Kea

June 2001

This is about our 15th trip to Greece since 1991. We have visited about 42 islands, Epirus and the Meteora.
Up till now we still prefer is still going to the islands. Though not overkeen on swimming or sunbathing the presence of the sea is one of the important reasons.

For us, the most important keywords regarding travelling/vacation are: sightseeing, natural beauty, lovely coves, daily life scenery, villages, the local people and their lifestyles, eating out, a glass of wine and the greek music, of course.

We mostly prepare our trip in advance but are liable to change our programme en route as we mostly make no reservations. We regularly use different travel guides and the Internet for the boat schedules (GTP: the official guide) and to check what kind of hotels there are. Reservations are only made when we know we will be arriving late in the evening or during the weekend.

We arrived at the new airport of Spata (there is a long distance to cover before reaching the luggage arrival).

Be careful for the taxidrivers (we had an unpleasant experience for the first time after all these years). Thanks to one of the policemen at the airport, who insist the driver should turn on his counter (the taxi driver already asked us 17000 GDR from Spata airport to Lavrion port, from where you get the boats to Kea). With the counter running we paid 7500 GDR incl. luggage, though I had to keep a close watch on the road because the driver was quite capable of prolonging the journey by pretending he didn't know the way to Lavrion.

I had the up-to-date boat schedules with me. There was a boat to Kea at 19.30. Remember that changes can and do occur. The boat didn't turn up and so we had to stay one night in Lavrion. This was no problem since there are many restaurants. Lavrion does not have much accommodation. We asked several times and we were always directed to the same hotel, though nobody knew the name of the hotel. It was hotel 'Belle Epoque' close to the port, the one I had found on Internet! At first sight it looked derelict. This hotel had obviously known better times. It cost 17000 GDR without breakfast, incl. airconditioning.
The next morning at 8 o'clock we caught the boat to Kea.

General	Generally speaking, we can tell you that the food in nearly all the restaurants we visited was very tasteful. The dishes with 'patates tiganites' (chips) were home-made without exception. The local wine is mostly of very good quality. Unfortunately, there was no Greek music in many of these restaurants.
Ouzeri Altheia ( Vourkari)	Along the sea. Owned by a very friendly lady. She prepares very nice food (follow her suggestions), and after your meal you will be offered delicious self-made chocolates (we can tell you because we are chocolate fans).
Estiatorio Arki (Korissia)	The last one on the promenade coming from the port. We had very well-prepared fish, but they serve among other dishes as well.
Apothiki (Korissia)	Close to the arrival of the boats. We had a nice meal with fish, Greek music, good atmosphere.
Lagoudera (Korissia)	One of the first coming from the boat. This is also a good place for a well prepared meal.
*Akrogiali (Poisses)*	The first one when arriving on the beach. We went back several times : they had very good calamares, mussels saganaki, gavros (small fried fishes), keftedakia, octopus, briam, saganaki (cheese) … The local wine was excellent. Very friendly atmosphere.

Korissia	coming!
Ioulis
Karthea
Ag. Marina
Kambi
Ag. Marina
Ligia
Flea
Sikamia
Koundouros
Pisses
Kastriani
Otzias
Yialiskari
Vourkari
Ioulis