Limestone walls, the Acropolis, and a village on the rim of a volcano.
The Adriatic and the Aegean are a short flight apart and a long way apart in feeling. A walled city to start, a loud and living capital in the middle, and the caldera at the end, when the only thing left to do is watch the light go.
01 — Croatia
Dubrovnik
A walled city of limestone and red tile, with the Adriatic on three sides.
Dubrovnik's old town is a complete walled city on a rock above the sea, its marble main street, churches and palaces packed inside ramparts you can walk all the way round. Outside the walls the coast runs to beaches, islands and the mountains behind.
The city walls
The Stradun and the old town
Fort Lovrijenac
The cable car and Mount Srđ
The shoulder months, May to June, September to October. Warm enough to swim, cool enough to walk the walls in comfort, and the crowds lighter. The pick of the year.
02 — Greece
Athens
The Acropolis above, and a loud, warm, living city all round it.
Athens is the ancient sites — the Acropolis, the Agora, the temple of Olympian Zeus — set inside a sprawling modern capital of rooftop bars, street markets and neighbourhood tavernas. The Parthenon is visible from half the city; the rest asks to be explored on foot.
The Acropolis
The Ancient Agora and the Roman Forum
Plaka and Anafiotika
Monastiraki and the markets
Spring, April to June. Warm, bright and green on the hills. Comfortable on the Acropolis and early enough to beat the summer crowds.
03 — Greece
Santorini
White villages along the rim of a drowned volcano.
Santorini is the crescent left when a volcano blew itself apart, and its villages sit along the top of the cliff that was the crater wall, looking down into a caldera filled by the sea. Oia and Fira are the famous ones; the black and red beaches, the vineyards and the Bronze Age town at Akrotiri are the rest of the island.
Oia
Fira and the caldera path
Akrotiri
The beaches
The shoulder months, April to June, September to October. Warm days, swimmable sea by June and again through October, and rooms easier to find. The most comfortable weeks.
