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Greece 2025 Itinerary questions

Posted by on

Hello!
My wife and I are traveling to Greece at the end of June 2025. Most likely departing Boston MA on June 25 or 26 depending on flights. We will be using mileage awards so the times will dictate this. We will most likely be leaving Greece for the flight back on July 20 or 21st... not exact yet.

We are returning to Crete and Naxos as we enjoyed them so much in 2022 we have to return. We are adding a third stop in Rhodes.

Which I realize is in a different island chain and this is where I start my questions -- For those of you who have traveled to Rhodes:
Did you fly from Athens?
Anyone do a Ferry and to/from where?

I know that we will lose a day of vacation changing island chains and are ok with this. We are just looking for the best way to get there.

Same question -- would you start in Rhodes? (again dependent on my mileage awards) then Rhodes to Crete, Crete to Naxos, Naxos to Athens for departure. We spent 6 days in Athens last trip and want to focus on the three chosen islands.

The other option would be get into Chania Crete first then travel to Rhodes or Naxos... Seems like getting to/from Rhodes is challenging from Naxos so the only route would be flying.

Any insights on getting to Rhodes then to the Cyclades or vice versa would be appreciated!

We used this forum extensively for our first trip.

Posted by
2181 posts

Sky Express (Greek Airline) has a daily flight between Heraklion and Rhodes in both directions.
The last flight currently scheduled is on June 21, 2025. I think that by waiting a few months you will have a better idea of what they are planning (or not) for later dates.

https://www.skyexpress.gr/en

This can save you a long ferry trip or a stopover in Athens.

Regarding ferry timetables you can get a good idea by looking at this year's June/July timetable on openseas.gr. Those of 2025 will be similar. Crete ↔ Rhodes is 10 to 11 hours by ferry.

See below the Heraklion→Rhodes timetable for the first week of July 2024:

http://www.openseas.gr/HER/RHO/2024-07-03/2024-07-03/itineraries

Change arrival/departure ports and dates if necessary

Assume that you will have no possibility of direct trip between a Cyclades island and Rhodes except from Syros or Santorini by ferry.

Therefore the best option would be to place your stay in Crete in the middle between Naxos and Rhodes.

Also note that from May to September there are some possibilities for direct flights to/from Rhodes with many European cities.

I suggest using Google Flight to find flights. Since you are using miles there is an option to specify an Airline Alliance.

Posted by
950 posts

Nice trip…! I would start in Crete, then Rhodes followed by Naxos and back to Athens. Sky Express offers a daily direct flight from Heraklion to Rhodes in the early morning, or flights via Athens using Olympic. They also offer a number of flights from Rhodes to Naxos via Athens using Olympic. Flights to Rhodes from Chania involve a connection in Athens. (This years timetable)

Lots of Ferries from Athens to Naxos taking 3 to 5 hours…but apparently none from Naxos to Rhodes or Rhodes to Crete without an interim stop to change ferries? So you will be looking at flying anyway.

Posted by
2167 posts

Yes, we flew from Athens to Rhodes. We found it challenging to combine Rhodes with another island chain so we island-hopped by ferry through the Dodecanese — from Kastellorizo to Leros — and flew back to Athens from there. Highly recommend.

If you can find a flight from Rhodes to Heraklion, then yes, I’d use your suggested itinerary: Rhodes to Heraklion, then ferry to Naxos, then ferry or fly back to Athens.

If not, you might consider saving Rhodes for a later trip & adding a different, more easily accessible island (i.e. Amorgos?) to Naxos & Crete.

Posted by
11496 posts

We took a ferry to Rhodes from the Turkish coast.
Consider visiting the historic Turkish coast.

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