HALKIDIKI - A HIDDEN GEM IN GREECE
Before booking this trip, neither of us had heard of Halkidiki. It's located in the northern part of Greece and consists of three strips that stretch out onto the water. We stayed in Kassandra which is the first of the strips and most westernized, but from what I've heard/see is that the others are just as pretty.
Our hotel was amazing and the beach was one of the nicest beaches in the area, with long stretches of white sands, crystal water and beach bar. We ended up spending quite a lot of our time there and on one of our last days we booked a full body massage is a beach cabana (SO painful but relaxing).
Whenever I go abroad, there's nothing I love more than exploring little local towns and we were lucky enough to have one just a 5-minute drive from the hotel. Kallithea has lots of touristy shops, so many restaurants and an amazing bar (BLU Seaside Bar) with very impressive cocktails and a balcony terrace with a view looking down on the beach. It was also located right by the beach with clear shallow water and a variety of watersports to choose from. We ended up going jet skiing on our first full day there which turned out to be was one of my favourite experiences that week.
On one of the days, we ended up getting a taxi to another local town that was recommended to us and eating at Bistro Kropigi which was a restaurant with another amazing view and the most impressive Cesar salad you'll ever see. After food, we took a walk down to the beach in Kropigi which consisted of us walking along the sand to try find a good spot and somehow ended in us walking all along the sea for well over a couple hours all the way back to our hotel beach where we ended up spending the rest of the day. As exhausting as walking along scorching sand in 36-degree heat sounds, we got to see so many amazing beaches on the way.
We had a sailboat trip booked on Saturday which left at 10 that morning and sailed for 6 hours around the coast of Halkidiki, stopping off at 3 lagoons for a swim and a beach bar. It was by far my favourite day there - we got to see places we wouldn't have been able to get to by land and had the most relaxing day enjoying the sun and amazing views and tanning. The Capitan was one of the funniest people we met that week and owned the small boat trip and beach safari business also offering such good value for money!
Overall I couldn't recommend Halkidiki enough, it was the most magical week, full of amazing beaches and exploring. It comes at no surprise that writing this makes me want to book another holiday and spend a few more weeks in the sun exploring.
(*all places mentioned linked*)
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