Gearing up for a new adventure..and already some questions about lodging...

This is where the legwork on your part will pay off. Greece does have places with family rooms and there are also a ton of apartments. You should start your search on booking.com where you will find lots of choices.
I think you will be pleased when you see the prices. Greece can be budget-friendly.

There is a trip report on a family group of seven on this forum, you might take a look at it to see about lodging. Or, you could sent a private pm to the person and ask about lodging.

Awesome! I have no problem doing the legwork, it was simply a knee jerk concern that it might not pay off. Thanks for the confirmation that its totally doable.

The filter system at www.booking.com should help you find what you need at the price you can afford in whichever location you intend to visit. But be advised that many "family" accomodations that have room for 4 people are going to be a one-bedroom space with 2 day beds in the common area (living room), so make sure you are getting what you require in terms of bedrooms. Booking.com doesn't provide contact information, but you can usually find a website for the properties listed and contact them directly if you need more information.

I am the one who traveled as part of a family group of 7 and wrote up a trip report. We were all adults so needs were somewhat different but I thought I'd share what I found out. We went to Santorini, Naxos, Nafplio, and Athens. My knowledge is limited to these locations.

Santorini, Nafplio, and Athens all have air bnb type accomodations readily available. In Santorini, they can be very expensive but reasonable in the other locations. That is what we did in all three locations. The advantage is space for the money and privacy which is less important with your age children. The disadvantage is there is no front desk to help you, something my husband missed after we had it in Naxos.

Naxos has units like Lee described for families that are very reasonably priced. We did not opt for these as wanted more privacy and instead stayed in separate rooms at a conventional hotel-Kymata, which we loved. We did rent the rooftop deck room because we wanted a gathering place. It had a second room off the main one with a door and two couch beds that would work for your situation. You may find other examples of this too. This type of suite option though is pricier than the family style units Lee described. There are not apartments readily available in Naxos and that may be true of other islands as well--I really don't know.

I read a trip report on Fodor site (I think) of a family with two 13 year old twins on the mainland. They found very reasonable accommodations for a smaller family in Nafplio and Athens. You might want to find that to read. I enjoyed it and I wasn't traveling with children. I ended up hiring the guide they used for the Acropolis--figuring if he could keep the attention of 13 year old twins, he could keep the attention of my crew, which he did.

Beth

Try very hard to find the time for at least a 12-day trip. Ten days in Greece could be frustrating because of the transportation challenges. Luckily, both food and lodging are relatively inexpensive in Greece, except for Santorini.

Thank you for all for the responses.

Lee- thanks for that particular heads up. We would be fine with that sort of scenario but it's best to not be caught unprepared!

Goodorf- I read (and enjoyed) your trip report just this afternoon. I agree we probably have slightly different goals in terms of lodging, but it definitely reassured me that there are multiple types of housing to be found. Also your report got me very excited about the possibility of this trip.

Acraven- Good to know that minimum of 12 is what we should shoot for. I see you say you are from the DC area. My husband works in DC (commutes from WV) and I grew up inside the beltway. I also notice there is no direct flights from any of the DC airports to Athens. I have a feeling this will be the biggest challenge in terms of cost and time I will face in my planning!

Partly what you're seeing is a format change for Rick's hotel listings. They no longer include specific price ranges for different sizes of rooms, and so have also lost the detail of which hotels offer true singles, triples, quads, etc. Glancing through the book, I see the term "family rooms" retained on a few listings, for instance in Nafplion and Olympia.

Laura- That is exactly what I was looking for and couldn't find!! In previous books I could skim the listings really quickly looking for quads. I was assuming they simply didn't exist because of this change in format. Thank you for the explanation.

Laura, please tell RS that that change makes the guidebooks much less useful for finding lodging.

in Nafplio I had a great studio that would work for your family. It was located around the corner from the bus station, shops and gelato stand! There was a screened area between the main bed and the couches that would sleep your boys. The place was immaculate and the kitchen well furnished. Please note: no balcony or terrace or pool but the best hosts ever!
Airbnb listing. Studio picture shows a unique orange sink in the bathroom. Owner Magda Bardi / they own the nearby pharmacy. I dont know if there is an extra charge for more than 2 people...ask!

Check airdbnb and Booking there are sereval homes ideal for families

I am going next month with 2 children of similar ages. We booked on booking.com and airbnb and had no trouble. In Athens it is a hotel with a family room, in Nafplio it is an apartment from airbnb, and so on. I think what you are seeing might just be the slant of the particular guidebook author? Or maybe these type of accommodations are more common in France etc - but they are available in Greece too. I travel mostly in Italy and Spain and Greece seemed about the same as far as amount of availability.

Check booking.com first - once you put in the number of people then only hotels/apartments with availability for that will come up. A few hotels will offer you 2 rooms, which isn't what you want, so you have to look at the room type they are suggesting.