Greece in June

I understand where you are because I put off a Greece trip for years because I was just so overwhelmed by all of the options. However, you should go ahead and look at the transport realities. Visiting both of those islands will eat up a ton of time in transit—that’s time you could be spending in a village, on a beach, etc. You could choose one or the other and add a second island that makes more sense geographically, but you generally want to stick to islands that are linked by transit already. Good luck!

You may want to reconsider visiting Santorini; it is so overcrowded and there are so many other islands to visit.

What people are saying is that there is no good way to get between these two islands. You can fly to Santorini but then would have to return to Athens to get to Zakynyhos.

What you have to understand is that it is so much easier if you stay with an island group.

I do sympathize. My first draft of my first trip to Greece involved three islands in three different island groups. Our final itinerary was two islands in the same island group.

As mentioned above, there is no direct way to get from Santorini to Zakynthos. You have to take a flight to Athens and then another flight to Zakynthos (the two islands are approximately 500 km apart).

I should warn you that Zakynthos is among the places in Europe most affected by high tourist pressure (150,000 tourists per 1,000 residents), partly because of the shipwreck on Navagio Beach, which is nothing more than an Instagrammer's spot. It has nothing to do with what makes Greece popular.

It has often been mentioned for several years now as a place to absolutely avoid.

It's up to you, going to Santorini might be worth it for the whole island, but I think everyone here will tell you the same thing: There are so many places to see in Greece that it would be a shame to waste all that time and money just to see a shipwreck on a beach.

We were in Kefalonia this past summer, and looked into visiting shipwreck beach on Zakynthos. Unfortunately it's no longer possible to visit the beach itself, so the closest you can get is a boat trip that takes you near the beach- in case that is a deciding factor in whether to visit. I haven't been to Zante myself but it has a reputation here as more of a party atmosphere, and the old town is modern as it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1950s. If you are interested in the Ionian islands I might look into Corfu or Kefalonia instead. Corfu has one of the best old towns in all of Greece. However, as others have said, these islands are quite far from the Cyclades where Santorini is, and I think you'd have to fly via Athens to get from one group to the other.

Shipwreck beach is strictly off limit these days for safety reasons (serious cliff erosion) and it doesn’t marry up easily with Santorini travel-wise. Best to choose another destination that lies within the same island grouping. Have a look at this guide and see which interests you the most…..

https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/

Thank you all SO MUCH for the helpful replies. This has helped us to reset and shelf Zakynthos for this visit. Therefore we'd like to stay a few nights in Santorini and then check out another island - Paros, Naxos, Milos? Still overwhelmed but think we have a better focus now....

Listening to the "vets" is smart -- I often think that one doesn't need advice so much about finding the BEST but rather about avoiding the pitfalls, or mistakes that hamper the experience. One newbie mistake you might decide to avoid is, seeing Athens First and instead, doing it last. Several reasons: (`1) you'll be jet-lagged, and major Athens Sites will be a blur; it's much easier to recover on an island (2) You need to be in Athens area the night before homebound flight anyway, so why waste precious hours going in/out of a big city twice (3) going elsewhere first, you'll learn how Greece "works" & will be more efficient navigating a big city at end (4) immersion in history/culture will make those world-famed landmarks & museum treasures mean so much more.

We hope you mean 10 days IN Greece - NOT counting travel to/from. In any case you can only count Arrival day as a half, and only IF you arrive before noon. Our usual advice if you arrive 9 -12, allow 2 hrs layover & take domestic flight (Aegean or Sky Express) early afternoon to SANTORINI. spend max 3 nights (2.5 days); it's really all about the view. Then ferry to 2nd Island, and fly back from there to ATH 3 night before departure, so you will have 2 FULL days to skim the surface. Get your logistics lined up first, then do your hotels, not the opposite. Have a good time... but do not dither -- the best domestic flights are on sale & going fast, also the best-value Santorini hotels

You need more than a day or two in Athens.
Doing the Acropolis, the New Acropolis Museum and the main sites in Athens will take a day and a bit of another. The Archaeological Museum is fantastic. Also, see the changing of the guard and some of the other historical sites.

Consider a day trip to Delphi, also the Temple of Sounion southeast of Athens.

Corinth and the canal are great.
Also, there is a three island tour of islands fairly close to Athens.

As for other island, Crete is amazing and you could spend a week there easily. Mykonos is popular and nearby Delos (ancient site worth visiting). Corfu and Rhodes are great. Santorini is worth a visit. It sits on the rim of the remnants of an island that exploded destroying the middle of the island. Yes, it is crowded, but still worth a visit. Also, there are ancient Minoan ruins on the far end of the island.

geovaGriffin, it isn't fair to taunt people with lists of other wonderful places, when they only have 10 days. That's like taking people on a strict doctors-orders diet to a lavish buffet, and pointing out all the wonderful foods they cannot have right now.

geovagriffith's enthusiasm is a pleasure to read, perhaps he uses a teleportation machine, who knows? :-)

I have always maintained that to achieve an itinerary like the one he suggests would require either a Magic Carpet or the ability to Walk on Water ... and one has been seen only in fables and Disney, and the other, while it is an article of faith for many, has not been seen in the Near East for 2,000 years.