Thassos Holiday: Amazing 7 days holiday in Thassos

In this post, you might find a few interesting things you can do and places you can visit while in Thassos.

Day 1, Tuesday 25 August 2015: Transit from Romania-Bulgaria-Greece

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We’ve started our journey in Bucharest, at 3 am. We’ve been delayed at Ruse because the bridge across the Danube had some road works going on and only one way was in use. A 10 minutes crossing became a 1h30min-waiting queue. We continued our route through Bulgaria to Thassos, our final destination.

I was the co-pilot, and my main duty was to keep the driver awake and make sure we don’t get lost as happened in the summer holiday of 2011. I have to admit that I kind of failed at this task. I ate all the sandwiches and slept most of the way. We used Navmii GPS software and we had a printed version of the route, so slim chances of getting lost this time. After nearly 9 h we’ve reached Makaza, the new border crossing point into Greece. One hour waiting for time to cross the border and another 2 hours on the motorway to Keramoti from where we were supposed to take the ferryboat to Thassos.

Luckily we arrived just in time and as soon as we boarded the ferryboat sailed away.

We arrived in Thassos at 4 pm. The sun was up and shining brightly.

Before anything, we had to find a place to sleep. The first stop was the villa Emilia where we used to stay a few years back. The owner said that unfortunately, she is having just one room available for €55 (we were 3 couples some with kids).

Our quest for finding a place to sleep continued. We asked around, but despite the island being almost deserted, we were not able to find three rooms to stay in for 7 days.

Some places were asking for 80, 110, and 120€/night with breakfast included but our requirements were slightly different. The place must have been near the beach, where we all could stay together as one group, with a BBQ that we could use and not too expensive to break the bank.

After 2 hours of running around, we met an English family that bought a house on the island and were kind enough to make a few phone calls and helped us find a place to sleep. This is how we ended up talking to the owner/administrator of Studious Lazaridi.

Initially, she said that only one room was available for unlimited stay and the other two were available only for a day. The rooms were nice and clean with 3 or 4 beds, a small kitchenette and a shower room for only 40€/night, very close to the beach and a shared BBQ, not far from the villa.

The only problem was that two of the rooms were available for only one night and we wanted to stick together as a group. The neighbours at Olgas’s Place had one bedroom studio available for 40€/night where in theory 5 people could have slept. An urgent committee meeting was invoked to decide what to do.

Our meeting was interrupted by the owner/administrator of Lazaridi Studios who agreed to give us all 3 rooms for 40€/night each.

We said yes straight away in case she might change her mind!

The first day in Thassos ended with a swim in the sea after sunset and a nice dinner at Sakis Tavern boosted with traditional food: Greek salad, octopus, tzatziki, lamb etc.

Before I went to bed I set up my camera on the table on the balcony for the star trail capture.

Day 2, Wednesday: Full Day on the Beach in Skala Rachoni

Around 10 am I was still in bed sleeping. I thought I am dreaming about people shouting and slamming doors and speaking English with a Russian accent. I didn’t pay much attention and continued sleeping. After I finally decided to wake up I found out that the people who supposedly reserved the two studio apartments showed up and were not happy when they were told that their rooms are gone. Oops!  It wasn’t fair for them but business is business. That’s why sometimes is best to pay upfront. The day continued with an iced coffee on the beach from the Mediterranean bar for 2,50€. We booked two sunbeds and one umbrella for 5€/all day. The air temperature is around 34 Celsius and the water is warm. Just perfect.

We’ve made dinner plans and agreed that we’ll have BBQ on the beach. We didn’t have the actual BBQ or anything to put on the grill. Kystoc, John and I drove to the nearest supermarket and bought all necessary for the BBQ night on the beach.

While Kystoc was taking care of the BBQ, I set up my camera for the second-star trail capture.

Day 3, Thursday – Giola and Aliki beach

On the third day in Thassos, we have planned to visit a natural rocky pool, Giola. To arrive at Giola, we had to drive 45 minutes from Skala Rachoni to Astris. We parked on the side of the road and continued our downhill journey to Giola.

The sea was rough that day and the waves were smashing on the rocky shore creating a frightening and mesmerizing spectacle.

I was a bit reluctant to jump initially but after a few minutes of analyzing the situation, I did it.

It was great! If you ever go to Thassos, visiting Giola should be at the top of your list.

The last time we’ve been to Giola (2011) was late in the evening and we had a completely different experience.

After a few family group photos we ‘climbed’ our way back to the cars.

Our next stop was Aliki beach a few miles down the road, anticlockwise. Initially, we tried to book a few sunbeds on a narrow busy beach, but the owner asked us to order lunch from her tavern then we would have got them free of charge. We didn’t like her approach and we went to the beach on the other side of the peninsula. The beach was empty, with lots of sunbeds to choose from, 5€ for 2 sunbeds and an umbrella.

The beach was sandy and the only issue was that as soon as you went into the water the bottom was covered with pebbles. I don’t like walking on pebbles either, so I kept my sandals on. That day the sea was a bit rocky and big waves were smashing the shore, giving us a unique experience.

Later in the afternoon, we decide to pamper ourselves with a back, neck and foot massage right there on the beach. It was worth it. I paid 25€ for mine, Izabela paid 20€ (without foot massage), and Creatza and Simona paid 10€ each for their foot massage only.

The sun was setting down and we were supposed to go back to Skala Rachoni because we had a reservation for the traditional Greek night, at Olgas’s Place, the tavern next door to our villa. It was a total waste of money-very disorganised. We could”ve had a better experience sitting on our balcony.

Day 4, Friday – Marble Beach (Porto Vathy) and Gyros(Chicken wrap) in Panagia

Day 4 started with breakfast on the balcony admiring the sea and wishing those moments will never end.

After breakfast, we drove to Marble Beach. The place has changed since the last time we’ve been there. We asked for sunbeds to be installed on the beach. Shortly after, many more people followed our example.

That day we had so much fun in the water and on the beach.  We played volleyball and I took the ladies for a photo shoot on top of the marbles mountains.

On the way back, we stopped for gyros (Chicken wrap), in Panagia, admired the moon rise and bought souvenirs for family back home. Before we left we bought some meat from the butcher for our second BBQ on the beach.

Day 5, Saturday – Skala Rachoni and Theologos

Day 5 we spent on the beach in Skala Rachoni. Around noon, I went for a nap and woke up at 6 pm. For dinner, we decided to try someplace new and drove to Theologos in the heart of Thassos. At Stelios Tavern I had the biggest meal ever in my life. We ordered grilled baby goat but I forgot to check the description on the menu and we end up with 500g of meat.

Day 6, Sunday – Skala Prinou

Izabela and I decided to spend some time together and went for a walk on the beach. In Skala Prinou we booked a sailing cruise for the day after from one of the local travel agencies. Then we spent an excellent time on the beach, drinking beer and eating grilled fish and lamb with various salads on the side watching ferries sailing away.

Returned to Skala Rachoni, I set up my camera to record a sunset time-lapse and captured a few photos (iPhone) with Iza into the sunset, from the comfort of a sunbed.

Day 7, Monday – Private full-day cruise around the island

Day 7 started early in the morning. Kystoc dropped us off in the port on time to get on board the yacht. We even had time for a coffee. It was so peaceful.

The first stop was after 1 hour and a half in small golf not far from Golden Beach. the scenery was spectacular.

   

We had about 5 stops that day, one of them: was Marble Beach, Porto Vathy

In between stops I sucked all the sun I could.

We ended the cruise with a chocolate souffle and ouzo.

We managed to get back to the villa by bus. It only cost 1.80 euros/person.

For most of the evening, we were packing because the holiday was about to end and the day after we were supposed to go back to Romania. That evening we had our last dinner together at Sakis Tavern.

Day 8, Tuesday – Traveling back to Romania

At 9:30 am we left Skala Rachoni behind, heading to the port to catch the 10 am ferryboat to the mainland. This time we mainly stayed on E85 (5) road to go back to Bucharest, but near Ruse, we decided to take a turn and catch the ferryboat to Zimnicea. Around 9:30 pm we arrived in Bucharest after a 12 hours journey.

The summer holiday of 2015 didn’t end here. Please stay tuned for “The 7 stairs canyon” …coming soon.