Bradt Northern Greece (Travel Guide) including Thessaloniki, Epirus, Macedonia, Pelion, Mount Olympus, Chalkidiki, Meteora and the Sporades

This thoroughly updated second edition of Bradt’s Northern Greece guidebook, written by Greece expert and long-time travel writer Dana Facaros, remains the only guide available to a region that includes Épirus, Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace – complete with their five dramatically beautiful national parks, the country’s highest peaks, mountain lakes, rushing rivers, the world’s deepest gorge and (this is Greece, after all) long sandy beaches.

Northern Greece is an up-and-coming, year-round destination that provides the more natural, authentic experience that many travellers seek from this increasingly popular country. Thessaloníki, the country’s vibrant second city, is packed with ancient and Byzantine monuments. Three-pronged Chalkidikí has two peninsulas lined with hedonistic beaches and resorts, while the third comprises silent, holy Mount Athos. Central Macedonia is Alexander the Great country, offering ample archaeological sites, Mount Olympus and Greece’s top vineyards. The handsome port city of Kavála lies near the beach-fringed island of Thássos and ancient Philippi, visited by St Paul.

To the east, multi-ethnic Thrace has traditional towns, spectacular birdwatching and the island of ancient mysteries, Samothráki. Western Macedonia, meanwhile, is full of surprises: charming small cities nobody has heard of, such as Édessa, Véria, Kastoriá and Flórina, which neighbours the haunting Prespa lakes. Further west, northern Épirus is home to the breathtaking Víkos Gorge and the Zagorachória’s enchanting stone villages. Beaches dot the coast, if you can drag yourself away from ancient Roman Nikopolis, Dodona or the Necromanteion, where the living consulted the dead. Fringing Thessaly’s great agricultural plain are the Metéora’s pinnacle-topped monasteries and beautiful Lake Plastíra. In Magnesía, Vólos provides the gateway to the Pélion Peninsula and the islands of Skiáthos, Skópelos and Alónissos.

This new edition of Bradt’s Northern Greece serves as an ideal travelling companion for visitors of all ages, budgets and interests, from culture lovers to wildlife enthusiasts, history buffs to archaeologists, foodies to wine connoisseurs, mountain climbers to sea kayakers – not to mention those who simply want to relax on a sandy beach before dancing the night away.

BRADT GUIDES: TRAVEL TAKEN SERIOUSLY

• Proudly independent for over 50 years – the first Bradt Guide was published in 1974 and we remain independently owned

• Expert authors – on-the-ground research for each new edition by authors who really know their destinations

• Detailed practical guides to the world’s most interesting places – no Top Tens, no tick lists, but everything you need to know to get the most from your trip

• Championing sustainable travel – with local communities front and centre

Dana Facaros (facarospauls.com) has been in love with Greece since she was 14 years old and spent a summer on her father’s native island, Ikaria. She studied ancient Greek, mythology and classics during a brief stint at university, and she has been visiting and writing about the country since 1977, when she wrote her first guidebook – to the Greek islands. Facaros later co-authored the Cadogan guide to the whole of Greece, published in 2003. Since then she has become a Greek citizen and writes frequently about Greece for the Sunday Times and Sunday Times Travel Magazine. While writing this Bradt guide to northern Greece, she was inspired to create the Greek Food Decoder app, which she often wished she had had in the tavernas off the beaten track. She has also written two other Bradt guidebooks, plus numerous titles for Cadogan.

In 1981, Amber Charmei (ambercharmei.com) was a 15-year-old with a backpack and tattered copies of The Colossus of Maroussi and Greece and Yugoslavia on $5 a Day when she first touched down in Athens from downtown New York City, then caught ferries around the Dodecanese and slept on stacks of kilims while travelling around with her artist parents. Two decades later, after graduate studies in the History of Art and Architecture, she traded Manhattan for Thessaloníki, an urban experience with a deeper backstory, a shimmering seafront, fresher fish and sweeter melons. With a Greek family and bilingual capability, she writes from a place of connection, contributing features regularly to the culture magazine Greece Is and other publications. With a background of extensive research into Northern Greece’s complex identity, she focuses on the region’s gastronomy, wine, art, architecture, culture and natural wonders from mountain peaks to thermal baths in the woods.