Graduation trip to Mediterranean

How much time do you have?

Did you travel to southern Italy during mid-summer on your earlier trip? I think all your destinations, except for whatever mountainous areas you manage to see, will probably be extremely hot in July.

We are taking 2 weeks. Yes, I know it will be hot (she wanted Egypt and I refused). We only have late June/ July to travel due to college starting on August.

We have NOT Adobe southern Italy. I wa shrinking about that — especially Pompeii, given her fascination with ancient cultures. Could we do Istanbul, Greece and southern Italy? Her must haves in Greece are Athens and Santorini.

Assuming that "almost 2 weeks" means 13 days, I don't think it's at all realistic.

Those combinations of places you're mentioning are all pretty challenging from a transportation standpoint. Any time you have to get across a large body of water, there's likely to be a ship (slow) or an airplane involved. Flying means trips to and from airports, where you'll spend extra time due to security procedures. If you attempt southern Italy (Rome-Pompeii? Rome-Naples-Pompeii? More?) plus Athens plus Santorini plus Istanbul, you are going to have an awful lots of days with airport time built into them. Something like this:

Day 1: Depart from US (no possibility of sightseeing)
Day 2: Arrive in Rome, probably sleep-deprived/jetlagged (little real sightseeing)
Day 3: Rome
Day 4: Travel RT to Pompeii (exhausting even when not hot)
Day 5: Rome
Day 6: Fly to Santorini, probably via Athens (most of day in transit?)
Day 7: Santorini
Day 8: Fly back to Athens (about 1/2 day gone by the time you reach hotel)
Day 9: Athens
Day 10: Fly to Istanbul (about 1/2 day gone by the time you reach hotel)
Day 11: Istanbul
Day 12: Istanbul
Day 13: Fly home from Istanbul (no sightseeing)
Day 14: Go back to work/school (probably needing a vacation)

You start out with 13 days of vacation, but by the time you discount the days when you're changing bases (encumbered with luggage), you have 7 full days left, and I'm crediting that day-long slog to Pompeii. And you've hardly seen the places you've visited, because you've had to spend time getting into town from the airport, finding each hotel, checking in, unpacking, figuring things out, then re-packing, checking out of the hotel and going back to the airport. Two days in Rome, 1 exhausting day to Pompeii, 1 day on Santorini, 1 day in Athens, 2 days in Istanbul: All those times are inadequate with the possible exception of Pompeii.

You may also be unpleasantly surprised at what airfare costs when you start flying into Rome and out of Istanbul (just as one example). What is your home airport?

I suggest going about this differently. Start with your daughter's #1 choice. You mentioned Athens and Santorini. They're close enough (though requiring a flight) that we'll count them as just one destination. Look at a guide book. Decide more or less what you want to see and do in those places. Few people would go to Santorini for less than 3 nights. You really want to have at least 2 full days there. Your Athens stay will be dependent on what archaeological sites and museums you and your daughter want to see. Fortunately in this case, the city of Athens isn't exactly a beautiful place, so you don't necessarily need a lot of extra time there. We'll say 3 nights in Athens, but I think your daughter might need 4 nights. Your decision.

You've accounted for 6 or 7 nights. You have only a total of 11 on the ground in Europe. so you have 4 or 5 left.

Now, from the entire universe of attractive destinations, what works well (logistically) in combination with Athens + Santorini? Yes, you could go to Istanbul or southern Italy (not both). You might be able to fly from Athens to somewhere in Croatia or Albania (I haven't checked). Heck, you could fly to London. But it will cost you a flight and the better part of a day to get to one of those places from Santorini. Wouldn't you rather see more of Greece and spend less time in airports? Greece is sort of hard to get to from the US. Why not take advantage of already being there? There are other islands. There's the mainland. There's the Peloponnese. Lots of possibilities. Eleven nights on the ground is really, really minimal for Greece. I encourage you to spend all your time there.

So we take

Acraven has analyzed it very well, I think. Not enough time to do everything on your combined lists and still call it a vacation. Athens is worth at least three nights (two full days), or more. Then there's Delphi, Nafplio, and a lot more on the mainland, plus whatever islands appeal to her. Crete is fascinating and beautiful, and doable on a Greece-only trip. And it was an ancient culture, Minoan, centuries before classical Greece.

Matt Barrett's website has a wealth of information about travel to and in Greece, it may be useful.

Her must haves in Greece are Athens and Santorini.

Given your time limitation, suggest you limit yourself to Greece and Southern Italy if you must do a 2nd country.

Tying to do Turkey, Greece and Italy in 13-14 days, just becomes a "check off the boxes, I was there" trip.

She, and you, still have many years to make more trips. No need to 'do everything' this trip

Here are the highlights of a trip we have planned for June that includes Greece and Crete, taking in a good number of antiquities, and balancing that with a few hikes and time on the water. We do like to keep moving. An advantage of Crete as a Greek island visit is that you get the Minoans as an additional distinct ancient culture, and some of the surviving artifacts like frescoes are outstanding. Women seem to have an important role in their art, which is striking and unusual for an ancient culture. In addition there is well-preserved Byzantine and Venetian-era architecture. We are renting a car in Crete and in Greece. If we had less interest in hikes and beaches and 'B' sites in Crete we would probably shift the schedule by removing days 5-9 and distributing those days among Delphi, Meteora, another day in Athens, and/or Santorini. BTW if on Santorini be sure to visit Akrotiri.

Day1 depart US AM
Day 2 arrive Athens AM, afternoon flight to Crete, arriving Crete late afternoon
Day 3 Iraklio sights and National Archeological Museum (highlights of Minoan finds)
Day 4 Knossos, Phaistos, Museum of Cretan Ethnology
Day 5 Moni Arkadi monastery, Amari valley, Argyroupolis
Day 6 Imbros Gorge Hike, overnight at Loutro
Day 7 Lonely Planet west Crete driving tour, day hike overnight at Paleohora
Day 8 Lonely Planet west Crete driving tour including Elafonnisi beach, Innahorian villages, Falasarna beach
Day 9 Day sail from Chania
Day 10 Chania museums & sights, overnight Ferry to Pireus (Athens)
Day 11 Nemea, Mycenae, Napflio fortress
Day 12 Epidavros, kayak trip
Day 13, 14, 15 Athens
Day 16 depart for US AM, home late the same day