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Greece Master Thread
Chabad has an awesome restaurant (and a cool chabad house) in Athens (Rated Number 2 of all restaurants in Athens on TA).
They also ship to all islands which you can warm up in your hotel. The food is awesome as as well!
Find them on facebook or on their website

Bunch of kosher travel related info here: http://koshergreece.com


Trip Reports: CS91's Santorini & Athens

Zaggurus TR: zagguru's


Sam28 TR Santorini : Sam28's


Athens:
Hotels
Hotel Grande Bretagne (Starwood)
King George Palace  (Starwood)
Both hotel's are right near each other, grand Bretagne is a little more upscale.
Both are walking distance to Chabad (Around 10 min) and to most of the action in Athens.
Other hotel's are a little further out of all the action.

Stuff to do
GOSTIJO kosher restaurant (They have a small grocery where you can get a variety of Israeli products) [See above]
Acropolis (Akropolis) and the Acropolis (Akropolis) Museum
Anafiotika (old town with some shopping)
Plaka 
Monastiraki
Panathenaic Stadium (Panathinaiko Stadio) first modern Olympics game.
Day trip to Delphi
Water-skiing in the Aegean Sea

Athens Chabad Pdf

Mykonos:
Hotels

Kosher
https://koshermykonos.com
whiteandblue.kosher@gmail.com
+331 84 60 70 70

What to do


Santorini:
Hotels
There are only two options which take points.
1. Vedema, this hotel is in Megalochori, it is a little off the path (Not near the water) and you don't get the views you would expect in Santorini. (Not a great option, but if you want to stay with points, it is a nice hotel)
2. Mystique, rated as one of the best Starwood hotels in the world. Availability is almost impossible, because they only have 27 rooms. Never mind the shocking 70K Starwood points a night in high season. 

Stuff to do
Kamari Beach, there is a cliff there which has a nice jump into the ocean. (Please be careful!)
Red Beach
Hiking Trail Fira - Oia (You can take a Donkey which is quite freaky, or take a tram)
Sunset in Oia (A must do, to get away from the crowds go to Sun Spirit, it is near the windmill and has great views and not packed. They only serve drinks.)
Santorini Volcano, Hot Springs.
Rent a ATV go around the island (At your own risk, the drivers in Santorini are crazy!)
Highest point of the island near the town of Prygos. Awesome panoramic views of the whole island.

Rhodes
Hotels
Sheraton Rhodes, large resort very centrally located. nice pools.
https://chabadrhodes.com

« Last edited by davidmal on October 16, 2023, 08:49:36 AM »

Author Topic: Greece Master Thread  (Read 222999 times)

Offline yg99

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #560 on: May 02, 2017, 12:37:23 PM »
The pictures do show a beautiful place, but all the rooms look very quaint. Even in the $1000+ a night hotels.

Reminds me of Ruth Rimonim in Tzfas.

Offline sky121

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #561 on: May 02, 2017, 12:40:47 PM »
The pictures do show a beautiful place, but all the rooms look very quaint. Even in the $1000+ a night hotels.

Reminds me of Ruth Rimonim in Tzfas.
'Quaint' is part of the package.
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline SPLP

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #562 on: May 02, 2017, 01:55:41 PM »
The pictures do show a beautiful place, but all the rooms look very quaint. Even in the $1000+ a night hotels.

Reminds me of Ruth Rimonim in Tzfas.

It is visually a very interesting place, most do not come for the rooms , we stayed at the VEDEMA-- rooms very nice and would never call them "quaint"--never heard anyone say -"sorry  I went" --it is probably the number one destination in the Mediterranean

think post above is right - not for you

Offline wonderlust

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #563 on: May 03, 2017, 12:19:36 AM »
How does Crete compare to it ? See a lot of great hotel options there..

Offline farfallen

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #564 on: May 03, 2017, 12:07:52 PM »
For those that went to Santorini what did you do for food?

Offline sam28

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #565 on: May 05, 2017, 01:00:29 PM »
what is a nice hotel to stay on Santorini ?

what area is the best to stay ?

should I rent a car there ?


Offline CS91

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #566 on: May 21, 2017, 01:18:09 AM »
Any issue with bringing food (i.e. Pomegranate meals) into Greece?

Offline Emkay

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #567 on: May 21, 2017, 01:19:27 AM »
Any issue with bringing food (i.e. Pomegranate meals) into Greece?
Dunno about official rules but I never got stopped and I brought food more than once.

Offline mimb

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #568 on: May 22, 2017, 10:11:47 AM »
Any issue with bringing food (i.e. Pomegranate meals) into Greece?

I brought shnitzel and salami with me and had no problems.

Offline CS91

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #569 on: May 22, 2017, 01:55:02 PM »
I brought shnitzel and salami with me and had no problems.
Declared, or didn't declare and just walked through?

Offline mimb

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #570 on: May 22, 2017, 02:43:09 PM »
Declared, or didn't declare and just walked through?

Can't remember to be honest. Wanna say I didn't delcare

Offline CS91

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #571 on: May 22, 2017, 09:02:38 PM »
Can't remember to be honest. Wanna say I didn't delcare
Thanks. Seems like most people don't declare and get away with it. Apparently they're not as strict there as other countries in Europe.

Offline mimb

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #572 on: May 23, 2017, 09:26:16 AM »
Thanks. Seems like most people don't declare and get away with it. Apparently they're not as strict there as other countries in Europe.

Yeah, Greeks were very chill about a lot of things I remember. Just part of the culture there

Offline Emkay

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #573 on: May 27, 2017, 03:07:54 PM »
How long will I need for a stopover in ATH assuming I need to recheck luggage?

Offline Luvisrael

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #574 on: June 21, 2017, 12:02:00 PM »
Any issue with bringing food (i.e. Pomegranate meals) into Greece?
on Chabads website, they ship to any island in greece. Has anyone done this?

Offline mimb

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #575 on: June 21, 2017, 01:22:32 PM »
on Chabads website, they ship to any island in greece. Has anyone done this?

Couple guys I met in Mykonos did that. Seemed to work smoothly for them. I personally brought my own food

Offline jose34

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #576 on: June 22, 2017, 03:15:34 PM »
Anyone has an idea of what do / where to sleep on a stopover in ATH from 10:00 PM - 5:00 AM?

It doesn't seem the lounges are open all night.
Does Softiel have a lobby I can sleep in?

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #577 on: June 26, 2017, 02:28:55 PM »
Anyone not recommend going to Greece for like a week for my summer vacation, and if so why?

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #578 on: July 05, 2017, 02:16:25 PM »
Just got back from Athens and Santorini. Don't plan on writing a TR, but since there isn't a lot of info here, I figured I'd type up a couple of thoughts.

Flights
-We flew with LX J both ways (JFK-ZRH-ATH-ZRH-EWR). Connection times are good and availability was pretty wide open so I would say this is probably one of the better options seeing as UA never opens up space on the direct.
-For the ATH-JTR flight, I booked RyanAir and paid cash. Flights were cheap. I recommend paying for bags at time of booking since it's significantly more expensive to pay for them at check-in. Also, check in online and print boarding passes at home - they charge 50 euro per person to check in at airport and an additional fee to print boarding passes at airport.

Athens
-Nice to see the historical sights, but don't need more than 24 hrs there. Acropolis, first Olympic stadium, walk around Plaka district for some souvenirs, and that basically covers most of it.
-Chabad restaurant is solid. Can order meals from them (they ship to islands), though we did POM.
-We stayed at the Hilton, which was nice, but nothing special. Several SPG options there as well. The Hilton was willing to store our cooler bag in their freezer, though they pushed back at first.
-I recommend taking Ubers in ATH. Take a few extra minutes to show up than what we're used to in the US, but drivers are way nicer and it's cheaper. Also, regular cab drivers try to rip tourists off and most of them that we rode with were pretty obnoxious while the Uber drivers basically gave us a tour while they were driving us through the city.

Santorini
-We stayed at the Voreina Gallery Suites. Not part of a program so paid cash, and it came out to around $350/night. Was recommended by a friend and was really happy we stayed there. We booked their Superior Suite, which comes with a full Kitchen (so we had an oven to heat up our POM meals, and the fridge was big enough to hold around 6 POM meals in the freezer and another 10-12 in the fridge), private pool, separate living room. Room was very nice, and the service was really good. Free breakfast as well. While most people try to stay in Oia, those hotels start at $1,500/night at this time of year, and award availability at the two SPG properties was non-existent even very far out. I was originally very hesitant to not be staying in Oia, but in the end it didn't bother me at all. While the views in Oia are beautiful, I don't think it's worth an extra $1,200/night unless of course that amount of money doesn't mean much to you.
-We mostly just relaxed while in Santorini, but we went on a day cruise (Sunset Oia was the company) which was amazing. We did one of their semi-private tours so it was only 11 of us on the boat and we were out on the water for about 5 hours.
-We went to Oia to see the sunset on one night, and we spent another night just walking around in Fira and then got drinks at an outdoor bar there which had a really nice view.

Overall, we had a great time and I highly recommend Greece as a vacation destination. Not sure why more people here haven't gone. Feel free to ask any questions.

Offline davidmal

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Re: Greece Master Thread
« Reply #579 on: July 05, 2017, 02:44:08 PM »
Just got back from Athens and Santorini. Don't plan on writing a TR, but since there isn't a lot of info here, I figured I'd type up a couple of thoughts.

Flights
-We flew with LX J both ways (JFK-ZRH-ATH-ZRH-EWR). Connection times are good and availability was pretty wide open so I would say this is probably one of the better options seeing as UA never opens up space on the direct.
-For the ATH-JTR flight, I booked RyanAir and paid cash. Flights were cheap. I recommend paying for bags at time of booking since it's significantly more expensive to pay for them at check-in. Also, check in online and print boarding passes at home - they charge 50 euro per person to check in at airport and an additional fee to print boarding passes at airport.

Athens
-Nice to see the historical sights, but don't need more than 24 hrs there. Acropolis, first Olympic stadium, walk around Plaka district for some souvenirs, and that basically covers most of it.
-Chabad restaurant is solid. Can order meals from them (they ship to islands), though we did POM.
-We stayed at the Hilton, which was nice, but nothing special. Several SPG options there as well. The Hilton was willing to store our cooler bag in their freezer, though they pushed back at first.
-I recommend taking Ubers in ATH. Take a few extra minutes to show up than what we're used to in the US, but drivers are way nicer and it's cheaper. Also, regular cab drivers try to rip tourists off and most of them that we rode with were pretty obnoxious while the Uber drivers basically gave us a tour while they were driving us through the city.

Santorini
-We stayed at the Voreina Gallery Suites. Not part of a program so paid cash, and it came out to around $350/night. Was recommended by a friend and was really happy we stayed there. We booked their Superior Suite, which comes with a full Kitchen (so we had an oven to heat up our POM meals, and the fridge was big enough to hold around 6 POM meals in the freezer and another 10-12 in the fridge), private pool, separate living room. Room was very nice, and the service was really good. Free breakfast as well. While most people try to stay in Oia, those hotels start at $1,500/night at this time of year, and award availability at the two SPG properties was non-existent even very far out. I was originally very hesitant to not be staying in Oia, but in the end it didn't bother me at all. While the views in Oia are beautiful, I don't think it's worth an extra $1,200/night unless of course that amount of money doesn't mean much to you.
-We mostly just relaxed while in Santorini, but we went on a day cruise (Sunset Oia was the company) which was amazing. We did one of their semi-private tours so it was only 11 of us on the boat and we were out on the water for about 5 hours.
-We went to Oia to see the sunset on one night, and we spent another night just walking around in Fira and then got drinks at an outdoor bar there which had a really nice view.

Overall, we had a great time and I highly recommend Greece as a vacation destination. Not sure why more people here haven't gone. Feel free to ask any questions.
Maybe some pics too!!! if your going to do it, do it!
great job for a short TR for Stay and Travel what about Schedule?
-DMC
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it ~Ferris Bueller"