The offbeat alternative to the Alps with sun, ski and souvlaki
The ski bus trundled out of Athens – past graffitied apartment blocks, shops selling sexy underwear and lines of abandoned factories. Despite the effects of the country’s long drawn out economic crisis the stuffy vehicle was packed with young tanned Greeks clad in North Face puffer jackets and bobble hats heading for Arachova, a mountain town on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, which has been dubbed ‘Greece’s winter Mykonos’ because of the jet set crowd who come here to ski.
Eleni Prablanc from Trekking Hellas Parnassos was waiting for me two hours later when the bus squealed to a halt on Arachova’s main square, lined with hip cafes and stores selling chic snow gear. “Visitors from overseas don’t see Greece as a winter destination and yet it’s one of Europe’s most mountainous countries,” the 44-year-old guide told me.
Disappointingly, there was no snow in Arachova itself – although crumbled grey roof tiles weighed down with a stegosaurus-like sprinkling of stones testified to the wild winter weather that regularly engulfs this mountain eyrie 1,000 metres above sea level. A further 500 meters up at Fterolaka ski centre where I strapped on cross-country touring skis an hour later, however, and the hillsides were as white as any Christmas card.
There are more than a dozen ski resorts in Greece, but the Parnassos Ski Centre, which was refurbished a few years ago, is considered to be the best. “There are 25 pistes for all ability levels and there are two main areas: Kelaria is for the jetset – up there they have a guy from Mykonos renting out sunbeds at €100 a pop – but here at Fterolaka it’s much quieter,” Eleni told me.
With chairlifts closed due to freak winds we went cross-country, swishing for five hours across a blinding white expanse of pristine snow framed by feather-fingered forests of pine trees and skies the colour of the sea in summer.
After a day of playing in the snow I was ravenous. Luckily Greece’s winter playground for the country’s rich and famous has plenty of good restaurants. At Kaplani’s, a taverna on a cobbled square above Arachova’s 19th-century stone clocktower, I sat by a blazing olive wood fire sipping white spirit tsipouro, before being serenaded by the sound of the bouzoukoi as I dined on lemon sauce-doused, spicy meat-stuffed cabbage sarmades. The juxtaposition of meze, bouzoukoi and icy weather seemed slightly odd. Later, however, dipping in and out of the DJ bars lining Arachova’s main street, I was back in summer Greece, enjoying nightlife as lively as I’d ever seen in Mykonos.
Before leaving Arachova I thought it would be wise – given events of the last few years – to consult the Oracle. Stripped to a T-shirt in the hot morning sun I followed Eleni along a narrow goat track, past pine trees and olive groves, from the snow-bound pastures of the Livadi plateau high above to Delphi far below. Without the usual summer tourist hordes we had the site to ourselves and – although there was no sign from the Oracle – I felt an immense sense of peace as we picnicked on creamy feta sandwiches surrounded by temples and columns in the site that was once considered to be the centre of the world. The Alps can’t compete with this, I thought.
If Arachova in the southwest is Greece’s winter Mykonos, Eleni told me that the far more peaceful Pelion, two-and-a-half hours drive away in the northeast, is the country’s cold season equivalent of its lesser-known neighbour Tinos. Eager to compare, I rented a car from Hertz and – after stopping off in Thermopylae for a pummelling massage in the hot spring waterfall that bursts out of rocks here – followed a winding road to Portaria on the foothills of Mount Pelion.
From the balcony of my room at Valeni Boutique Hotel I listened to the sigh of the wind in the distant trees and watched the stars flickering like fireflies above the frost-glittered mountains where legend says the gods from Mount Olympus used to spend their summer holidays. Judging just from the books left in the lobby by previous travellers – Paul Theroux and Chibundu Onuzo instead of Stephen King and Danielle Steel – I could already tell that the Pelion was very different from Mount Parnassus.
With five chair lifts and eight slopes, the Agriolefkes (wild poplars) ski centre is small, but the views over the Aegean towards Skopelos are spectacular and the slopes were near-deserted. Since a day pass here cost only €10 (compared to €30 on Parnassus), it was better value, too; as was my hearty après-ski dinner that evening at Portaria’s Kritsa Gastronomy taverna – creamy cracked wheat and sheep’s milk soup followed by kremmydodolmades (spicy meat-stuffed onions) – which was half the price I would have paid for a similar meal in Arachova.
On my final day in the Pelion, Panagiotis from local company Hike or Bike took me out along Centaurs Path – a trail hewn from hunks of granite and porcelain-pale marble and named for the mythical creatures that it’s said once haunted these slopes. It led us up into the mountains via slippery wooden bridges over gushing waterfalls, and then down again into the cobbled streets of Portaria. “Boris Johnson likes to haunt these slopes, too,” Panagiotis joked. “His father has a house in the south and he likes to hang out in the tavernas here”.
From Portaria I walked across snowy fields at sunset – sinking to my knees in the deep drifts – to the cookery school at Karaiskos Farm where owner Filipos taught me how to make Pelion’s famous hortapita herb pies. Later, as we ate them together by a blazing log fire with a glass of organic assyrtiko white from Pelion’s Patistis winery, I asked Filipos if he thought Greece could become a popular winter destination.
“Listen – Greece isn’t Avoriaz,” he replied. “It’s for people who prefer wilder places. You don’t just come to Greece in winter to ski – you come to see Delphi and the Acropolis without the crowds, and to enjoy tavernas with only locals inside and go hiking under warm winter sunshine – that’s what winter Greece is about.”
For more travel inspiration, read Telegraph Travel's guide to the best hotels in Greece
How to do it
Heidi flew with Aegean Air and her trip was organised by Discover Greece. She stayed at Likoria Hotel (rooms from £65 per night) and Valeni Boutique Hotel and Spa (rooms from £95 per night). Self-guided tours of Delphi from £11.20 by Clio Muse Tours.
