Island Hopping in the Med - how Feasible?

We too have been to most of the Eastern Mediterranean islands you've mentioned, and we finished our second cruise there in June. The cruise ship is the easy way to see the region, however the same islands are served by large dedicated ferries.

You need to decide specifically where you want to travel and then go online to figure out what ferries serve those islands. In some cases, a budget European airline might work as well.

We've also taken three repositioning cruises from the U.S. that stopped at popular Western Mediterranean cities. We found the cities too congested, and we don't care to return.

Yeah we did 2 long cruises this year to see both the Panama and Suez Canals - but I don't think its well-suited to seeing Europe in general - a few hours is just not enough. I will probably cruise to see Greenland and norther Norway - but not otherwise unless it was a river cruise

A good way to get an idea of the possibilities would be rome2rio.com, a search tool that shows the different kinds of transportation available between point A and point B, along with the likely duration of travel. It has links to carriers that help you find schedules, but it's best to buy tickets from the carriers themselves.

I have no experience with this, but I doubt if you'll find ferry services linking many of these islands to each other. For example, there are flights between Crete and Cyprus but no ferries. As you know, lots of ferries link Crete and other Greek islands with each other and mainland Greece, but I didn't find anything from there to Sicily or Malta. I love boat rides of any kind, but they take awhile. You may be just as glad to fly between islands if you want to see a lot of them in 30 days.

I agree with you that cruising is not a good way to explore different islands or ports unless they're very small. It has other benefits as a way to travel. And your Mediterranean cruise whetted your appetite for more islands, so that's a plus too.

A review of the order of your itinerary— Istanbul, Cyprus, Crete, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Mallorca— and checking if you can get there by flying shows that— yes, you can visit all those destinations by flying to them in the sequence you’ve written. While most have direct flight connections, a couple legs such as the trip from Sicily to Sardinia do not have direct flights but require that you have a connection through one city such as Rome’s FCO Airport. The one transfer that is best done by ferry is the Sardinia to Corsica leg. www.Skyscanner.com has flight schedules and fares. www.DirectFerries.com has ferry schedules and fares.

Consider taking a cruise for the Greek Islands. However, I don't know of one that stops in Cyprus.

Crete is great, but you could easily spend a week there.

Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily are huge islands and mountainous. Have you planned specifically what you wish to see there?

We recently hired a private charter in the Greek islands. It was amazing. The skipper let us pick the islands we wanted to visit. We did a week but he said there are many who chose to do a 3 week tour to get to more islands. It was very economical. We thought it was phenomenal and hope to do more someday there and in other areas.

Thanks - yes I think as usual I'm being optimistic. I've found an interesting issue with the border on Cyprus - apparently its an illegal entry point to Schengen if you come from the Turkish N. Cyprus - you can get deported - but going the other way ie entering Turkey on Cyprus is acceptable; so that would switch the trip around. Don't really want to do a bunch of Greek Islands - just Crete - and I agree it looks like it needs a week.

I think maybe we are looking at flying to Rome then ferries/trains to Sicily and Malta . Flight to Crete via Athens , then a direct flight from Crete to Cyprus - then overland to Northern Cyprus and flight to Istanbul. Even then I think its a 4-5 week trip minimum

I think maybe we are looking at flying to Rome then ferries/trains to Sicily and Malta . Flight to Crete via Athens , then a direct flight from Crete to Cyprus - then overland to Northern Cyprus and flight to Istanbul. Even then I think its a 4-5 week trip minimum

One of the snags you may hit is the position of the ferry terminals. While flights are between main cities, ferries are often from relatively remote ports. Take into account the amount of time for flights vs. ferries. If you're planning to rent a vehicle, check if indeed you can get the one you want with pick-up and drop-off at ferry terminals (and if there's a hefty drop-off charge).

I was in Malta 11 years ago on a guided tour. The roads were very crowded then and parking was difficult. I can only imagine it's gotten worse. With planning, you can see all the top sights and quite a few others in a week. Take a ferry to Gozo to see ancient temple ruins nearly 1000 years older than the pyramids. The WWII bunkers in Valetta (Lascaris War Rooms) are very impressive. The WWII For excellent insights on Malta, read The Great Siege Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford. He also wrote a book about the pivotal role of Malta in WWII, Siege: Malta 1940-1943.

Sicily is big! If you allot 2 weeks to the island, you will have to pick and choose.

What are you planning to see in Cyprus? AFAIK there's not much in the way of history (compared to your other choices) or nature (compared to NZ). Are you planning to spend any time in Rome or Istanbul? Are you looking to fly open-jaw?

What are you planning to see in Cyprus? AFAIK there's not much in the way of history (compared to your other choices) or nature (compared to NZ). Are you planning to spend any time in Rome or Istanbul? Are you looking to fly open-jaw?

Rome we would probably only do recovery time (its about 30 hours flying time from NZ if we get good connections) - I'm not a big fan frankly - but it has good connections. Istanbul I love and my partner hasn't been so we'd spend time there.

Thanks for the info re Malta - I'll look up the book. I'm totally fine driving on the wrong side and driving a manual - but I have zero patience with finding parking so if the parking is difficult, we will skip the car in that destination and go with public transport/taxis .

Good point re ferry ports - I just noticed that there is a train/ferry connection for Sicily which will make things easy.

I think Cyrus has plenty to see - it just doesn't have as an effective marketing department as some parts of Europe. https://www.planetware.com/tourist-attractions/cyprus-cy.htm - it does look like a car-friendly destination

Flights will either be open jaw or 2 different tickets - whichever is cheaper and has better connection times. I may even end up with a return to the middle east and 2 one way tickets from there to Europe. Haven't looked into it yet. Often the deals show up in December for Sept/Oct around here.