Greece for 13 nights in October.

Congratulations on planning your FIRST trip to Greece (it becomes addictive, fair warning). Many thoughts re your plan, please keep open mind, be aware my suggestions come from 13 trips in past 20 yrs, many of them with newcomer companions like you, so these are not ideas based on one fleeting visit.

• DISTILLED WATER - This is best Trip Adv Answer -- https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g189422-i244-k11913404-Cyclades_South_Aegean.html -- it says pack some small bottles in checked luggage to crry u thru the first few days. I would do that and frankly my next step after making my Santorini hotel reservation would be to ask the hotel for an answer... they are set up to provide local answers.

• TRIP TIMING -- You are right; October is better than August, not only for Heat but for CROWDS, and EXPENSE. You will still be able to swim, have mostly good days, couple of showers. Downside -- days are SO much shorter, you'll have to plan sightseeing & travel with awareness of early darkness, and enjoy sunset at 6:30, not 9, as I do in early June.

• FLIGHTS -- If u think you can fly direct from Portland to Santorini, you are mistaken. NO nonstops like that. You CAN fly from West Coast to some big European Airport and then change to a Santorini Flight ... however, those connections may only be in the afternoon. and u would arrive in Santorini at or after sunset. Coming from West Coast you have a gruelling flight at best... what will amount to 17+ hours fly/connection time, and maybe 24 hrs clock time, Just steel yourself. Since your trip is SO short, I would think about getting to Athens in the AM, then connecting to a 12 - 1:30pm Santorini flight. This means getting a nonstop from N America. These are 4-5 depending on season: Air Canada from ?Montreal?TOronto? American/PHL, UAE Newark, UNITED/Newark, Delta/JFK (and this summer also Atlanta & DC). All of thse depart East coast from 4:30 - 8 pm, and arrive ATH between 9 am & 10:30... depending. Do some homework & don't count on any Bargains. Remember Greece is just just a trip, I like to think of it as a QUEST, llike knights of old... arduous, full of challenges, exhausting, but a great treasure at the end. PS: when choosing return time, do not be tempted into a 7 or 8 AM departure -- you'd need to be in line2 hrs early, it takes an hour to reach airport... and arising at 3 AM could spoil your last celebratory night in Athens. I trust you fly back on Oct 23, right?

• SEQUENCE & DURATION -- you have the sequence right, but I would tweak the timing. • SANTORINI - If arrive by 3pm Oct 10, I think 2 nights enough... it's Mainly the view (skip the walk, better ones in Naxos... they only promote Oia-FIra because its the ONLY walk). Enjoy sunset in lovely rooftop FIRA restaurant (I rcommend STANI), go to OIA Oct 11 AM EARLY to beat the tour-group mobs, then leave Oia to explore (car or tour), another sunset dinner etc • NAXOS -On Oct 12 take 10:30 ChampionJet (open deck) or 3:15 BLUE STAR (open Dec) to Naxos ... nights of 12-13-14-15-16 (4 days), barely enough to experience gorgeous isle, lovely beaches & sea. u can do a great 1-day tour (Naxos Tours) and/or rent car. • NAFPLIO - Fly AM Oct 17 back to ATH airport; pick up rental car by 12 - 1 (AthensCarRental is a VERY reliable agency), drive on modern highway, bypassing Ath & traffic - stop @ Corinth Canal 20 mins for photo op, then NEMEA, just off hghway... get to NAFPLIO by 4pm or so. Enjoy Old Town, sunset, dinner. Oct 18; visit Mycenae? • ONWARD - on AM Oct 19, leave Nafplio, drive East to EPIDAURUS for the theatre (skip the ruins)... back to ATH by 2pm or so, taxi (flat rate €43) to Central Athens hotel/apt. OCT 20-21-22 Athens sightseeing.

MISC - take a windbreaker and a teeeny foldingbrella, u may not need latter. For D-I-Y sightseeing in ATHEN S, I highly recommend R Steves FREE step-by=step audio downloads to ACROPOLIS, ANCIENT AGORA, Nat. ARCH MUSEUM.

Janet,
Thank you so much for the information!
I had found that exact post about distilled water on trip advisor and that was all I wondered if anyone here had any information. I will definitely ask the hotel when I make reservation-it was already on the list. We are currently looking at mini micro filters as an option as a solution for the water situation.
We were trying to do carry on only for this trip as the only flights I can find are multiple airlines through various countries and it is hard to find out if the airlines cooperate and will transfer my luggage with very short transfer times. We know it will take 20-24 hours to get there and nothing will arrive until 6-6:50 pm in Santorini, thus no sunset the first night, probably the reason I was planning 3 nights on Santorini. I just thought it might be a nice place to get over the jet lag,

So ferry to Naxos for 4 nights at least. Then flight to Athens and rent car and to Nafplio for 2 nights. I had planned to do the photo op at Corinth, but you also suggest Nemea? You had a question mark after Mycenae, do you not recommend it? I love the idea to see Epidaurus on the way back to Athens, I would have never thought of that. Return car and taxi to hotel in Athens for 4 nights. Three full days needed for Athens? We did use the audio guides for the forum in Rome and it was great. I hadn't checked what was available for Greece yet.

My husband does want to get back the 23rd and flights I have looked at arrive after 10 pm local time, he wants a day of rest, I want to be gone one more day, LOL.

Hello Northwestern,
I am glad my information is helpful, it does come from experience. As I tell inquirers, I cannot guarantee a Peak Experience, but I CAN guarantee that I can warn you off of pitfalls.. then you are bound to find your own Peak Experiences. Some responses:

DISTILLED WATER: I gather u are using it for CPap machines. I had a neighbor who uses those, and I planned her Greece trip 2 years ago on a sailboat yet. She flew straight from ATH to PAROS & onto a boat. I'll ask her... but to repeat, when you book your hotel, they're usually VERY helpful about local knowledge such as this.

FLIGHTS -- When u say you are having trouble finding flights, what you really mean is, you are having trouble finding BARGAIN flights. If you'll bite the bullet, and book one of those non-stops from N. America, you will have NO problem with checking luggage ... if you want to go to Greece at all, it is NOT a bargain trip. And when you propose a very short trip, as you do, remember the old saying -- when you can't spend time, you must spend money. Otherwise, just go to the Caribbean.

TIMING -- you are wrong about arrival in Santorini. IF you take a nonstop from east coast, you WILL arrive ATH in mid-morning latest, and Santorini by 2 or 3 pm latest. And yes, an island is a better place to recover from jet lag that a big national capital like Athens, i'm with you there. I just don't think you need 3 nights... unless you can convince me that you're steeped in pre-Minoan history and just MUST see Akrotiri. 2 nights for sunsets, the OIA must-see, a walk along the rimpath from Firostephani to Fira, maybe pop into the museum... and that's it. Unless you want hours to buy expensive jewelry; that's what cruisers do, I don't think that's your thing.

LOCATIONS - If u haven't booked Santorini yet, I know some lovely cliffside places in Firostephani -- it's the "goldilocks" location; easy walk to Fira attractions, busable to/from Oia, yet bypassed by all the tour-group & cruise crowds. In NAXOS, you should book on St. George (Ag Giorgios) beach adjacent to Port Town... walkable to Naxos Town attractions, yet v. serene at night; also have good suggestions for places with seaview balconies, good prices etc.

PELOPPONESE SWOOP -- Best online map - http://euro-map.com/karty-grecii/peloponnes/podrobnaya-turisticheskaya-karta-peloponnesa.jpg From ATH to whole area (cllick & it gets huuuge; navigate with side slides) It makes crystal-clear how simple the route is, and how it totally bypasses Athens -- modern intercity highway, you won't even have to tap your brkes until the Canal.

As for stopping Ancient Corinth vs. Nemea... it's a choice. Are you a learned Greek history buff?? If not, Corinth can be confusing pile of stones... also, it's NOT just off the highway... it's several road switches to reach it. By contrast, NEMEA is DIRECTLY off highway on RH side, about 15 miles past Canal (see map). It is is the "runner-up" Sacred Games Site to Olympia & has been wonderfully &authentically excavated and restored (by U of Cal BErkley, which has the $$ to do it right). THrilling to walk into stadium & put your feet in the starting-blocks that racers used 2500 years ago. U can see the whole thing in an hour or so, then just cross the big highway & go south thru beautiful orange orchards & olive Groves to Nafplio.

As for Mycenae, YES it's worthwhile, there used to be a good 1-day tour to Mycenae-Epidaurus 0ut of Nafplio, but not for 10 years & it needs "homework" to appreciate. My solution? (If not allergic to printed matter as under- 30s seem to be): Order back-edition of ROUGH GUIDE to GREECE on Amazon... no need for latest; the 2010-2012 editions are better for history, sites etc. Pull Sections -- Athens, Peloponnese, Cyclades, History, Food & Culture. -- off the backing, staple & duct-tape a "spine" on each and LO! a stack of handy pocket "guide-ettes" to tell u all.

Janet,
Thanks again for more info.
The distilled water is used for multiple uses, but one is a Cpap. Which we know can use tap water and has because we are famous for bringing a hurricane to Florida and thus a run on water and just used the distilled for medical use.
We want to make sure we don't make a mistake in the planning and we are miserable with our choices.

We are not at all skimping on flights. The 1 hour 10 minutes transit I am seeing in Frankfurt is terrifying, I have stood in line there for over that amount of time just to get stamped out, twice. 1 hr 15 minutes in London seems unlikely. 59 minutes in seattle or 1 hr 10 in Chicago, 55 min san francisco, scares me to try and catch that international flight with covid test and all to be presented before flight. I have been just using travelocity and then going to the airlines to try and see what I can get. Any other suggestions? Delta has the best times PDX to Atlanta to Athens but they won't let me book to Santorini. If I want to take the risk and spend even more, I could book a separate flight to Santorini the same day. 10 am arrival from Atlanta and then 1:30ish flight to Santorini on Olympic. Looking at air canada I can book - 3000/each. economy. We were looking for premium economy. I haven't looked at Lufthansa yet, but I am unfortunately very hesitant to book foreign airlines after being completely screwed April 2020. Qantas would not even give me a voucher for my two Australia domestic flights and Virgin Australia issued a voucher for two more domestic flights that expired October 2020, 1 year after I purchased the tickets. And we all know the travel insurance didn't cover anything. Per travelocity the earliest I could get to Santorini was 4:50 and that was with the short connection times with multiple airlines. The flights that have 2+ hours transit times get in at 6 pm.
I will continue to work on flights, then I will move onto hotels. I am not a huge Greek history buff, just very interested in learning more. I am a paper person all the way, I am a tear up the guide and take the pieces I will need with me. I was trying to go paperless with the guide and just buy the ebook this time. ( I laughed at the under 30 crowd statement, we are 50+). We did spend 2 weeks in Maui last month so definitely not looking at the caribbean. Seaview balconies are on my wish list. I also read about the 2 day Key tours to Nafplio from athens-might be a possibility for our situation also. Lots to keep looking into.

We did this trip in 2018 and it was perfect. We flew from US (FLL--Newark-Athens) arriving about 10:30 am as I recall. Then we took a separate flight on Aegean Air a few hours later. It was seemless. Airport is not very big. Do arrange transportation from the airport in Santorini as you will not be up to figuring out public transportation by then.

We had three nights in Santorini. We did the walk from Oia to Fira our first full day as we were staying in Oia and took bus back. We rented a car the next day, parked it over night in Oia, and drove it to the ferry station the next morning. The hike was simply the most beautiful I have ever done and a highlight of our time in Greece.

We had four nights in Naxos. We also hiked there (to top of Mt Zeus). We rented a car for part of our time. It was our favorite place. We could have easily spent another night. We stayed in St. George area.

We then flew to Athens and rented a car and drove to Nafplio. We spent four nights there. It was very hot (95 in early June) and we spent every afternoon at the beach. With cooler weather, three nights would have been fine.

We drove back to Athens airport, returned car and took bus into Athens (there was a metro strike). We did use a guide there for four hours which was very worthwhile. I can look for his information if you want. Three nights allowed us to see highlights but another night would have been even better.

Santorini 3 nights, Naxos 4 nights, Nafplio 4 nights, Athens 3 nights is what we did.
In October when it is not so hot, I would consider Santorini 3 nights, Naxos 5 nights, Nafplio 3 nights, Athens 3 nights.

I would not let the past experience keep you from possibly getting a better flight itinerary. I have flown Lufthansa for years, so I was certainly disappointed when they gave me the runaround on a refund in 2020, but I contested with my credit card and got my money back.
It would be great if you could squeeze one more day for Nafplio and area--there is just too much to see!

You are causing yourself all that flight agony because -- for some reason -- you want to include the Santorini flight on your transatlantic ticket. ??? I have done this half-a-dozen times and NEVER had same ticket. Arrive in AM, Delta, AA, United, from 9-10:30, and get Olympic or Aegean flight at 12:30 - 1:30. What's the problem? I don't understand. No foreign airlines required.

Thank you Beth for the information on your trip. Sounds very similar to what we would like to do.

Janet, sleeping on it I had decided the round trip to athens is the best choice. With the separate flight to Santorini. We are still waiting for vacation approval so I can't even buy the tickets yet.