We are planning a trip to Greece from Boston in July. We would like to visit Athens, Meteora, Delphi and Santorini and fly back to Boston from Santorini. Will 5-6 days be enough to see Athens, Delphi and Meteora?
Posted by
2489 posts
I think so and you can tinker a bit with days below but if possible I would reverse your itinerary so that you go directly to Santorini. We had a morning flight from states and took an unconnected flight a few hours later to Santorini.
Santorini 4 nights
fly back to Athens, rent car drive to Delphi 1 night,
drive to Meteora 1 - 2night
drive to Athens airport, return car Athens 3 -4 nights
My son and brother in law both went to Meteora for one night and said they wished they had two but it is obviously about trade offs. We did 3 nights in Athens and could have used one more. But you can see a lot in that time if you aren't jet lagged.
This is more efficient and I think from my experience Santorini is a wonderful place to get over jet lag. You don't have to think as much as in Athens!
If must go first to Athens first
Athens 4 nights
go to Airport and rent car, drive to Delphi one night
drive to Meteora 1 night,
drive back to airport, flight to Santorini,
Santorini 4 nights,
This has problem of arriving in Athens jet lagged and having to figure a lot of things out. Plus you drive back a distance to airport for a flight which is stressful.
Other option is to stay near airport first night and then drive to Delphi and Meteora and then back to airport and go into Athens. It is more predictable to get to airport. Personally I would not drive jet lagged to Delphi upon arrival.
So airport 1 night
Delphi 1 night
Meteora 1 night
Athens 3 nights
Santorini 4 nights
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Thank you!
Your last suggestion seems to be optimal for us!
Posted by
Centennial, CO, US
2123 posts
If you do Santorini last, you'll want to spend your last night in Athens. It's risky to fly back to Athens from Santorini and catch an international flight on the same day. Flight problems have been known to occur. That's one of the reasons most people recommend flying to the island first. The other reason, of course, is that it's wonderful to wake up on an island on the first day of vacation.
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Oh, I didn't know about that. Thanks for the tip!
Posted by
OP
19 posts
Actually we were planning to fly to Boston from Santorini w/o stopping in Athens. Looks like there are flights via London, but I need to double check
Posted by
2489 posts
That is different than flights on different tickets which many people do to get to and from the islands.
I had one ticket via Newark to Athens on United and bought a separate ticket on Aegean air from Athens to santorini. If you were doing something similar but in reverse, you would need to be Athens the night before. I and many others do this because it is often far cheaper and allows for more flight options from the states.
But if you have one ticket with a connecting flight in London or somewhere else, it would be fine to fly out of santorini to return home.
Posted by
23 posts
I was able to get tickets from Santorini to Istanbul in July. There is of course a layover in Athens, but it is possible to fly out of the from the island. Depending on where you are going you might be able to do it that way, rather than to fly back to Athens for a night. Our thought is that the luggage will be checked all the way through so we won't have to deal with it on our layover in Athens. We opted to do the trip this way, fly to Athens & rent a car to Delphi (our flight is early enough to allow this all on the same day) A day in Delphi then 2 days in Nafplio, 3 days in Athens, then 2 night in Santorini. This way we will have the relaxing at the end of a world wind trip around Greece.
Posted by
10 posts
6 days is more then enough. It could be trimmed to 4 nights.