Europe

~10:00 PM

Leave for Taoyuan

Out the door around ten for the midnight departure. That's roughly a 2-hour cushion at the airport — right for a long-haul with bags. Everything you want in the first 24 hours goes in the carry-on: the Athens arrival lands mid-morning and the room may not be ready.

Just after midnight

TPE → Athens

Departing in the small hours of the 20th. Athens runs 5 hours behind Taipei in summer, so a midnight departure and a long one-stop routing puts you on the ground in Greece around the middle of the same day. Sleep on the first leg if you can — day one is a soft day, but day two starts at eight in the morning.

On landing

Airport → Kolonaki

Two clean options. Taxi is a regulated flat fare into the central ring — €40 between 05:00 and midnight, €55 overnight, tolls and luggage included, so there's nothing to haggle over. Metro Line 3 runs airport → Syntagma in about 40 minutes for €9–10 a head, then it's a short hop up to Kolonaki — but it only starts at 06:30, so if you land earlier the taxi decides itself.

Afternoon

Check in & reset

The Modernist sits in Kolonaki — the smart neighbourhood at the foot of Lycabettus, in what used to be the Canadian embassy. Thirty-eight rooms, black marble and brass, a private gallery downstairs. Shower, change into something lighter than you flew in, and don't try to see a single ruin today.

~7:30 PM

First drink on the roof

The hotel's rooftop bar, 1818, looks straight across the city at the Acropolis. Be up there before sunset at 20:14 — the rock turns amber, then the floodlights come on and it does the whole thing again in gold. Cheapest spectacular view in Athens if you're already sleeping underneath it.

~9:00 PM

Dinner in Kolonaki

Greeks eat late and August is when the city stays out. Kolonaki's side streets around Skoufa and Tsakalof are five minutes on foot and full of tavernas and wine bars. Keep it easy and close — you're jet-lagged and tomorrow starts at eight.

8:00 AM — be at the gate

The Acropolis, at opening

This is the one thing on the whole trip worth setting an alarm for. Gates open at 08:00 and the site is 5–10°C cooler than it will be at noon, with a fraction of the people — by 10am the tour groups have landed. Buy tickets online the night before. There is no shade up there: hat, water, and shoes with grip, because the marble is polished glassy by two thousand years of feet.

~10:30 AM

Acropolis Museum

Down the hill and air-conditioned — which by late morning matters. The top floor is built to the exact footprint and compass bearing of the Parthenon, so the frieze is laid out as it stood, with the real thing framed through the glass behind it. Do it in this order and the ruins you just walked through suddenly make sense.

~1:00 PM

Lunch in Plaka, then hide from the sun

Plaka's lanes run up the north slope into Anafiotika — a pocket of whitewashed Cycladic cottages built by island masons who came to build the king's palace and made themselves a piece of home. It's Santorini in miniature, two days early. Then take the Greek option and go horizontal for a couple of hours: midday in August is for lying down.

~5:30 PM

Ancient Agora & Monastiraki

Late afternoon light, long shadows, and the Temple of Hephaestus — the best-preserved Doric temple anywhere, and far quieter than the rock above it. This is where Socrates actually argued with people. Spill out into Monastiraki afterwards for the flea market and the noise.

7:30 PM

Lycabettus for sunset

Your hotel is at the foot of it, so this is a home fixture. The funicular climbs to the chapel on the summit — the highest point in Athens, with the Acropolis below you and the Saronic Gulf glittering behind it. Sunset is 20:13; be up by 19:40. Walk down through Kolonaki to dinner.

~9:30 AM

One museum, then out of the heat

The National Archaeological Museum is the heavyweight — the Mask of Agamemnon, the bronze Artemision Zeus mid-throw, the Antikythera mechanism that turned out to be a 2,000-year-old analogue computer. If nobody wants a second museum day, swap it for the Panathenaic Stadium, all-marble and empty enough to run on.

Midday onward

Get in the water

Athens has a coastline and August is the reason to use it. The tram or a 25-minute taxi puts you on the Athens Riviera at Glyfada or Vouliagmeni. Best of the lot is Lake Vouliagmeni — a spring-fed thermal lake in a collapsed cave, water at a steady 24°C year round, cliffs going straight up behind you.

~6:00 PM

Cape Sounion for the sunset

The big swing of the day, and worth it. An hour and a quarter down the coast road, the Temple of Poseidon stands on a headland with sea on three sides — white marble going pink as the sun drops into the Aegean. Byron carved his name into a column here in 1810 and you can still find it. Aim to arrive around 19:15 for a 20:12 sunset; last entry is typically ~30 min before closing, so check the day's hours before committing.

~9:30 PM

Saturday night in Psyrri

Back in town, Psyrri is where Athens actually goes out — a dense knot of tavernas, rooftops and bars behind Monastiraki that doesn't really get going until ten. Last night in the city; the island is a slower gear.

Morning

Fly, don't sail

The flight is 50 minutes. The high-speed ferry from Piraeus is 5 to 5½ hours, and the slow one closer to eight. In late August the meltemi wind chops the Aegean up in the afternoons, which turns a scenic crossing into an endurance event — and it can cancel sailings outright. With only two nights on the island, fly and keep the whole afternoon.

On landing

Airport → Oia

Santorini's airport is on the flat east side; Oia is the far north tip, about 25–30 minutes away. Arrange the transfer with the hotel in advance — the taxi rank at JTR is famously tiny for the number of people it serves. Note that much of Oia is pedestrian-only stone lanes and steps, so you may be handing bags over for the last stretch.

7:00 PM — go early

The Oia sunset

The single most crowded sunset in Greece, and still worth it. The whole island funnels toward the Byzantine castle ruins at the northwest tip; people are in position an hour ahead and it ends in applause. Sunset is 20:02 — be there by 19:00 for a spot on the wall. The civilised alternative: skip the scrum entirely and book a caldera-facing terrace table for 19:30, and watch it with a drink and a chair.

~9:00 PM

Dinner in Oia

Once the sun's gone the crowd drains away in twenty minutes and Oia gets its lanes back — the blue hour here is quietly better than the sunset. Grilled octopus, fava, tomato keftedes, and a cold bottle of Assyrtiko, the island's flint-dry white grown in ground-level basket vines that shelter the fruit from the wind.

7:00 AM

The photo, before anyone's awake

This is why you're staying in the north. The three blue domes — the shot on every poster of Greece — are on the marble path at the northwest end of Oia, looking down the cliff with the caldera behind. At seven in the morning you will have it to yourself and the light comes from behind you; by eleven there is a queue and the sun is flat and white. Get up. It's a two-day island and this is the reason people come.

~11:00 AM

Catamaran around the caldera

The best half-day on the island. A catamaran out of Ammoudi or Vlychada does the loop — anchoring off the hot springs at the volcano, the Red Beach and White Beach under their cliffs, swimming straight off the boat, lunch cooked on board. Seeing the caldera from the water, with 300 m of cliff and the villages iced along the rim, is a different thing entirely from looking down at it.

Alternative

Ammoudi Bay & the 300 steps

If a boat day is too much: walk the 300 steps down from Oia to Ammoudi, a red-cliff fishing cove with tavernas right on the water. Swim off the flat rocks past Saint Nicholas chapel, eat the catch at a table where the sea is a metre from your feet. Take a taxi or a donkey back up — the climb in afternoon heat is genuinely hard.

~6:30 PM

Assyrtiko above the caldera

Santorini's vines are grown in kouloura — coiled into low basket nests on volcanic ash so the wind can't shred them and the dew collects inside. The wine is bone-dry, saline and unlike anything else. Half a dozen wineries on the caldera rim do tastings with the view; go for the second-last slot and let it run into sunset at 20:00.

The long transfer

Santorini → Nice — check this one carefully

The only non-stop between Nice and Santorini is easyJet's seasonal service, and it flies Wednesdays and Sundays. August 25 is a Tuesday — so plan on connecting, almost certainly back through Athens and out to Nice from there. It makes this a travel day rather than a half day, so book it early and don't schedule anything tight on the other end. Greece is on UTC+3 and France on UTC+2, so you also gain an hour.

On landing at NCE

Pick up the car

The rental desks are at Nice Côte d'Azur, right on the coast at the end of the Promenade. Two things before you drive off: photograph the car from all four corners plus the roof and wheels, and check whether they've given you a toll transponder for the A8. Then note that you have just acquired a car in one of the most parking-hostile stretches of Europe — which is the whole reason the ferry and the corniche matter later.

~1 hour

Take the corniche, not the motorway

It's only 30 km to Monaco. The A8 does it in half an hour and you'll see a tunnel. The Moyenne Corniche takes about fifty minutes and is one of the great drives on earth — carved into the cliff a few hundred metres above the sea, past Èze perched on its rock, the Med filling the whole windscreen. Grace Kelly drove this road in To Catch a Thief. You have the time. Take the corniche.

Evening

Casino Square, first look

Drop the car in a garage and don't touch it again until you leave. Walk up to Place du Casino as it gets dark — the Belle Époque casino floodlit, the Hôtel de Paris opposite, and a rotating display of other people's supercars idling around the fountain. Sunset is 20:21. Drink at the Café de Paris terrace and just watch the parade.

11:00 AM

Monaco-Ville, up on the Rock

The old town sits on a limestone headland 60 m above the sea — medieval lanes, and the whole principality laid out below. The changing of the guard outside the Prince's Palace happens at 11:55 exactly, every day, and it's over in about ten minutes, so don't stroll up at noon. Grace Kelly is buried in the cathedral a few streets away.

~1:00 PM

Oceanographic Museum

Better than it sounds, and dramatically sited — the building drops 85 m straight down the cliff face to the sea. Founded by Prince Albert I, and run for thirty years by Jacques Cousteau. Sharks, a huge coral tank, and a roof terrace with one of the best views in Monaco.

Afternoon

Larvotto, or up to the cactus garden

Two ways to spend a hot afternoon. Larvotto is Monaco's public beach — properly public, free, and a short walk from Monte-Carlo. Or ride the lifts up to the Jardin Exotique, thousands of succulents on a cliff terrace with a cave underneath and the best wide view back over the whole principality.

After 9:00 PM

Inside the Casino de Monte-Carlo

You can pay a few euros just to walk through the Belle Époque rooms — the Salle Europe with its onyx columns and gas chandeliers is worth it even if you never place a bet. Bring ID (18+), and dress for it: no shorts, no beachwear, no flip-flops, and jackets are expected in the private rooms in the evening. Monégasque citizens, for the record, are barred from gambling here.

8:00 AM

Drive the Grand Prix circuit

The best free thing in Monaco: the F1 track is just the city's public streets, so you can drive a lap in a rented hatchback. Start at Sainte-Dévote, climb Beau Rivage, right at Casino Square, down through Mirabeau to the Fairmont Hairpin — the slowest corner in Formula One, taken at about 45 km/h — then the tunnel, the harbour chicane, Tabac, and round the swimming pool to Rascasse. Do it early on a weekday morning while the streets are empty.

~10:00 AM

Èze village

Twenty minutes back along the corniche and 427 m straight up: a medieval village of stone lanes with no cars in it at all, coiled around a rock. Climb to the Jardin Exotique at the very top, where cactus terraces sit on the old castle ruins and the view runs from Italy to Saint-Tropez on a clear day. Go in the morning — the coaches arrive later.

~1:00 PM

Lunch in Menton

The last French town before Italy, and it feels it — ochre and pink houses stacked above the sea, the warmest microclimate in France, lemons growing everywhere. Quieter and more relaxed than anywhere else on this stretch of coast. Eat by the old port, wander the Vieille Ville stairs up to the baroque basilica, and have a lemon granita on the way back down.

Evening

Last night in Monaco

Back for sunset at 20:17. Dinner around Port Hercule puts you at eye level with a few hundred million euros of moored yacht, which is its own entertainment. Pack tonight — tomorrow is a driving day and the coast road west is the good one.

Late morning

Down the coast, with stops

An hour on the A8, but there's no reason to do it in one go. Stop in Nice for the Cours Saleya flower and produce market and a walk in the ochre lanes of Vieux Nice. Then Antibes: the ramparts, the Musée Picasso in the Château Grimaldi where he actually worked in 1946, and Port Vauban — the biggest superyachts in the Mediterranean tied up along the Quai des Milliardaires.

~4:00 PM

Check in — Hôtel Martinez

Art Deco, opened 1929, right on La Croisette facing the bay — and now part of the Unbound Collection by Hyatt. Its restaurant, La Palme d'Or, holds Michelin stars, and during the Festival this is the hotel the industry actually stays in. It is also, as of season four, the White Lotus Cannes — the production picked it as the flagship hotel of the season, alongside a château above Saint-Tropez you'll be able to see from the water in a few days.

7:30 PM

La Croisette at golden hour

Walk the palm-lined seafront from the hotel toward the old port as the light goes. Sunset is 20:17. It's about 2 km end to end, the bay curves the whole way, and the Îles de Lérins sit just offshore going purple. Dinner in the streets behind the Croisette, or up in Le Suquet if you want the view down over the harbour lights.

9:00 AM

Le Suquet, before it warms up

The old town climbs the hill west of the port in a tangle of stepped lanes and shuttered stone houses. At the top, the church of Notre-Dame d'Espérance and the square watchtower of the Musée de la Castre — climb it for the best view in Cannes, straight down over the terracotta roofs, the harbour masts and the whole sweep of the bay. On the way, the Marché Forville is in full voice on a Saturday morning.

~11:30 AM

The red carpet steps

The Palais des Festivals is a fairly plain concrete box for eleven months of the year, but the famous 24 steps are right there and unguarded, so you can walk up them. Set into the pavement around it is the Allée des Étoiles — handprints pressed by everyone from Depardieu to Scorsese.

Afternoon

Île Sainte-Marguerite

The best escape on this coast and almost nobody on the Croisette bothers. A 15-minute ferry from the old port lands you on a car-free island of eucalyptus and Aleppo pine, with clear swimming coves all round the shore. The fort at the top held the Man in the Iron Mask for eleven years — you can stand in the cell. Take water and something for lunch; there's very little on the island, which is precisely the point.

Evening

The one big dinner

If there's a night on this trip to spend properly, it's this one. La Palme d'Or is downstairs in the hotel and holds Michelin stars — book it well ahead and note that August is peak season on the Côte d'Azur. If you'd rather stay casual, the restaurant terraces stacked up the hill in Le Suquet look out over the lit harbour and cost a fraction of it.

Leave by 10:00 AM

The Corniche d'Or

Only 75 km, but do it the beautiful way. The N98 between Cannes and Saint-Raphaël cuts through the Massif de l'Estérel, where the rock is blood-red volcanic porphyry falling straight into blue water — one of the most spectacular coast roads in France, and empty compared to the motorway. Pull over at the calanques. The A8 inland is faster and there is no reason at all to take it today.

Afternoon

Into Sainte-Maxime

A proper French seaside town rather than a resort — a sandy beach right in front of the centre, a promenade of plane trees, and a small port. It faces due south across the Gulf of Saint-Tropez, which means it gets the sun all day and looks straight across the water at the famous village opposite, without any of the prices or the traffic.

Evening

Nothing much, on purpose

You've been moving for ten days. Swim, walk the promenade, eat somewhere on the front, and watch the lights come up across the bay at Saint-Tropez — sunset is 20:15. Tomorrow's the last full day and it's a good one.

~9:30 AM

Leave the car. Take the ferry.

This is the single best piece of local knowledge on the trip. Saint-Tropez is barely 14 km around the bay, but that road is a legendary August car park, and parking at the other end is worse. Les Bateaux Verts run straight across the gulf from Sainte-Maxime in about 20 minutes, daily from 07:30 to 23:00 in high season, up to four an hour, for around €15–16. You arrive in the old port itself, which is where you'd want to be dropped anyway.

Morning

The old port & La Ponche

The Vieux Port still has its pointus — the little varnished wooden fishing boats — moored bow-in among the superyachts, which is the whole charm of the place in one image. Behind them, the Musée de l'Annonciade holds a serious collection of Signac, Matisse and Bonnard, who all painted here. Then walk into La Ponche, the old fishermen's quarter — narrow, ochre, quiet — and up to the Citadelle for the view back over the roofs and the whole gulf.

Afternoon

Pampelonne, if you want the legend

The beach that made the reputation: 5 km of sand about 20 minutes south of town, lined with the clubs — Club 55, Nikki Beach and the rest. A day bed costs real money and you'll want to reserve; the public stretches between the clubs are free and just as good a swim. Look up at the hills behind and you can pick out Château de la Messardière — the other hotel The White Lotus took over for season four.

~7:00 PM

A drink on the port, then the last boat

Sit at Sennequier on its red triangular chairs — the classic port-side spot since the 1930s — and watch the boats come in. Ferries run until 23:00, so there's no rush. Last dinner of the trip back in Sainte-Maxime, or on the port here if you'd rather end it on the water.

Morning · leave early

Sainte-Maxime → Nice airport

About 100 km and an hour and a half on the A8 in clean conditions — but this is the last week of August on the Côte d'Azur, so build in an extra 45 minutes and don't cut it fine. Fill the tank before you get to the airport: rental returns are full-to-full and airport fuel prices are punitive. Take your four-corner photos again at the drop-off, and keep the signed return slip.

Afternoon

Nice → Athens

Around 2h20 non-stop, and you lose the hour back — Greece is an hour ahead of France. Nice's airport sits right on the water, so the take-off along the coast is a decent last look at the Riviera.

Evening

Moxy Athens City

On Stadiou right by Omonia Square, which is the practical choice for a one-night turnaround — the metro is a few minutes' walk and the airport line is one change away. It's a different Athens from Kolonaki: busier, grittier, more downtown. Psyrri and Monastiraki are a short walk south if you want one last proper dinner and a rooftop with the Acropolis lit up behind it.

~3 hours before the flight

Omonia → the airport

From Omonia take Line 2 (red) one stop to Syntagma, change to Line 3 (blue) and stay on it to the airport — about 45 minutes door to gate for €9–10. Trains run from 06:30 and go every half hour, so check the departure board rather than assuming. If the timing is awkward or the bags are heavy, the flat-rate taxi is €40 and takes about the same.

Departure

Athens → Taipei

Thirteen nights, two seas, six beds and about 200 km of coast road. Fly east and lose a day getting home — you'll land on the 3rd.