Fish jump out of, and splash back into, the sea.

I walk towards the Blue Adventures Diving boat  to enjoy a morning of swimming, snorkelling, scuba-diving and sun-bathing, out in the Aegean Sea. As the boat gets ready to leave, two barbouniaki or red mullet, cruise into view, side fin to side fin, looking like a pair of flirtatious twins dressed in their pink Sunday best.

On board, our PADI instructors tell us to watch out for fireworms, while in the water. They carry stings in their filaments and pain from the burns can last for 24 hours. Luckily, we have no problems with these while swimming and diving, and see sea urchins, an octopus and many more fish.

A cormorant swoops down, close to where the boat is anchored near Macherida Beach. Paddling in a straight line, like a battery-operated toy, it mechanically plunges its beak into the water at regular intervals. Finally, up it comes with a fish, throws its head back, and swallows its catch in one neat gulp.

CretAquarium, part of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, is the place to get up close to the sea creatures in these waters. All the marine world of the Mediterranean is on show here, at the old American base in Gournes, near Heraklion.

Number one on my ‘to see’ list is the Caretta caretta or Loggerhead sea turtle. “It was swimming around with the divers who maintain the tanks earlier,” says marine biologist, Dr Aspasia Sterioti. Now the turtle is very well camouflaged and in hiding. Everything else is moving and swimming around in full view, including sharks, moray eels, groupers and sea anemones. Like a prima ballerina, an octopus puts on a show of extremely graceful pirouettes. Jellyfish propelling themselves in slow – motion, in a nearby tank, could be a corps de ballet dressed in white tutus.

I stare hard at a school of large sea bream. They look exactly the same as the fish that delivered the kiss of death: in my first encounter with Cretan sea life.

Words and pictures by by Myrisa Luke

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There are a lot of things to do while you’re in Greece. Athens have some of the most famous sights like the Acropolis, the National Archaeological Museum and the Benaki Musem. You can also visit the Kallimarmaron stadium where the ancient Panathenaic Games were held.

During summer, the beaches should be on the top of the list. Beaches in Crete, Santorini and Mykonos offer the best beach parties in Greece and are one of the top places to be in Europe.

Aside from swimming and soaking during summer, there’s also the Hellenic Festival.  It celebrates the performance arts , theatre, musical and dance. Here, you get to experience the recreation of Greek tradegy in the heart of Athens.

Greek wine is steadily gaining popularity. On the island of Santorini, the volcanic-rich soil makes some of its wines a unique taste. On Crete, wine production can be traced back to the Minoan civilization.  There are tours conducted in wineries, these tours enable you to experience the mountains and beaches of Crete.

Aside from wine tours, Greek cuisine is something that tourists should not miss. There are restaurants and tavernas located in magnificent places. They offer traditional Greek food and the famous ouzo.

Greece has eleven wetland areas that are of international importance.  Aside from this, there are also 190 important areas for birds.  Several top places for birdwatch are the Nestos Deltas and Prespa Lakes.  Some of the birds that can be encountered are eagles, storks, pelicans and herons.  There are turtle doves, peregrine falcons, magpies, red-rumped swallows that can also be seen.

Most people don’t think that it’s possible to ski in Greece, but it is! The season for skiing starts in December and ends in April.  There are 14 ski areas of which Parnassos is the largest and most popular.

There are many options for tours in Greece. There are outdoor tours that can be arranged. Greece is a country with dramatic landscapes featuring soaring mountains and gorges. There can be bike tours on the island of Crete, rock climbing in Meteora or jeep tour in some of the unknown but magnificent gorges.

Taking part in sport events in Greece create special feeling since you are playing in a place where Olympics started. There are marathons where you can participate.  Or at least, try to run the route where Olympic athletes ran the last time they were in town.

Don’t forget to do a good deed, even if you’re on a vacation. There are a lot of volunteer causes that you can get involved with, an environmental organization.  For the young and funky spirits, there is a Rockwave Festival of music. Here, for three days, audiences can listen to heavy metal, rock and roll or good old fashioned dance music.

By balancing your time between educational and free-spirited activities that you can join, surely your Greece vacation would take a lifetime before you forget it.

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One man in a boat: facing wind, wave and sleeping upright (http://www.ekathimerini.com)

Piero Pieroni, seen in the cabin of the Quo Vadis one day after returning from his circumnavigation. Some of his instruments are seen in the back, and his reference library on shelves behind him.

“I hope I did something not so bad;” this is hardly the expansive summation you might expect from someone who has just circled the globe (and then some) alone and under sail, including the howling gales and treacherous tides of the Magellan Strait. Then again, Piero Pieroni is hardly your typical world-beater.

He made his penultimate landfall last Thursday in Lavrion, on Attica’s southeast coast, met by a small but noisy local flotilla. His boat, the single-hulled and masted Quo Vadis, now sports brown stains, peeling paint and a tattered Cypriot flag fluttering astern — worlds away from the spiffy white trimarans that grace nautical magazine covers. But it was clearly built for anything and is now proven for everything. And it is spacious: 16 meters (53 feet) in length, 4.87 meters wide, and a generous 2.80 meters deep, which created problems in some shallow harbors.

In deference to the intense attachment formed between a solo voyager and his vessel, he continually began sentences with “we.” Inside too, the boat reflected the man: no-nonsense, exhaustively equipped, and properly aged, including the biggest stash of rope you have ever seen. “Even with all that,” he insisted, “you can run out of them.” I felt a curious kinship with him, not least because of a shared distaste for what he eloquently termed “blah, blah, blah.”

Pieroni retains remarkable agility for a man pushing 70. Laconic to the point of shyness, he has the small, observant eyes of an Ernest Hemingway and an unpretentious Italianate elegance, along with a classic seafarer’s white beard and deeply tanned face. It took over two hours before I found out that he had rounded the globe with a balloon in his chest, installed after a serious heart operation.

His voyage defies easy romanticizing. He knew precisely what he wanted to do, saying without a trace of arrogance: “I never thought I would be lost. I was very confident.” He is a sea warrior, but a quiet rather than swashbuckling one, direct but not gruff, one for whom actions speak louder than words and results count most of all. He went looking for adventure, not trouble; he was canny enough to wait out the foul weather and return in one piece, guided by an unfailing inner compass.

What his story may lack in the gruesome or titillating (there was no living on seaweed, getting washed aboard or fending off sharks with a paddle), it more than compensates for in various mishaps, lonely times, interesting characters and island paradises experienced.

‘I always liked adventure’

Traveling with purpose but without deadline, Pieroni opted for the western, more difficult route: First heading across the Atlantic, he also chose to forgo the Panama Canal in favor of rounding the dangerous tip of South America, then tracking northward again, crossing the Pacific to the South Seas and Antipodes, across the Indian Ocean to Africa, around South Africa and angling across the southern Atlantic to Brazil — his official crossover point — before a second transatlantic crossing brought him homeward. All this meant he actually did far more than circumscribe the globe; his trip from Greece across the Atlantic, and back again, amounted to extra mileage.

Unlike Slocum, his 19th century guide, Piero did not have to rely on sextant and gut instinct alone. He managed with the help of GPS (global positioning system), accessible via his laptop, and frequent weather faxes. But lacking enough charts and maps at the start, he obtained some from fellow sailors, along with a needed computer connection bought in mid-Pacific. He also secured a 3-CD sea map covering most of the world, which he updated anew in South Africa. “So, by the time I arrived back here, I had everything!”

Wild and woolly

Pieroni anticipated the rough South Pacific seas, in some cases (as in New Zealand) waiting out the worst for an entire cyclone season. The Quo Vadis “withstood them very well. She did fantastic.” Was he ever in danger of capsizing? “No, no, never.” Extreme conditions arose elsewhere too. Off South Africa, for example, the wind often runs against the current, which “plays a real bad, terrible, dangerous sea, with freak waves, a danger to big ships too. So you just don’t move.” This frequently requires infinite patience leavened by awareness: “You wait, wait, wait, wait, and then you find 15 boats all leaving at the same time.” “Maybe you’ve heard,” he related, “that [the tip of South Africa] was once called the “Cape of the Storms.” Then they changed it to Cape of Good Hope, hoping!”

A similar cat-and-mouse game with the elements was required while threading through the Magellan Strait, half a world away: “The wind here (Punta Arenas, which lacks a decent harbor) is normally southwest or northwest. If it’s south, you cannot stay. There is a lot of movement, a lot of going up and down, as the wind changed.”

Following this venture into the bone-chilling “screaming fifties” (south latitude) he was hit by the biggest storm of his trip west of South America: “I was heaving to. Very big waves, say 8–10 meters, wind 50–55 knots, lots of wind, for roughly 36 hours.” Later, though, came the sailor’s dream, the trade winds, blowing reliably at 25–40 knots, 17–19 degrees south of the equator, “and I went really fast.”

Difficult sailing actually came right in the Mediterranean. On his outward journey, heavy traffic and fear of collision kept him in the cockpit for two days running, while on the return leg he made it through Gibraltar with great difficulty. “When we arrived, we had the wind against us, from the east. It was just impossible. I tried two times to go through, and finally I decided to follow the instructions! No chance, so finally I gave up,” anchoring at Cadiz. Once through, “we had three days of gale, the wind against us all the time, always from the northeast. During the night, we sailed to Africa, going up and down, up and down.” Nature finally relented for his last kilometers.

His longest single sail, without seeing another human, was 44 days, from Cape Verde to Mar del Plata in Argentina; many other legs took 30–35 days.

Life aboard

How did he pass the time on board? “There is quite a lot of work. Especially in the tropics, you have the trade winds, sometimes you fish but forget about pulling in the line, and a big fish got the other fish, then maybe a shark came, and you don’t have anything!” Plotting his progress was not taxing, and studying “the Admiralty,” a nautical reference work, saved him grief; his eastward Atlantic crossing took 33 days, while another yacht, leaving the same day but on a different route, took 43.

What about the psychological challenge of facing long stretches alone? Piero, a stoic by the book, was already inured to solitude while working in the desert.“Yeah, it’s nice to have somebody, but sometimes you don’t. But, of course, you feel alone, sometimes you wish you had a companion.”

The matter of sleep without a co-pilot is always a dicey proposition. Piero managed on little: “During the day sometimes I would sleep sitting here, 15 minutes, 30 minutes. During the night, I put an alarm clock; I slept one hour; I woke up, have a look around, check the sails, this and that, and then I set the alarm again, sleep another hour. But then after the third time you don’t sleep any more, you stay awake, read something, make a tea. It’s what you have to do.” However, he never felt pushed to the wall. “You keep going and you don’t feel tired, but when you arrive somewhere you have a good meal, and then you have a good sleep, 12, 15 hours.”

During the 36-hour storm west of South America, he “was exhausted and slept over there [on the cabin couch, not in Chile] sitting down. No anchor there!”

An admitted non-gourmet, Piero subsisted when at sea on spaghetti, lentils, canned goods, and other basics, and occasionally fresh fish. He carried a 700-liter tank of fresh water, which never once ran out. He missed fresh fruit most of all when at sea. New landfalls, of course, brought local treats; thick Argentinean steaks are still recalled with gusto.

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All this needs to be accomplished before your yacht drifts out of position. Once resting against the 60 degree incline you drop your bow anchor on shore and have a crew member walk it up the beach, burying it in the sand. Once this is done you use both anchors (Front & Back) to hold you off the beach by a couple of feet.

Do all of this too quickly and it all goes wrong. A German elderly couple (Liveaboard’s) were able to do this at a walking pace, no rush, no alarmed voices and competently slow, just as it should be.

Neilson like many other flotillas uses this little harbour on the northern end of Valtos Beach as an overnight spot whilst traversing the islands of Corfu and Lefkas. It’s an ideal place to walk along it large beach and explore the Tavernas nearby. There are regular water taxis to Parga town (you can walk the length of Valtos Beach if you prefer). Yannis and his musical Zorba sounding caique (He has two lounge stereo speakers that competes with his engine for attention) is the officially adopted taxi service for most of the flotilla companies that visit Parga. I remember him and his Hawaiian shirts 20 years ago and nothing has changed there.

Parga authorities have neglected this isolated little corner of Valtos beach preventing the full use of the harbours little quay due to two sunken pleasure boats of about 30 feet in size. Despite this, yacht now choose to anchor bows to the beach using the harbour wall as protection from the elements.

This little corner of Parga attracts the flotilla and liveaboard sailor alike; it’s an ideal location for traversing the Island of Corfu and Lefkas. It’s also an ideal spot for impromptu beach parties and getting to know other sailing enthusiasts.

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“The most luxurious thing we have here is nature”, says Tassos Gourgouras, welcoming our group to Milia (www.milia.gr/english.html).  This restored mountain settlement is an international eco-tourism award-winner.  Once derelict, these traditional stone farmhouses near the village of Vlatos in western Crete, are now comfortable, rustic eco-apartments, decorated with local furniture and powered by solar energy.

All year round, people come here for alternative holidays, close to nature and away from the crowds.  On the balcony outside the warm and welcoming taverna, we inhale fresh, clean mountain air, sipping infusions of mountain tea sweetened with local honey.  As we admire the scenery, visitors can be seen trekking along the mountainside across the valley.

Organic produce, including wine from the settlement’s farm, is served in the taverna.  Guests can get involved in the agricultural and farming activities. Appetising aromas emerge from the kitchen, where lunch is being prepared, including boureki (courgette, potato and mizithra cheese pie), vlita (wild greens) and salads.

Loaves of bread made from three different types of flour are ready for baking.   We discover why helping in the kitchen is so popular and have great fun manouvering loaves of bread into the wood-fired oven, with a long-handled wooden board.

Afterwards, we walk down to the farm, via the amphitheatre, across a small bridge over a stream, up to terraces planted with olive and carob trees, brushing against pungent wild oregano on the way.

Milia is the Greek word for apple tree; we pick apples to feed to the cows.  Free-range chickens squawk nearby, next to the calves being weaned from their mothers.  A griffin vulture glides overhead, before swiftly vanishing into the blue sky.

Back in the kitchen, the bread is ready to remove from the oven.  Before sitting down in the taverna for our Cretan meal, we chat with some Canadians who are spending a week here, and a Danish couple, here for lunch because they heard how tasty the food is.  Our freshly baked bread disappears as soon as it is put on the table.

As we leave, we turn and look back.  The eco-friendly buildings of local stone and wild chestnut from the surrounding woods blend naturally, almost imperceptibly, into the landscape.

It is a 45-minute drive, past Topolia gorge, to Elafonissi on the southwest coast, one of the most beautiful beaches on the island.  Small particles of crushed pink shells are washed up onto the long, wide beach, turning the sand pink. By the time we arrive in the late afternoon, many day-trippers have already left.

The beach feels very safe because the clear, turquoise sea is so shallow near the shore.  We swim before walking across to an islet, through thigh-high water.  After enjoying the natural beauty of the sea and the surrounding landscape, we leave just after 6.00 pm, when other people are packing up and leaving too.

We return to the calm and peaceful Cavo Spada Luxury Resort and Spa (www.cavospada.gr) on a tranquil beach 18 km west of Chania, where we are staying.  Our day ends here, on a moonlit terrace overlooking the pool and the sea, after a very enjoyable evening meal.

Milia is in the governing district of Chania, about 60 km from Chania town centre.
Our group was driven round the island in comfort by Solmar Tours (www.solmar.gr)

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First, check which airline has the best fares for a round trip ticket, the best was is to use price comparison websites. Some site include local carriers that connect to other European destinations. Greece have their own international airlines Olympic & Air Aegean. So these two carriers are worth checking directly if you cant find them in the price comparison sites. Greece also has an increasing number of enterprising domestic carriers that do inter-island destinations. But their prices can quickly blow your travel budget, however they’re very useful for a whistle stop tour of the Aegean Islands if you have money to spare.

WeGoLo are a price comparison website that includes most of Europe’s budget airlines in its search results… http://www.wegolo.com
Cheapflights is one of the most popular UK price comparison website… http://www.cheapflights.co.uk
Lastminute.com is one of the most established price comparison website around… http://www.lastminute.com

Once your airfares’ arranged, the next most important thing is accommodation. The cheapest places to stay in Athens is around the Port of Piraeus. There are many cheep 2 – 3 star hotels that are ideal as a stepping stone to the Islands and also handy to visit Athens historical monuments. Although some miles from Piraeus there is a modern metro that links Piraeus to Athens City Center making a budget hotel in the area worth while. Rafina the second major port that serves the Islands is too far as a base to discover Athens.

A link listing cheap hotel accommodation around the Port of Piraeus
A link listing Hotel accommodation around Athens International Airport (ATH)

Once you’ve arrived on the Islands try doing what backpackers have done throughout Europe and use various camp-sites. All you need is a tent & a sleeping bag, many offer accommodation on their camp-sites in little huts, so you don’t necessarily need any camping equipment with you to go camping, but then the price of these huts are virtually the same as renting a room. Renting rooms as you explore the Islands is probably the best value for comfort option. You don’t need to book in advance as there’s always something available, and there will always be plenty of English speaking touts recommending this or that accommodation as you step of the ferry.

You can buy ferry tickets from Piraeus or Rafina in advance at Greek ferries http://www.ferriesingreece.com

Hotels near Pireus and Camp-site accommodation will save you a lot of money. Even renting self-catering rooms can be quite a saving as the best part to this is cooking your own food most of the time (saving money) and only eat out in the evening.

The various sights to see on most Greece islands are far apart. If you don’t want to spend for a cab, taxi or rent a car, why not rent a bicycle? You can get to almost every place in Greece by bicycle just be aware of the heat.

Everyone has an idea of what a Greece vacation should be. Whilst how much you are willing to spend is always high on the agenda you don’t have to spend a lot to get what you want.

The ideas mentioned will really save you money whilst travelling and can be helpful as long as you are willing to make some sacrifices. Travelling this way will give you time to spend your money on other things like enjoying the local cuisine or buying some souvenirs for loved one back home. You just have to do some research to make it happen.

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A lot of couples have decided to tie the knot in Greece.  May people are choosing Greece as a wedding destination because it offers some of the most magical and mystical views, with incredible festivals seemingly every month of the year and some of the world’s most breathtaking sunsets while being reasonably priced.

The best advice for planning a wedding in Greece is to use a wedding consultant to  guided you whilst making well-informed decisions, its better to hire a wedding consultant in Greece as they know all the legal in’s and out’s and the legal aspects involved.  Hiring a local consultant, will also help you decide on locations and other aspects of the wedding.

Wedding consultants in Greece are pretty much affordable. There many affordable services can handle all of the paperwork and offer packages for Civil Ceremonies, Catholic Ceremonies, Gay Ceremonies as well as Greek Orthodox.

Locations are certainly breathtaking, since you will always find great places with extraordinary ocean views and amazing sunset.  For those who are adventurous, then there are weddings that can be performed on Mount Olympus. Perhaps, this more adventurous locale will best suit your passions if so Mount Olympus could just be perfect for you.

Santorini is among the most popular venues for weddings. It’s easy to comprehend why. What could be more mystical than exchanging vows in the shadow of a volcano overlooking the clear blue sea?

Everybody dreams of having a unique and one of a kind wedding, so why not have a romantic, celebration of marriage and joys in Greece.

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