Hello!

I'm planning to meet with a couple of girlfriends in Greece for a week's vacation April 22-28. We're 30-yr old single professionals, and have not really looked into exactly where to go yet.

Many colleagues have mentioned that April may be too early in the tourist season for us to see the best parts of Greece, and that many places (even entire islands) will be "closed."

Another thread on Fodors.com mentions that 2004 may not be a good year to go to Greece, due to construction and potentially inflated prices due to the Olympics. Not sure if this is a valid fear for April.

My question is: would Greece still be worth it in April 2004? If so, what are the must see places to cover in a week about that time of year (where things will be "open&quot?

Thanks in advance to anyone with advice!

You can definitely go to Greece in April. However, it will not be beach weather and many of the islands may be "closed," as in fewer restaurants, shops, and sites are open to tourists. The mainland should be fine though. If you're interested in seeing cities like Athens, Thesalonika, and archeological sites on the mainland, I think April is a fine time to go. If you want to go to the islands and enjoy the beaches, then I'd wait and plan the trip another time.

Why do you want to go to Greece and what you want to see? Athens is ok, but I wouldn't suggest more than 2 nights there. It's a very crowded, polluted city. My favorite city in Greece is Thesalonika, in N Greece. It is a bit out of the way but has so much character. It's a seaside city with a lot of history from the time of Alexandar the Great. Love it! There are also many archeological sites you could visit, like Delphi and Corinth. However, the best part of Greece is the islands. My favorite is the volcanic island of Santorini. Absolutely breathtaking with so much interesting history....

As far as going in 2004, I think it will be fine. Yes there is more construction due to the Olympics, but Greece is always under construction so it's nothing new. Besides, I doubt the Olympics in Aug will affect prices in April.

So if I were you, I'd go to Greece this April unless you really want to see the islands.

W.C. Fields: "I was in Philadelphia once, it was closed."


There is a lot of construction and renovation going on in Athens right now, the last push before the Olympics. It's anybody's guess how close to finished they are, I haven't been able to find any accurate reports of the progress. The National Archaeological Museum is closed for renovation until April. Who knows if it will be open when scheduled? The Parthenon has been surrounded by scaffolding for years but supposedly it's coming off this year.

Activity on many of the islands scales way back in October after all the tourists have gone, but no island actually closes completely down. Some restaurants close. Boutiques and Jewelry Stores empty. But life goes on for the people who live there. In April everyone is beginning to return in preparation for the next season, so things begin to liven up, reopen. April is not the best month for a lot of nightlife, but if you stick to the more popular islands like Mykonos and Santorini you will still be able to enjoy a scaled-back version of what happens when everything is up and running later on in the year.

I've read some reports of inflated prices being evident already, but on the whole I don't think it will be all that noticeable in April, at least not outside of Athens.

One week is not a lot of time to see Greece, it's such a wonderful country. You can fly to Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos, Crete, Rhodes, Kos or Skiathos to cut down on wasted time. Meet in Athens and judge for yourself the progress of the renovations there then leave us a post so we can pass the word. Spend 2-3 nights there then fly out ot the island of your choice for the rest of your visit, relax and enjoy the scenery. In April you don't have to make advance reservations there will be space on the planes.

I recommend Santorini as the island with the most breathtaking views of the sea. Stay in the main village of Fira if you want some nightlife, Oia if you want timeless beauty.

I am going to disagree with an earlier poster.
I found Athens to be a great place and spent 5 days there without feeling like I had seen everything.

If you are doing Athens I would go for hotel location over "luxury". Athens has horrid traffic and the Olympic constrution cannot have helped that!

I, too, enjoyed Athens but I also thought three days there was enough...obviously it may be too much or too little for others. I enjoyed the islands and suspect that those "high prices" people are talking about may somewhat be confined to the Olympic venues and certainly not quite this early in the year.
No place ever CLOSES..at least if anyone lives there..how could it? The pace of things, and crowds, may be slower/smaller but "closed" or not I think the islands such as Mykonos, Santorini, Delos, etc., not to mention the classical mainland sites such as Corinth, Olympia, Naphlion, Delphi, etc., will be just as interesting without the heat of high season and so forth.
I hope you enjoy your trip.

Hey, I'll let you know, as I'm going to be there this month. I sure hope some things are open but plan to enjoy the vacation anyway. We like to see places a little off season as the crowds are smaller. I expect Greece (Athens and Santorini in particular) to be a great experience!

Ok, let me clarify what I meant about Athens.....

Athens is a nice city. My grandparents live there and I have spent entire summers there. There is so much to see and do and I could spend days in Plaka (the old part of town under the Acropolis--definitely get a hotel there!) and still feel like I haven't explored every street. However, compared to other parts of Greece, Athens deserves only a couple days. Especially if you are there only for a week. I would choose the islands over Athens in a heartbeat. I find Athens to be crowded, chaotic, hectic, dirty, and stressful. The islands are gorgeous, many things are cheaper, life is simple, you don't have to deal with the traffic and chaos, etc. However, I've never been to them in April and I know that it will be a bit chilly at that time (for example, the average temp in Santorini in April is 62) so they may not be as enjoyable as in the summer months.

www.the-greek-islands.biz

I loved Athens and was there for 5 nights and could've stayed longer.

Here is a recent run-down on the Olympic construction, which will affect Athens to some degree (not counting other construction/rennovation/closings in advance of the games):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olym...04/3543579.stm

I'm going to Athens for 5 days with my young daughter in the coming long March break after some skiing in Austria. Hoping it's not going to rain too much.Planning to go to Olymipia on the 25th for the Olymipic torch lighting ceremony. Will let you know when we come back if there's lots of closures or not (hope not).

Wow. Thanks to everyone for such wonderfully helpful advice! I've forwarded the thread to my girlfriends. Based on this, we've decided to go. Our only plan so far is to meet up in Athens first. I would like to see at least one of the islands (Santorini is sounding wonderful so far), and then the rest of my friends will be staying on 1-2 weeks longer than I am able to. Lucky them.

I'll try to post a note about the status of construction in Athens when we get there.

sm0019, you may go for skiing in greece as well. I'll be in Kalavrita (less than 3h from athens) this saturday. You may click on www.snowreport.gr "to get a picture" of the ski-resorts in greece.

I had to change my hotel reservation in Athens making it one night later and they charged me another $40, the new rate, so I guess prices are already going up some. I originally booked it about 2 months ago.