Chalkidiki peninsula description, climate, attractions

Greece is a paradise for tourists, regardless of the preferred type of holiday. You can come to Greece both with the help of a travel agency and on your own. It is enough for fans of sightseeing tourism to book hotel rooms in Athens and enjoy ancient antiquity. And yet, most tourists prefer to stay in resort hotels by the sea, and the most popular place for this is the Chalkidiki peninsula, which many consider the best resort in Greece.

Halkidiki is located on the northeastern coast of the Aegean Sea, in the region of Macedonia. The holiday season on the Halkidiki peninsula lasts from May to early October, the temperature during this period averages +28 - +30°С. The average temperature in winter here is about +12°C. The outlines of the territory of the peninsula look like a trident, according to legend - this is the trace of the trident of Poseidon.

The god of the sea was angry with the dispute that the titans Athos and Siton arranged because of the mermaid Palinia and threw his formidable weapon to the ground, and when he took it out, he left a mark. Each "tooth" or "finger" of the peninsula of Chalkidiki is in turn also a peninsula: Kassandra, Sithonia and Athos.

Kassandra is the busiest resort area of ​​Chalkidiki. There are hotels of all categories, from luxury five-stars to modest apartments, and excellent sandy beaches are adjacent to pine forests and olive groves. Cassandra is popular with those who love not only beautiful nature, but also nightlife.

There is a vibrant nightlife and a lot of young people, but here, if you wish, it is easy to find a suitable hotel for a quiet family vacation. To search and reserve places in hotels, the ideal option is online hotel booking. In this way, you can find a suitable hotel at the best price at any time of the year, even in high season

Kassandra offers all the opportunities for active recreation: surfing, golf and yachting. On the banks of Kassandra there are resort towns and fishing villages, where there are many taverns, shops and entertainment venues: Kalithea, Pefkohori, Chanioti, Afytos and many others. Afitos is a particularly picturesque place, a former fishing village, surprisingly cozy, where traditional architecture has been preserved and there is a magnificent promenade.

Sithonia is an ideal corner for those who seek solitude and are looking for romance. The coast of Sithonia has many cozy bays and picturesque bays where you can be alone with luxurious nature: a large part of Sithonia is made up of pine and deciduous forests.

The turquoise water of the Aegean Sea and the golden sands of uncrowded beaches are a dream for residents of big cities.

Athos is the most beautiful part of the Chalkidiki peninsula, which is famous for the monastic republic of Agios Oros, the Holy Mountain, located on it. You can visit the Athos monasteries, of which there are more than 20, only with a special permit and only for males. However, from a sightseeing boat, anyone has the opportunity to admire the beauty of this land, its wild forests and monasteries. In addition, the monastic republic occupies only part of Athos, there are also good hotels and all the conditions for a wonderful holiday.

Among the main attractions of the Halkidiki peninsula, in addition to the Athos monasteries, is the picturesque rock complex of Meteora, where the monks also settled, who built amazingly beautiful monasteries on the tops of the rocks. There is on the peninsula the archeological reserve of Olynthos, the cave of Petralon, decorated by nature with stalactites and stalagmites of a bizarre shape. 

The nearest airport to the peninsula is located in Thessaloniki, the capital of the Macedonia region, or rather, 16 km southeast of the city. You can book air tickets for a direct charter flight, the flight time is about three and a half hours, and you can get from the airport to anywhere in the Chalkidiki peninsula by car: by bus or taxi.