I visited Crete in 1976, Naxos, Paros, and Santorini in 1987, so my recommendation can't be based on anything like current information. Uh. Anyway, I can't decide! Crete has Knossos and the amazing museum in Heraklion. And of course it's beautiful, like all the famous Greek places. But I was sexually assaulted there (I did fight the guy off), so my memories are mostly of that and the aftermath.
Naxos was my favorite. It was just quiet and lovely and had delicious food and was a great place to rent a moped with one's best friend for $7/day and picnic in whatever olive grove struck our fancy. A "tourist destination" was a family farm with a kouros lying in the middle of the vegetable garden, I kid you not. I spent a blissful month there and wasn't bored for a minute. But that was the Naxos of three decades ago, and I'm given to understand that time machines are not available. Paros I visited v. briefly but, again ... I flew in on a plane carrying 20? passengers and the runway might still have been dirt; there was a donkey watching the flight come in. I'll never go back; I don't want to see what's become of those places.
Santorini is spectacular, of course. It has a must-see archaeological site (the village of Akrotiri) and an active caldera. It was already highly commercialized in the late 80s so funnily enough it's the only one of the islands I've been to that I would revisit. The things that made Naxos so lovely and would draw tourists would be ruined by tourists; the things that make Santorini so splendid and would draw tourists are unruinable: what are they going to do to a caldera when they can't plant a hotel on it?
Being on TV isn't any fun, I promise. The makeup takes longer than the on-air time.
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zvi and
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Date: 2019-07-17 01:06 pm (UTC)Naxos was my favorite. It was just quiet and lovely and had delicious food and was a great place to rent a moped with one's best friend for $7/day and picnic in whatever olive grove struck our fancy. A "tourist destination" was a family farm with a kouros lying in the middle of the vegetable garden, I kid you not. I spent a blissful month there and wasn't bored for a minute. But that was the Naxos of three decades ago, and I'm given to understand that time machines are not available. Paros I visited v. briefly but, again ... I flew in on a plane carrying 20? passengers and the runway might still have been dirt; there was a donkey watching the flight come in. I'll never go back; I don't want to see what's become of those places.
Santorini is spectacular, of course. It has a must-see archaeological site (the village of Akrotiri) and an active caldera. It was already highly commercialized in the late 80s so funnily enough it's the only one of the islands I've been to that I would revisit. The things that made Naxos so lovely and would draw tourists would be ruined by tourists; the things that make Santorini so splendid and would draw tourists are unruinable: what are they going to do to a caldera when they can't plant a hotel on it?
Being on TV isn't any fun, I promise. The makeup takes longer than the on-air time.