Things to do in Thessaloniki

Neighborhood · The Upper Town, above the centre

The one quarter that survived the 1917 fire — Ottoman-era timber houses, narrow lanes, Byzantine churches and the city walls running along the ridge.

Local tip: Walk up through the lanes rather than taking a taxi to the top, and come out at the Trigonio Tower at sunset for the whole gulf and Mount Olympus across the water on a clear day. The tavernas up here are where locals eat, not visitors.

Food · Off Aristotelous Square

Two adjacent covered and open markets — fish, meat, cheese, olives, spices and the small cook-houses and ouzo bars threaded between the stalls.

Local tip: Eat where the traders eat, at one of the tiny mezedopoleia inside the market, in the middle of a weekday morning. Kapani is the rawer of the two and the better one for actual shopping.

Landmark · Kamara, city centre

A colossal early-fourth-century domed Roman building that has been a temple, a church and a mosque, with the emperor's triumphal arch a hundred metres away.

Local tip: It is part of the UNESCO-listed group of Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments and the acoustics under the dome are extraordinary. Go on a weekday morning; it is almost empty and there is no queue anywhere in this city.

Nature · The waterfront, from the White Tower east

Several kilometres of redesigned promenade running along the gulf as a sequence of themed gardens — the Garden of Roses, the Garden of Sound, the Garden of the Afternoon Sun.

Local tip: Rent a bike or just walk it end to end at dusk, when the whole city comes out. The Umbrellas sculpture near the middle is the standard meeting point and the sunset behind Olympus from here is the reason people live in this city.

Culture · Agiou Mina, city centre

Thessaloniki was a majority-Jewish city for centuries and the community was almost entirely destroyed in the Holocaust. The museum, in one of the few pre-fire buildings, tells that history plainly.

Local tip: Pair it with the memorial in Eleftherias Square and the plaques at Aristotle University, which was built over the old Jewish cemetery. This is the single most important thing to understand about the city and it is not on the tourist route.

Nature · The ridge above Ano Poli

A vast pine forest on the hills directly above the city, with running and cycling trails, viewpoints over the whole gulf, and a temperature several degrees below the streets in summer.

Local tip: The main entrances are a twenty-minute walk above Ano Poli. Almost no visitor ever goes up, and on a summer evening it is where the city goes to escape the heat. Go before dusk — it is genuinely dark up there afterwards.