As the world revolves into the next Gregorian millennium, Greece—and the idea of Greece—maintains a mythic stranglehold on the imagination of the Western world. The more modern Greece becomes, the more power and majesty we attribute to its ancients. Attracting metaphors like flies to its famous Boeotian honey, Greece has become the land where East meets West, the modern nation in which Old meets New, and the “cradle” of everything from democracy to Western civilization itself. Whether you are sunning yourself on Aegean beaches, exploring Minoan ruins, or club-hopping on Rhodes, you trample on ground that has borne millennia of sophisticated civilizations. As you marvel at the beauty of the sun setting over the Acropolis, remember that over two thousand years ago, someone was probably standing where you are, doing the exact same thing.

GREECE FACTS AND FIGURES

Capital: Athens.
Population: 10.7 million.
Land Area: 131,944 sq. km.
Geography: 80% of the mainland is mountainous; lots of coastline; thousands of islands.
Religion: 98% Orthodox Christian.

VACATIONING WITH THE GODS

Greece has something for just about anyone, as long as that anyone likes: chillin’ on the beach, visiting archaeological sights, eating sweet-honeyed baklava, dancing ‘til dawn and then watching the prettiest sunrise this side of Venus, swimming through the clear blue waters of the Aegean, checking out some of Southern Europe’s best contemporary art, exploring cliffside monasteries, sipping a milkshake in the plateia of a picturesque Greek village, pondering the meaning of life in Socrates’ Athenian classroom, savoring a tzatziki-soaked gyro, or seeing the Western world’s first dramas performed. We hope you get the point. If you don’t, you certainly will by the time you return from your Grecian adventure.

If you’re going to cradle civilization, you better have some nice cribs to do it in. While modern Grecians seem to favor poured concrete, their Classical ancestors preferred building enormous edifices out of some of the world’s fanciest marble. In their obsession with beauty and proportion, the ancient Greeks built some pretty phat pads—probably much nicer than the domatia (rooms to let) in which you’ll be staying. While these buildings, temples, and sanctuaries were constructed to fulfill spiritual and practical functions, they have come to serve as grand testaments to the artistic achievement of a civilization. When it comes to ancient Greek ruins, the top of the hill is, of course, the Athenian Acropolis, centered around the Parthenon. Athletic travelers may enjoy a jog across the Peloponnese and through the original Olympic stadium at Ancient Olympia. If you’re going island-hopping, but don’t want to miss out on the archaeology scene, head to the Cyclades for a peek at the Temple of Apollo on Delos, an entire island consisting of little more than this giant archaeological site. If you haven’t been to Disneyland in a while, you might want to check out Heinrich Schliemman’s dreamland reconstruction of the Minoan palace at Knossos.

When you tire of headless marble sculptures of naked goddesses (yawn) and crumbling pillars, it’s time to get Byzantine. The empire which subsumed Greece from the 4th to the 15th centuries AD left Greece littered with some of the most beautiful, extravagant churches and monasteries in the world, plus fortifications and monuments galore. A cruise of the Christian circuit would most certainly include a stop in Mystra, the little city from which Byzantium oversaw the entire Peloponnese during the empire’s last 200 years. Thessaloniki seems to have survived about 17 centuries in second place without ever developing a complex: take a few days in modern Greece’s “second city” to explore remnants of the era when it played second fiddle only to Constantinople itself. Those who truly have the love will put in the extra effort and get to Osios Loukas, Greece’s most famous Byzantine monastery, perched on the slopes of Mt. Elikon in Sterea Ellada. And no tour or the Byzantine scene would be complete without a thorough appreciation of the astounding monasteries of Meteora. These gravity-defying edifices seem to grow out of the otherworldly rock formations on which they balance, climbing perilously heavenward.

For most hard-core backpackers, a visit to Greece involves some drastic lifestyle changes. With a little effort and self-discipline, you might be able to get accustomed to Greece’s summertime schedule: dinner at 11pm, Happy Hour from midnight to 2am, dance until 4am, hang out on the beach to watch the sunrise, sleep until mid-afternoon, then rise again to fight another day (well, go back to the beach until dinner time). Head to the islands to really give your mojo a workout. Corfu, in the Northern Ionian, is world-renowned for its hedonistic revelry. Santorini has unique black-sand beaches, the Mediterranean’s best sunsets, and a distinctly Greek sophistication that makes Rhodes’ imitation of Miami Beach look just plain silly.

While the backpacker party scene strikes a chord deep within the national psyche, there is, as you might expect, a lot more to Greece than just bars, beaches, and shakin' booty. Luckily for you, a lot of the country remains relatively undiscovered: small, unjustly overlooked islands dot the seas, while vast tracts of northern and southern mainland Greece remain untouristed. While the Peloponnese has some of Greece’s most popular archaeological sights, it also has some of its loveliest and most untraveled mountains, beaches, and towns. Dimitsana and Stemitsana, comfortably stranded in the central Peloponnese, will be yours, all yours, if you want them. You’ll find all kinds of peace on Mt. Athos, a self-governing collection of monasteries where monks live as they did centuries ago: no worldly temptation (women) allowed.

Greece is home to some of the world’s prettiest hikes, so grab your water bottle and get ready to bond with those famous mountain goats. As luck would have it, Let’s Go: Greece 2000 includes significantly expanded coverage of hikes all around the country, with something for everyone from the casual, sandal-sporting daytripper to the hard-core, Gore-Tex-geared mountaineer. The beautiful but sadly under-populated Zagorohoria boasts vast hinterlands full of opportunities for wanderers and adventurers. While it has the world’s steepest canyon, in the Vikos Gorge, you’ll have to head to Crete to trek through Europe’s longest gorge, the Samaria Gorge, and the overworld’s most cheerful valley, the Valley of Death. If you’re feeling truly superhuman, head to Mt. Olympus and shoot for the gods on any number of fabulous routes to any one of its eight summits: pick a peak and go for the gold.