October 24; the season out-of-season
Going remote in Halkidiki after the crowds are gone... this was my week ☀️🇬🇷
Happy Sunday,
As an avid traveler, one of my favorite hacks is to visit places at off-peak times. Usually it means avoiding national holidays or school vacation periods. Sometimes, in big cities, it led me to explore a city by night, or to take a taxi to a random suburb and walk back downtown.
With seaside destinations in Southern Europe, it’s easier than with most places, because the traditional summer seasons end well before beach weather is over. Perhaps this has to do with global warming, and the shifting seasons, perhaps just with school holidays. I always knew this to be true for Bulgaria in September, but now I also know it’s the case for Northern Greece in October.
After spending last weekend in Thessaloniki, Ellie and I decided to enjoy the rest of the week working remotely from Halkidiki, in particular its second sub-peninsula Sithonia, which neither of us had been to before.
Now I finally understand why nearly all of my Bulgarian friends are ecstatic about Sithonia. Not only is it exactly as far from Sofia as the Black Sea beaches, but due to Sithonia being an EU Natura 2000 site in its entirety, there are no large real estate developments, and all activity, including water- and waste management, is entirely climate-neutral.
Luck had it that the last open hotel for the season on Sithonia was still working till today, so we had five excellent days of good-enough WiFi, and more than good-enough food and beach moments at the boutique Ekies resort in Vourvourou.
To me personally, Sithonia is extra-special, as it reminds me a lot of other places that I love. Its hills and cliffs, covered with Mediterranean pine forests, in combination with the very tranquil Aegean waters in the countless bays and inlets, can make you think you’re on a lake on a smooth summer evening in Sweden or Alaska. The more open sea views, with cliffs and stony beaches overlooking a vast expanse of blue, could be straight out of Big Sur in California.
More than anything, the little roads that connect its villages, zigzagging through the lush and hilly forests, with large white houses with flat roofs and verandas, usually surrounded by a vast, green lawn, and a palm tree here and there, take me back to my childhood years in Puerto Rico.
I know some of you love high temperatures, and consider beaches only to make sense when it’s very hot. But if you’re like me and Ellie, indifferent to heat and on the lookout for tranquility and remoteness, Sithonia in October, with its air and water at a refreshing 20 degrees during the day (upper 60s in F), is really an amazing opportunity.
Ellie and I will definitely be back, again out-of-season, hopefully in spring or autumn next year!
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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