We hit the ground running once we arrived. We checked into our hotel, showered and took a nap before heading out on an Athens Food Tour. I love food and I love trying new cuisine where ever we travel. I also love doing food tours at the beginning of a trip. It exposes you to new foods and can help you figure out what to eat down the road during your trip.  This tour didn’t disappoint. Our guide led us through the maze like streets of Athens, trying specialty after specialty. We loved the gyros (prounounced EE-ro by the locals). We also tried Greek coffee, Turkish delights, olive oil, cheeses, breads, donuts and of course, mousaka and Greek salad. I’ll talk more about the food later.

If I only had one day in Athens, a visit to the Parthenon at the Acropolis would be at the top of my list. Luckily, we also had an incredible view of it from the rooftop bar at our hotel. Visiting a place that has stood for more than 2,500 years is spectacular and awe inspiring. Living in a country where something is considered old if its over 100 years old, this visit really put things into perspective. We booked a small group early morning tour and it worked out perfectly. Go early and you beat the crowds and the heat. When we were leaving, the lines to get in were incredibly long. We booked it through a company called Walks, and our tour guide Sofia was great. So much to learn and absorb in a place like that. Be prepared to see scaffolding whenever you visit the ruins. These massive monuments are constantly being repaired.

From Meteora we drove back to Athens, dropped off our rental car and hopped on a one hour flight to Zakynthos Island. The driving we did in Greece wasn’t too bad, we definitely didn’t drive in downtown Athens, that’d be just crazy. The roads are tiny, people drive erratically and there are tourists stepping out into the streets constantly. There was barely any traffic driving to and from Meteora. On Zakynthos Island the driving was a bit tiring because the roads are so narrow and twisty & turvy, but there’s not much traffic any where you drive. We stayed at a lovely resort on Zakynthos called Lesante Blu which sat right on the Ionian Sea. Our suite had its own infinity pool and jacuzzi tub. It was great because the room & board we chose included breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was incredible with your choice of hot selections plus a personal buffet of yogurt, pastries, fruits, meats & cheeses and cereals. The dinner was good as well. They often had themed nights like Greek, Italian or Asian. 

From Santorini we headed back to Athens for two more days then we made the long trek back to Colorado. We hit up a couple of our favorite food spots before heading back. Overall, my favorite foods were mousaka and the Greek Salads. The tomatoes in Greece are phenomenal. I don’t usually care for raw tomatoes, but they were incredibly sweet over there. I ate some sort of salad every single day. A big wedge of feta added just the right amount of salt to any salad.

My husband loved the gyros and searched them out wherever we went. Each place you got them put their own twist on it. Some places put fries inside them, sometimes you got tzatziki and other places served honey mustard. We expected to find lamb served everywhere but it was actually hard to find in gyros. The Greeks prefer chicken and pork. You also don’t find a lot of beef over there because the grazing land is so mountainous that they don’t have a lot of cows. I also loved the yogurt with honey, the olive oil and of course all the different cheeses. I ate my weight in cheese and olive oil. They also serve all sorts of pies, which vary in shape, size and fillings. We ate some incredible ham & cheese pies, and one leek pie that was out of this world.