Greece's Best Scenic Drives
Greece has great beaches but its scenic drives are beautiful too
Mar 20, 2007
Here are two of the best drives in Greece, through two of the country's most beautiful valleys: the Nestos Valley in northeast Greece and the Amari Valley on Greece's biggest island: Crete.
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THE NESTOS VALLEY DRIVE
The Nestos River marks the boundary between Thrace and Macedonia in north-eastern Greece, a part of the country where few foreign visitors other than the adventurous backpackers venture. It’s mainly a low-lying landscape of cotton fields and tobacco plantations, but to the north are the Rodopi Mountains that separate Greece from Bulgaria.
The two major towns at either end of the valley are Drama and Xanthi. Xanthi has a delightful eastern feel to it, letting you know that Turkey isn’t too far away, and some impressive mansions that once belonged to wealthy tobacco barons are one of the town’s most attractive features. Take the road north to Stavroupoli, where the main road meets the Nestos River and heads off into the foothills of the mountains. Or, in winter, sometimes doesn’t: winter snow can block this road, so watch for the warning road signg.
At any other time of year it’s a wonderful drive, partly through wooded areas, and passing by (or stopping to visit) several remote rural villages along the way. At Paranesti the road leaves the river valley (the river rises in Bulgaria), and instead heads south to run alongside the railway tracks and down into Drama – appropriately enough for this dramatic drive.
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THE AMARI VALLEY DRIVE
On Crete the tour buses head east from Iraklion to do the circular drive around the Lasithi Plateau. It is a beautiful drive, though the sheer numbers of tour buses and other drivers can spoil it a little. If you have your own wheels head west from Iraklion, and south to the Amari Valley, a much quieter but equally beautiful part of the island, also easily accessible from Rethymnon on the north coast or the resorts of Ayia Galini and Matala in the south.
From wherever you start, you can do a circular tour of the Amari Valley to get you back to base, or drive through the valley while heading from one coast to the other. Just be sure to include the town of Amari itself, the main one in the valley though no more than a large village, with a tiny main square where there’s the inevitable friendly taverna with a few rooms. Yerakari is another must-see, the centre of the cherry-growing trade in the valley.
The whole of the Amari Valley is fertile and filled with orchards, olive groves and vineyards. Surrounded as it is by mountains, with the Psiloritis range to the east, it’s a fabulous place to tour and see the Crete that lies beyond the tourist resorts.
Click here for two more of Greece's best scenic drives.
And check out another of the best drives in Greece, round the Mani peninsula, here.
