Spring Break 2025 Greece Family Vacation

My wife is an early vacation planner so when we bought airfare for our Greece Spring Break vacation, we had no idea that earthquakes in February and March of 2025 would disrupt our Santorini visit. She scrambled to cancel our AirBnB in Santorini that was scheduled for part of the stay. Even though the earthquakes subsided, they left Santorini deserted as it was several weeks before the busy summer tourist season anyway. Fortunately, we were put in touch with Lisa Stavropoulos of Greek Grape Wine Tours and she made some excellent alternate suggestions on mainland Greece after our obligatory 4 days in Athens.

We arrived in Greece on a Friday evening. After the long plane travel (routing through Istanbul) at least we were greeted to this stunning view of the Acropolis from our AirBnB short term rental in central Athens:

The next day, after mostly sleeping off our jet-lag, we had a late morning walk-along visit with a wonderful foodie travel guide we hired. They take their tourism very seriously in Greece so she was officially licensed and she knew all the best places in central Athens. On the list was Spanakopita. The historic bakery where we tried the authentic dish proved to be completely different than what we get the US. The real deal features a crispy crunchy crust and incredible depth of flavor on the spinach filling without too much feta to dominate the flavors. Look at this maestro who was probably not even 20 years old work the magic on a different baked item. We visited this place twice on our 4 days there - the Spanakopita was that good.

Our foodie guide started the day with these incredible Lukumades which are the locally famous honey-drizzled donut balls at one of the best shops. Greek honey is amazing (we bought some at another shop to take home) but the chocolate sauce was even better on a crisp March morning.

Later that day we sprang for an early dinner as the kids were hungry and tired. We found a charming Italian restaurant Bel Paese below the Acropolis. The standout dish was this beautiful sautéed mushroom plate as an appetizer

This dish paired beautifully with this Xinomavro from the Naoussa region which was a bargain at 32€ for a bottle. This restaurant experience lined up with pretty much most of our family meals in Greece with generally no meal for 2 parents and 2 girls costing more than 100 Euros.

Another highlight of our 4 days in Athens was a bike tour of the city with pedal-assist eBikes. The weather was absolutely gorgeous but in the sun it was starting to get a bit warm in the afternoons - I can't imagine visiting the city in the summer, it would be just too hot.

In the few weeks prior to the trip with late planning changes, we had to find alternate plans in lieu of Santorini so Lisa Stavropoulos recommended Nafplio in the Peloponnese peninsula region of Greece. It's about an 1:45 hr drive from Athens so we had some time for stops along the way. I negotiated a single wine tasting visit to subject my family to. Some Google Maps searches plus cross-referencing with my hospitality and wine industry friends led me to Domaine Skouras which was pretty much on the drive between Athens and Nafplio. The rolling hills and mountains around Skouras were impressive and the Domaine offered a great reception experience including pretty landscaping as you can see above. I enjoyed most of the Skouras wines we tasted and we chose a few bottles to purchase include a 2013 library selection wine. I look forward to a future wine-focused trip to Greece.

After Skouras we continued on the short remaining back roads drive to Nafplio. We spent two days there and while the weather got a bit cloudy, I found the town to be just as captivating as Lisa described. Here's panoramic view from the drive-up ~700 foot hilltop view of the Palamidi Fortress that overlooks the town. The fortress was built by the Venetians during their occupation of this area in the early 1700s.

That Venetian history heavily influenced the feel of the tourist seaside center of the town which seems a lot more like Venice than Greece. My family enjoyed the cute tourist-trap little shops in the town center but I especially enjoyed the very nice restaurants and wine bars. Alas, a few days of that was plenty and it was time to head back towards Athens on Thursday. The radiant weather returned that morning so we left with a few hours of time before lunch to visit some archeological ruins, which are not hard to find in Greece.

In the video above you can see my youngest daughter clapping in the Epidaurus Ancient Theatre and in the picture below was where I was actually recording the video with a close zoom. The acoustics were incredible and I found it humbling to think of the knowledge and talent of the architects in a society that built this structure in over 2,300 years ago. We made another stop later in the morning. Anybody who often watches Hollywood movies probably has heard of Lionsgate Films - we were fortunate enough to visit the original Lion Gate of Mycenae on this trip.

After the kids grew bored visiting archaeological sites we took the highway back towards Athens. For lunch we stopped at an enticing Greek service station very close to the Isthmus of Corinth Canal which is a fascinating, if impractical civil engineering project that's become a bit of a boondoggle. These days the canal passes more tourists and commuters over the bridges versus ships through the canal.

After lunch we had a longer drive past the outskirts of Athens towards the eastern shore of Greece to stay closer to the airport at the suburban port town of Rafina. A cold Greek lager was a great way to finish out our last night in Greece before an morning flight on Friday back home.