The Ultimate Local Guide to Athens and the Greek Mainland

The Ultimate Local Guide to Athens and the Greek Mainland

A Local Greek Guide to Athens, the Mainland, and My Life in Greece

I wasn’t born in Greece, but I fell in love with this country at 19. Ever since then, I have spent my life moving between the city streets of Athens, quiet island harbors, and stone villages in the mountains. I have watched friends come and go, fall in love with Greece, and sometimes even build their lives around it — just as I did.

This guide is what I would tell a friend who is coming to Greece for the first time and wants more than an ordinary tourist trip. It is about Athens and the mainland, about food, olive oil, temples, small roads, quiet beaches, and the way travel opens up when you explore it through the eyes of someone who has lived here, loved here, and built a travel company — Be My Guest in Greece — to help others experience the real soul of this country.

How Athens Really Feels When You Let It Breathe

Most visitors rush through Athens in a day. They go from the airport to the hotel, then to the Acropolis, then back to the ferry. That is a mistake.

Athens is noisy and imperfect, but also full of energy, stories, and hidden corners that appear only when you linger.

My favourite morning routine begins at the foot of the Acropolis. I arrive early, before the tour buses, and slip into Anafiotika — a tiny neighborhood that feels like a secret island village. Whitewashed houses, cats sunning themselves, pots of basil and geraniums, narrow steps curling around the rock. At sunrise it is quiet, and the air smells like coffee drifting up from the streets below.

From there I walk toward Koukaki or Mets for breakfast. These are real neighborhoods where people live, work, and gossip. I sit with a Greek coffee or a freddo espresso and watch the rhythm of the morning: grandparents walking children to school, delivery drivers weaving through traffic, friends starting their day with jokes. That is the Athens I love.

Where I Eat in Athens When I Want Real Food

Athens’ food scene has changed dramatically. You can still find the classic family tavernas hidden in side streets, but younger chefs also bring new creativity to traditional dishes. The trick is simple: step away from the tourist lanes of Plaka and Monastiraki. Go into Pangrati, Exarchia, or Koukaki. Choose a place filled with locals.

I order a village salad with ripe tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, and a thick slice of feta, plus a couple of cooked dishes like chickpeas baked in clay, meatballs in tomato, or slow-cooked lamb with lemon potatoes. Everything rests on good olive oil.

Modern studies on the Mediterranean diet continue to show that extra virgin olive oil supports heart health, lowers harmful blood lipids, and reduces inflammation when used as the primary fat in daily cooking — exactly how Greeks cook at home (Cleveland Clinic on the Mediterranean diet; New England Journal of Medicine on olive oil and heart health; additional systematic reviews).

In Greece, many families buy olive oil directly from people they know. Large metal cans sit next to the stove and are used generously for salads, cooking, and baking. When I eventually returned to the United States, that idea of honest, traceable oil came with me.

Together with John and Rania, I helped create EVGE, a brand rooted in honesty, tradition, and family — so people in the U.S. could enjoy the same quality oil I loved in Greece.

When you taste good olive oil in Greece, you’re tasting a way of life. That is what I wanted to share through EVGE.

Walking the City Like a Local

After breakfast, I walk — Athens is a walking city. From the center, I cross the National Garden, a calm green refuge. My Greek “grandfather”—the elderly man who took me under his wing when I first moved here—used to bring me there and insist that you can learn everything about a city by watching how people move when they forget anyone is looking.

From the garden you can visit the old marble stadium, the site of the first modern Olympic Games, then wander into Kolonaki for boutiques, galleries, and cafés. Kolonaki is polished but unpretentious, a place where people linger over coffee for what feels like hours.

The Athens Coast and Sounio

One of the gifts of Athens is that it opens to the sea.

The coastal road through Palaio Faliro, Alimos, Glyfada, and Vouliagmeni is the city’s Riviera. In Vouliagmeni, the water is clear and calm, and the rocks stay warm until evening. Locals swim early in the morning or just before sunset.

Continue south and you reach Cape Sounio. The Temple of Poseidon rises over the cliffs, and sunset there feels almost supernatural. Writers have described this view for centuries — and when the wind hits your face on that hill, you understand why.

Leaving the City: The Peloponnese

Once you leave Athens, the Peloponnese is the first place I send people. It is a complete world — ancient sites, Venetian castles, mountain villages, orange groves, and harbors where children still jump off the pier.

Nafplio

Nafplio was once the first capital of modern Greece, and it still carries that gentle weight of history. Stone houses, balconies with flowers, children playing until late, and above it all the fortress of Palamidi.

I tell friends to treat Nafplio slowly: walk the waterfront at sunset, choose a small taverna, share plates, and let the evening stretch.

The Mani Peninsula

Further south, Mani feels like a country inside a country. Stone tower houses, deep blue water, dramatic coastline. Areopoli is a good base — at night the square fills with tables, conversation, and the easy music of forks and glasses.

Mani is also known for its extraordinary olive oil. Rocky soil, wind, and sun produce olives with powerful character. Modern research supports what Greek yiayias have always known: daily use of good extra virgin olive oil protects the heart and reduces chronic disease risk (recent clinical trials and reviews confirm this).

Epirus and the Stone Villages of the Northwest

For travelers who want something more secret, I always recommend Epirus. Mountains rise sharply, rivers run cold and clear, and stone villages cling to slopes.

Ioannina and the Lake

Ioannina feels mysterious and calm. Byzantine walls, Ottoman houses, and a small island in the lake where monasteries and tavernas wait. The region is famous for its pies — greens, cheese, meat — all handmade.

Zagori and Vikos

Zagori is a cluster of stone villages called the Zagorochoria, each with a square shaded by a plane tree and an old stone café. The Vikos Gorge slices through the mountains — hiking here feels mythic.

Central Greece and the Sacred Slopes of Delphi

Central Greece offers pine forests, ski villages, and slow mountain life. Arachova is lively in winter, peaceful in summer.

Delphi sits above a valley of olives and once was the spiritual center of the ancient world. Walking among its temples and treasuries, you feel the same landscape that once spoke to the oracle.

Thessaloniki and the Taste of the North

Thessaloniki is where Greeks go to eat. Influences from Asia Minor, the Balkans, and Greece mingle into bold flavors. Bougatsa — sweet or savory — is essential. And the waterfront at sunset is pure magic.

Traveling Greece with Me — and Be My Guest in Greece

This is where my two decades of living in Greece become a gift I can share.

I speak Greek comfortably, understand both village rhythms and city energy, and know how different a trip feels when it’s shaped around real experiences rather than checklists.

Through Be My Guest in Greece, I design custom trips that focus on authenticity — family-run hotels, local guides, small tavernas, beautiful beaches, and itineraries with breathing room.

I create trips the way I would plan them for a close friend: with attention, care, honesty, and joy. The same values that guided me in creating EVGE.

No rush. No pressure to see everything. Just the right experiences, at the right pace, in the right places.

Small Local Tips That Change Everything

  • Eat dinner later — around 9 in summer.

  • Share dishes; everything belongs to the table.

  • Try the house wine at village tavernas.

  • Swim early; morning light is magic.

  • Carry some cash in small villages.

  • Learn a few Greek words; they open hearts.

Final Thoughts

Greece is not just ruins and beaches. It is a long table under a vine, a quiet square at noon, a coffee sipped slowly, a shared plate of food, a mountain road where it’s just you and the horizon.

When you travel with someone who truly knows the country, the journey becomes something deeper.

Whether you come for olive oil, temples, the blue sea, or to rest, move slowly. Sit for one more coffee. Take the side road. Listen to the stories locals tell when they feel you’re really listening.

That is the Greece that stays with you — and that is the Greece I love to share.

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