Greece

▲▲▲ Athens Greece's capital, featuring the ancient world's most magnificent sight — the Parthenon atop the Acropolis hill — plus excellent museums, an atmospheric old town, and funky neighborhoods bursting with avant-garde nightlife.

▲▲▲ Nafplio Greece's first capital and a cozy port with an elegant old town, energetic street life, and a cliff-topping fortress offering dramatic sea-and-mountain views; handy to nearby ancient sites (Mycenae and Epidavros).

▲▲▲ Hydra Idyllic island getaway, convenient to Athens and the Peloponnese, with picturesque harbor, casual beaches, enticing coastal trails, and no cars (but plenty of donkeys).

▲▲ Olympia Birthplace of the Olympic Games, with evocative temple ruins, a still-functional stadium (and original starting line), an intimate museum of ancient masterpieces, and a town nearby.

▲▲ Delphi Dramatic mountainside ruins of the Sanctuary of Apollo (near the town of Delphi) and a great museum displaying statues and treasures found on-site.

▲▲ Mykonos Quintessential, popular island with a postcard-perfect whitewashed village, old-time windmills, and pulsating nightlife; ruins on nearby Delos mark the fabled birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.

▲▲ Santorini Stunningly situated, romantic island — actually the lip of a volcano's flooded crater — renowned for its cliff-clinging white villages, blue-domed churches, volcanic-sand beaches, and spectacular sunsets.

▲ Epidavros Site of the best-preserved theater of the ancient world, with unbelievable acoustics.

▲ Mycenae Ruins of the Mycenaeans' legendary mountaintop fortress — dating back to roughly 1300 BC, nearly a millenium before Athens' golden age — with the iconic Lion Gate, a massive beehive tomb, and mythic links to the Trojan War.

▲ Mani Peninsula Remote, rustic region of seaside villages, eerie ghost towns, Byzantine churches, spectacular caves, stark ridges, and jagged coastlines (best for drivers); its best jumping-off point is the cozy, unspoiled beach town of Kardamyli.

▲ Monemvasia Old fortress town, dating from Venetian and Byzantine times, capping a gigantic rock peninsula jutting out into the sea.

• Greece: Recommended Itinerary
• When to Go to Greece
• Upcoming Holidays and Festivals in Greece
• Guidebook Updates for Greece
• Greece Rail Passes and Train Tips
• Greece: Recommended Books and Movies