Time for Greece

Greece is just about my favourite country in the world, and there’s little I don’t like about it, from the pom-poms on the shoes, to the grilled octopus, the arid islands, the lively people, the ancient marvels, and even the astonishing modern pop music. I’ve biked around it, walked across it, sailed through it, swam all over it and got lost in its hillsides, its literature and its confusing bus timetables. Heck, my university degree was in Ancient Greek, for pity’s sake, so this is a crush which goes back quite a while.

So why has Trufflepig never advertised trips in Greece? For many of the same reasons that I love the place, it’s also one of the most unpredictable and capricious places on the planet. Prior to starting Trufflepig, I worked for several years in Greece, and the one thing I learnt was that you need to be on the ground, well-connected, and wide awake if you want things to work your way.

Another reason was that I’d seen so much more of Greece than was represented in the brochures, and than was accessible from the handful of luxury resorts and glitzy islands you always hear about. We decided that until we could plan trips to that other Greece, that wider, more varied, more unexpected and more magical Greece, well, we didn’t want to plan trips there at all.

So we’ve been waiting, patiently waiting…. for the right person to turn up. Enter Jacoline Vinke, author of Small Hotels in Greece  and the website www.smallhotelsingreece.com. I bought Jacoline’s first book in a bookshop in Naxos back in 2003 and shamelessly stole as many of the addresses as I could for the occasional trip we would run. And I was struck by her voice and her editorial collection, which she’s maintained over 3 new editions and the revamp of her website to become what I think is an exemplary resource for interesting travel in her adopted country. I had a professional crush on her. Frankly, if every country had a Jacoline, we might be out of business.

Then earlier this year we finally got in touch, and started talking. Now we are proud and pleased to announce that Jacoline has joined Trufflepig as a fully fledged member of our terrifyingly high-powered planning team. At Trufflepig, we like to plan trips concentrating on local places, out-of-the-way locations, personal experiences. In Jacoline, we think we can say we’ve found the girl who literally wrote the book on the subject.

So check out our brand-new page on Greece here, and give Jacoline a shout when you feel it’s time for Greece.