Every month, we delve into the travel experiences of people in the extended WHL Group network. This month we talk to Chrysa Paparnakis of Odyssey Tours, the whl.travel local connection based in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Odyssey Tours is a family business born out of Chrysa and her partner Thanasis Paparnakis’s passion for their country and their travels with their motorcycle. You will always find Chrysa right with Thanasis on their bike exploring new and undiscovered roads in northern Greece, planning innovative new tours, discovering isolated traditional guesthouses and, of course, checking out traditional taverns for excellent local food! Chrysa and Thanasis love what they do and are dedicated to their desire to show the world the little-known areas of northern Greece, its natural beauty and its culture!
For Chrysa, exploring new areas for future tours includes travelling along majestic unpaved roads in the Greek mountains
WHL Group: Which is your favourite WHL Group destination and which would you most
like to visit?
Chrysa: Indonesia would be my favourite, but I dream of having a long motorcycle tour with Thanasis from Thessaloniki all the way down to Vietnam!
WHLG: What would you never travel without?
Chrysa: I would never travel without a map and a camera.
WHLG: What do you miss most about home when travelling?
Chrysa: A nice ice-cold frappé coffee on the Thessaloniki seafront!
WHLG: What’s the most interesting trip you’ve ever taken?
Chrysa: The most interesting trip I have ever taken was the first long trip with my husband, Thanasis, on our motorcycle! We travelled from Thessaloniki to Kosovo, Montenegro, a bit of Bosnia and Croatia. Except for the great memories and the unique sights we saw on this trip, I also love this holiday because it was when we first got the idea for our travel agency, Odyssey Tours, and our desire to offer a different kind of tour!
Chrysa never travels without a map. Here in Istanbul, she checks the route for the rest of her tour in Turkey.
WHLG: What is your funniest travel experience?
Chrysa: In my early 20s I travelled with my other two sisters, backpacking across Greece down to the southernmost part – the small island of Gavdos, just a few miles south of Crete. Gavdos is an island that lots of nudists visit for holidays… which is something we forgot to mention to my youngest sister (who was only 17 at the time!). Words cannot describe her surprise when she faced the first nudist walking towards her wearing only his backpack!
WHLG: What is your scariest travel experience?
Chrysa: I do not have any real scary experiences from my travels, but I was really nervous and terrified by the way people drive in Istanbul. We visited there this summer on our motorcycle and I think that we were very lucky to escape the traffic without being run over!
Working with locals, Chrysa is lucky to travel often to great places, like Lake Kerkini in Northern Greece
WHLG: If you could go on holiday with anyone famous – living or dead – who would you take?
Chrysa: I would choose the great Greek philosopher Aristotle, and I would ask him to visit the city of Naousa with me. I would ask him to walk with me at his school and talk about his great philosophy and his theories that changed the world!
WHLG: Describe the best and worst accommodation you’ve ever stayed in.
Chrysa: On one of our first holidays exploring on our motorcycle in Greece, when we were approaching the beautiful Prespa Lakes, we got an unexpectedly pleasant surprise in the preserved village of Agios Germanos – a stone-built guesthouse with a great small yard and a lovely reception area.
The worst place that I have ever stayed is an old hotel in Bey Pazari near Ankara in Turkey, where I think the owners were a little bit confused. Someone has to explain to them that sustainable and traditional accommodation does not mean that you can offer real dirty accommodation!
One of Chrysa's favourite hotels is the lovely Guesthouse Agios Germanos, a really traditional guesthouse in the Prespa Lakes area of Northern Greece
WHLG: Describe your earliest travel memory.
Chrysa: I remember from an early age that in the summer my parents used to take us swimming in some magnificent small, hidden bays just outside Stavros village very close to the city of Thessaloniki. It’s a great place to visit – a real miniature paradise – as you can enjoy the crystal-blue sea, eat fresh mussels with lemon and enjoy the blue sky!
WHLG: Please briefly explain what you think local travel is.
Chrysa: The core of our local travel philosophy is the desire to get the traveller close to the culture of the place they are visiting by truly interacting with the local community. These ‘real’ travellers visit places off the beaten track, use local transport and mix with locals. They eat in places that locals do, taste traditional recipes and even learn about the problems of the community they are visiting and offer support through their travel in the area.
WHLG: In what ways do you see local travel benefiting the country in which you live?
Chrysa: Working closely not only with city hotels in Thessaloniki but also with small traditional guesthouses that are located in remote areas away from busy tourist centres, we fully understand that local travel gives life to those small, unknown, unspoilt areas! Real travellers come and mix directly with the locals and the money they spend on their holidays goes directly to the local community and supports local business. Local travel not only supports small local business indirectly but also ‘pushes’ those businesses to improve. The increase of local travel in places in Northern Greece has also helped expose travellers to environmental problems, social-economic problems, transportation etc. in those areas is in a way ‘forcing’ governmental organisations to support the responsible development of those areas.
Participation of locals is of paramount... 
Carmen- That was what I kept saying... 
Those waterfalls in southern Laos are amazing – great... 
Beautiful! Will have to... 
This place looks perfect for a...