Greece in 5 days: Athens and Naxos

Five days is not enough for Greece, so the only real decision is what to give up. I gave up Santorini, which everybody told me was a mistake, and gave the time to one island instead of two. It was the right call and I would do it again.

The route

• Days 1–2: Athens
• Days 3–4: Naxos
• Day 5: back to Athens and out

Late September - sea still warm, prices down, and the August crowds gone.

Day 1: Athens

The Acropolis at eight in the morning, when it opens. This is the whole trick. By eleven the queue is long, the marble is hot and the Parthenon has four hundred people in front of it. At eight there are perhaps thirty.

Then down the south slope to the Theatre of Dionysus, and across to the Acropolis Museum, which I would put ahead of the site itself - the top floor is laid out to the exact dimensions and orientation of the Parthenon, with the surviving frieze in position and gaps where the pieces held in London would be.

Afternoon in Plaka and Anafiotika, the tiny whitewashed quarter built by island stonemasons who came to build the royal palace and made themselves a piece of home on the hillside. Evening on a rooftop in Monastiraki with the Acropolis lit.

Day 2: Athens, the rest of it

The Ancient Agora in the morning, which is where Athenians actually spent their days and is more interesting than its ruins suggest. Then the Central Market on Athinas Street - fish, meat, and a row of cook shops at the back where the traders eat.

In the afternoon I did the thing I recommend in every city: picked a direction and walked for ninety minutes. That took me through Exarcheia and Kolonaki, two neighbourhoods with nothing in common, and up Lycabettus Hill for sunset. The funicular exists; the path takes twenty-five minutes.

Day 3: ferry to Naxos

The ferry from Piraeus takes three and a half hours on the fast boat, five and a half on the conventional one. I took the conventional one deliberately - it is cheaper, far more stable, and the first thing cancelled when the meltemi blows is the fast catamaran, not the big ferry.

Naxos town in the afternoon: the Portara, a marble doorframe standing alone on an islet by the harbour, all that was built of a temple to Apollo 2,500 years ago. Sunset goes through it and everyone in town walks out to watch.

Day 4: Naxos, inland

I hired a car for one day, which on Naxos is what unlocks the island. The interior is mountain villages, marble quarries and olive terraces, and almost nobody goes there. Halki for coffee, the Temple of Demeter, then Apiranthos, a village built entirely of marble because that is what the mountain is made of.

In the afternoon, the beaches on the west coast - Plaka, Mikri Vigla - which run for kilometres and were half empty in late September.

This is the argument against Santorini in one sentence: Naxos has a beach you can walk along for an hour, a mountain village where nobody is selling anything, and a room for a third of the price.

Day 5: back

Morning ferry, afternoon in Athens, evening flight. I left the last day deliberately loose because a cancelled ferry with a flight the same evening is the classic way to lose a holiday. It ran on time and I got a long lunch out of the margin.

Practical notes

• Book the ferry ahead in summer, especially with a car. Foot passengers have more slack out of season.
• Greece has around 6,000 islands and about 200 are inhabited. The Cyclades, the Dodecanese and the Ionian are largely separate ferry networks - hopping between groups usually means going back through Piraeus.
• Eat at the local hour. A taverna serving dinner at seven is serving tourists. Nine is normal.
• Athens metro from the airport is straightforward and much cheaper than a taxi.
• The Acropolis combined ticket covers six other sites and is worth it if you are staying two days.