The ultimate bookish packing list for Greece
Taking in ancient Athens or soaking up the sun in Santorini? This is the packing list for Greece you need if you’re a book girlie.
Whitewashed walls, olive groves, ancient ruins that make you wonder about the past, and long, slow afternoons that were basically invented for reading. A trip to Greece is a dream for a bookish girlie if you want a stunning, sunny backdrop to work through your stubborn TBR pile.
As the Reading Retreat experts and frequent flyers to Greece, we’ve got your packing list covered. From the reads that will keep you immersed in the Cycladean culture and climate to the travel essentials that keep you hydrated, sun-safe and blissfully unbothered.
Best books to pack for a trip to Greece
One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke
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Six women, one sun-drenched Greek island, one hen weekend, and one of them isn't going home. Told through all six perspectives, this is sunset swims and midnight cocktails with something considerably darker bubbling underneath — because every single one of them is hiding something. It's the ultimate "read it where it's set" pick, and there's something deliciously unhinged about lying on a Greek beach reading about a Greek beach where everything goes horribly wrong. Perfect for the girls' trip (maybe just don't gift it to the bride.)
Mythos by Stephen Fry
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If you're planning to wander round a single temple, museum or crumbling column, take this with you. Fry retells the Greek myths from the very beginning — creation, the Titans, the gods and all their spectacularly bad behaviour — with the warmth and wit of someone telling you the world's best gossip over dinner. It turns "Oh, another pile of old stones" into "Wait, THIS is where that’s set?" Genuinely the best addition to any Greek vacation TBR, and you can dip in and out between swims.
The House of Hidden Letters by Izzy Broom
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For sale: Greek cottage. One euro. Skye isn't an impulsive person, but she enters the lottery anyway — and ends up on the tiny island of Folegandros with a derelict cottage, a brand new community, and a bundle of letters hidden in the fireplace. What unfolds is a dual-timeline story that moves between Skye's fresh start and a wartime tale of love, courage and heartbreak. Gorgeously escapist, deeply atmospheric, and guaranteed to have you googling ferry timetables before you've even flown home. (Worth noting: the historical thread goes to some heavy places, so check the content warnings if you're just after fun and gentle.)
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
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The Greek myths, but finally handed to the woman everyone else wrote off as the villain. Casati gives Clytemnestra — Spartan princess, sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon — her rage, her grief and her reasons, in a retelling that's fierce, gorgeously written and impossible to put down. Read it somewhere hot and dusty with the Aegean in view and see if you don't find yourself firmly on her side by the end. A brilliant companion to Mythos if you want the myths from both angles.
Poolside essentials for a Greek holiday
The perfect-fit SPF
Rudely, the Greek sun does not care about your reading plans. It will find you, burn that bit on your neck and shoulder that you missed and ruin the dressy dinner vibes without hesitation. Ultraviolette is our exclusive SPF partner for a reason. There’s options for every skin type, different finishes that play nice with your regular skincare and makeup, as well as skin-sweetening ingredients that feel lovely to wear. Guaranteed you'll reapply without moaning about it. Slather it on, settle back and sink safely back into your book.
Use code LADIESWHOLIT20 at checkout for 20% off at ultraviolette.co.uk
Ladies Who Lit x Dock & Bay Beach Towel
Sand-resistant, quick-drying and guaranteed cuter than the old souvenir towel taking up half your suitcase. It dries fast enough that you can go straight from the sea back to your book without soaking the pages, and it packs down small enough to leave room for, say, a fourth paperback. No notes.
Shop the Ladies Who Lit x Dock & Bay Beach Towel
A water bottle that keeps its cool
Reading in 32-degree heat is a dehydration situation waiting to happen, and nobody wants to give up their perfect shady spot for a drinks run. Fill it up, keep it cold, keep it next to you. Bonus: tap water isn't drinkable everywhere in Greece, so a refillable bottle saves you a small fortune in plastic ones.
Shop the Ladies Who Lit Water Bottle
A cute cap to avoid glare and UV
Shade for your face, coverage for day-three holiday hair, and a very effective way of spotting a fellow reader across a crowded taverna. It's the holiday accessory that does three jobs at once. Our Ladies Who Lit Dad Caps come in multiple bookish designs, including something for the smut girlies who want their presence known throughout the resort.
Bookish extras for travelling to Greece
A brand new journal
If you're going to start journalling anywhere, it's probably on a Greek balcony at golden hour. The Paperblanks Daphnis design is inspired by classical Greek pattern work, which makes it aggressively appropriate for this trip. Use it for holiday notes, a running list of everything you've read, or the sudden burst of creativity that always arrives when you've had a carafe of house wine.
Shop the Paperblanks Daphnis Journal
e-reader stickers
The elegant solution to "I want to take nine books with a 10kg baggage allowance." Load up the e-reader, then make it yours with a few stickers so it doesn't look like everyone else's on the sun loungers. Small, weightless, and a guaranteed conversation starter with the girl by the pool who's also secretly sobbing over a devastating romantasy read.
A rechargeable book light
Greek evenings are made for sitting out on the balcony long after the sun's gone down — but villa lighting has a habit of being extremely atmospheric and extremely useless for actually reading. This little clip-on light solves it: warm, adjustable brightness, rechargeable (so no scrabbling around for batteries on a tiny island), and small enough to live permanently in your book bag. Clip it on, pour something cold, and keep going until the cicadas go to bed.
Shop the Gritin Rechargeable Book Light
Packing cubes and cases
Charging cables, sunglasses, lip balm, SPF and that one hair clip you can never find? Now they have a home. Pastael has the chicest organisers that make not unpacking for three days look entirely intentional. The Everything Case (which now comes in a Mini version) is a dream for our Reading Retreat hosts and frequent flyers – it does exactly what it says on the tin, meaning you can grab one thing on your way to the beach instead of tipping your entire tote out on the sand looking for your sunnies.
Shop the Pastael Everything Case
Travel essentials for a Greek vacation
Audible
Airport queues, delayed transfers, the ferry crossing, the drive up a terrifyingly winding road to your villa — all significantly improved by an audiobook. It's also the answer to reading in the middle of the day when it's simply too bright to look at a page: eyes closed, sun on your face, uninterrupted plot twists.
Holafly eSIM
Nothing ruins the vaycay vibes like a roaming bill or a frantic hunt for wifi when your taxi hasn't turned up. An Holafly eSIM gets you sorted before you even leave the country (but you can buy it from anywhere) No confusing conversations at the airport shop, no data panic, just maps, translations and the ability to upload a photo of your current read from the beach.
World Nomads Travel Insurance
The least glamorous item on this list but easily the most important. Lost luggage (and the books inside it), a cancelled ferry, a slip on a wet taverna floor — travel insurance is the thing you'll be extremely smug about having if anything goes sideways. World Nomads is our trusted insurance partner, and it only takes about five minutes to get a quote.
We receive a fee when you get a quote from World Nomads using this link. We do not represent World Nomads. This is not a recommendation to buy travel insurance.
And that's your case packed, ladies. Now all that's left is to find the shadiest corner of the terrace, order something cold, and disappear into a book while the Aegean does its thing. Pamé!
Want more reading and bookish recommendations from the book club that takes you places? Take a look at our other articles below.
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What our guests are saying about their stay
Pure magic! From the moment we arrived at the most breathtaking villa nestled in the rolling Tuscan hills, Meagan made sure every detail felt like it had been curated straight out of an Italian dream.
I attended the February Caribbean reading retreat and wish I could rate it higher than 5 stars! This was the best vacation I could have imagined. Not only was the resort amazing, the conversation and the ladies could not have been better.
I had such a lovely time on my retreat to Sicily. Megan is an amazing host who really looked after all of the group and made the trip feel like a fab holiday with friends. I went alone and everyone was lovely - I will happily book again next year. Book! You won't regret it.