Greece in January

Athens pairs the Acropolis and some of the world’s great museums with a working, late-night city and a coastline of beaches and coves running south to the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. It is also where most Greek island trips begin.

Greece’s second city: a seafront promenade, Roman and Byzantine monuments on every other corner, a serious food scene and a student-town night. The natural first stop for anyone driving down from Romania before Halkidiki.

Meteora and Delphi are mainland Greece at its most dramatic: Byzantine monasteries on sandstone pillars above Kalambaka, and Apollo's sanctuary on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Two World Heritage sites that pair well on a road trip from Athens or Thessaloniki.

Nafplio is the Peloponnese’s most graceful harbour town: Venetian fortresses, marble lanes and seafront tavernas, within an easy drive of Mycenae, Tiryns and the theatre at Epidaurus. Base here for ancient sites by day and the waterfront by night.

Greece’s largest island is almost a country of its own: Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, Venetian harbours in Chania and Rethymno, gorges in the White Mountains and lagoon beaches like Balos and Elafonisi. Plan for distance, and for more than a week.