Greece has been one of the destinations in my bucket list for a while now and I am so glad I was finally able to do it.
Once again I wanted it all, so decided to book business class tickets from Melbourne to Dubai and Dubai to Athens through Emirates. I needed to be comfortable for almost a 20-hour flight and me being the princess, economy class was not going to cut it for me this time.
Days spent in Greece: 6 nights and 7 days
Our Budget: $14,000 AUD
Our 20 hour Business class flight
Emirates business class flight from Melbourne to Athens. The food was good compared to most airlines. The Melbourne business class lounge had hot breakfast options along with all beverage options and champagne. Since it was an early morning flight we were given breakfast to start, scrambled eggs with hot smoked salmon. For the light meal, we had a beef burger and for lunch, it was braised miso beef ribs with mushrooms and carrots.
Overall quite happy with the food and the beverages selection. Champagne that was served was Moet Chandon. There was quite a range of good cocktails available on the sky bar menu. On the downside, the service was quite poor on this flight.
We had a stopover in Dubai for 3 hours, we relaxed in the business class lounge.
Emirates business class Dubai to Athens flight was an A380 just like the previous flight thus it still had the sky bar. Again amazing cocktails and beverages served on this flight. It was a 4-hour flight and the food was great. For dinner to start with I had smoked salmon with capers n sour cream and for main, I had the slow-cooked lamb with tomato rice and veggies. Totally different to the last flight the service was exceptionally good on this flight. Champagne served on this flight was Veuve.
It took me 8 months of planning, booking, research, reading blogs and Instagram to plan this entire trip. Some accommodation and restaurants need to be booked well in advance. Which also gives you a better rate especially accommodation. Planning is the key to a good trip. Even after so much of planning we still missed a couple of things.
Car rental need to be booked in advance as we paid a fortune to get the last available automatic car in Santorini, without a car it’s not easy to get around the island and since it has narrow roads and left-hand driving we felt safe driving an automatic car.
Google maps don’t work, make sure to download Google maps offline, as it will help out massively.
Have an international driving license as some places refuse to rent cars without it. We had one but I was not planning on getting one.
Also, the islands are closed for 6 months and open for 6 months, I personally believed the weather was good in September not too cold or too hot.
Things we did in Greece
Day 1 Athens
We visited the Acropolis, which is listed as a world heritage sites, the view from the top is amazing, and Athens is a city full of ancient history.
We decided to have lunch at a local tavern, we had souvlaki and moussaka, it was different from what I have tasted previously. We also gave Freddo cappuccino and affogato a try, it was a good caffeine fix for a hot day and lastly, we had the famous Greek doughnuts loukoumades, oh boy it was worth all the calories.
One of my hobbies is to eat in Michelin star restaurants in every country I visit. I visited a Two-star Michelin restaurant in Athens called Spondi
The restaurant was outside in the terrace with a lot of trees in the surrounding.
For the entree, we ordered the foie gras with chocolate and spices, was quite unusual to match foie gras with bitter dark chocolate, as it really needed something sweet to balance the flavours. And the scallops with basmati rice purée, Yuzu and seaweed were amazing and cooked well. For main we ordered the Wild Turbot with chargrilled corn and corn sauce with lemongrass was very flavourful, and the sea bass with tomato water ravioli and dehydrated olives was also a winner.
For dessert I had the green apple, the apple shape dome was made out of pulled sugar filled with yoghurt and green apple sorbet. It was not balanced really well as the whole dessert was quite sour. It was a good dessert but it did not have anything to cut through the sourness.
Overall a good experience, but it did not leave me speechless.
Day 2 Santorini
We decided to fly to Santorini, you can also go by boat but it takes more time. Honestly, I didn’t think the boat was way cheaper than flying because it didn’t make much of a difference for us.
Oh boy, where do I start? I need to say the pictures don’t justify the beauty of this island, it is much more beautiful than this. We rented a car because there are only a limited number of taxis on the island. And it is hard to get around the island without a car. We checked into our suite (Exclusive plan suites) and had a local lunch overlooking the beautiful caldera. Then we went for dinner in Oia, which is the best place to watch the sunset. We booked a restaurant for dinner called Kastro Oia. And we finished the day by having a glass of wine in the Jacuzzi overlooking the caldera.
Day 3 Santorini
We had breakfast in our suite. Then we went to the red beach, it was a bit dangerous because there were rocks falling off the cliff but it was a small hike to get to the beach. Then we went for lunch to a restaurant called Yolos it’s a beach restaurant with music and cocktails. Then for dinner, we went to a winery called Santo wines and did a wine tasting overlooking the sunset and had dinner. This place is amazing to view the sunset, there was live music as well.
The whole trip in Santorini was to do little sightseeing as possible and just to relax and enjoy the food and views. Santorini has left me speechless.
Day 4 Mykonos
We left Santorini and arrived at Mykonos late afternoon. we decided to take the ferry this time to get to the island. Getting a boat is quite a complicated process, when we were in Santorini, we had to go to an agent and print off the ticket, you cannot go without the print off and they don’t email it to you as well. Then after getting to the harbour, there are so many ships and it is very confusing. There is no clear signage as to which ship should we board because no one checks the ticket. I was so worried that I will get into a different destination ship
Mykonos is amazing with all the little paths and blue houses. we stayed in a place called little Venice the centre of Mykonos town, where it is close by to everything. We went out for dinner at a restaurant called Kastro amazing little ally way with amazing food. When in Mykonos it is a must to visit cocktail bars, so we ended our night having a few drinks at a cocktail bar called caprice.
Day 5 Mykonos
We woke up in the morning and realised that Mykonos ends their nights very late and their day starts late morning. No wonder its called the party island. Everything started to open early afternoon. We visited the famous windmill and paraportiani church also known as the whitewashed church and walked inside the Mykonos town and little Venice. We had dinner at a restaurant called Katrina’s restaurant and cocktail bar where we sat in the balcony and enjoyed the sunset. We also went to a club/ bar to enjoy the nightlife in Mykonos.
Day 6 Mykonos
Weather was very bad today. We went to a small Greek tavern called Kiki’s tavern for lunch, this place has no phone to take reservations, the restaurant is outside and we had to line up for 1 hour to eat here. There was nothing fancy but all the food tasted really good. It was simple Greek food done right. There was an amazing beach called ‘lovers beach’ just next to the restaurant. For dinner, we went to a restaurant called M eating that serves Greek food with a bit of flair, the food here was amazing too.
We ended the night at a Mykonos beach club, soon we realised that we are too old to party