Thessaloniki, Mount Olympus and Halkidiki

From Mount Olympus to the beaches of Halkidiki

Northern Greece is best explored as a loop from Thessaloniki. South of Katerini, the motorway runs along the sea, and Mount Olympus rises about twenty kilometres from the shore, up to 2,918 metres. From Litochoro, an 18-kilometre road climbs in hairpins above the Enipeas gorge to Prionia, where the path to the mountain refuges begins.

To the east, Halkidiki reaches out into the sea in three peninsulas. Kassandra, the nearest, is the liveliest. Sithonia is wilder: its coast road runs all the way round, between pine trees and granite coves, by way of Porto Koufo, an almost closed natural harbour already mentioned by Thucydides.

The third peninsula belongs to Mount Athos, a republic of monasteries closed to women. From Ouranoupoli, boats sail along its coast and its monasteries, more than 500 metres offshore. The summit reaches 2,033 metres.

The basilica of Saint Demetrius, dedicated to the city’s patron saint, was rebuilt after the great fire of 1917. The church of Hagia Sophia dates from the 7th century. On the seafront, the White Tower, an Ottoman tower, is now the symbol of the city. Above the centre, the upper town, Ano Poli, has kept its steep lanes and its houses with overhanging upper floors. It is crowned by the Heptapyrgion, a fortress that served as a prison until 1989.

After the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, the Sephardim were for a long time the majority in Thessaloniki. Most of the city’s Jews were deported in 1943.

Aigai, Pella and Dion, the cities of the Macedonian kings

The first capital of Macedon, Aigai, is today’s Vergina. In 1977, the archaeologist Manolis Andronikos found royal tombs there under a burial mound, one of them intact and attributed to Philip II, Alexander’s father. The museum was built inside the mound, around the tombs. The site has been a World Heritage Site since 1996, and the restored palace reopened in 2024.

Around 400 BC, King Archelaus made Pella his capital. Alexander the Great was born here in 356 BC. The city’s houses have yielded pebble mosaics, including a stag hunt signed “Gnosis made it”. At the foot of Mount Olympus, Dion was the sacred city of the Macedonians; Alexander made sacrifices there before setting off for Asia. In Thessaloniki, the Archaeological Museum displays the gold from the tombs of Sindos and the Derveni krater.

What not to miss

1. 1The Enipeas gorgeThe E4 path follows the river from Litochoro to Prionia, over wooden bridges.
2. 2The old Monastery of Saint DionysiosFounded in the 16th century and destroyed by the German army in 1943, it has been partly restored since.
3. 3Platamon CastleA Crusader fortress above the sea, at the end of the Vale of Tempe.
4. 4Petralona CaveAn archaic human skull was found here in 1960, dated to at least 277,000 years ago.
5. 5Afytos and KallitheaA hilltop village, and the ruins of the sanctuary of Zeus Ammon by the water.
6. 6The tower of OuranoupoliA Byzantine tower on the beach, where the Australian Joice NanKivell Loch lived.

Thessaloniki, Mount Olympus and Halkidiki in pictures

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The walls of Platamonas castle above the sea, under a blue sky.

The Macedonian table

In Thessaloniki, the day starts with a bougatsa, a filo pastry filled with custard or cheese. In the evening, people share meze in the tavernas of the Ladadika, near the port. The mussels from the Thermaic Gulf come from Chalastra.

In Halkidiki, the large green olives have a protected designation of origin. On the slopes of Mount Itamos, in Sithonia, the Porto Carras estate makes wine. In Arnaia, you can buy honey. The red wine to take home is the xinomavro from Naoussa.