Northern Greece
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Regions
Cities
The main cities in central and northern Greece are:
- : beautiful old town with monuments of Turkish history
- — The city boasts a considerable number of Byzantine monuments
- - One of the most beautiful towns in Greece
- - Famous for its carnival
Other destinations
- —impressive landscape with high mountains, dense barely inhabited forests and impressive gorges and the wild beauty of the Zagoria mountain villages
- – The highest mountain of Greece, major trekking destination
- — No.1 tourist destination in Norther Grecce
- — mountainous area with picturesque mountain villages, a multitude of old famous monasteries and impressive vegetation.
- — Wild mountainous nature in between Greece and Bulgaria
- — Unique landscape and wild life
- Thasos-Island: the most beautiful island in Northern Greece
- Samothrace-Island: wild mountainous with few tourism and stunning nature
- Castle of Platamonas
- Ancient Leivithra
- Elatochori Village
Understand
The North of Greece is a mountainous area and the climate is much colder and more rainy than southern Greece. Best time to visit is June to End of September
Get in
By plane
There are a few airports in central and northern Greece. The biggest one is in Thessaloniki.- Alexandroupolis International Airport "Democritus"
- Kavala International Airport "Megas Alexandros"
- Thessaloniki International Airport "Macedonia"
- Volos Central Greece Airport (Nea Anchialos National Airport)
- Ioannina National Airport "Epirus"
- Kastoria National Airport "Aristotelis"
- Kozani National Airport "Filippos"
- Aktion National Airport (Lefkada Airport "Aktion")
By train
Thessaloniki is Greece's hub for international rail service. Trains connect Thessaloníki to Sofia (3 daily), Bucharest (1 daily), Istanbul (2 daily) and Belgrade via Skopje (2 daily).There are special fares as Balkan Flexipass and other offers e.g. the City-Star Ticket form Czech Republic to Greece.
From Athens the train connects most of the cities in the eastern part of Greece.
The state train company is Trainose (Τραινοσέ).
By car
Northern Greece can be entered by car either from any of its land neighbors countries, or from Athens. From western Europe, the most popular route to Greece was through Yugoslavia. Following the troubles in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, most motorists from western Europe came overland by Italy, and then took a trans-Adriatic ferry from there. Although the countries of the former Yugoslavia have since stabilized, and Hungary-Romania-Bulgaria form another, albeit a much longer, alternative, the overland route through Italy now remains the most popular option.
By bus
There is some, albeit limited, international bus service to neighboring Albania, Bulgaria, and Turkey, as well as Georgia.
From Athens there are buses to every town in Central and Northern Greece.
By boat
The main port to get to Northern Greece from Italy is Igoumenitsa. Several ferries depart daily from the Italian port cities of Venice, Ancona, Bari and Brindisi.
Get around
By regional coach
Interurban coaches ("KTEL" buses) are by far the most convenient way to travel around Greece, as well as for intra-regional travelling.
By train
Trains (OSE) connects most of the towns on the east part of Greece. The main train line connects Volos, Larissa, Katerini, Thessaloniki, Kilkis, Serres, Xanthi, Komotini and Alexandroupoli. There is also a train connection between Larissa and Kalampaka (Meteora) and a train line connecting Thessaloniki Veria, Naoussa and Edessa.
Travelling with ordinary trains can be cheaper, although a little bit slower, whereas choosing a fancy faster Intercity train will cost the same amount of money, or even more than a KTEL bus.