Please sign in to post.

Asking for Recommendations Before & After a Rick Steves Greece Tour

Hello, my husband and I are booked on a Rick Steves Greece tour for September. This tour is Athens, essentially circles part of the Peloponnese, and makes a stop on Hydra. It is a 14 day tour. We are thinking of arriving 4-7 days prior to the start of our tour in Athens to visit 1 or more of the islands but are unsure logistically how easy this will be for us given we’ve never been to Greece before. Any ideas on which islands are good for newbie travelers to Greece?

Also, after our tour ends, we want to get to Hamburg, Germany to visit family in the region. The price when the Athens—Hamburg leg is included in our flight itinerary increased astronomically so we are thinking of just doing a separate flight for that leg as it will likely be much cheaper as a one-way jaunt.

Any suggestions for the island visit(s) and the Athens-Hamburg jaunt are welcome.

Thank you!

Posted by
501 posts

Yes, book your Athens-Hamburg flight separately. Internal Europe flights are usually cheap. Use Skyscanner to sort that out. The discount airlines will have a lot of add ons, like carry on, seat selection, meals.

Posted by
105 posts

We did the RS Greece Tour 4 years ago and it was fabulous! Before the tour we flew to Santorini for 3 nights and from there took the ferry to Naxos for 3 nights and then flew to Athens the night before our tour started and we really enjoyed our time on both islands and having an extra day in Athens. Afterwards we spent 2 nights in Meteora and thought the monasteries were amazing, but not sure you will have time for that if you are going to Hamburg.