I posted a few months ago and got some great advice that resulted in some rerouting of our trip next year (late May, early June). We have a group of six--myself and husband, three adult children and my daughter's husband (ages 21-31). We are going to fly into Athens and then fly directly to Santorini for 3 nights and then ferry to Naxos and stay four nights. Then four nights in Napflio and three in Athens before returning home. I have reserved houses for both Santorini (Oia) and Napflio through air bnb and vacation by owner sites. Now I am thinking about Naxos.
- Where to stay I am looking for three hotel rooms each in the 50 Euros range (two star hotels) in Naxos town. There aren't large enough accommodations centrally located for us to be together and also figure this will give us a break from togetherness. In reading previous posts, people seem to favor St. George area but we aren't particularly interested in swimming there. We are from South Florida and have urban beaches here so no novelty. We want to go to less crowded beaches like Plaka to swim, see the old town, and hike in the mountains. So not clear to me if there are other advantages to being in St. George area.
It seems there are three choices of areas and I would like to know advantages and disadvantages of each. The three areas I have identified from reading are 1) old town 2) in town 3) St. George beach area. Convenience to the bus station is important as we plan to use the bus to go to the beaches and to the mountain towns. So I am interested in where the bus station to go to the beaches is and where it is to go to the mountain towns (if those are different). Hotels located in very different places talk about bus stations so I am a bit confused. I have a list of top choices for each area but thought maybe it would be best to decide area and then hotel?
It seems to me that compared to other places we are going, there are multiple good choices so am just trying to figure out the advantages of general locations to help narrow down the choices.
- hiking
I have bought Walking on Naxos and have scoured the internet. We want to do the short hike to MT. Zas but not sure about another. There seems to be a fair amount of information from tourists on internet about finding route to Mt Zas but not much otherwise. I am concerned about getting lost. The book keeps talking about path finding skills! My husband and I hiked Path of the Gods on Amalfi Coast last summer but it was well trodden with only a few decisions about where to go (and I knew where from researching it). Two that seem to be recommended on trekking websites are Halki (Chalki) to Moni and Halki to Apano Kastro (upper castle). Has anyone done either of these or another that they would recommend both from what you see but also ease of figuring out? Or should we go with a trekking company? They are fairly expensive (50 euros a person from only one that answered my email) so would rather not unless necessary.
- flying
I was convinced that flying back to Athens rather than taking the ferry would be a good idea. But then I read a post of someone who talked about how everyone's luggage went by ferry because plane too heavy. Was this a weird freaky thing? It, of course, totally eliminates the advantage of time with flying.
Also, I signed up for Aegean's miles club in an attempt to find out about fare sales but have never got an email from them. Should I be concerned? US airlines send you stuff practically every other day once they get your email. I tried signing up again and system said it already had the email.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Beth
