Community Highlights Europe Greece - 2025 – Thessaloniki & Halkidiki

Greece - 2025 – Thessaloniki & Halkidiki

Published 17 May 2025 · Greece · Comments

After a taxi to the airport in Astypalia, a 35 minute propeller flight to Athens, a 5 hour stopover and another 35 minute flight, we arrive in Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece after Athens. My Facebook memories just reminded me that we were here on this exact same day in 2012, coincidence? I think NOT! We check in at the nice and comfortable Ifos Apartments (40 euros), go out for some breakfast supplies, have a very average chicken & chips dinner (nice wine though) and rest for the day. Well, as I said, we’ve been to Thessaloniki before, it’s a nice seaside city, with a lot of Ottoman & Greek historic sites and a fabulous food & cafe culture. It’s also a lively university town with lots of young people out & about making for a vibrant vibe all over town. Most of the old centre of the city was destroyed by the Great Thessaloniki Fire on the 18th of August, 1917. The fire swept through the centre of the city, leaving 72,000 people homeless, most of them Jewish (50,000). It’s also interesting to know that the city was founded around 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedon and he named it after his wife Thessalonike, a half-sister of Alexander the Great and princess of Macedonia, daughter of Philip II.

Next morning it’s a gorgeous day and we go for a wander, revisit most of the historic sights and walk along the promenade till we feel hungry, then we make our way to Tavern Kosmas, Paul read that it’s as authentic as a Greek Ouzeri gets. An Ouzeri is a traditional restaurant that serves Ouzo, a Greek type of liquor that turns white when mixed with water. But man, nothing prepared us for yet another fantastic experience in this country. I need to add that by now Paul is even more fluent in Greek, so proud of my man, talking to the waiters and ordering food in Greek and being understood all the way. Once again it helps us to access local restaurants and experience other human interactions that would not have been possible otherwise. We have village sausages and pork belly, all with fries of course, a Greek salad and 1 litre of wine, all for 27.50 euros. The place is buzzing and a young kid playing the bouzouki is busking the tables. A couple of older guys are sitting next to us and for some reason we start talking (in Greek), we find out one of them was a famous singer and a big fan of Pele, the Brazilian soccer player. It looks like they’re celebrating something as they order a huge serve of prawns, and somehow some of them make their way on to our table, so here we are, sharing wine and seafood with these 2 lovely Greek guys at this traditional local Ouzeri, and once again we're the only tourists to be seen, what a feeling. After another fabulous experience and walking over 18kms, we happily go back to our apartment and relax for the day. A moment of panic hits when I realise tomorrow is May the 1st, Labour Day in Greece and everything will be closed, so, a quick trip to the supermarket us imperative, we also buy the bus tickets to the airport just in case, and we we're so right as everything besides cafes and restaurants were closed the next day.

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We walk to the bus stop and being a public holiday, our bus to the airport (2 euros) is over an hour late, we are almost taking a taxi when the bus turns up jam packed for the 45 minutes trip to the airport. We then take the shuttle van to the car hiring company to pick up our ride for our 11 days exploring the Halkidiki region in Macedonia. There's a bit of an argument at the car place as the woman says we need to pay for 24 hour road assistance, which we know is bullshit but at the end we end up paying and make our way to the very nice Roditsa Patritsia Studios (30 euros) with lovely ocean views and a recently renovated kitchen, our base for the next 11 days and man were the girls happy when they found out Paul speaks Greek. Halkidiki has been on our list forever and we’ve seen endless photos of the amazing beaches, our base is in Polychrono, Kassandra peninsula. Just the local beach is stunning, so we can’t wait to check out the other more famous beaches. Halkidiki is the most popular destination in Northern Greece, its popularity is attributed to its amazing beaches, with powdery white sand and clear turquoise water. Halkidiki is divided into 3 smaller peninsulas, often referred to as "legs". The first one, Kassandra, is the most crowded, with cosmopolitan tourist resorts, the second one, Sithonia, is more relaxed and popular among campers and the third one, Mount Athos, is a closed Orthodox monastic community and independent state. You will need a permit to visit Mt Athos, female visitors are banned, males under 18 have to be accompanied by their father and only 15 per cent of permits are given to non Orthodox visitors. You can only reach it by sea, so we have to be happy to see it from afar.

It’s a gorgeous day for a roadtrip so we jump in the car and drive along the Sithonia Peninsula and see some of the best beaches we’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen a few, don’t need to believe me, just check out our photos for an explosion of shades of blue and white sand, incredible, what an unforgettable day. Then we fall into a nice rhythm, a run in the morning, long walks on the beach, a protein overload Greek lunch and some lovely Greek wine to wash it down, rinse and repeat. It’s interesting to note that most tourists here are from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia, with just a few from Russia and Ukraine. Halkidiki attracts lots of its neighbours and it is not as mainstream as other Greek places. As it’s before the summer season, everybody and everywhere is very chilled, unless you go to Lidl where, for some weird reason, it’s like “murder on the dance floor”, massive groups, huge lines, it’s just insane, so if you go to Lidl be ready to wait in a huge line and fight for your shopping trolley, trust me, it’s not our first Lidl experience here, and there are much better local supermarkets with fresher produce.

We spend our days walking on the beach, visiting and revisiting some of the best beaches we’ve ever seen, to be honest, we’ve never seen so many stunning beaches in the one place, it’s utter perfection, apologies for repeating myself or running out of adjectives but we're already planning to come back here very soon. We visit the lovely nearby beach of Kalithea and take another roadtrip to see some yet more incredibly blue beaches with white sands, this time on the Kassandra Peninsula, our favourite one is Pefkochori, which attracts more British tourists than the other local beaches, a really different crowd.

It’s now time to say goodbye to stunning Halkidiki after 11 glorious days, so we drive to the carhire company, drop off the car, get a ride back to the airport and then a bus back to Thessaloniki. Our flight out is from here but we decided to come back for a couple of days as the food scene here is incredible! We check in at the nice and very well located Anna House (44 euros), go for a walk till we get hungry and of course, go back to the Ouzeri Kosmas for some more delicious food. It’s our last day in Thessaloniki and also our 32nd anniversary, yes, 32 years together, so we have a nice seafood lunch (fried calamari and mussel pilaf), then it’s back to the apartment. We go to sleep at 6pm and wake up at midnight, catch the bus back to the airport, wait for another 6 hours then catch our 45 minute Ryanair flight to Bucharest, Romania.

Once again it’s time to say ciao to Greece, a country we love so much and know so well after another absolutely perfect month. Greece is definitely our favourite country in the world and for so many reasons, the people, the food, the culture, the history, the language, the vibe, the easy smiles, the hospitality, the safety, the challenging ashtrays on the tables, the cheap & refreshing delicious wine, the weather, the live and let live Greek attitude to life, feta cheese, the fresh produce, did I mention the food? Anyway, I can just say we love you Greece and we can’t wait to see you again, thank you for the fabulous times and thank you guys for following our travels, until the next chapter.

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