France, Italy & Greece

What time of year? I haven't been to Greece, but 6-7 days each in Paris and Italy sounds good.

Your international route is tricky because there aren't that many non-stop flights from SFO to Europe. You can use rome2rio.com to find airlines that fly between Rome or Naples and SFO and Athens/SFO. Then check them out for routes, schedules (use the multi-destination option to find open-jaw flights), and prices. There are budget flights to get from point to point once you're in Europe. Your destinations are far apart, so flying is probably your only reasonable option between countries.

For your travel to/from the USA, use a "multi-city" search option, such as into Paris and home from either Athens or Naples. Any connections that are necessary will be included in one ticket price. Since flying will also be your best time and value option between each of the three countries, it does not much matter in which order you visit them. www.skyscanner.com is another good search engine for flights within Europe.

Thanks for suggestions. Traveling May 2016. I was thinking of flying to Paris first because I believe it's the only city in our itinerary where we could fly non-stop from sfo. Then train from Paris to either south France and ferry to Italy (don't know If that's possible) or French Riviera to Italy visiting portofino, Genoa, etc.. Then flight to Naples, travel south to Sorrento, and Amalfi, then travel to the eastern side of Italy and ferry to greece and Athens, Santorini and mykonos. Sometimes it's nice to take the train or ferry to catch your breath between trying to see everything?

Becky,

Are you intending to book return flights to Paris, or use open jaw flights?

Based on the places you mentioned, perhaps something like this would work.....

• Flight to Paris
• TGV to Nice
• Train to Liguria - you might consider staying in the Cinque Terre or Levanto, rather than Genova. Take a day trip to Portofino. You could also visit Porto Venere in that area.
• Train to Naples and connect to Sorrento. Base in Sorrento and take day trips to Capri, Positano or other places.
• Flight from Naples to Athens - check easyJet, Meridiana or others.
• Ferry to Myknonos - about 4.5 hours?
• Ferry to Santorini - about 4 hours?
• Flight to Athens, connect with flight home OR Athens - back to Paris for one night and then flight home.

There are all kinds of possibilities and this is only one suggestion. A few additional thoughts.....

For your stops in Greece, you might consider using one of the Greek travel agencies listed on the excellent Greece Travel website to arrange hotels, ferry tickets, transfers, etc. I used that method for a trip to Naxos and Santorini and the agency provided exceptional service. For your stay in Santorini, I found Fira to be a convenient "home base" location, and there are lots of hotels, restaurants and shops in that area.

For Athens > Mykonos > Santorini > Athens travel, you could also consider flights but I'm not sure they'd be much faster when all is considered (trips to and from airport, check in, security, waiting, flight times, etc.). I found the Ferry trips a nice change and quite pleasant. For the flight back to Athens from Santorini, you might consider Aegean Air as I found them to be a real "class act". They will also offer flights to Paris, most likely with a layover in Athens.

Base the number of nights in each place on the sightseeing you have planned there.

I would head to Greece first as it will be warmer earlier than Italy or Paris.
Without factoring cost, your best option is Air France multi city (open jaw) ticket - SFO to Athens and return from Paris. Book separate flights from Greece to Naples, and Naples to Paris. Ferry and train options are too time consuming and more expensive these days with budget carriers.
Keep in mind the dates of the 2016 French Open Tennis are Sunday, May 22nd through Sunday, June 5th in Paris.

Current flight timings ...
San Francisco - Athens
AF083
Dep 3:45 PM San Francisco, International Airport (SFO) CA - United States of America - TERMINAL I
Arr 11:35 AM +1 Day Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France - TERMINAL 2E
Operated by : Air France Aircraft : Airbus A380-800 Duration : 10h50mn non stop
AF1832
Dep 1:00 PM Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France - TERMINAL 2F
Arr 5:15 PM Athens, Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH) - Greece
Operated by : Air France Aircraft : 32A Duration : 03h15mn non stop

Air Italy and Volotea fly direct from both Santorini and Mykonos to Naples.
The current Mykonos flight timings are better for you with onward travel to the Amalfi Coast.
Air France and Easyjet fly from Naples to Paris CDG and Orly.

Paris - San Francisco
AF084
Dep 10:40 AM Paris, Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - France - TERMINAL 2E
Arr 1:00 PM San Francisco, International Airport (SFO) CA - United States of America - TERMINAL I
Operated by : Air France Aircraft : Airbus A380-800 Duration : 11h20mn non stop

I loved cinque Terre and porto venere, but wanted to see some of the other northern Mediterranean cities if it made sense to do so. I love the suggestions, now need to set some real-time dates and cities. If anyone else wants to throw in their 2 cents, please do.

In May, I'd start in Paris where you may just catch the end of spring, then Italy and lastly Greece in the hope that the water will be warm enough for bathing.