Ladadika is the old olive-oil warehouse quarter of Thessaloniki, a grid of low brick buildings on the flat ground between Aristotelous Square and the passenger port. Its name marks the oil merchants who once stored and sold their casks here, and its painted façades and cobbled lanes survive because the quarter escaped the flames that … Read more
Naoussa wine is the red of northern Greece, pressed from the Xinomavro grape on the eastern foothills of Mount Vermio. The town of Naoussa sits about ninety kilometres west of Thessaloniki, close enough for a single day among the vineyards and the cellars. Its wines carry firm tannin, bright acidity, and a savoury note of … Read more
The Edessa waterfalls drop over the edge of a high plateau in the town of Edessa, west of Thessaloniki, where the Edessaios river reaches the rim of its gorge and falls to the plain below. The tallest of them, the Karanos, plunges seventy metres and ranks as the highest waterfall in Greece. A paved park … Read more
Jewish Thessaloniki is the memory of a Sephardic metropolis, the city that Jews expelled from Spain rebuilt on the Aegean and that generations of them called the Mother of Israel. For more than four centuries the community shaped the port, the trades, and the streets, spoke Ladino as its daily tongue, and made Thessaloniki one … Read more
Bougatsa is the signature filo pastry of Thessaloniki, a warm parcel of paper-thin sheets that the city eats for breakfast and after a long night out. The pastry comes sweet, filled with a smooth semolina custard, or savoury, filled with soft cheese, minced meat, or spinach. Its hand-stretched filo and its refugee history from Constantinople … Read more
A Thessaloniki walking tour threads the compact centre of the city on foot, linking the seafront, the Roman monuments, the Byzantine churches, the markets, and the old upper town in one continuous line. The route runs mostly on the flat or downhill, and the core sights sit within a stretch of roughly two kilometres from … Read more
Thessaloniki spreads along a gulf in northern Greece as a compact port city with a flat centre and a steep upper town. The heart of the city sits in a walkable grid, while a driverless metro line, the OASTH bus network, taxis, bikes, and scooters carry you further. The lower town rewards the walker, and … Read more
Thessaloniki works as a family city because its heart is flat, compact, and turned toward the sea. A single paved waterfront runs for kilometres past gardens, sculptures, and cafés, level enough for a scooter or a first bicycle. The centre packs a climbable tower, a science centre with a planetarium, and museums into a short … Read more
Mount Athos is the monastic republic that fills the third and easternmost finger of Halkidiki, a self-governed peninsula of twenty ruling monasteries closed to the wider world by an ancient rule. The cruise from Thessaloniki carries travellers along its west coast, close enough to read the walls, towers, and domes of the monasteries from the … Read more
Thessaloniki rewards walkers in its centre, yet a rental car turns the wider region of Macedonia into a set of easy day trips. The city sits at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, with the airport to the south-east and the motorway network fanning out toward the mountains, the beaches, and the ancient capitals of … Read more