chazman

My wife and I are looking for a last minute vacation and came across a very good deal for eight days / six nights air and hotel in Thessaloniki. However, looking over the various sites on What To Do, I am not sure there are enough interesting sites to keep us busy. We live on the Mediterrainian Sea and my wife can't be in the sun too much. Will there be enough for us to do in the city and environs? Suggestions?

Heimdall

I've always wanted to visit the Macedonian region of Greece. Not far from Thessaloniki is Ancient Vergina. I believe Meteora would be an easy drive from there as well. Don't underrate Thessaloniki even though you don't see it much on this forum. You should have a great time!

Clausar and others will no doubt pitch in with more concrete suggestions.

taconictraveler

here is part of a blog I wrote after our trip to Greece a few years ago.

I remember loving Thessaloniki, and wishing I could stay there longer, as the hotel Makedonia Palace was right on the "boardwalk" facing the Aegean Sea, and afforded lovely walks.

"We had arrived in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, after the usual arduous trip from New York. This was slightly more arduous than usual, accompanied as it was by a five-hour boring layover in the new airport in Athens. It being May First, there had to be a strike, and this time, it wasa transportation strike.

Luckily, the Makedonia Palace, when we finally arrived there, was an elegant marble palace of a hotel, with a pool facing the Aegean Sea, and a verdant rosemary garden all around it. We had to scurry to shower and get to dinner on time, but it was well worth the rush. We dined on delicious though grammatically incorrect food: “pennes with smoked salmon and dill; pork filets with gradinated potatoes; and a cherish bavaroise on vanilla sauce.” It was with a pleasant chuckle that we enjoyed this most welcome end to along journey.

Our charming guide, Mika, joined us the following morning to begin our journey to Phillipi. As we rode through the city and observed the monumental Byzantine walls, we retreated to some statistics about Greece: It contains 130,000 square kilometers, two-thirds of which is mountains. The biggest plain is the Plain of Thessaly, and Mount Olympus, the home of the Gods, is the highest mountain, at 9000 feet. Athens has four million people, and Thessaloniki has two million people, out of a total of eleven million, 98% of whom are Christian Orthodox.

None of these statistics, interesting though they are, can even begin to evoke the beauty of this northern area of Greece. The beauty is amended and given greater depth as one comes to know both the religious and the secular history that has taken place over the centuries. Our long drive took us past many beautiful beaches, past olive groves, almond groves, and lakes and deep green hills. Along the roads are “ikonostasi”, shrines that people construct in memory of an event or person, always with an ikon inside.

At our first lunch, in Kavala, we made a wonderful discovery, namely that the lunches are not only very tasty, but also very inexpensive by American standards. After lunch, I strolled charming seaside Kavala, and found Marks and Spencer, the British department store!

When we returned to our hotel we had a drink at the Corleone Bar, which is on the Ninth floor and has an even better view of the sea. After another good dinner, we made a mental note to mention this hotel to our friends at home.

One of the many sights that awed us was our visit to Berea and Vergina, where the tomb of Phillip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) was unearthed only very recently, in 1984. Three tombs have been excavated, the entrances of which can be viewed in a dark semi-subterranean museum. In addition, there are striking gold leaf ornaments and other intricate objects from the tombs. It takes some mental gymnastics to get one’s mind around the age of these remarkable objects.

I cannot possibly mention all the wonderful sights that we were shown during this fast paced tour, but a few standout. Beyond the usual tourist path were places like the Meteora, (which means “suspended rocks”), one of the locations in Greece which are densely populated with monasteries. Here perched atop the towering sandstone boulders of the area one can see six still active monasteries, out of a high (please pardon the pun) of 24, which began when a hermit named Barnabas came here in 985AD.

(The other well-known monastery area is Mount Athos, a huge peninsula in Northern Greece, which we could not visit, because no women are allowed in the area.)

The Meteora is unique: these monasteries were once only accessible by nets ascending on ropes by a windlass mechanism. My question is, how did they ever get the people up there and build the monasteries in the first place? No one has a definitive answer.

From the Meteora we drove through the plain of Thessaly, past Mount Olympus in the distance, and through the pass at Thermopylae where the Greeks held back the Persians. My entire Ancient History course passed before my very eyes."

thursdaysd

Northern Greece is a great destination. I don't think I would spend all your time in Thessaloniki, as there are interesting small towns in the mountains nearby, and good bus service (at least the bus service was good in 2006). For my time in the area see: http://wilhelmswords.com/eur2006/index.html - Sun and Snow in Northern Greece.

aguamineral

I enjoyed my visit to Thessaloniki but I wouldn't spend six days there, certainly not without a car and certainly not if I needed to stay out of the sun in September.

Any cheap deals for Belgium? Or northern Portugal/Northern Spain?

clausar

Thessaloniki is one of my favourite cities in Greece...
It is the second largest Greek city after Athens with 1 Million inhabitants and known in Greece for it's byzantine monuments and churches.
It won't be very warm in Northern Greece, since in September temperature will be quite pleasant in the city and much lower the more you move deeper into Macedonia.

Thessaloniki is also famous for it's night life and excellent food....There are many great restaurants in the city, where you can taste a Greek cuisine not known abroad...
There is the famous White Tower, the Rotonda, many great byzantine churches, the old food market, the Ano Poli ( the old Upper City), the castle with great views over the city.. and a new very interesting byzantine museum, as well as an archeological museum.

Thessaloniki is ideal for day trips to Vergina, Kavala, and Veria/ Edessa and also Florina and the wider area.. ( Nymfaio is a great mountainous village with great boutique hotels to overnight.. or the beautiful city of Kastoria, located on a lake. Meteora is also doable a s a day trip.....

You will have lots of options, and apart from famous Meteora you will discover a wonderful part of Greece not very well known....

I strongly recommend a rental car of course

The Makedonia Palace has a nice location, best value for money hotel is the Met Hotel an excellent 5 star hotel with view over the harbour, great price ( they do many offers) and great service.

A second option would be a boutique Hotel in the the historical Ladadika area in the top center of the city. next to the sea, the Capsis Bristol Hotel

flanneruk

Thessalonica, as it's called in English (when the Greeks have the courtesy to call London London, we MIGHT listen to their lectures on English) is one of the world's great monuments to the Euro disaster. From the Byzantine Museum to the Archaeological Museum to the Palace of Galerius in Navarino Square, a wall to wall memorial of how wonderfully my taxes can be misspent by an administration as devoid of any sense of financial prudence as it's stuffed with stunning things to conserve.

The one concept modern Greeks never quite got round to inventing a word or two for is "cutting your coat according to your cloth" But their prodigality has made the city terrific to visit.

After a day or two, though, you need a car. A contributor who survived here only briefly before being desaparecido for some heinous crime got Greek Macedonia just about right

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...perhaps-th.cfm

clausar

flanneruk, there is an ancient Greek word that describes you and your post perfectly....
You even use it in english... ( without knowing that it is Greek, i am sure)

Unfortunately i am not allowed to mention it here.

chazman

Thanks for all of your comments. We followed your advice and rented a car for two days. First we drove from Thessaloniki to Ouranoupoli and took a boat tour along the coast of Mt. Athos. It was a fairly easy drive with great scenery along the way of beaches and mountains. The next day we drove to Meteora from Thessaloniki. It was great to have a car to be able to drive from monastery to monastery. I don't know how you would get around if you take public transportation. The furthest monastery, St. Stephen, was actually the most accessible one with respect to climbing down and up the stairs. However, the 240 km drive each way was more tiring. Even though part of the drive is along E90 at 130 km and passess through more than 10 tunnels, part of the drive is through the mountains on twisting roads. If we had made an earlier start we probably could have stopped at Veregina on the way back, but we had trouble loading Meteora into the GPS's destination. Thanks for everyone's advice to get out of Thessaloniki and see the country side.