I'm trying to get better at updating you on some of the fun things in my life, and this post has been long overdue. You should see more posts and videos from me that inspire my creativity, in the hopes that it inspires you too!
Last August (2023), I took a trip with my husband and two of my kids (my third was taking summer classes and did not come) to the Greek Islands. My brother-in-law is from the small island of Lipsi, and we wanted to meet his family as well as attend his sister’s Greek wedding.
The overall trip took about two weeks, and we visited the following islands: Rhodes, Lipsi, Kos, and Santorini. We also spent a short amount of time in London. It was our European stop before getting to the Mediterranean.
If you've ever thought about going to the Greek Islands, here are a few highlights of the trip that will hopefully help you plan something really fabulous. As stated, this was a family trip and therefore had to be kid-friendly. We had a teenager in high school and a 5th grader. My sister-in-law, who met us in Lipsi, traveled with their three girls who were all under the age of 6. She definitely had a harder time than me traveling since her children were younger than mine.
But I digress.
Rhodes
First of all, every island we visited was so different and so beautiful. We were on Rhodes while the forest fires were burning. However, we had booked a hotel on the other side of the island before we even knew the fires were happening.
Rhodes was a magical place to kick off our tour of some of the Greek Islands. The first thing we did when we arrived was head down to the hotel’s beach while the sun was setting. After 24 hours of traveling, this moment on the beach made the lengthy flights worth it!
There is something amazing about breathing deeply at sunset with people you love on a beach.
Favorite things on Rhodes:
- Valley of the Butterflies: This was amazing! You are in a grove of trees and walk a path with water while thousands of butterflies perch in the cool shadows of the trees. None of my pictures did this amazing phenomenon justice.
- Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: The flooring rockwork was my favorite here. Talk about quilt pattern inspiration!
- The Town of Lindos: We had a great time wandering the alleyways one evening in the little town of Lindos. We originally went to see the bay where supposedly St. Paul came in when he visited Rhodes. The town is a mix of small alleyways full of dessert and dinner spots. My kids enjoyed the knick-knacks and trinkets around every corner.
- The Beaches: There are really a lot of great beaches but noticeably at the resort we stayed at. We stayed at the Apollo Hotel which had a lovely beach and pool area. My kids also loved the buffet-style breakfast every morning.
Lipsi
I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Lipsi. We got there by ferry and were greeted by my three nieces. There is nothing like seeing family in a totally different country on the other side of the world.
Meeting everyone in this town was so fun. We had the best beach day with my sister and brother-in-law. Finally, being able to experience a Greek wedding was incredible!!! If you have a chance to ever do this, I cannot recommend it enough. It was everything you think it is supposed to be. When Josh went to grab some breakfast at 8 a.m. in the morning, the wedding was still going on (we gave up at 2 a.m.).
Kos
We were in Kos more as a passing through than anything else. You have to fly to Athens to get to Santorini but there are no airports on Lipsi. So we took a ferry from Lipsi to Kos. From Kos, we flew to Athens and then Santorini.
At Kos, we hit up the Tree of Hippocrates and then spent the day at the Lido Waterpark I think the most embarrassing moment of my life happened at that waterpark (No, I’m not going to tell the story but you can imagine it. Just think “loose swimsuit” and “fast slide.”).
Santorini
My kids said that this was their favorite island for just hanging out. We stayed on the west side of the island on the cliffs in one of those famous cave hotels with its own hot tub. There are many of these spots and many are called “apartments” not hotels.
There were no beaches close by, so Santorini was more about eating out, shopping, and planned activities. I used Get Your Guide for most of my bookings the following:
Here are the direct links for what we did:
Horseback Riding
Catamaran Cruise
While on Santorini, I also did one of those Flying Dress photoshoots. I was hoping it would work for the Make Art That Sells book cover, but I ended up not using them. I’m still glad I did the shoot because it was a fun experience.
If you have been thinking of doing a family trip to the Greek Islands, make sure and add a few days of downtime into your trip. It also took us 3 days to not take naps during the day (jetlag with kids took a lot longer to combat than I thought).
Even though we had activities planned, we also prioritized shopping, eating, hanging out, and going to the beach. Sometimes on vacations I like to plan a lot of activities to make sure we see and do everything on our bucket list, but this is one of those vacations where the scenic route is nice. We went slow. We had a luxuriously easygoing breakfast most mornings. We took naps.
Basically, I rested. Because I did that, I came back from this trip ready to get back to designing and creating!
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