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Advice for long-stay base in the Greek Islands, Ionian or Crete?

Posted by on

My boyfriend and I are planning a three-month trip to Greece from September - November and would really appreciate some advice on where to base ourselves for the month of September. My boyfriend will be working remotely for the duration of our time away and we would like to spend our weekends exploring local beaches/historical sites/parks and visiting nearby islands. We are planning on basing ourselves in Chania from October - November; we felt there would be more to do there in the off season, better weather than the other islands and a good base to visit islands such as Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes. We have also holidayed in Rethymnon Town before and loved Crete!

We are unsure whether to base ourselves in Chania/Crete for the full three months or spend September on an Ionian island (or elsewhere - open to all suggestions!) I have been doing some research into Corfu and Kefalonia but am finding it hard to get a sense of where a good base for us would be. What we loved about Rethymnon and Chania was the beautiful architecture, great traditional tavernas and markets, proximity to the beach and the fact that there were as many locals as tourists.

So I guess to summarise (I tend to go on..!)

  1. Any recommendations for where to base ourselves in the Ionian for the month of September, preferably a town with a good choice of tavernas, beaches, food markets/shops (we will be cooking for ourselves a lot) and not too overly touristy (a bit touristy is fine).
  2. Would it be realistic to spend a weekend in Santorini and another in Mykonos in October or is this too late in the season?
  3. Would we be better off basing ourselves in Crete for the three months and make the most of Crete itself and the nearby Cyclades/Dodecanese islands and sacrifice the Ionian.

Any thoughts and suggestions would be so appreciated!

Posted by
27096 posts

If you're traveling on non-EU passports without long-stay visas, you're allowed only 90 days, not 3 months, in Greece. That includes both your arrival day and your departure day. Count those days very carefully, lest you end up being fined and possibly banned from all the Schengen-Zone countries for quite some time.

I think 3 months on islands would be a very long time. I'd want to spend some of that time on the mainland or in the Peloponnese. I'm not a stay-somewhere-for-a-month traveler unless you're talking about a place like London or Paris--and Athens isn't remotely London or Paris--so I really don't know what to suggest to you. Nafplion sounds charming, but I've never been there.

Posted by
11153 posts

Napflion would be a good choice with so many nearby places to explore if you want to add a place in addition to Chania. Napflion and Chania are two of the most beautiful cities in Greece.
Chania will be a perfect choice for the remainder of your stay. We spent two weeks there and barely scratched the surface of western Crete.

Posted by
4573 posts

Isn't 'working remotely' working - thus subject to different travel and visa allowances? but that would only be for one of you. Better check it out.

Posted by
2 posts

Thank you for the replies. We're EU citizens so don't need to look into long-stay visas and my BF is ok to work from Greece for three months.

I've had a quick look at Napflion and it looks beautiful and definitely seems like it would tick a lot of our boxes, thank you for recommending. Suki we also felt we barely scratched the surface of Crete when we were there last, so much to see and do!

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