Greece came very close to being the first of my foreign walkabouts back in 2015, but it lost out to Spain and Portugal because I was new to this 'solo travel thing', and figured it was easier for me to speak Spanish and Portuguese than Greek.

 

Hey, I was full of doubts back then.

 

Seven years later, I used this trip to Greece to try out a new style of travel for me: rather than hustle around to see as much as I could across a wide geographical area, I made this a relaxing, slow-paced tour of three Greek hotspots: Athens, Naxos, and Santorini.

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I set it for the the beginning of March, when the weather is chilly, tourists are few and far between, and about 3/4 of restaurants and shops are closed for the season. If I had it to do over again, I might have done it a month or so later (those last couple of days on Santorini were cold and windy), but overall, the trip was quiet, relaxing and beautiful, and being able to walk through sites like the Parthenon and Oia without shoulder-to-shoulder crowds was well worth the cold hands and chapped lips. 

 

In fact, it was just what the doctor ordered after another stressful pandemic year.