I am thinking about a trip to combine Greece and Turkey in one trip for two and half weeks. Of course I do not expect this to be an in depth trip. It should cover the usual suspects such as Athens, Olympia, Delphi, Istanbul, etc? Have anyone done something similar to this? Thanks.
Tony
I spent at least a month in each on my first trip, and Rick's tours spend two weeks in each, to hit the highlights. Therefore, I recommend choosing only one country for this amount of time.
If you do both, then plan to fly into Athens and out of Istanbul (multi-city or open-jaws flight), so that you don't have to double back. Also plan to fly between those two capitals. Or there are also a few flights between Greece and Izmir, near Ephesus; see www.skyscanner.com.
To cross Greece by ferry requires a long overnight ferry ride or a few connections between different island chains. Once you are on the neighbor islands with ferries that cross to Turkey (such as Lesvos-Mytilini, Samos-Kusadasi, Kos-Bodrum, or Rhodes-Marmaris), you usually must buy the international ticket at least the night before taking that ferry, for passport registration.
Thanks Laura. Looks like the best way to spend my time is to go slow
I did that combination and loved it. We were on a limited time so spent 6 days in Istanbul then in Greece we saw only Athens and Nafplio. It was just enough to give me a.bit of variety and these were choices made by my 12 year old grandson.
Hi Terry:
Could you share a little bit more details? Thanks.
Tony
Hi Tony,
I think 2 and a half weeks should be fine for both... you'll have to be quite quick about it and you won't get much time to wind down, but it's doable. Look into the Eastern Europe railway Balkan Pass offer, you get to pay an affordable fee and travel anywhere in the countries listed during your stay. I'm not sure about this, but membership might be restricted to citizens of those respective countries, so be sure to get all the info beforehand.
Good luck! :)
Not sure which details you want. Flew US to Istanbul... stayed in Old City Viva Hotel right on the main road between Spice Market area and Grand Bazaar. Took a boat cruise one day but just walked and saw all the main sights. Walked almost everywhere... took the tram once, but it was so packed I could not wait to get off. Took Turkish Air flight to Athens, stayed in city (Aetoma? can't remember) saw sites and took a bus tour of Athens (very hot) Took a bus to Nafplio and spent a few days there... wonderful hotel... Took the return bus to Athens and stayed one more day there. Turkish Air return flight to Istanbul. Final night there near airport before flight to US. We did take a shuttle into city for final dinner. Let me know if this was not the info you were looking for. The people in Turkey were welcoming and friendly and despite a few reservations before I went I felt perfectly comfortable and safe there.
I went to Greece and Turkey last year - Didn't do much of a grand tour, we just did Athens, Santorini, and Istanbul, but we only had 6 days and still made that work, so I'm confident you can make it work in 2.5 weeks!
I recently visited Athens, Delphi (day trip from Athens), Istanbul and Efes (day trip from Istanbul via Onurair) in 12 days and felt that
I had enough time to get a good appreciation of the cities, and was able to see all of the major sites and then some.
I think you should be fine with two and half weeks.
