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The Halkidiki Peninsula is “Poseidon’s trident” which consists of three smaller peninsulas: Kassandra, Sithonia, and Athos. They are about 100 km from the Thessaloniki airport. Athos is the place of religious tourism, Kassandra is suitable for non-poor young people and tourists with children, which means it can be noisy.
We hypothesized that the Sithonia Peninsula would be the perfect choice for relaxing holidays. It was a mistake.
The Sithonia Peninsula is the “middle tine” of the trident. Villages located every five to ten kilometers along the coast come to life only in summer. Peace and quiet. There are occasional hotels and the summer houses of Greeks who come from Thessaloniki to relax for the weekend. A vacation on Sithonia is a voluntary escape from civilization.
Villages like Nikiti and Neos Marmaras, big by Sithonian standards, are empty from September to May. There is no hint of a supermarket, fruit market, or cafe. You are forced to take a taxi even if you need a pharmacy. It turned out that we booked a hotel in such a place—thank God, only for a week.
The hotel, Village Mare, in Metamórfosis is located in a small bay and has a private beach. The water was clear and not too deep. Two chaise lounges and one umbrella were cheap, three Euro daily. Vacationers were mostly Serbs, some Greeks and Germans, but the most important thing was that 99% of them were with small children.
The distance from the hotel to any signs of civilization was about four kilometers along the beautiful sea, but unfortunately without the slightest hint of a pedestrian sidewalk. Only roadway. We like to walk a lot, but to survive in a place like this more than a week without a car is difficult. We soon lost our patience and started to find bus tours.
You have to go far beyond the Sithonia Peninsula for the ancient Greek archaeological sites. It is not a problem with a car, because roads in Greece are good and don’t have traffic jams. But lust imagine you didn’t rent a car.
Happy travels!