I’d looked at cruises and travel packages but none of them really did what I wanted.

In our homeschool, we studied ancient times in history this year and I wanted to go to Greece to see the places we learned about.

I’ve always wanted to go to Greece!

I used Airhint to find great flight deals with Ryanair. I used Booking.com for hotels. We rented a van in Athens and in Thessaloniki with CarRentals.com.

We flew from Frankfurt Hahn to Thessaloniki, then to Athens. We drove all over the peninsula, then back to Athens, flew back to Thessaloniki and explored for a couple days, then flew home to Frankfurt Hahn.

I wish we’d had more time to explore some of the islands and some other historic places.

Here’s our itinerary for our weeklong tour of the Peloponnese:

We arrived late into Thessaloniki, ate a lovely meal at the hotel and crashed before our next morning early flight into Athens.

Athens

We rented a van and parked it the whole time we were there. We spent 2 days exploring the city on foot. It’s charming and friendly.

We were able to spend the afternoon at the Parthenon Museum and have the best meal of our entire trip before crashing our last night before flying back to Thessaloniki.

Mycenae

We retrieved our rented van and drove all over the Peloponnese. We visited the archeaological site on the way to Kalamata.

Kalamata

We spent 2 nights at this beach resort. It was a much-needed rest.

Olympia

We took a day trip to the training grounds for the first Olympics while staying in Kalamata. We were surprised how much we loved this!

Nafplio

We visited this picturesque town in the morning on the way back to Athens. Great views and a bead shop.

Epidaurus

We stopped by the temple of Asclepius and the ancient theatre in the afternoon on the way back to Athens.

Thessaloniki

We rented a van and spent 2 days exploring this lovely city before flying home.

Check out our Eating Through Greece post!

Tips for traveling in Greece:

• I bought Rick Steves’ book on Athens and the Peloponnese for my Kindle app on my iPad mini so I got to view it as we walked around. It was SO helpful!
• Be very aware on public transportation. We didn’t even use it, but we still put our extra money and passports in our hotel safe so it wasn’t a worry. We were even warned about the metro and the Central Market by our hotel clerks.
• Restaurants serve ice-cold pitchers of tap water. I love that! Be aware that some places add a charge for it. We noticed a Euro or two for water and bread on some of our bills. It didn’t bother us because we needed it after walking all day long, but you can always ask and decline if you’re on a budget or gluten intolerant.
• English is spoken very well almost everywhere. Euros are the accepted money. ATMs are widely available. Cards with the pin and chip are accepted at most restaurants and shops. Cash is still needed for lots of places.
• Don’t throw anything – including toilet paper! – into the toilets. There are handy little containers to place everything into beside the toilets. The pipes are apparently so easily clogged in Greece that this is the solution.

We loved our trip to Greece.

We’d love to return someday and explore the islands and other cities we didn’t have time to see.