Greece Family Holidays

Family Holidays in Mainland Greece

• Explore the Greek capital, where the Acropolis won’t fail to impress - see our feature on Athens with kids.

• Head for the gorgeous and hugely family-friendly Peloponnese peninsula.

• Holiday on the most-developed (but still delightful) part of the mainland, the Halkidiki peninsula, accessible from Thessalonika airport. 

• Try out other part of the mainland accessible from local airports, including Volos in Thessaly in central Greece. It’s a the base of the Pelion peninsula, with classic Aegean scenery and lots of flotilla-style sailing holidays. The beautiful sandy resort of Plataniá, on its southern tip, is a good jumping-off point for the Sporades (see below).

• Discover Preveza in the north-westerly Epirus region. From Preveza it's a short drive up the coast to Igoumenitsa and the Albanian border. Coastal villages here with stunning natural harbours, such as Párga, are yachting havens with wonderful waterside tavernas.

Holidays in the Ionian Islands

• Head for these lush green islands in the north-west – very popular, with direct flights from the UK. Corfu and Zakynthos, and to a lesser extent Kefalloniá with its picturesque fishing village Fiskardo (a yachting favourite, with pastel-painted Venetian houses from the 18th century) are very developed. But as with all Greek islands, tourist centres tend to cluster in one region while other parts are quiet and undiscovered. As soon as you leave the coast and drive into the interior (car-hire is cheap and distances are short), you enter the timeless world of the Greek village.

• Discover Zakynthos (also known as Zante) in spring, by preference, when it’s quieter. The island has been conquered by a dazzling number of civilisations, all of whom left something of their culture and architecture behind. Gerakas beach at the southernmost tip of the Vassilikos peninsula is best for water sports, while Laganas Bay is one of the world's most important breeding sites for the loggerhead turtle

• To get away from other tourists, take a boat to the wooded, underdeveloped island of Paxos. 

• From Kefalloniá take a short ferry trip to Lefkas, from which you can drive along a causeway to the mainland, and on to Preveza (see above).

Family Holidays in the Saronic Gulf

• Check out these islands easily reachable from Athens, providing peace after the hurly-burly of the capital. Green and pine-covered, with secluded bays and a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Hydra is the loveliest. Kids love the bikes and donkeys that provide the main form of transport along its winding tracks, while parents love the tranquillity of car-free streets (it’s rare in Greece to be far removed from the puttering of scooters and motorbikes).

• Discover Spetse and Poros, playgrounds of Athenians, with pretty resorts and beachside tavernas.

Family Holidays in the Cyclades

• Take a ferry from Piraeus or Raffina to the Cycladic Islands, including Naxos, Andros and Mykonos, scattered across the middle of the Aegean – picture-book Greece, with blue-domed churches, hilltop windmills and the whitewashed cubist architecture of their towns and villages. They are mainly arid and austere but like the rest of Greece have beaches to suit every taste.

• In the southern Cyclades, discover volcanic Santorini – famous for its sunsets but also offering archaeological sites remains and activities including sea kayaking, hiking and hot springs visits. There are also rapid ferry connections from Santorini to Crete, another family favourite.

Family Holidays in the Dodecanese

• Explore this group of a dozen islands spread in a great arc across the southern Aegean, with some – notably Kastellórizo – just a stone’s throw from Turkey. The most developed are Rhodes in the south and, about halfway up, Kos – both offering lots of family-friendly resorts and beaches.

• Check out the more obscure Dodecanese islands – Tilos, Leros, Lipsi, Kalymnos. All can reached by boat – indeed, this is perfect island-hopping territory, low-key and laidback.

Family holidays in the North Aegean Islands

• Encounter the bigger, more imposing, islands of Lesbos, Lemnos, Samos and Chios to the north: fascinating blends of modern Greek towns, ancient architecture, beaches, extraordinary landscapes (the petrified forest of Lesbos is famous), and striking remnants of the architecture left by the Genoese and Ottoman merchants who were based here.

• Head further north, to Thásos, admired for its ancient ruins and its honey (the island quite literally buzzes).

Family Holidays in the Sporades

• Directly to the west, discover the last island group, the Sporades, with four main islands: Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonnisos and Skyros, popular with Athenians in summer because of their milder climate. Intensely green, they offer wooded inlets, sandy beaches, pretty towns and unspoilt interiors.

• Explore Skiathos, which with its airport is the most developed of the Sporades, although many parts of the island cannot be reached by road.