3 Overcrowded Greek Destinations You Should Still Visit in 2024, According to Travel Experts

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In this internet world, every traveler thinks they know better about what destination to recommend and what destination to avoid. In recent years, we’ve heard many of them list several Greek destinations as “avoid if you can”. Often we actually disagree with them!

Fodor even releases a yearly “No list” that includes destinations you supposedly should avoid for a range of reasons including overtourism. Some are definitely valid, but some are often exaggerated. 

Over the years, we’ve visited Greece and the Greek Islands several times. Let’s see which Greek destinations we think you should still visit in 2024 regardless of what other travelers are saying.

Santorini, a Misunderstood Island

Oh Santorini! Of course, you should still visit Santorini in 2024. Is it busier and more crowded than some of the other Greek Islands? Yes, probably. Are people over exaggerating how crowded it is? Yes, according to our several experiences. 

In our experience, Santorini is one of the busiest Greek Islands but it is not unbearably overcrowded at all like some videos make it to be. Actually, the times we’ve been there were quite enjoyable and we never had to queue to get dinner, even in the main towns of Oia and Fira.

Here are a few of our theories as to why Santorini has gotten an overcrowded reputation:

• Santorini is a popular destination across nationalities but especially for US travelers. US travelers are used to wide landscapes and having a lot of space, way more than we are used to in Europe. I lived in the USA and the difference is huge. It’s hard to even grasp it if you’ve never lived in both Europe and the USA. When living in the Bonners Ferry, it was normal to drive two hours to go shopping. That’s something we never do in Europe. So of course, it seems logical that when packing all these US travelers on a small Greek Island, they would find it a bit too crowded for their taste. The feel of the same amount of people in a US national park versus in Santorini is incomparable.
• US travelers are also some of the most popular accounts on social media so their voices are louder. Just because you hear that Santorini is overcrowded more often doesn’t make it the only reality. 
• Lots of social media accounts show crowds in places that most travellers won’t actually go to while in Santorini. For example, crowds are often showed queuing to get a specific photo shot for Instagram. Most visitors don’t care about getting the shot and won’t find themselves ever queuing there. 
• Lots of travelers stay in the most touristy place such as Oia and Red Beach. Oia is a small town in the north of the island, famous for its caldera with the white washed houses on the cliffs. It’s beautiful but it’s far from being the only town you can stay in. Red beach is beautiful but we’ve been to other hidden gem beaches on the island where there were only a couple of other tourists, given us plenty of space to enjoy the beach. From visiting Pyrgos to Vlychada Beach ,there are many things to do in Santorini beyond what you see on social media!
• People usually gather together at sunset time which makes the towns look super crowded. However, this only lasts for about an hour!

All in all, Santorini gets a bad reputation when it comes to over tourism that isn’t always an accurate reflection of reality. So, it is still worth a visit in Santorini.

Athens, the Gem City

Athens and its famous Acropolis attracted about 23,000 people a day in August 2023. Of course, that’s a number that could deter more than one traveler from visiting Athens. 

We visited Athens in August as well and even though we can’t deny it was busy, it didn’t get in the way of us enjoying our visit. When visiting such historical sites, it’s unrealistic to expect that you’d be the only one there or that few people would want to enjoy it as well. If it’s beautiful and majestic, you should expect a high number of visitors.

Of course, the limit should be that it doesn’t hurt the monuments and doesn’t prevent preservation of historical sites. In that context, the Acropolis has introduced a new cap on daily and hourly entries to manage the influx of tourists. The daily cap has been set to 20,000, just a few thousands under the past numbers.

Visitors should book a slot here ahead of their visits. 

Athens itself is a rather big city. Once in the streets and on other archeological sites, we did not feel as though the city was crowded. Even our visit of the Acropolis felt fine whereas it was peak summer. 

We would still highly recommend to visit Athens if you can. We suggest planning in advance so you can be sure to get the appropriate slots for your visits. 

Ios, the Under-Rated Island

Funny enough, we never hear travelers talk about Ios Island, one of our favourite islands for a couple’s trip. Ios is a tiny Greek Island just 30 minutes by ferry from Santorini. Many travelers focus on Santorini and don’t realise there is a gem hiding just an hour away. 

The thing about Ios is that it’s got two sides to the same coin. During peak summer, Ios resembles Mykonos. It gets taken over by partying college students and become a bit too much of a hell-hole for our taste (though if it’s your thing, that’s totally fine!).

But here’s why you should still visit Ios. September in Ios is absolutely fantastic. All college students are back home leaving the island quiet and peaceful for our own enjoyment. Ios is home to stunning beaches, turquoise waters, delicious homemade Greek food restaurants and stunning sunsets. 

And bonus, prices in September go down meaning you might be able to splurge on renting beautiful pool suites right on the water. That’s what we did and it was absolutely worth it for half the price of what Mykonos would have cost us! 

So yes, Ios gets overcrowded during summer, but we highly recommend to still visit in September when you’ll get the best of both worlds!