Beverly Hills Greece, Kafisisa

-

When planning our trip to Greece, I intentionally booked a two-night stay in Athens at the end of our journey. After three weeks of travel—and a 4.5-hour drive down from the Pelion Peninsula—I figured we’d need a place to rest and decompress before our flight. So I chose a hotel just 20 minutes from the airport. Anticipating some travel fatigue, and given how reasonably priced accommodations are in Greece, I decided to splurge a little and reserved a 5-star hotel for our final stop.

What we didn’t expect was that Greece has its own version of Beverly Hills—and we had landed right in the middle of it.



Three weeks of travel had shown us a country full of beauty and resilience, but also marked by the lingering effects of a deep economic collapse. We’d had several conversations with locals who generously shared their perspectives in English—stories of hardship, recovery, and daily struggle. So when we arrived in this affluent enclave, we were genuinely taken aback.

Locals call it “Beverly Hills,” but the neighborhood is officially named Kifisia. A quick search revealed that it’s home to politicians, oligarchs (yes, Greece has them too), and the country’s elite.

The contrast was striking. At dinner one evening—at the restaurant featured in the video we posted—women arrived in flowing gowns, each pausing dramatically at the illuminated entrance, as if stepping onto a stage. It was a spectacle. We enjoyed the food and the novelty of it all, but in the end, Rob and I agreed: we would have preferred to spend those last days in a quiet beachside village.

Still, the experience was illuminating. It reminded us, in a sweet and grounding way, that we don’t long for that kind of life. In comparison to the warmth and ease we’d felt in the villages, the energy here was cold and aloof. Honestly, if you’d dropped us there blindfolded, we might’ve guessed we were in Los Angeles.

As we returned our rental car, we had a long conversation with the employee helping us—he shared that he was baptized in the small church across the street from our hotel. When I responded, “Fancy!” he laughed, then opened up about his own frustrations with Greece’s social hierarchy. He spoke candidly about the oligarchs, the government’s favoritism, and the harsh realities for everyday Greeks—many of whom work two or three jobs and have had to leave their villages just to survive in the city.

It was a poignant final note to our trip—a reminder of how layered and complex this country is, and how much more there is to understand beyond what meets the eye.


Popular posts from this blog

Living Between Worlds

-
Image
Considering life in another country carries a complex emotional weight. On one hand, there’s the thrill of adventure—which is very real. On the other, it’s a strange experience to find yourself in one of the most beautiful places you’ve ever seen, immersed in a culture rich with authenticity, warmth, and safety, and still feel… isolated. This feeling stems largely from the language barrier. Even mapping reveals the complications. We’re in Greece, and we don’t speak—or read—Greek. I expected this would pose some limitations, but now that I’m here, I can more clearly articulate the nuances of those limitations. We often don’t realize how much we absorb from our surroundings just by reading signs and posters. Because Greek uses a different alphabet and has no linguistic overlap with English to use as a guide, we’re often in the dark. We can’t tell if we’re standing in front of a law office or a dental practice. Bakeries and supermarkets are more obvious, and in truth, I rather enjoy sh...
Read more

Unexpected Bourgeoisie

-
Image
At this point in our 23-day trip to Greece, I had booked our first “in-town” stay—an apartment just outside the center of activity, about a 10-minute walk from the heart of town. I figured we’d be acclimated enough to step away from the comforts typically tailored for tourists (Greek or otherwise). A note: our trip intentionally excludes the islands and places frequented by non-Greek tourists. Since we’re scouting for a potential home, we felt drawn to everyday Greek life. Even when we chose towns with some tourism, they catered primarily to Greek visitors. Nafplio, Kalamata, and Preveza all fit that bill. Upon arriving in Preveza after a beautiful four-hour drive from Kalamata, we found our backstreet apartment and checked in. By now, we’d grown accustomed to Greece’s version of “crunk”—tiered apartment buildings, narrow roads, and laundry fluttering from balconies. It’s a style consistent across cities, and we’ve come to recognize it as a hallmark of local life. We checked into a gro...
Read more

Kalamata in the Peloponnese Region - a Beach Town with a Brooklyn Hub

-
Image
We’ve made our way to Kalamata, another city in the Peloponnese region of Greece, about a two-hour drive from Nafplio. First impressions? It feels like a mix of Brooklyn, New Orleans, South Beach Miami, and Beverly Hills—a strange combination, I know! Unlike Nafplio or Athens, the urban streets of Kalamata are wide, a more recent development that feels refreshingly familiar to an American. But that sense of spaciousness doesn’t last. Once you leave the urban center and enter the residential neighborhoods—mostly beach towns lining the coast—the roads quickly revert to being incredibly narrow, winding beyond anything you can imagine, and at times, quite rough. Kalamata’s street life has the energy of Brooklyn, but it’s dotted with charming, French-influenced two-story buildings featuring ornate wrought-iron balconies that evoke New Orleans. Our Airbnb is directly on the port, overlooking the water, surrounded by restaurants, shops, and a few small beaches. Just an eighth of a mile down t...
Read more