Read more about the article Zakynthos – Greece
Zakynthos - Greece

Zakynthos – Greece

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Son of legendary Arcadian chief Dardanos

Time to get to another Greek island, and this time to one of the most famous and celebrated, Zakynthos. Finding such flights are not an easy task, and generally mean either horrible and odd flight times, or a very reduced overall stay. In our case this time, is the second, merely 24 hours in the island since there were no other flights at other times or dates that could work for us, unless taking “precious” days off work as holidays, but as anyone knows by now, that is the very last option. Such days are for the longer holidays hence not really keen to use them for short destinations.

Anyway, a day was good enough to have a glimpse of the island, enjoy a fabulous hot and sunny day, and the incredible Greek food as usual. That’s the second time in Greece this year, being only 6 weeks since we’ve been to Kavala. From now on it will be highly impossible to find any other deal anywhere in Greece since the beginning of the season is around the corner, so I would say it’s time to check what’s available from October 2018 through March 2019. Sounds crazy I know to plan that in advance, but hey! that’s how we manage to keep travelling almost every weekend of the year, and discover so many places in so many countries and all for a really great budget.

Zakynthos is nowadays one of the most popular islands in Greece for tourist, notably in search of great beaches and the weather of course, but the island is more than just a sea resort: nature in this case, and scenery. But for sure what you cannot expect or be looking for is sightseeing cities and villages. It is very unfortunate that the many earthquakes, notably the 1953, have flattened almost everything where only 3 structures were left standing at the capital city. Rebuilding everything had to be fast and did not care much in the aesthetics hence the lack of real sights worth visiting. (more…)

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Read more about the article Crete – Greece
Crete - Greece

Crete – Greece

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Europe’s first advanced civilisation: The Minoan

Still with jet-lag after our trip to Ecuador, just 4 days after our return and here we go again on a plane, this time bound for another Greek island never been before: Crete. So long time wishing to come here but never found the perfect deal nor good flying times until now. And what’s best? It was a bank holiday on top, hence 3 full days to enjoy this beautiful island with countless to see and do. I’m still quite surprise about the great flight deal we got, being the way into Heraklion with British Airways. I strongly recommend you to keep checking from time to time to their offers, and if you are an executive club member and hold a good bunch of Avios, do not hesitate in using them to off-set the total cost of your flight. By doing this you will still ear Avios and tier points, and can reduce dramatically the cost as was in our case this time, much cheaper than a low-cost carrier.

It’s incredible how such a small piece of land, and island, to be home to the first advanced civilization of Europe, the Minoan, who lasted from 2700 to 1420 BC when they were taken over the Mycenaean civilization from mainland Greece. It’s with the Mycenaean that the oldest samples of writing in Greek language are found in the Knossos Palace. Then came the Archaic and Classical Period from the 6th century before Christ until the Roman rule. Thereafter is a constant period of war and continuous civilizations and rules taking over, from the double Byzantine periods, where in between Crete succumbed to the Arab rule form a century and a half, to the Venetians, the Ottoman, a state for few years before becoming a Greek province.

With such a long history and past, wherever you are in the island is full or archaeological remains, sights and historical sites. A weekend, or a long weekend as we had with 3 days in the island, was too short. Rarely we can say something like this especially when on an island, but this is the truth. We had to prioritise and crate a tour according to our time, scrapping on this occasion the whole east of the island. (more…)

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