The Greek showdown: Culture v the beaches

By Mal Chenu

OK, so you live in a country with the best beaches in the world and you want to travel to the other side of the planet to go to a beach with pebbles instead of sand, $23 lattes and blaring techno music? This is like Parisians coming to Oz to see Sydney Tower. Or Kiwis heading to Uruguay to see the sheep, even though they are not as pretty as the ones at home. When you go to Greece, you can immerse yourself in the culture, art, sculpture, architecture, engineering, urban planning, politics, economics, medicine, mathematics, physics, zoology, astronomy, philosophy, literature, sport and myths that began - and still inform - the very basis of Western civilisation. Or you can go to the beach.

Endlessly fascinating encounters dating back to ancient civilisations are sprinkled throughout Greece like icing sugar on a bougatsa. Of course, they are too numerous to list but here are a few random highlights from across the ages.

People have lived on the island of Crete for 9000 years, and at the 3700-year-old Knossos Palace in Heraklion, you discover the Minoan civilisation, the oldest in Europe, and the home of the half-man, half-bull minotaur, whose diet consisted of young virgins. Archaeologists are still trying to piece together their society but it seems from the ancient frescoes the Minoans' fave sport - for men and women - was vaulting charging bulls.

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Fast forward to the 5th century BCE and the construction of the Acropolis of Athens. Climb the gentle hill past the Propylaia and Temple of Athena Nike to the Parthenon. Proceed to the adjacent Acropolis Museum, built over a working archaeological site, and where gaps have been left to display the stolen Elgin Marbles, should the Poms ever decide to give them back. On the island of Patmos, you can visit the Cave of the Apocalypse, where the resurrected Jesus appeared to St John, who subsequently dictated the Bible's Book of Revelation here, while enjoying nice views of the Aegean. Further up the hill is the 1088-built Monastery of St John, which is still in use. Within the walled medieval city of Rhodes, the Palace of the Grand Master is a towering edifice of 158 majestic rooms filled with first-century sculptures, chandeliers and furniture, as well as 110 intricate mosaic floors.

An Aegean cruise is a great way to get thee to the Greek treasures. Based in Athens, Celestyal Cruises do this exceptionally well, operating three-, four- and seven-night outings around the Aegean and Mediterranean with one to two port calls a day, interspersed with Greek dining, cocktails, dancing, shows and as much mandolin and bouzouki music as you can stand. (It's more than you think it will be. Opa!!)

Wasting your precious time lounging at the beach in this enthralling cultural cornucopia of a country would be, well, a tragedy of some sort.

By Amy Cooper

Last time I was on the Athenian Riviera, I contemplated visiting the Acropolis. Then I lay back on my sun lounger, inhaled the sweet Aegean air, ordered another cocktail and settled back in with Homer's Odyssey, a cracking beach read starring a guy who was partial to a seashore or two.

You need a very compelling reason to skip the beach in Greece, where every blissful centimetre in the gorgeous 14,000 kilometres of coastline vies to deliver the ultimate version of paradise. If you want me to set aside my Santorini Sunrise and haul myself out of a postcard of sugary sand, bluer-than-blue sea and matching skies, you'll need a stronger incentive than a few heaps of ancient rubble.

Yes, Greece is the cradle of civilisation. But it's also the hammock of European beach culture and it's perfectly acceptable to go for that reason only.

When people describe their awe at seeing the Parthenon or the temple of Delphi, what they might not mention is the Herculean task of getting anywhere near these precious fragments.

Every summer the slopes of the Acropolis are besieged by hordes, in temperatures hotter than Hades, with sweaty queues that give a sense of life as a soldier dragged into battle in an ancient Greek phalanx. At the top, amid scaffolding, dust and sometimes a crane or two, the poor old Parthenon and its fellow relics look as if they just want to be left alone to crumble in peace.

I'm happy to oblige, and instead embrace the vital, vibrant beauty of contemporary Greece. How beautiful? Beaches that look as if the gods scattered their jewels across the Aegean and Ionian seas, with sparkling sands in pink, silver, gold and even dramatic volcanic black. Pristine swathes and pebbly enclaves and grandiose rock formations. I'd rather the pulsating live-for-the moment vibes of Nammos Beach Club on Mykonos, or the family joys and Blue Flag cleanliness at Halkidiki's olive-fringed Nea Moudania.

I'll find my awe in nature's magnificence: beach swans at Koukounaries on Skiathos, flamingos at breathtaking semicircular Voidokilia Beach in the Peloponnese, or endangered Mediterranean monk seals in the crystalline waters at Tsoukalia Beach on Alonissos, the only inhabited island in the Northern Sporades National Marine Park.

Greece's beaches have stories, too. Dionysus, god of wine, wooed Ariadne on the sandy shores of Naxos. Kolovri Rock, off Corfu's Palaiokastritsa, is said to be Odysseus' ship turned to stone by Poseidon and the seafaring hero's home, Ithaca, has famously emerald waters and about 20 stunning beaches.

I don't need ruins to connect with Greek history. The coastline is alive with it and I'll soak it up there, thanks - with a side order of boat-fresh seafood and a long glass of Ouzo lemonade.