Is this crazy to consider all in one six to eight week trip? Is this something we would have to cobble together or are there tour companies that do this sort of trip? Thank you.
I can't imagine a tour company that would have a group tour doing something on that scale and for that long. There aren't even cruise lines that would be doing that. And given the distances involved, unless you have the budget to hire your own crewed yacht, you would be looking at ferries between the closer islands, then flights to the next group of islands.
You might find a travel agent willing to put something like this together for you.
If you work it out, let me know.
Thank you for the reply. We suspect you are right but thought we'd ask before we started to try to stitch flights and ferries together. Appreciate your thought.
The Atlantic islands don't connect to the Mediterranean islands. I do know that Corsica has a ferry to Sardinia.
We have visited the Azores twice, while on two separate transAtlantic cruises.
Also, we did a cruise that visited Gran Canary and Madeira.
All three of these islands are beautiful and very scenic. They have unique flora and fauna.
You can go island hopping in the Azores, but it is too far away to have a ferry from Portugal- need to fly in and out. The Canary Islands do have a couple of ferries from mainland Spain (some run by a division of Fred Olsen. most famous for their cruises. some by Trasmediterranea last time I looked) plus many inter island ferries.
The Balearics have many ferries from several Spanish ports.
Sardinia has many ferries, and Malta has a ferry from Italy (Sicily- run by Virtu ferries, from memory),
.
Crete has ferries from mainland Greece.
You would have to put something together yourself. It is certainly possible, six to 8 weeks sounds right- likely not much less.
This would be one amazing oddysey and would take a fair amount of planning.
By the way if on such an amazing trip I think you should start with the Cape Verde Islands off the African coast. No ferries there from Africa, that I know of, but reputedly a good inter island ferry service.
The Cape Verdes are off most people's agenda, and I've never got there, but folk who have been there on cruises (the UK lines go there, not the US lines) rave about them.
It is the obvious starting point for your trip.
You must write a trip report if you succeed- I for one love the sound of this vacation.
I was in Malta a few weeks ago. Well served by airlines. Mine was direct from Budapest under $100
Thanks so much much for all of the thought. Hadn't even considered the Cape Verdes and the possibility of adding Corsica to the mix. Really great ideas. We have just started contemplating the trip and all of you have made us think that it's possible with flights and plenty of time. We are thinking that the shoulder seasons of Sept./Oct or April/May might be the best time for this adventure. AND with as much planning as this is going to take, next April/May could be the earliest we can do it. Appreciate your help.
We are considering something similar for next year. I have a short(ish) list of Cyprus, Crete (that's a definite we had one day there on a cruise last year), Sicily, Malta, Sardina, Corsica, Mallorca, Maderia and the Canaries!
Yeah its not all going to happen as we are considering the same time frame as you are but there are definitely options! Thanks to this thread looked at Cape Verde - pretty $$$ for flights, Maderia and the Canaries have cheap connections to cold countries in Europe for obvious reasons.