Greece Family Travel Guide

Dinner starts at nine. A taverna at seven will be empty and half the kitchen will not be ready. Feed the kids something small at six, then go late with everyone else. Nobody will look at you for having children out at ten.

Everything shuts in the afternoon. Roughly two until five or six, especially on the islands and outside high season. Do not plan your shopping or your sightseeing then. Do what Greeks do and stop.

Paper goes in the bin, not the toilet. The pipes are narrow and old and this is not negotiable in most of the country. Tell the kids on day one, more than once.

Cover shoulders and knees in monasteries. Meteora and the island churches enforce it. Some hand out wraps at the door, some do not. Carry a scarf and long shorts and save yourself the argument.

Do not hold up an open palm at anyone. The moutza, five fingers pushed toward someone, is a serious insult. Wave with your palm turned in. It is the only gesture I brief people on before Greece.

Euros, and the islands cost double the mainland. Santorini and Mykonos in August are expensive. Naxos, Crete and the mainland are not. A family room runs roughly 120 to 200 euros a night outside the famous islands.

Carry more cash than you would elsewhere in Europe. Small tavernas, beach bars, island taxis and some ferry kiosks are cash only, and island ATMs run empty on summer weekends. Take out money before you leave the mainland.

August heat is a real planning constraint. Athens regularly hits 100 degrees and the Acropolis site has closed in the middle of the day during heatwaves. Sightsee at opening or at five in the afternoon, not at noon.

Buy the Acropolis ticket online with a timed slot. The combined ticket covers six other Athens sites and it is worth it. Go at opening. The line and the heat both build fast.

Use the app, not the street. Athens taxis have a reputation with tourists. Book through the local ride app so the fare is fixed before you get in. The airport to the center is a flat rate by law.

Pharmacies do a lot of the work. Greek pharmacists diagnose and dispense far more than American ones. For a stomach upset or a burn or an ear ache on an island, that green cross is your first stop, not a clinic.

A week. Athens for three nights, one island for four. That is it. Naxos or Crete. Do not add a second island to a seven day trip with children unless you enjoy packing.

Ten days. Athens three or four nights, then two islands on the same ferry line, four nights and three nights. Naxos and Paros, or Naxos and Santorini. Fly home from the island if you can.

Two weeks. Now you can do the mainland properly. Athens, then Delphi and Meteora by car for three nights, back through Athens and out to two islands. This is the trip I would build for our family.

Always end in Athens. One buffer night before your flight home. If a ferry gets canceled for wind, and it will happen to someone reading this, that buffer night is the difference between an annoyance and a rebooked international flight.

Athens. Give it three days, not one. The Acropolis and the new Acropolis Museum, the National Archaeological Museum, the Plaka, the changing of the guard, and a hill at sunset. Most people rush through it to reach a ferry and then say Athens was disappointing. It was not. They gave it four hours.

Naxos. The one I would pick first with our three. Big enough to have a real town and real farms, long shallow sandy beaches on the west coast that suit small children, cheap food and almost no cruise traffic. The Portara gateway sits right by the harbor.

Crete. The most practical island in the country. Direct flights, so no ferry at all. Beaches for every mood, the Samaria Gorge for a family that hikes, and Knossos, which is the oldest thing most children will ever touch. Two weeks here alone would work.

Santorini. As beautiful as the pictures and difficult with young kids. It is a cliff. Everything is steps, the donkey path is unpleasant, and cruise days put thousands of people into Oia for sunset. Best for families with teenagers, and best for two nights rather than five.

Rhodes. A walled medieval city you can walk your children through, plus long sandy beaches on the same island. The Street of the Knights really does look like a film set. Direct flights from a lot of Europe.

Meteora. Six working monasteries balanced on pillars of rock hundreds of feet up. Four hours from Athens by train, and the train ride is worth doing on its own. Nothing else in Europe looks like this.

Corfu. Green, Venetian, wetter than the Cyclades and much closer to Italy in feel. Family resorts, an old town that is a UNESCO site, and short flights from northern Europe. A good first Greek island for nervous travelers.

Where I would not send a family. Mykonos and Ios, in high season, if the trip is about the children. Both are beautiful and both are built around a nightlife economy with prices to match. Save Mykonos for a trip without kids.

Heat is the real risk, not anything else. Ruins have no shade at all. Hats, refillable bottles, and an absolute rule that nothing archaeological happens between eleven and four in July or August.

Book ferries with assigned seats, not deck class. The extra ten euros a head buys you somewhere to put five people and their bags for two hours. Board early. Deck class in August is standing room.

Water shoes, every single person. Most Greek beaches are pebble or rock rather than sand, and sea urchins are real. This is the cheapest thing on the packing list and the one families thank me for.

There are no kids menus and you do not need one. Order mezedes for the table. Grilled chicken, chips, tzatziki, bread, watermelon. A fussy eater will eat here.

Bringing a dog is harder here than in northern Europe. Ferries have specific pet rules and many require a carrier or a designated deck area, and August heat is dangerous for a small dog. We are still working out what we do about Poppy.

Most beaches are not sand. Pebbles, shingle and slabs of rock are the norm, and the famous sandy ones are usually organized, with paid sunbeds and umbrellas at 20 to 40 euros a set for the day.

The wind cancels ferries. The meltemi blows through July and August and boats simply do not sail. There is no appeal and no compensation for your onward booking. Everyone plans for rain. Nobody plans for wind.

Cats everywhere. Hundreds of them, on every wall and under every taverna table. Mostly healthy, mostly friendly, entirely unbothered. Children love this more than any ruin.

The islands are not one country in feel. Corfu is Venetian, Rhodes is medieval and Ottoman, Crete has its own music and its own pride, and the Cyclades are the white and blue postcard. Picking two very different ones is the better trip.

Athens. Two nights. The Acropolis at opening, the Plaka for dinner, the changing of the guard, a rooftop with the Parthenon lit up.

Naxos or Paros. Five nights. Beaches with shallow water, tavernas on the sand, a ferry from Athens or a short flight. Naxos is the one I book most for families.

Santorini for a night. If you must. The caldera at sunset is real, the crowds are real, the beaches are black and rocky. Go for one night and a photo, then leave.