Katerini Travel Forum

Hi!I'm from Spain and I will go in december to Katerini. I will work there for 6 months and I have been surfing the Net trying to get some information about the city and the Pieria region :) but I haven't found many things.
I would like to know how is the nightlife in Katerini, and the cultural life there. Is the beach far away from the city centre and is there any bus to take there?
And also I wanted to know if it's reasonable to go to Thessaloniki only for one day and get back to Katerini at night...
How's the weather there? Is it very cold in winter? I will stay on Christmas there so I would like to know if it's easy to meet people there, go out, etc...
I don't know, I will be there for 6 months and I just have sooo many questions!!!hehehe If someone could help me please!
Thanx a lot for all!

Katerini is a nice city of about 40,000 inhabitants. It has nothing exceptional but the area (prefecture of Pieria) is very beautiful and interesting. Do not expect much of nightlife but a lot of taverns, especially fish-taverns. The beach is very close to the city and the seaside settlement is now joined to it. Of course there is a bus service to the center of the city. Thessaloniki is about 70km away, so you can go any time with a KTEL bus and return on the same day. Winters are rather calm with no extreme phenomena. Some places you can visit in the region are:

Veryina, the ancient capital of Macedonians and the Royal Tombs,
Dion, the sacred place of ancient Macedonians,
Litochoro and Olympus mountain,
Tembi valley and Ambelakia village (the old mansion of "Schwarz").
All the villages-resorts by the sea are very beautiful, as well as some mountainous villages.

Have a look at my "Prefecture of Pieria" page and the links on it.
I am sure you will have a great time there, people are very friendly.

Stefanos
Thessaloniki, Greece

Stefanos is generally right, here are some more data on my hometown:
-Nightlife in Katerini is moderate by greek standards, but to any foreigner it seems really vibrant for a town with about 55.000 inhabitants. There numerous cafes, bars, nightclubs and also taverns- serving traditional greek dishes until well after midnight. (Not so many of those are fish taverns btw).
-the bus connection to Thess2 is easy and convenient, a bus every half anhour each way, from 6am to 10pm. If u wish to return from Thessa later , there are a couple of trains just before midnight (ticket price around 5 euro one way). Buses use 45 min. for the 70 km distance, trains often a bit longer.
-the weather in Katerini is cold for Greek standards and very humid in winters, it attracts much rain because of the nearby mountain of Olympos (the highest in Greece, 2918 m.).
On Xmas time hundrends of students return to Katerini for the holidays and the town is really fun to be at- many parties and plenty of people until the early hours (my 18 yrs old son uses to go out to meet his friends at about midnight!).
If you arrive here in December, u ll make easily friends, there will be a dull, low season in February - March and then again Springtime will emerge with lots of happenings and Easter celebrations!
Wishing u fun, contact us if u need more advises!
;-)) Y

Hi Stefanos and Yiannis!
Thanx a lot for all the information!You have been very useful!:) Now I cannot wait to get to Katerini. As I see the communication in the city is great and I have seen in a greek website the timetables of all trains. Thanx a lot!
I hope I will have a nice time there :) Well, I have been planning some of my trips there and maybe you could help me again :) I want to go to Macedonia and Bulgaria if I have time and also to Albania but I'm not sure what is exactly the situation in Albania and in Macedonia...well, I have been reading a lot and I have been in the forums of both countries. People that live there says that are safe countries (except the north of Alabania) but that there are some problems in the Greece border...so I wanted to know if you have traveled there some time ago and if it's better not to go there. I really wanted to know these places but, of course, I don't want to get into troubles :)
Thanx a lot for all your help!If you need to know something abut Spain...here I am!:))

Take care!
David

Good day from Thess@!
I really do not know about Albania, my friends in Bulgaria (locals and internationals) say it is safe and I regularly visit Slavomacedonia that is also very safe- I guess better organized than the other two countries, with less corruption as well.
Access to Slavomacedonia and Bulgaria is very easy from Greek Macedonia, Albania is more far off but there are bus lines that operate this rute too!
all the best,
Yiannis