Girls’ Trip to Greece

Are you and your girlfriend (or girlfriendS!) looking for a fun week-long international girls’ trip? One of my best friends and I planned an unforgettable girls’ trip to Greece for our 20-year friendship-anniversary and I am excited to share our itinerary with you!

My friend and I chose to hit 3 spots: Athens, Mykonos and Santorini. There were definitely some moments where it was a little romantic for our taste, so we vowed to go back together with our husbands once we were married (now we are…. ready to go back, Morgan??)

We went in the summer time which is definitely the most crowded but we wanted the hot, hot heat and the gorgeous weather so we risked it for the biscuit. There was laughter, tears (lol, can’t wait for that part of the blog for you all to read through), wine-a-flowin, dancing, you name it! Check out our itinerary below and comment if you end up taking the same girls’ trip!

Things to do before a Girls’ Trip to Greece:

1. Make sure you have an up to date, non-expired passport! You want to ensure your passport isn’t expiring within 6 months of your travels as well – if it is, go ahead and renew!
2. Understand that Greeks are on island time. Everyone is more relaxed, sometimes things don’t go quite as planned. A restaurant might open up slightly later than the sign says and your taxi driver might be a few minutes late. Just go with the flow and embrace the unexpected!
3. Most shops are closed on Sundays so be sure to check out where you want to go in advance. If where you were excited to visit is closed on Sunday, ensure your itinerary has you stopping by another day!
4. Make sure to have some cash on you! Greece still heavily revolves around cash and know that you are able to haggle.
5. Greece is not very disability friendly – there are a lot of steep stairs to walk from place to place. If you or someone you are traveling with has a disability, ensure to check in ahead of time with your accommodations and transportation to make sure they have options that work for you.
6. Be prepared for the islands to be busy during peak season (June-August). A lot of the gorgeous views that you see online that don’t have many people in it – that will not be the case if you go during these 3 months! If you want to beat the crowds go in May or September-October.

Day 1: Fly through Athens to Mykonos

You can decide if you want to check out Athens on the front end or back end of your trip – we decided on the backend. We flew from New York to Athens and then to Mykonos so really the whole first day for us was traveling! We got to Mykonos fairly late in the evening which worked out because we were exhausted.

We chose to stay in southern Mykonos for our 2 day, 3 night stay on the island. We wanted to be close to Paradise Beach due to recommendation from our friends who went 4 month prior to us!

Accommodations Options:

• Almyra Guest Houses (where we stayed for our entire time in Mykonos – $$$)
• Mykonos Le Grand Bleu Beachfront Suite – $$$$
• Zephyros – $$
• New Paradise Beach Resort – $$ -$$$ depending on room (Opening May 2022 – looks amazing!)

Day 2: Relax & Sunset Cruise

We took our first true day of vacation to wake up late, make some coffee and drink it on the balcony of our Almyra Guest House. It was a stunning view and was so relaxing! You can do the same or get up and get the day going with a few activities. You can ask the front desk at your hotel the best spot to hop on a bus and get a ride to other areas of Mykonos.

• Alefkandra (Little Venice): Around the western lip of the Old Harbour is a gorgeous web of little car-free alleys.
• Windmills of Mykonos: Close to Alefkandra is this row of seven white windmills posted on a small cape.
• Matogianni Street: On this street you can find souvenir shops, boutiques, jewelry stores and a couple of international chains like Sephora and Lacoste.

My friend and I decided to have more of a “romantic night” not necessarily on purpose but we heard great things about the sunset cruises! There are a couple types of sunset cruises you can take around Mykonos – we went with the Little Venice Sunset Cruise. It was a little windy during our boat ride, but we got to see a gorgeous sunset, have some wine and cheese and just enjoy the views together. I can imagine that booking this excursion with a group of girls or with a significant other would also be fun!

Day 3: Beach Day & Night Club

Take this day to get a tan on a beach! Paradise Beach is at the southern part of Mykonos – that is the beach that we chose to spend our day on. We picked this beach mostly due to the day parties, though there are also areas that are more calm if you are not into the party scene. If you want to get a cabana or be a part of Paradise Beach Club for the day, please ensure you are booking well in advance! These swanky spots get filled quickly and the odds of you snagging something day-of is pretty slim.

Note that a lot of the beaches in Greece can be clothing optional, meaning there might be some nude people near you. If you aren’t used to this or haven’t been to a nude beach before, be aware of this so you don’t stare!

After a day at the beach, it’s time for the Night Club – what’s a girls’ trip to Greece without some late-night partying? Some fun clubs to consider going to are:

• Tropicana Club
• Scarpa
• Cavo Paradiso
  

Day 4: Water Taxi to Santorini & ATVing

Now to begin the journey to the next beautiful island in Greece – Santorini! You can get from Mykonos to Santorini a couple of ways, but we recommend taking a Water Taxi/Ferry Boat. You can book your ferry tickets in advance online here – we recommend booking tickets in advance if you are traveling during peak season. The boat ride is about 2 hours long so it doesn’t take up much of your day – if you go early enough in the AM, you can have practically an entire day in Santorini!

After you have checked into your hotel – the day is yours! We chose to rent some ATVs and travel around the island for a few hours. If you just start walking down streets you will run into storefronts that rents ATVs; this is what we did. Spoiler alert – our ATV broke down twice, so maybe look online and read reviews on places before renting an ATV from them! Poor Morgan ended up crying out of frustration while we were stuck on the side of the road in the blazing heat in a foreign country! Even though we had a bit of a tumultuous time on our ATV, once we got an updated one that barely worked, it was one of the most fun things we did during our trip.

Accommodation options (note: I don’t recommend the spot we stayed, so below are additional hotels we found but didn’t book):

• Villa Ilias – $$
• Caldera Apex Suites – $$$
• Anila Suites – $$$$
• Iconic Santorini, a Boutique Cave Hotel – $$$$$
  

Day 5: Santorini Red Beach & Wine Tour

For the second half of your girls’ trip, let’s fill it with back to back fun! Assuming you stay in Fira (the most picturesque spot in Santorini), if you want to check out the Red Beach, you will need to travel down there. It’s fairly easy to get from Fira to Red Beach – there is a bus that you can take that costs approx. €1 – €3. Take the public bus From Fira to Akrotiri, walk south about 5 mins to the sea then walk for 1 km west along the coast.

Depending on what time of the year you go to Greece, the Red Beach might be crowded. When we went, it was fairly crowded and we didn’t feel comfortable leaving our personal items on the beach while we were in the water, so we took turns taking a dip in the water. Then, we held our belongings above our head to try to go in together once to get a photo (do it for the ‘gram, am I right?)

We spent about an hour here since it was crowded and then headed back to our hotel to get ready for our wine tour! The wine tour that we booked was my most favorite part of our entire trip – you can check it out here: Sunset Tour: Santorini Wine Adventure. The wine tour was 4 hours long where we visited 3 different wineries and sampled 12 different types of wine. Not only was the wine amazing, but we learned so much about Greek wine, food pairings and interesting facts about wineries in Greece. This tour took place toward the end of the day so we got to sip on wine, eat some cheese and watch the sunset which was perfect.

Day 6: Volcano Cruise & Sunset Views

The last day in Santorini! We took this day to go on a full day adventure where we got to climb a volcano, swam in hot springs, and explored Oia village for the evening. There are a few versions of this tour where you can do the full-day one like we did or you can do a shorter one if you just want to check out the volcano and hot springs.

The boat that took us around was a cool ship that didn’t have much cover (so make sure to wear sunscreen and bring water!) We first went to an area where we could take a dip into the warm/hot springs which was stunning. From there we hopped back on the boat, cruised a little more until we got to the volcano. One thing to note about the volcano tour – it is a bit of a hike up it. I recommend bringing close-toed shoes for this and again, some water! It was really toasty at the top, so we didn’t stay up there for too long. It was pretty cool to look down into a volcano though!

After all of the sight seeing, we explored Oia Village – know how we got there? BY DONKEY! There were a group of people who were allowing people to ride a donkey up the stairs (for a price, of course) so we took the easy way to make it up! This was a little scary, riding an animal up these steep steps on the side of a cliff, but we made it. You can do this, or choose to walk up the stairs (many people chose to walk – they looked a little beat once we saw them at the top!)

Day 7: Athens Food & The Acropolis

Now onto Athens! You can take the trip to Athens by flying or taking a ferry boat, though we recommend flying since the ferry takes about 5 hours. Once we landed, we checked into our hotel and immediately started wandering to find food. There were a lot of quick restaurants that you can pop into for grub – make sure to take a look at top restaurants in all islands before traveling in case you want to make reservations!

After a quick burger, we walked over to the Acropolis – it was only about a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel. Make sure to wear sunscreen if you are going to be without cover and bring some water to drink on the way to the Acropolis! Once we got there, I was dying of thirst so I bought some water before heading in, oops – they don’t allow any food or beverage inside the Acropolis. So no, you cannot bring even water with you when you enter which I was disappointed in since it was a blistering day out.

You can do private tours of this historical site, or you can just walk it on your own! We chose to walk it on our own and purchased our tickets in advance, though you can also get them at the gate as well. Tickets cost approx €20 from April through October and €10 from November through March.

After we sweat our a**es off in the blazing heat, we went back to our hotel and had dinner and drinks with a gorgeous rooftop view of the Acropolis. It was a great evening to end our trip!

Accommodation Options:

• Attalos Hotel – $$ (this is where we stayed – great option!)
• Belle Epoque Suites – $$
• The Residence Aiolou Suites and Spa – $$$

Day 8: Fly Back Home!

Wah – the fun vacation has to come to an end! Just like getting to Greece, the way home is also a long travel day. The good news is that if you ended your trip in Athens, you likely only have one layover versus if you ended your trip on another island like Mykonos or Santorini, you would have more than one.

We hope that you enjoy your Girls’ Trip to Greece and please comment below if you have any additions to add for people booking their trip to Greece! If you are looking for a more adventurous trip for your family, make sure to take a look at our 9-day Family Friendly Peru Itinerary!