The steep little area around Kolonaki square is one of the liveliest meeting places of Athenians – the Greenwich Village of of Athens, where artists, writers, plutocrats, elegant ladies, young men about town, politicians, business men, lawyers, designers, diplomats, housewives and hurdy-gurdy men all jostle along together. We love the happy juxtaposition of the hyper-fashionable, … Read More
200 years ago, it was agreed by all except the Ottomans, that what the world really really wanted, was… Greece. How could there be a Europe without it? This year is the bicentenary of the War of Independence where poets, peasants, priests, and princes joined the trickle that ended up as a riptide, carving … Read More
The charms of Greece’s blazing summer sun and warm August seas are well known, what to do though when the mercury is a bit lower, skies are less than an unblemished blue, the water temperature is still fresh, and the waving cypresses and green mountains coo seductively? Take a hike is our best advice. Ithaca, … Read More
Five Star Greece is proud to support a wonderful environmental action group: Plastic Free Greece was founded by one of our guests- we are so proud of her- someone who not only demands and appreciates the finest things in life (Five Star Greek villas and our service) but is prepared to roll up her … Read More
Five Star Greece was thrilled to be able to escort the historian, television presenter and author, the divine Bettany Hughes, to one of Greece’s secret sites. We are even more thrilled that she offered to write a blog about it! Read on for Bettany’s own words… Standing on a Greek island, a balmy, Mediterranean … Read More
Not that they have a superiority complex or anything, but the Ionian islands off Greece’s west coast do like to point out that they were part of the very civilized Venetian empire for four hundred years, while the rest of Greece stewed under the Turkish yoke. There are many legacies of the Venetians; a local … Read More
To end the year on a light-hearted note, here is a list of things never to say to a Greek. 1. How are you? Sounds safe, no? But, a Greek, particularly if he is a she, will invite you home, tell you, in every last gory detail, plus the life story of their doctor, his … Read More
Let’s start with the bad news; the bad news is that the scheduled ferry services to Ithaca have made such losses over the last few years, that no-one wants to run the ferries, and the government is too poor to subsidise them, so getting to Ithaca by car is almost as much of an epic … Read More
Dedicated to Billie Cohen of Condé Nast Traveler. The real joy of travelling is not in seeing things – the world is so overrun with images already – but in experiencing things, the magic moments are when we become someone different from our usual selves. I was in slow, gracious Charleston, South Carolina … Read More
It’s a lovely Greek concept – borne higher and higher by the thermals of good luck and perhaps hard work, up flies the giddy mortal, till some minor sun-god lays aside his cup of nectar for a second to swat away the irritating trespasser, who then plunges earthward, spiralling back down to where he came … Read More
Don Juan Lord Byron’s greatest, last poem, is a rich seam of humour, wisdom, satire and lyricism – also travel writing; “The isles of Greece! The isles of Greece Where burning Sappho loved and sung, Where grew the arts of war and peace, Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung! Eternal summer gilds them yet, But … Read More
