Greece’s vast north is unmatched for geographical, cultural and even culinary diversity.
Here, great stretches of mountains, lakes, forest and coastline remain to be discovered.
With terrain stretching from the azure Ionian Sea across the rugged Epiros mountains to the Thracian plain and the Turkish border, the north offers something for everyone, from culture and urban sophistication to swimming, hiking and birdwatching.
Today, with the grand Egnatia Odos Hwy spanning the region completed, northern Greece is getting easier – and quicker – to navigate. It’s also becoming a pretty happening place. Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, offers outstanding eateries, nightlife and culture, while the university town of Ioannina is a lively spot close to the magnificent Pindos Mountains and kastoria, a great place to relax and live in the nature. Even fairly provincial Thracian cities such as Xanthi, Komotini and Alexandroupoli offer a piece of the action. Northern Greece also boasts great beaches, both for those looking for summer nightlife and for others in search of more secluded spots.
However, the most spectacular sights are surely those of Western Macedonia and Epiros regions, places that will take your breath away. The lofty Vitsi, Gramos and Pindos mountain range, which comprises most of it, has for thousands of years been safeguarding civilisations and confounding invaders. The mountain of Vitsi and Gramos are standing above the lakes of kastoria and Prespes, filled with leafy forests and stone villages abandoned since the World War 2. Bisecting the Pindos is the stunning 12km-long Vikos Gorge (one of the world’s deepest), now a national park filled with waterfalls and ice-cold mountain lakes, and surrounded by immaculate traditional stone-and-slate villages of the Zagorohoria.
West Macedonia and Epirus, the most mountainous regions in Greece, are blessed with a lush and soaring landscape reminiscent of Scotland at its finest, mountain villages to rival the best of Provence, and that gloriously unspoilt Olympus mountain coral beaches and Ionian Sea coastline. Add to this a densely forested landscape, home to brown bears, wolves and jackals, lonely clifftop monasteries, soul-stirring mountain vistas, low-key seaside resorts and skies patrolled by birds including golden eagles, and it’s easy to see why the Greeks have been keeping this Northern part of Greece, a secret from the world for so long.
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