How to Honeymoon in Greece

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Greece was the perfect honeymoon for us and I would do it again and again. I personally haven’t traveled internationally that much in my life so I did A LOT of research before we departed. I loved reading about other bloggers’ Greece itineraries so I decided to put together my own so that you can benefit from it! So here it is: how to honeymoon in Greece.

For our honeymoon, we went to Mykonos, Santorini and Athens, and we thought it was a great mix. I’ve also heard that Paros and Naxos are also great islands to visit, because they are a little more quiet (and less expensive to stay). So something to consider!

In this Greece itinerary I’m breaking down:

• Where to visit
• Where to stay
• Where to EAT!
• What to do

What to know before your honeymoon in Greece

• Greek people are so nice! Everyone there speaks Greek and English, and they were all so kind. We got lost in Athens and a bakery owner immediately offered to call a taxi for us and drew us a map! Our ATV in Mykonos pooped out and several people offered to help us restart it. If you need help, you can ask!
• Bring Cash/Euros – The euro is the national currency in Greece. While we were able to use credit cards for most transactions, we brought about $500 dollars worth of euros to pay for street food (like Gyros), driver and tour guide tips, and a couple taxis. Be sure to contact the bank a few weeks in advance so that they can order enough euros for you (which can take a week). We did not do this, so we called enough branches until we found one that had some on hand – which luckily worked out for us.
• Be prepared to buy water – In Europe, water is not free at restaurants. They only served bottled water, and it costs round 2-4 euros.
• The weather is hot! – We went in late June/early July, and it was toasty! Some days were in the 90’s, so we went swimming quite a lot.
• Hope you like cats – The Greece islands have tons of stray cats hanging around! They won’t bother you but they are fun to see.
• Be prepared for steps – Greece is extremely hilly and we had to climb hundreds of steps. If that doesn’t sound like something you want to deal with, you might want to go elsewhere!

Mykonos

Mykonos is known for being a party spot, but it’s also full of great food, amazing beaches and the best sunsets I have ever seen. It’s a popular tourist island for a reason, and it was a great way to start our trip.

Where to stay in Mykonos

Mykonos isn’t a very big island, but look for places that aren’t too far away from Little Venice, a hotspot area of Mykonos that you won’t want to miss. Hotels in this main area tend to be pricier, so we stayed right on Platis Gialos beach, the southern area of the island.

We stayed at The Acrogiali Hotel, which is full of beautiful little rooms that are right on the water. We were able to pay for our stay with Chase credit card points, and the hotel was VERY accommodating. Free transport to and from the hotel, fresh towels for the beach, and free breakfast! A whole buffet full of fresh fruit, coffee, pastries and eggs are laid out every morning, so we loaded up on food so that we could keep our lunches light – and save up for dinner!

This hotel also has free beach chairs and access to a big pool at the hotel nearby. It was great!

How to get around the island

The best part about Mykonos is the bus system. Large buses circulate the island and can take you straight to the heart of Little Venice for about 2 euros – very cheap! I strongly encourage doing this over a taxi which will cost you much more money. The buses come every 15 or so minutes and it’s easy to find the bus stops.

What to do in Mykonos

Visit Little Venice

This is the heart of Mykonos (also called Mykonos Town) that most people flock to in the evenings, especially to watch the sunsets! You’ll recognize this area from all of the famous photos of shops, restaurants and lots of blue and white scenery! Go look at the giant windmills or walk to the Agia Eleni Church, a large chapel overlooking the sea.

180°Sunset Bar

This cocktail bar is at the top of a large hill, which you can walk to from Mykonos Town (warning, lots of stairs!). It overlooks the water and the whole town with the BEST cocktails we have ever had. You definitely need to make reservations in advance so keep that in mind, but you can pick which area you want to sit.

This was a very FANCY event for us since there is a required minimum per person. We spent around 140 euros, but you can bet we stayed our money’s worth and sat there for HOURS. The cocktails are super delicious and they have food items as well. We took tons of photos and soaked in the superior views.

Rent an ATV to explore

The bus system is awesome, but renting an ATV was a great way to explore the more quiet areas of the island. Moped and ATV rental services are EVERYWHERE, so we were able to walk to one from our hotel. It’s only around 20-30 euros for a whole day, and you can take them on the roads. However, please know that you must get an international driver’s license, which Nathan registered for before our trip (takes a week or so to get your license in the mail).

We loved zooming around the island and spent a few hours at Agios Ioannis beach, which was both stunning and quiet.

Go party at clubs and bars

Mykonos is known for its nightlife, so if you like clubbing, check out some places like Cavo Paradiso, Paradise Beach Club, and Void. If you just want to dance to pop music (more my speed), check out the Scandinavian Disco Bar in Mykonos Town, which was bouncing with people.

Where to eat in Mykonos

There are a lot of good places we tried, and you probably can’t go wrong anywhere. Here were my favorite standouts:

• Nautilus – this restaurant was right in Little Venice and it had astounding food. The pasta here was particularly delicious – try the pasta pomodoro or the lamb orzo!
• Pepper – This is also in Mykonos Town and is great for more casual food, like gyros, souvlaki and salads.
• Kadena – this place is right on the water with tons of boats. Again I got some pasta – carbonara topped with a runny egg – AMAZING. They also had great tzatziki.
• Breeze Bar – If you want an amazing seat basically ON the water, try this place for cocktails before dinner. They have a whole list of fun drinks – an ideal spot to watch the sunset.
• Mediterraneo – for pizza! We got one with stracciatella and fresh tomato.

Santorini

Our next stop was Santorini and it was BEAUTIFUL. We spent another 4 nights here and we loved the change of scenery. Santorini is very romantic and offers the most iconic views of the cave homes and the caldera. It’s probably the most famous of the Cyclades Islands and for good reason.

How to get to Santorini

We took a ferry ride from Mykonos, which is very easy and takes about 2 hours. We found our tickets on Ferry Hopper, and I would advise picking a ferry ride that lines up with your hotel check out times. Our hotel provided us a ride to the ferry docks too. You can also book a short plane ride, but that will cost more money.

Where to stay in Santorini

The island of Santorini has a few options. Thira is at the center of the island where the ferry will drop you off. Thira is also the main bus hub which will make it easy to get around to different parts of the island. You can also walk to Imerovigli and Firostefani from here.

However, if you want to stay in the most iconic area of Oia (where you see most of the photos coming from), check out VRBO for deals. It’s well known to be VERY expensive to stay here, but we found the most amazing villa for only about $200 a night. We stayed in an Amoudi Bay villa, which is right behind the famous cave homes, restaurants and shops – and provides an INSANE view.

Our room was small but very clean and had an outside terrace. The owner brought us breakfast every morning (included!) and provided us with beach towels, robes and coffee. Keep in mind that you have to basically hike up a large hill to get to the heart of Oia from Amoudi Bay, but it’s a fabulous workout. You can also ride donkeys up the hill!

We did not have free rides to and from the ferry/airport (we had to pay for it) but they still arranged our pickups which was super helpful.

How to get around the island

We walked almost all of the time. Oia does have a bus station spot, but we mostly walked around and took maybe 2 taxi rides. We saw a lot of ATV riders as well, so that is a cheap option to explore for a day!

What to do in Santorini

There is plenty to do in Santorini – we felt that 4 days was a good amount of time but we could have spent a little longer exploring other parts of the island, so keep that in mind. Five or six days would have been fine!

Walk around Oia

This is the best place to take photos, so don’t miss out! Some of the blue dome churches are open for tourists to walk around, and there are endless shops and restaurants to check out. Sunsets are also lovely here. It is VERY toasty up here during the day, so I recommend exploring early in the morning or in the evening when it has cooled off.

Swim and eat in Amoudi Bay

Like I mentioned before, Amoudi Bay is below the city of Oia, but it provides glistening views of the water among famous restaurants (well known for their seafood). Grab a table for lunch, but be warned – these restaurants are pricey. Nathan and I split a couple appetizers, like mussels, roe fish spread and glasses of sangria, which was more affordable than purchasing a few entrees. Still filling and worked for us!

You can also jump off the rocks and go swimming in the beautiful water. You’ll find people cliff jumping and tanning.

Go on a catamaran tour

We signed up for a sunset boat tour through GetYourGuide and it was worth the money! It was about six hours long and they fed us a delicious Greek dinner and gave us as many drinks as we wanted. The boat took several stops to let us swim and snorkel and it was soooo picturesque (pickup and drop off included).

Kayak across the beaches

This was another excursion that we booked last minute but we have no regrets. We also found this on GetYourGuide and our tour guide, Kalliope, was soooo sweet. I was really impressed by the quality of this experience, which included free pickup and drop off, a homemade lunch from Kalliope, and all the gear you need for the day. She introduced us to her kind mother who served us wine and let us pet her many dogs.

Kalliope took us to many caves and to the famous Red Beach, Black Beach and White Beach among other wonderful views. She taught us a lot about the island and helped us dock for lunch. We went snorkeling during this as well and saw an octopus! It was a good workout and the water felt amazing.

Visit Domaine Sigalas Winery

There are several wineries on the island, but I’ve heard from locals that this is the BEST one, and we were able to walk to it (a long walk, but it was beautiful). This was probably our absolute favorite memory because we were blown away by the food here.

We did the “Cycladic Mistral” food and wine pairing, which included a quick tour of the vineyard and five courses. Most of the wine on the island is white wine because the grapes don’t require regular irrigation, which is highly limited in Santorini. They were very crisp and delicious! The food pairings included Greek salads, dolma, fish carpaccio and fresh pasta. It was amazing and cost about 60 euros a person. Extra glasses of wine were only about 8 additional euros, so we stayed for a while!

Be sure to send an email and book in advance – they were able to squeeze us in the same day, but we had a very flexible schedule .

Read on the beach!

Like I mentioned before, Santorini has several famous beaches. If you want somewhere quiet, try Koloumbos Beach, a black sand beach on the north side of the island (not too far from Oia). We were the only ones there! We read books, played in the waves and laid in the shade.

Visit Akrotiri

Akrotiri was a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement that was destroyed in a volcanic eruption sometime in the 16th century BC and buried in volcanic ash – which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and art. It’s on the south end of the island and people are free to explore it. I wish we had more time to do this as this was the one thing we did not get to. This would be a great location to take an ATV!

Where to eat in Santorini

Again, I’m sure the list is endless, but here were my favorites from our stay (aside from Domaine Sigalas Winery!)

• Anywhere on Amoudi Bay – the strip is covered with fish taverns that all have similar seafood offerings and gorgeous water views.
• Mary Kay’s Bar – this was a fun Oia cocktail bar with lovely drinks. It was perfect before dinner!
• Roka – Restaurants in Oia are pricey, but Roka has authentic cuisine for a fair price. We got wine, Greek salads and carpaccio.
• Solo Gelato – some gelato places are better than others, but Solo Gelato rose above the rest. In fact, they have the BEST Greek frozen yogurt I have ever tasted, so I got that instead of gelato. Yes, we went a few times :).

Athens

We ended our trip in Athens since we were flying home from that airport. NOTE: It’s typically cheaper to fly into Athens as well, but when we booked, it was cheaper for us to fly directly to Mykonos. You might want to play around with your destinations to see what is most affordable.

Athens is a beautiful city and will give you a classic European vibe that the islands don’t quite capture. Think cobblestone roads, city squares full of people and street vendors. AND there are amazing ruins to check out, including the Acropolis.

We only spent a couple days here which was probably long enough to experience the big stuff, but we agreed we would have enjoyed another day here.

How to get there

You can ferry to Athens BUT it is farther. It would have taken us 8 hours to ferry from Santorini, and we didn’t’ want to spend the whole day doing that! We took a VERY short flight there (like 30 minutes). Airlines like Aegean and Sky Express offer a lot of flights between the two spots. Our Santorini Villa arranged a driver to take us to the airport.

Where to stay in Athens

I would highly encourage using VRBO or AirBnB to find a place. You’ll notice that rooms are much cheaper here than on the islands (and MUCH bigger). Our room here was about triple the size with a full kitchen!

Most of the action happens near Monastiraki Square, so look for a place within walking distance if you can.

How to get around the area

We majorly got our steps in here, but we also took the train from the airport. You can buy a ticket right at the station that is connected to the airport, which will help you get to the city.

You can also download the app BEAT, which is Greece’s version of Uber or Lyft. This app is not available on the islands, but a good option for the mainland. I loved that I could pay for those rides with my credit card.

What to see in Athens, Greece

Visit the Acropolis

I personally love Greek mythology, but Nathan agreed this was very fun for him as well. The Acropolis is a group of buildings built in fifth century BC by Greek politician Hericles. The Acropolis includes the famous Parthenon, as well as the Erechtheum, Temple of Athena Nike, and the Theatre of Dionysus.

We bought our tickets online so we could skip the lines, which you can do here. You can either buy a single pass for the Acropolis, or you can pay a little more to access all of the other ruins that are not located there.

Try to go early in the morning before it gets too hot and crowded. We went around 9:30 AM which worked well. It is open until 7 PM.

Go to the Library of Hadrian

Hadrian’s Library was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132. The building was used to store literary works and legal documents as well as offer a place to hear lectures and host various philosophical speakers. You can walk there pretty easily form the Parthenon and it is included in your pass.

This is only open until 3 PM so make time accordingly!

Go to the Temple of Olympian Zeus

This temple was the largest temple ever built in the ancient world for Zeus – the father of all gods. The pillars are MASSIVE and this site is also included in the pass.

Most of this temple has fallen down at this point, and I was shocked to see that only a little bit of it was left standing. I couldn’t find out why it had fallen apart so much, so be warned if you go check it out.

Watch the sunset on the Areopagus

The Areopagus is a big rock formation near the Acropolis that provides an amazing view of the whole city. We sat on this with many others and overlooked all of the buildings. Best at sunset!

Sign up for a food tour

A walking food tour is an easy way to get exposed to the best places to eat, and it was one of our favorite events of the whole trip! Here was the exact sign up we used – our tour guide Pascal was so kind and knowledgeable. He took us on a three hour journey to taste the best baked goods, pies, fish and Greek coffee. We saw so much of the city and it was some of the best food we had the whole time. (55 euros a person).

Where else to eat in Athens

• Arcadia – this restaurant had some of the best Greek classics, like Greek salad and dolma. Very affordable and delicious!
• Solo Gelato – yes, they have it here too!
• Peinirli – Named after a type of open faced pastry, with a savory sweet dough and filled with cheese and meat. Soo mouthwatering and good.

Have more questions?

That’s just about everything we did on our honeymoon in Greece! Feel free to message me on instagram if you have any more questions about Greece that I didn’t cover: @caroline_hoffman.

And click here to check out my many food recipes if you need meal inspo!