Greece Off The Beaten Path Tips by cachaseiro

The Samaria gorge.

the Samaria gorge is the longest gorge in europe and it stretches from the center of Crete until the southern shores where it ends.
Hiking it is very nice and fairly challenging, but anyone who is resonably fit can do it.
You can either take the bus to the top of the gorge and then hike all the way to the bottom or you can do "the easy trek" and start by the sea where it kinda ends and then walk back when you feel it´s enough.
You have local travel agencies organising both things and you can also just do it on your own by taking the local bus.
But it´s a nice hike in amazing nature and you should do it even if the gorge has become quite touristy the past 20 years.

Hosios Loukas

Hosios Loukas is a 10th century Byzantine monestary situated a couple of hours north west of athens.
It´s UNESCO world heritage because of it´s fine mosaics and it has two interesting churches inside the monestary.
It was founded by a hermit called Loukas who was thought to have healing powers and still this day people flock to the monestary to pass by the relics of Loukas in the hope that it will heal them.

The entry to the monestary is free, but if you want to visit the little museum inside the monestary then you have to pay a small fee.

Meteora.

Meteora is one of the most spectacular sights in Greece and for that matter in all Europe.
It´s located on the plain of Thessaly and it´s a collection of monestaries build in the 14th century.
The very unique thing about them is that they are build on pillar like mountains and used to be almost impossible to acces.
The reason why they were build there was because at the time they were build was a period of great unrest in greece where the ottomans had invaded Greece and many went to live in the monestaries simply cause it offerd a better life than what they could get in a country with war and civil unrest.
These days they are accesible to visitors and they are absolutely spectacular and an absolute must if you are in that part of Greece.

Navpaktos.

Navpaktos is not really one of the big tourist sights of greece for the foreign tourist, but it´s a pretty and pleasant town situated by the gulf of Corinth.
It´s a seaside town that also has an ok beach, but it´s first of all an old venetian town with a very pretty harbour to it and a lot of history.
Because of the strategic importance of the gulf of Corinth there have been many battles there over the centuries and spanish writer Cervantes took part in one of them and really put the town on the world map.