Guide to Greece & the Greek Islands

Maps of Greece  & the Greek Islands - Facts at a Glance - Environment History Economy - Culture - Events - Facts for the Traveler - Money & Costs - When to Go - The Greek Islands & Major Attractions - Off the Beaten Track - Activities  Getting There & Away - Getting Around - Recommended Reading - Detailed information about the mainland - Detailed information about the islands 

International Ferry Schedules to & from Greece   

Greek Island Hopping : Domestic Ferry Schedules

DESTINATION GREECE

Having exported chaos, drama, tragedy and democracy before most nations stayed up late enough to want souvlaki, Greece's legacy is unrivalled. From smoggy Athens to blindingly bright islands, Greece is famous for its columns, ancient fragments, and untanned gods while living out every sunny moment in a chunky salad of feistiness, irrepressibility and church bells. It's not all fishermen, Zeus, goats and bouzoukis, but it's ravishing and raucous and sun-ripened to the squishing point for modern myth-makers and hedonistic holiday-makers alike.

Facts at a Glance

Full country name: Hellenic Republic
Area: 131,944 sq km
Population: 10.66 million
Capital city: Athens (pop. approx. 3.1 million)
People: 98% Greek with minorities of Turks, Slavic-Macedonians and Albanians
Language: Greek
Religion: 97% Greek Orthodox
Government: multiparty democracy
Prime Minister: Konstandinos Simitis

Environment

Greece lies at the southern extremity of the Balkan peninsula in south-eastern Europe. To the north, it has borders with Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria, and to the east it borders Turkey. The peninsula, which constitutes mainland Greece, is surrounded by about 1400 islands, of which 169 are inhabited. The islands are divided into six groups: the Cyclades, the Ionian, the Dodecanese, the islands of the North-Eastern Aegean, the Sporades and the Saronic Gulf islands. The two largest islands, Crete and Evia, do not belong to any group. Roughly four-fifths of Greece is mountainous, with most land lying over 1500m above sea level. Epiros and Macedonia, in northern Greece, still have extensive forests, but the rest of the country has been seriously denuded by goat grazing, felling and forest fires.

The arid Mani region in the Peloponnese is blessed with the country's best array of wildflowers, including crocuses, anemones, irises, poppies, lilies, rock roses and cyclamens. The fields are not only carpeted with flowers; follow your nose and you'll find yourself standing knee-deep in wild oregano, basil and thyme.

Greeks are overly fond of hunting and fishing, resulting in the serious depletion of marine and bird life in some places. Wolves and bears are considered pests rather than endangered species by the human population that shares their mountain habitats. Watching dolphins and porpoises as they follow the boats is one of the pleasures of island hopping, and the waters around Zakynthos and Kefallonia are home to the last large colony of sea turtles in Europe. The baby turtles, which are hatched on sandy beaches, now not only have to face natural hazards as they make their way out to sea, but also cars, discos and beach parties. The Mediterranean monk seal is the rarest of all the seal species and one of the six most endangered mammals in the world. Numbers have declined drastically in the last 100 years and the present population is between 400 and 500 individuals, about half of which live in Greece.

Greece has mild wet winters and hot dry summers. Winter temperatures can be severe in the mountains, and even Athens can get viciously cold. Maximum temperatures on the islands hover around 30 degrees Celsius in summer, but the heat is often tempered by the northerly wind known as the meltemi

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