We were contemplating a Greek Isle tour, but realized there wasn't enough time during the stops to see much. We are now thinking of the RS Greece tour - doesn't appear to do many islands, is that the case? My husband had expressed interest in going to Santorini. Thoughts?
Also considering mid-late September or early October - is the weather still nice in either or should we go in September?
Any comments from those who have taken this tour would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!
Sheila,
The Athens & The Heart of Greece tour is incredible, and I'd highly recommend it! The tour covers many incredible and historic sites included Delphi, Olympia and Mycenae. I really enjoyed the stop at Monemvasia and especially Nafplio. The only island visited on the tour is Hydra, which I also really enjoyed.
If you have the time, it's absolutely possible to visit some of the islands as well. On the morning the tour ends, either head for Piraeus and take a leisurely ferry ride to Santorini, or go to the airport and take a short flight with Aegean or Olympic Air (that's what I did). I used one of the Greek Travel Agencies recommended on Matt Barrett's excellent Greece Travel website, and they did a great job in organizing that part of my trip.
I'd probably travel in September rather that October, but that's just my preference.
Happy travels!
You might try posting this in the forum for Greece. With the new format, I'm sure that there are people who are just checking specific countries.
It looks like you do get to one island, Hydra.
Santorini is a wonderful island, but on this tour you get to the Peloponnese. I'd love to see that part of Greece someday.
Pam
I haven't taken the RS tour so can't comment on that. When you said "Greek Isle tour" did you mean a cruise? I ask because you mention not enough time on islands during stops.
If you're thinking of the RS tour then you must have 2 weeks to travel so you could design your own island tour using ferries/flights to get from island to island and spend as many nights on each island as you wish. There are tour agents that can set this up for you. I've seen a couple of them mentioned (can't remember names) on this board so maybe you could ask for suggestions in a post on the Greek forum.
I went to Greece with a group on a customized tour and spent nights on 5 different islands plus Athens and a couple of other places on the mainland (Delphi, Nafplio). It was a wonderful experience. I was there in July, yes the mainland part was pretty hot but the islands weren't bad at all. I can't comment on travel there in Sept/Oct - that might be off-season there so may not be the best time.
There's nothing wrong with taking an escorted tour, I've done many of them, but you could do this yourselves also.
Happy planning and enjoy your trip to Greece.
We are doing the one week in Istanbul RS tour (5-11 October) and starting and finishing off our month+ with a self-designed trip including Athens, Santorini, Crete, Delphi, Napflio and the area around it. I agree that you need to move this question to the Greece forum where you will learn a lot more about travel in Greece, both from answers to your questions and from what others are asking. And be sure to look at Rick's TV shows on Greece under Watch, Read, Listen. The 2005 one is pretty dated now, but might be worth a little time. The 2008 ones are much better.
Sheila, I had not really had much of an interest in going to Greece BUT I sat in on the Greece presentation during the recent Test drive a tour guide day in Edmonds and I am ready to go! Seriously, the guides were so interesting and entertaining it's on my wish list now!
I will be taking RS Greece Tour beginning on May 26. If you go to the RS Tour web page and click on that tour you will see where it goes and down in the right hand corner is a heading for Weather. Click on that one to see what the monthly averages are for that tour.
Hydra was really the only island included in the tour in 2010. Don't know itinerary now. We went mid October-perfect weather, no crowds, etc... and spent 4 days on Santorini on our own before joining the tour in Athens. We had a fabulous time relaxing and exploring and I would highly recommend doing something like this. Just choose an island-or two if you have the time. Connections were easy from US-Athens-Santorini; then back to Athens. Some of our new tour friends were going on to various other islands after the tour ended in Athens. Highly recommend this tour. One of my favorites!
