A guide to splitting Athens

In all my years of travelling, there is one country I had never been to: Greece. When I mentioned this to friends abroad, they were surprised. But no Indian I spoke to thought it was odd. Few Indians I know have been to Greece and most have no plans to visit. And those who have gone have focused on the islands: Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Corfu etc.

- VIR SANGHVI

Hardly anyone has wanted to go to the mainland.

This, as we discovered, is a huge mistake.

Two months ago, my wife and I decided that we would finally find a way of going to Greece. Like most people, I wanted to visit the islands and thought that I could plan a trip that combined the mainland with a couple of the islands. We junked that idea when we realised that a week was not enough to do both. So we settled on a compromise: The mainland this year, and the islands next year.

I hadn't realised until I sat down to plan the trip that Athens is so vast and spread out that you can stay in three different parts of the city and feel that you have visited three different destinations.

We started in town, staying at the hip, mostly pedestrian-dominated neighbourhood of Plaka, that has lots of charm and history. It is packed out with restaurants, cafés and little shops. We stayed at the relatively new The Dolli, an achingly hip jewel box of a hotel, which, despite opening less than a year ago, has already been acclaimed by Condé Nast Traveller as the best hotel in Greece.