Top 10 Best Things to Do in Greece

The crescent of cliff-top villages -- Fira, Oia, Imerovigli -- perched on the rim of a volcano that exploded around 1627 BC and may have destroyed the Minoan civilization, creating the world's largest caldera still visible from space, is the most photographed landscape in Europe. The blue-domed churches and whitewashed cubic houses of Oia at sunset attract 10,000 visitors daily in peak season to a village of 1,500 residents, and the view across the caldera to the still-active Nea Kameni volcano is the defining image of the Greek islands.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site at the foot of Mount Parnassus was considered by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the world (omphalos), marked by a stone navel, and its Oracle -- a priestess (Pythia) who inhaled ethylene gases emerging from a geological fissure -- was consulted by leaders from Croesus to Alexander the Great for 1,000 years from 800 BC to 390 AD. The site contains the Temple of Apollo, a 5,000-seat theatre, and the Delphi Museum housing the 478 BC Charioteer of Delphi -- one of the finest surviving bronze statues from antiquity.

Six Eastern Orthodox monasteries built on top of sandstone pillars -- natural rock formations that rise 400 metres from the Thessaly plain -- in the 14th and 15th centuries by monks seeking isolation from the world, the Meteora complex was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 for both its natural landscape and its Byzantine architecture. Monks were originally hauled up in nets; today 146 steps cut into the rock provide access to monasteries where icons, frescoes, and illuminated manuscripts from the 11th century are preserved.

The Cyclades archipelago of 220 islands centered on the sacred island of Delos -- birthplace of Apollo in Greek mythology and one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient world, now a UNESCO site -- encompasses the party island of Mykonos, the traditional villages of Naxos, and the authentic island life of Paros. Delos itself, uninhabited today, contains the ruins of a Hellenistic city of 25,000 residents and the famous Terrace of the Lions -- five marble lion guardians sculpted in 600 BC.

The Central Market of Athens (Varvakios Agora), operating since 1886, is one of Europe's great covered markets -- with entire halls dedicated to fresh fish, meat, olives, and cheese from every region of Greece -- and the surrounding streets contain Athens' best street food including souvlaki pita, loukoumades (honey-dipped doughnut balls), and spanakopita (spinach and feta phyllo pie). Greek cuisine's Mediterranean Diet designation by UNESCO protects a 3,000-year-old food culture now recognized as the world's healthiest dietary pattern.

The birthplace of the Olympic Games -- held without interruption from 776 BC to 393 AD, a continuous run of 1,169 years, before being abolished by Christian Emperor Theodosius I -- contains the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, which housed the Statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), and the 192-metre Olympic stadium still used for the Olympic torch lighting ceremony every four years. Pierre de Coubertin revived the Games in 1896 specifically because of the Olympia site, which he had visited in 1875.

Greece's largest island contains the Palace of Knossos -- the administrative center of the Minoan civilization (2700-1450 BC), the first advanced society in Europe -- whose labyrinthine floor plan of 1,300 rooms is believed to have inspired the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Crete also contains the Samaria Gorge, one of Europe's longest gorges at 16 kilometres, and a cuisine (Cretan diet) that gerontologists in the 1950s identified as the reason Cretan men had the lowest heart disease rates in the world.

The best-preserved medieval city in the world -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose 4-kilometre walls, built by the Knights of St John between 1309 and 1522, enclose a perfectly intact Gothic city of hospitals, inns, and the Palace of the Grand Masters -- Rhodes Old Town is inhabited by 6,000 people who still live within the original Crusader fortifications. The Street of the Knights, cobbled in 1467 and lined with the Inns of the eight tongues (nationalities) of the Order of St John, is considered the finest surviving example of medieval urban planning in Europe.

The best-preserved ancient Greek theatre in the world, built in the 4th century BC and capable of seating 14,000 spectators, Epidaurus is renowned for acoustics so perfect that a coin dropped on the stage floor is audible in the back row without amplification -- a feat that modern acoustic engineers attribute to the limestone seating and the circular design. The Athens Epidaurus Festival, held every summer since 1955, presents ancient Greek drama in the original theatre to audiences of 14,000, maintaining 2,500 years of continuous theatrical tradition.

The crescent of cliff-top villages -- Fira, Oia, Imerovigli -- perched on the rim of a volcano that exploded around 1627 BC and may have destroyed the Minoan civilization, creating the world's largest caldera still visible from space, is the most photographed landscape in Europe. The blue-domed churches and whitewashed cubic houses of Oia at sunset attract 10,000 visitors daily in peak season to a village of 1,500 residents, and the view across the caldera to the still-active Nea Kameni volcano is the defining image of the Greek islands.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site at the foot of Mount Parnassus was considered by the ancient Greeks to be the center of the world (omphalos), marked by a stone navel, and its Oracle -- a priestess (Pythia) who inhaled ethylene gases emerging from a geological fissure -- was consulted by leaders from Croesus to Alexander the Great for 1,000 years from 800 BC to 390 AD. The site contains the Temple of Apollo, a 5,000-seat theatre, and the Delphi Museum housing the 478 BC Charioteer of Delphi -- one of the finest surviving bronze statues from antiquity.

Six Eastern Orthodox monasteries built on top of sandstone pillars -- natural rock formations that rise 400 metres from the Thessaly plain -- in the 14th and 15th centuries by monks seeking isolation from the world, the Meteora complex was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 for both its natural landscape and its Byzantine architecture. Monks were originally hauled up in nets; today 146 steps cut into the rock provide access to monasteries where icons, frescoes, and illuminated manuscripts from the 11th century are preserved.

The Cyclades archipelago of 220 islands centered on the sacred island of Delos -- birthplace of Apollo in Greek mythology and one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient world, now a UNESCO site -- encompasses the party island of Mykonos, the traditional villages of Naxos, and the authentic island life of Paros. Delos itself, uninhabited today, contains the ruins of a Hellenistic city of 25,000 residents and the famous Terrace of the Lions -- five marble lion guardians sculpted in 600 BC.

The Central Market of Athens (Varvakios Agora), operating since 1886, is one of Europe's great covered markets -- with entire halls dedicated to fresh fish, meat, olives, and cheese from every region of Greece -- and the surrounding streets contain Athens' best street food including souvlaki pita, loukoumades (honey-dipped doughnut balls), and spanakopita (spinach and feta phyllo pie). Greek cuisine's Mediterranean Diet designation by UNESCO protects a 3,000-year-old food culture now recognized as the world's healthiest dietary pattern.

The birthplace of the Olympic Games -- held without interruption from 776 BC to 393 AD, a continuous run of 1,169 years, before being abolished by Christian Emperor Theodosius I -- contains the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, which housed the Statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), and the 192-metre Olympic stadium still used for the Olympic torch lighting ceremony every four years. Pierre de Coubertin revived the Games in 1896 specifically because of the Olympia site, which he had visited in 1875.

Greece's largest island contains the Palace of Knossos -- the administrative center of the Minoan civilization (2700-1450 BC), the first advanced society in Europe -- whose labyrinthine floor plan of 1,300 rooms is believed to have inspired the myth of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Crete also contains the Samaria Gorge, one of Europe's longest gorges at 16 kilometres, and a cuisine (Cretan diet) that gerontologists in the 1950s identified as the reason Cretan men had the lowest heart disease rates in the world.

The best-preserved medieval city in the world -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose 4-kilometre walls, built by the Knights of St John between 1309 and 1522, enclose a perfectly intact Gothic city of hospitals, inns, and the Palace of the Grand Masters -- Rhodes Old Town is inhabited by 6,000 people who still live within the original Crusader fortifications. The Street of the Knights, cobbled in 1467 and lined with the Inns of the eight tongues (nationalities) of the Order of St John, is considered the finest surviving example of medieval urban planning in Europe.

The best-preserved ancient Greek theatre in the world, built in the 4th century BC and capable of seating 14,000 spectators, Epidaurus is renowned for acoustics so perfect that a coin dropped on the stage floor is audible in the back row without amplification -- a feat that modern acoustic engineers attribute to the limestone seating and the circular design. The Athens Epidaurus Festival, held every summer since 1955, presents ancient Greek drama in the original theatre to audiences of 14,000, maintaining 2,500 years of continuous theatrical tradition.