Advantages: Everything - Great food, people, sites, views and transport
Disadvantages: No cheaper than England

...I've recently completed an Ancient History degree and as part of this course we had to spend a fortnight in a foreign country researching an aspect of our course. Immediately, me and a few friends chose Greece, hoping for a great experience. Our focus was Greek mythology in the built environment (ie-how myth was shown on buildings). The two weeks spent here saw us travelling across the country on a hectic schedule, absorbing the culture and spending time walking around the numerous well-preserved ruins Our itinerary saw us visiting Athens, Corinth, Olympia, Delphi, Tiryns, Mycenae and Eleusis. This review concerns Greece in general however, so I will not focus much on specifics. One of the first things you notice about Greece is how beautiful it is. Olympia and Delphi in particular had lush green landscapes and heart... Read review

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Advantages: Impressive site, spectacular location, museum well presented
Disadvantages: modern village very touristy

...The modern village of Olympia is in sharp contrast to the adjacent Ancient site, but it is worth suffering the tourist trappings of the modern village to experience the peace and tranquility of the site itself. Modern Olympia's main street is lined with hotels and tourist shops selling books, ceramics and T shirts. It is the starting point for most visitors to the site and can at times be quite noisy, especially in the spring when coach loads of overseas and Greek students fill the hotels and local restaurants with their boisterous activity. The ancient site lies at the end of the village and has a tree lined walkway leading to its entrance. Once you leave the modern village behind, the atmosphere changes as you enter the calm of the valley. Although the ruins are not particularly well preserved when compared to the likes... Read review

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Advantages: Freedom of movement, Standard and Skype combo phone
Disadvantages: A bit pricy. No speakerphone or cross application support

...Olympia Cordless DUALPhone The Olympia Cordless DUALPhone brings in a new era of internet telephony. It is a cordless combination standard DECT phone and internet VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone. Before I continue, a warning to those who are considering purchasing this phone. Whey they say that this is a Skype phone, they really do mean that this is a Skype phone. It only works with the Skype software, and cannot be used as a microphone with other programs. For those technically minded, the phone will show up in your computer's audio device control panel, but will not work with other programs. The phone itself is quite slim and lightweight, with a fairly neutral grey colour, and will not look out of place in either a home or office environment. The base however is rather on the bulky side, and users may have... Read review

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Advantages: Classical Sanctuary in lush surroundings
Disadvantages: No cafe just street vendors

...As a lot of Ciao readers will know by some of my previous reviews, earlier this year I embarked on a tour of classical Greece with my husband Dave. An overnight stay at Olympia was included in the tour. It was late afternoon as we approached the village and we were struck by the increasing amount of trees. After traveling through mainly mountainous landscape, the greenness of the area was a pleasant contrast and welcome surprise. The coach took us straight to our hotel, the Olympia Palace, for the night. The hotel room was pretty basic, double bed and shower. However, as we now becoming accustomed to (but still thrilled), the room had a balcony with magnificent views of the surrounding area. Evening meal was included as part of the tour. At most stops on the tour our meal had been that of chicken so I was delighted when we were... Read review

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Advantages: Comfortable, friendly and pretty stylish London hotel
Disadvantages: The movie channel didn't work properly. Minor criticism.

...turned out to be a group of really nice people who'd congregated from miles and miles away? At the eleventh hour, I decided not to be defeated. Nothing to do with losing £45. More to the point, I'd have missed out on meeting some great people and would have missed out on the opportunity to stick a finger or two up at the most incompetent pseudo-terrorists of the century. Dammit - I travelled on the tube and bus almost out of defiance. But enough of that... A short tube ride brings you to High Street Kensington station. Probably more convenient than the more obviously named "Olympia", but it's only a brisk walk or bus ride to the hotel and - hey - that's what you really wanted to read about. So here goes. Sorry; no baby Josh element here - just the thoughts of a single traveller; rare, from me - but possibly relevant! I'd walked from... Read review

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Advantages: Clearest water, snorkeling great - weather always nice
Disadvantages: Dirty! At times too hot

...as the ship was one of the bigger with a capacity of about 1,200 cars and 2,000 people – so it was equipped with bars, restaurants and shops. Annek Lines serves with two ships between Italy and Greece (Kikki1 and Kikki2). If you go with a motorhome and want to sleep in it (as we did), it is a must to challenge the staff of the ferry before they let everyone on board. Try to get an open place (half-open lower deck) for a reasonable climate. Our first stop was Patra (or Patras), North of Olympia which is an ancient city and a must-see at the Peloponnese. The Peloponnese is a man-made peninsula with the channel of Corinth (or Korinthos). This impressive waterway can be best visited and observed near Piraeus approaching Athens from the West at the Highway. It connects the harbor of Piraeus with the West side of the country so ships do not have... Read review

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Advantages: The weather, the food, the scenery
Disadvantages: The small airport and having to come home

...grounds on Laganas Beach. We took a half day trip with Graham a member of the turtle protection society which meant we got to see some of the turtles without harassing them as many boats do and also he gave us a talk on their breeding and nesting patterns which made it an interesting and educational trip. For every 1000 eggs a female turtle lays in the sand only 1 will make it into the sea and survive. This trip cost 15 Euros. Other trips available which we did not go on include: -Kefalonia - The neighbouring island, which we could see from our resort, is only 8.5 miles from Zante and you can visit the places where Captain Correlli's Mandolin was filmed. 35 Euros -Athens - The capital of Greece and site of 2004 Olympic games. 85 Euros -Olympia - You can visit the site of the original Olympic games on the Greek mainland. I visited here... Read review

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Advantages: Much greener than greek islands in the east,some traditionally greek,not bad prices
Disadvantages: Can be rainy,some resorts overdeveloped

...We were late starters to foreign travel due to one hundred and one reasons in our life. When we finally booked to fly abroad it was to Yugoslavia. As we arrived home from the travel agents the news on our television showed the start of the war out there. After many months we finally got our money back and picked Malta. That was an excellent holiday, but another story. Having whetted our appetite for foreign travel we browsed the brochures on our return from Malta wanting to pick somewhere we really fancied for the next year. We had relatives who had gone to the Greek islands in the past so somehow or other we ended up picking Lefkas, which is one the Ionian Islands of Greece. LEFKAS (lefkada) ITHAKI (ithaca) KEFALONIA ***************** ****************** *************** We travelled to the Ionian Island of Lefkas... Read review

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Advantages: Close to Athens airport and unknown paradise.
Disadvantages: Discos and tourist facilities thin on the ground

...I lived in Karystos for three years and still visit on a regular basis. I got a job there, teaching English, purely on spec. It was one of those accidents that prove you've done something good at some point in the past. I just wish I could remember what! Karystos is a fishing town at the southernmost point of the island of Evvia. Evvia is actually the second biggest island in Greece, after Crete. This fact is relatively unknown, due to its being so close to the mainland. At its closest there is actually a bridge. It hugs the coast of Attica very close to Athens and is loosely classified as one of the Sporiades group of islands. It is also little known because it has no major resorts. At least none which are used by the major package tour companies. Except for Karystos. Well not except for Karystos actually. A couple of tour... Read review

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Advantages: cheap to eat out, nice weather and clear blue sea and plenty of water sports
Disadvantages: People of Kos don't seem to like tourists, Windy

...a car or scooter here as they're everywhere. We didn't hire so I can't tell you how much this is and the reason we didn't hire was because they do drive like maniacs in Greece even 14 yr old boys racing on their scooters so do beware of this if you are going to greece. My boyfriend did get up very early one morning to go to the ancient market but I wanted a lie in! He said it was nice and this would be ideal for the historians among us. There he also saw lizards. Overall this was a brilliant holiday and I would definetly go again. Thank you for reading CJ... Read review

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