Greece Trip Report

My family & I recently visited Greece (June 2024) using a combination of points/miles and regular spend. Below you can find our itinerary and links to additional blog posts for other islands & our flight information.

Greece Itinerary

Mykonos 2 nights – Mykonos details
Naxos 3 nights – Naxos details
Paros 3 nights – Paros details
Athens 2 nights

Athens, Greece

This was our first visit to Athens and we enjoyed it a lot. One thing to know… Athens is HOT in the summer. If you are coming from the islands, you’ll have probably had warm weather but always a breeze. In Athens, be prepared to be super hot – schedule your tours before noon or after 5 ideally.

WHERE WE STAYED

Grand Hyatt Athens
Rating: 5* We loved it!
How we booked it: Grand Hyatt Athens is a Hyatt category 3 which means award nights will range fro 9K points/night – 15K points/night. We were there in high season so rooms were at the peak rate of 15K points/night.

We stay in a TON of Hyatts each year on points. This blog post covers my strategy for earning those points.

The ride from Athens ferry port (Piraeus) was only about a 15/20 minute drive. We arrived around 4:00pm and the lobby was a bit of a zoo. But they had 4 or 5 people checking in and we were checked in within 10/15 minutes of arriving.

One thing I previously read many complaints about were the elevators being slow. We actually never had this issue. It’s one of the elevators where you enter the floor you are going to and then it tells you what elevator to get in. We never had issues.

We were upgraded to a King corner room and it was INCREDIBLE! 2 bathrooms, a wrap around balcony with views of the Acropolis, 1 bedroom with attached living room (pull out sofa).

This hotel also had a great club lounge. We had access to the lounge from our Hyatt Globalist status, but you can also get status by booking a “club” access room. We visited mid day and they had a few snacks/appetizers out and tons of cold drinks. We also visited after dinner one night for dessert.

We also absolutely LOVED breakfast at this hotel. The buffet is HUGE with tons of choices.

EXCURSIONS WE DID IN ATHENS

First, let’s chat about how we save money on excursions.
1. Sign up for Rakuten (use this referral link for special sign up offer)
2. Go to Rakuten and then click through to Viator when Viator is at 10 – 20%… These % change often, so check back if it’s only at 1 – 5%.
3. Then book tour via Viator (which you clicked on via Rakuten)
4. After your tour, you’ll see the cash back show up in your Rakuten account – this is the EASIEST way to save 10-20% on your excursions!

The 1st day we arrived in Athens, we did the Athens Scenic Bike Tour with an Electric or a Regular Bike
Athens is super hot during the summer. So getting a good overview of the city on an electric bike was perfect. I had never ridden an electric bike before but had no issues. Our guide was awesome at keeping everyone together, giving us interesting history info and taking pictures for us. We were really glad we took this tour.

The next day we did the Greek Food Walking Tour in Athens
I accidentally booked the private version of this tour and it was absolutely fantastic (I imagine the group one is too!). Our guide was fantastic. Every single place he took us was interesting and delicious. It is a HUGE amount of food! We got to explore neighborhoods we wouldn’t have checked out on our own. Highly recommend this tour!

TRANSFERS FROM THE ATHENS PORT AND TO ATHENS AIRPORT

The situations embarking/disembarking ferries in Greece can be chaotic. Having a private transfer set up is my personal choice. We used the same company for the transfer to the airport as well. We had a 6am flight out of Athens airport and didn’t want to leave anything to chance. We used George Transfer Service for both and had EXCELLENT service. The car was spotless and our driver (George’s son) was kind and helpful. Again, highly recommend.

FLIGHTS HOME FROM ATHENS

We flew KLM business class from Athens to Chicago with a layover in Amsterdam. We booked these tickets via the Air France website. The original price was 59K miles per person + $312. However, we were able to take advantage of a 20% transfer bonus (that has since expired) from Capital One to Flying Blue (Air France & KLMs loyalty program) so we only needed about 49K points per person. My husband and I both have Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card which is how we earned the miles for this flight.

Athens airport has a great lounge we could access via our business class tickets and also with the Priority Pass membership we get from our Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

We loved our stay in Athens. It gets overlooked a lot because the Greek islands are so incredible. But I would definitely go back in the future to explore more of the adorable neighborhoods of this city!

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