20 Photos To Make You Fall In Love With Greece During Winter

Greece in winter? Yes, you read that right. Even though Greece is a favourite destination for thousands of visitors every summer, few know that the country is actually a great winter destination, too. With 80% of the country covered with mountains, it is perfect for skiing and snowboarding, while visitors can also discover the rich variety of villages and towns that have preserved their unique characters. To help convince you further, here are 20 photos to make you fall in love with Greece in winter.

With rugged, high peaks dotting the surface, Greece is home to a dozen ski stations where locals and visitors alike can enjoy some ski fun when the temperatures drop.

View from the top of the slope, in Kalavryta, Parnassos

Aside from the beautiful landscape and nature Greece has, the snow turns the most mundane things into a magical scene.

Winter is also the perfect time to explore the rural aspect of Greece, and discover its beautiful mountainous villages and towns, usually surrounded by abundant vegetation and rich ecodiversity.

Square of Megalo Chorio (“big village”), Evrytania, Central Greece

In Epirus, the charming town of Metsovo, for example, will have you feel like you are somewhere in the Swiss mountains, with its wooden and stone houses. The region is also known for its delicious cheese, metsovone, with a distinct smokey taste.

The town of Kastoria, in Macedonia, puts on its white blanket and its lake becomes a nature-made ice-skating rink.

This is your chance to visit the beautiful region of Epirus, with its high peaks, mountain lakes, and networks of village, all as beautiful as the next.

Winter in Greece is also the opportunity to visit those popular touristy destinations without having to deal with the crowds since the majority of the tourists have long returned home.

Occasionally, the snow hits Athens, which give it a mysterious and magical look.

Odeion Herodes Atticus with snow, under Athens Acropolis

The ancient temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece, after a snowfall

Thessaloniki, and its popular waterfront, also looks beautiful under a blanket of pure white snow.

Winter also means the Christmas season and you’ll see all the main squares in Greece’s cities and towns decorated with colourful lights and Christmas trees.

Syntagma square in Athens decorated for Christmas

In case you didn’t know, the Greeks only started decking their houses with Christmas trees recently. The Greek tradition of Christmas actually involves Christmas boats, as a token of gratitude for bringing home the husbands and sons who worked at sea.

Christmas Light Boat, Alexandroupoli, Greece

But for most of Greeks, winter, and Christmas, is nothing without a plate of homemade sweets. The traditional Christmas cookies, which you can find in virtually any pastry shop in the country, are the melomakarona, scrumptious walnut cookies infused with honey, and kourabiedes, delicious shortbread-style almond cookies.

Various Christmas traditional desserts on the table

Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Culture Trip launched in 2011 with a simple yet passionate mission: to inspire people to go beyond their boundaries and experience what makes a place, its people and its culture special and meaningful — and this is still in our DNA today. We are proud that, for more than a decade, millions like you have trusted our award-winning recommendations by people who deeply understand what makes certain places and communities so special.

Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family.

We know that many of you worry about the environmental impact of travel and are looking for ways of expanding horizons in ways that do minimal harm - and may even bring benefits. We are committed to go as far as possible in curating our trips with care for the planet. That is why all of our trips are flightless in destination, fully carbon offset - and we have ambitious plans to be net zero in the very near future.