Hi: I've been a poster on fodor's for several years, mainly about Paris and France. Now I need some help with our trip to Greece.


We have booked a room at the Cecil hotel in Athens and hopefully this is a great place to stay. If you have stayed at the Cecil what did you think?

Thanks in advance

The Cecil is a decent budget hotel. Nothing special, but very conveniently located to the Metro, to the Plaka shopping area, and to Psyrri which has great nightlife. It has a good view of the Acropolis from the roof. Just don't expect a fancy hotel!

You will have a wonderful trip -- Greece is terrific.

We stayed at the Cecil this past May. It was definitely budget but very clean and plenty big. We would stay there again. Very convenient location too.

Enjoy Greece, It's an incredible country. We keep going back.....

Thanks for the replies to my question about the Cecil. We have stayed in hotels in Paris, Egypt and Peru that were not very fancy so I don't think we will have a problem.

This is a last minute trip for us and we are leaving next month so we still have a lot of planning to do. We are staying in Athens for 4 days and then we are going somewhere just havn't figured it out yet.

You'll love Greece. We visited for the first time in May and cannot wait to go back (unfortunately it will be 2007 as next year is a scheduled faimly trip to Germany/Austria). What are your interests? If you are interested in ancient ruins I recommend going to Nauplion (Nafplio in Greek). It's about 2-2.5 hours from Athens in the Pelop. From there you can easily visit Ancient Mycenae, Ancient Nemea, Ancient Epidaurus, Ancient Tiryns, Ancient Corinth (though that is right on the way from Athens), and many more amazing sites.

TexasAggie:

I am a history nut so we will be going to see as much history as possible.

I know this sounds crazy but I have always wanted to go to Thermopylae where the Spartan's died fighting the Persian's. I think history was changed at that spot and I have always wanted to go and just stand there.

I will look up the places you recommended tonight.

Hopefully you will answer some of my first time questions about Greece that will come up in the next few weeks.

Thanks for your thoughts

Hi eric,
I'll be happy to answer any questions! My DH got one of his undergraduate degrees in ancient history (before moving on to the less than exciting world of business, lol!), so we always go for the historical sights

Here is a link to my trip report. It is still unfinished b/c of tax season (that crazy time of year where tax accountants work 70 hours a week). I do hope to wrap it up after next week though so it might be able to help you out.

http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34809276

P.S. We drove WAY out of our way to visit the funeral pyle at Marathon for that very same reason. That history was changed there.

TexasAggie:

Thanks for the link, I will read it tonight.

Are you an accountant??? Thats what I do for a living, I work for a gas marketing company in Oklahoma.

I know I will probably be asking some questions so thanks in advance.

Yes, both DH and I are tax accountants (as well as full-time travel addicts . I work for a small oil and gas company in Denver. Ironic!

Hey TexasAggie:

I read through your trip report and I think we would like to check out a lot of sites in your report. We always try to pick out a hotel we can stay at the whole time and then drive to the sites that interest us, that way we alway come back to the same hotel. On your trip I was wondering if there was a central location where this might be possible.

I was hoping you could recommend one of the hotels you stayed at.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi eric,

We stayed at Hotel Ilion and we received a discounted rate for our room, the Sun Suite, through Dolphin Hellas (the travel agency mentioned in my report in the Intro). The website for the hotel is http://www.ilionhotel.gr/.

It was a <b>wonderful</b> hotel but is was a little expensive for the suite - around 140&euro;. I believe the regular rooms are less. Another hotel in the old part of Nauplion (Nafplio in Greek), is Hotel Byron. I believe it is much less expensive and it appears to get rave reviews. We walked past it and the location is good, right in the heart of the charming part of town where all the ambience is.

We chose Nauplion as our base for the Argaloid Plain (sp?) because it was easy to drive to so many of the ancient sites. We were within an hour from: Ancient Corinth, Acrocorinth, Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, Epidaurus, Nemea, and tons of other smaller sights dating from Mycenaean times and Classical Greece. Nauplion itself has an interesting Venetian fortress and there are stunning Byzantine-era churches sprinkled throughout the area.

I think you could easily fill up to an entire week with sightseeing using Nauplion as a base.
Hope this helps!

I would say that Nafplio is the best place to stay, after you stay in Athens because it combines archaelogical sites (In a very good condition) traditional greek food(A little expensive) beautiful sea for swimming and many shops for suvenirs and lots of other things! Peloponese is a place that has almost everything and when you visit it once you will come back. A few information about the area of Korinthos you can find on this site: http://forevergreen.gr/

Nauplion is nice but more expensive than some other Greek cities. It is well located for going to Mycanae, and Epidaurus and Corinth.
Although not popular with some, the Kalamata area has some very nice places to visit: Ancient Messene, Pylos, Koroni, Methoni to the west and the underwater caves and the Mani to the east. Although Kalamata is a modern city due to its leveling during an earthquake in the 60's, it has a very lively market area, a nice seafront and some lovely public areas. It does not have tons of charming buildings and it is a city, but staying in a city does offer more restaurants, and entertainment during the evening. You can also get buses, trains and ferries to other places of interest.

Hi eric,

Greece is a fantastic choice. I have posted some pictures and a trip report that covers many of the areas mentioned above. If your interested it here is the link:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34845965

My personal favorites: Chios and the Laconian Mani

I hope you ask lots of questions - many people here love to chat about Greece.

Good Travels,

Murphy

I want to thank everyone for helping out. I have never planned a vacation on this short of notice but the ticket prices were just to good to pass up.

I hope to tap into all the expertise on this site.

Thanks again in advance

Hi Murphy:

I'm happy to meet ya.

Hi eric,
I definitely encourage you to check out Murphy's trip report since she covered more of the mainland than I did. Plus it is a FANTASTIC read and will get you excited about your trip!

Aggie is just buttering me up because she knows we are all waiting impatiently for her next installment

We are happy to re-live our own trips through you eric!

Cheers,

Murph

Our plane doesn't arrive until 11:00 pm. Below are the directions to our hotel. Does anyone see a problem with using the public transp that late at night??? I don't think I've ever arrived anywhere that late. I guess thats what happens when you wait until the last min and get the cheap seats.

Thanks in advance

Below is the address to the hotel:

Our address is 39, athinas street, close to Monastiraki square. Our
hotel is
about 45 minutes far from the airport. You can take the bus X95 which
comes
to Syndagma square, the metro line 3 or a taxi which will cost you
about 30
euro.