Greece island itinerary help for 2 weeks

Here is a comprehensive discussion on island hopping by ferry: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g189398-i192-k13287639-Travelling_by_ferry_in_Greece_Island_hopping-Greece.html
Basically, ferries service specific island groups. It's designed for locals, not tourists. It's more difficult to get between island groups. Sometimes you have to fly back to Athens to get to another island.
Edited to Add: This site has an old version of ferry routes. I think there are more inter-island routes now than shown, but it gives you an idea. https://www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.com/ferry-info-greece/greek-islands-ferry-chart.htm

You haven't said when you want to go to Greece.

we would like to visit Santorini, Paros, Milos, Lefkada, and Kefalonia

Santorini, Paros and Milos are in the Cyclades Islands. Lefkada and Kefalonia are in the Ionian Islands. Island hopping is not possible between these two island groups.

Anyway, visiting 5 islands in 2 weeks is too much, sometimes even impossible. 3 islands is the maximum if you don't want to spend your time on transfers. Moving from one island to another takes most of the day.

You can check ferry schedules and prices by consulting ferryhopper:

https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/#/

And don't forget that you will have to return to Athens at least a day or two before taking your return flight

From the twenty islands in the Cyclades you have chosen 3 of the most touristy islands. I don't know if this is intentional or if it's a random choice. Why not the other 17 islands?

https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/cyclades/

Would it be better to fly to and from Athens and take all the ferries
to those islands?

After a long flight, if your first island has an airport it is advisable to take a flight to that island from Athens as soon as you arrive.
Then you can travel from one island to another depending on the ferry lines and schedule, but above all if there are ferries for the journey you want to make.

We are interested in the nice blue crystal beach with local cuisine
and outdoor activities.

They are practically everywhere on all 200 Greek islands.

Which island do I really need a car? Which car company allows island
hopping?

The need for a car depends on what you want to do and see, where your accommodation is located on the island, how long you stay there, and on the island's bus network.

There is no need to rent a car and take it on the ferries. You'll pay extra for insurance, pay the ferry ticket for the car (and not all ferries accept vehicles) and that car will be of no use to you when you're on the ferry. If you have a mechanical or other problem with the car you wont have any assistance.

There are local rental companies on all the islands. It's much simpler and cheaper

Thank you for leonard and Jolui suggestions.

We are planning to visit from late June to July.

Which island would you recommend to visit that less touristy from Athen?

Thank you once again.

NJ

Traveling to the Greek islands requires a bit of an adjustment. It has its own logic. My first trip to Greece I thought I could visit three different island groups. I finally figured out the only way to do that would be to return to Athens between them!! Obviously not a good idea. So the most important rule, as has been pointed out, is to stick to one island group. We decided to stick to the Cyclades.

The second thing to keep in mind is even between islands in the same group it is more time consuming than you expect. I would not stay less than three nights, preferably four or more, or you will spend too much time traveling.

Third, ferries can get cancelled due to the weather or strikes. You need to be back in Athens the night before your flight. Planes are more reliable than ferries so good to have your last stop be an island with an airport.

Enjoy! I am sure you will return.

Rather than recommending islands, here are some basic island hopping planning tips.

As mentioned previously there may be ferries (or even flight) cancellations or delays for many reasons, bad weather, technical problems, strike. So first, to plan your stay, put the visit to Athens at the end in order to have a margin of safety to take your return flight.

And estimate the number of nights you will spend in Athens. A visit to Athens requires a minimum of 2 or 3 full days (3 or 4 nights).

If you deduct these nights from your 2 weeks (14 nights), plus that of your arrival in Greece, you will see that you only have at best 10 nights (11 days max) left to distribute to the islands.

In the islands, each day of travel means:
Pack your luggage, check out of your accommodation, transfer accommodation→port, wait for the ferry, travel by ferry, transfer port→accommodation, check in, unpack your luggage.

So if you want to visit 3 islands, that basically means you're going to spend 4 days dedicated to traveling:
1 day to go to island 1, another day to go from island 1 to island 2, another to go from island 2 to island 3 and a final day to return to Athens.

Deduct these travel days from the days you have left, and you see that you only have at best 7 days (6 or 7 nights) left to spread over 3 islands.
This means that you will have spent almost 2/3 of your vacation days traveling from one place to another.

So if you only have 2 weeks, go to 2 islands at most.
This will allow you to spend at least 4 full days on each island, which is far from being too much.

We did go to four places (two islands, Nafplio, and Athens) on our first two week trip. And if I had to do it again, I would do the same. There are always trade offs between travel time and variety. But I think 3 to 4 places including Athens is what you should be planning. This is how we divided our time and how long it took to move so you can see what JoLui means by travel time.

Santorini (3 nights) flew on same day as arrived in Athens. Had first evening and two full days.
Naxos (4 nights) arrived at hotel at about noon after ferry ride . Had afternoon and evening first day, and three full days)
Nafplio (4 nights) Took flight from Naxos to Athens and then rented car. Had trouble finding rental! Had late afternoon and evening first day, then three full days.
Athens (3 nights) encountered strike at airport for metro and ended up taking bus then taxi. Had late afternoon and evening first day and two full days.

We would loved one more night in Naxos but were happy with the rest.

Thank you for everybody's input.

We have decided to come down to Paros and Santorini.
Which areas would you recommend staying in on each island?
Any suggestion on where to rent a car on both islands?
Has anyone experienced renting a car with Chase Reserve on both islands without paying extra insurance coverage from the car rental company? I'm not sure they will have a national or big-brand car rental on the island.

Thank you.
NJ

You may not necessarily need to rent a car in Santorini. We had our hotel reserve a taxi to and from the airport in Santorini to our hotel. We took the local bus between Oia, Imerovigli, Fira, and Akrotiri on different days. The hike along the coast from Imerovigli through Firastefani to Fira is downhill and has spectacular scenery.

Book the rental car with a local company and not with an intermediary or 3rd party.

In Paros I rented from Acropolis Rent a Car, Aegean Rent a Car and Rigas Rent a Car. All three are good rental companies, but there are plenty of others, look on Google Maps by zooming in on Paros and searching for Rental car.

I also rented a car once there in Santorini without booking in advance to explore the island, but if you only stay there 3 days and only go to the basics of Santorini, maybe the car will be useless to you.

In Paros:

https://www.paros-rentacar.gr/en/

https://acropolisparos.com/

https://car-rental-paros.com/

The one in Santorini is in Karterados, next to thr police station, but I think they don't have any website.

Hi Everybody,

I plan to take a domestic flight from Athens to Paros and have wondered how it works vs ferry.

I will arrive in Athens from the US in the morning and would like to take a domestic flight via Agean or Olymic.
Do I have to pass the security check again?
Is there any way I could skip the immigration and customs and go directly to my next flight?
How long would it take to clear immigration in the morning around 8 am? Will I catch the ferry at 9 am in either Piraeus or Rafina?
Thank you.

NJ

When you arrive in Athens you go through passport control, once you have passed this control you are in the Schengen zone, there will be no further passport controls on domestic flights (except the usual identity check when you board for a flight).

Customs control is as simple as going through the “Nothing to declare” exit. Then all you have to do is go up to the Departures level.

Collecting or not any checked baggage depends on whether you have a USA-Paros flight via Athens in a single ticket or not. Anyway, if you have a flight in 2 tickets (USA-Athens and Athens-Paros) allow between 2 and 3 hours of connection time in Athens.

Regarding ferries, it takes approximately 1h15 to get from the airport to the port of Piraeus, and it is best to be at the ferry departure dock at least 30 minutes before departure time. You also need to know the gate where the ferry departs from. (Piraeus port is almost 3 miles long). If you arrive at 8 a.m. you will not be able to take morning departures for Paros. You will have to take a Seajets at 4 p.m. or a Blue Star Ferry at 5:30 p.m.

Rafina port is approximately 25 minutes from the airport by taxi. You could possibly take a ferry to Paros at 2:30 p.m.

Check the timetables on Openseas

Piraeus-Paros:

http://openseas.gr/PIR/PAS/2024-06-28/2024-06-28/itineraries

Rafina-Paros:

http://openseas.gr/RAF/PAS/2024-06-28/2024-06-28/itineraries

(change the date if necessary)

JoLui

Thank you so much for your information.

Any taxi company would you recommend booking in advance for the ferry?

Thank you.

NJ

The taxi to the port of Piraeus costs between €60 and €70,

You can also take the X96 bus (€5.50 / person) or the blue line metro (€9 / person)

If you take a SeaJets ferry (Champion Jet) it departs from gate E9. If you take a Blue Star ferry it can depart from either gate E2 or E7 depending on the ferry (the gate is mentioned when you book on the Blue Star Ferries website)

https://www.bluestarferries.com/en-gb

If you take a Blue Star which leaves from gate E7 the metro is a good option, the metro station being barely 10 minutes walk away, otherwise, not being used to the port configuration, take a taxi.

You can pre-book a taxi with, for example, Welcome Pickups.

https://www.welcomepickups.com/athens/

Seajets website:

https://www.seajets.com/

In Santorini, my recommendation would be to stay in the Firostefani area. We did not find it necessary to rent a car. Our hotel had complimentary transportation to and from the airport. We used the bus system while on the island. Aktaion was a restaurant that we really enjoyed; reservations are advised. Is it safe to assume that your trip will take place in 2025, or are you looking at this year?

JoLudi: I plan to take a ferry from Rafina via Tera Jet to Paros. Which gate should we look for so I could tell the taxi?

TravelBug79: I am traveling next month. Would it make any difference? Could you share your hotel name? How to get more information about the bus system in Santorini please?

Thank you for both.

NJ

The port of Rafina is a small port with only a departure quay, no gates like the port of Piraeus.

There are restaurants at the port and in the central square of Rafina (the taxi will drop you off right in front) there is also a beach

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZxMCpj493ceBuH4p9?g_st=ac

This will give you a first experience of Greek cuisine while waiting for your ferry. :))

Buy your tickets on the Seajets website, you will receive them by email with a QR code which will be scanned upon boarding

We stayed at Lithies Traditional Homes (in the Eros home) Maria is their fabulous host, and she arranged for our transportation to and from the airport. She also helped us deal with delayed luggage from Athens. We caught the bus on the main street (sorry I don't remember the name) It took us to and from Oia. Enjoy Santorini!

I recommend staying in Firostefani as well. It’s much quieter than Oia and Fira. We enjoyed our stay at Blue Dolphin Suites. Rate was about $230 per night in May 2022 for a nice room with a balcony overlooking the caldera.

I highly recommend renting a car for a day to explore Santorini. The caldera is beautiful and unique but there is more to Santorini than just the caldera. We visited the Akrotiri archaeological site (fascinating), the red sand beaches, and the black sand beaches.

May I know if I should buy a greece ferrry domestic pass ? if there is any pass? Or just buy each ferry ticket for 3 island hopping.
We want to visit milos, paros and santorini within 2 weeks trip.

Thank you.
NJ

There are some Passes but a Pass will be 200% useless to you. They must be used within a limited time frame with specific ferry companies. While you don't even know which ferries you will be able to take.

If you still intend to go to Paros from Rafina port, the best option in my opinion would be to go to Santorini after Paros, and then finish in Milos. This is the itinerary that will give you the most ferry options and probably the best prices.

Check ferry timetables and prices on ferryhopper.

https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/

Try to avoid Seajets ferries if possible which are very expensive and sometimes very uncomfortable.

For Paros → Santorini take the Blue Star Delos if available

Hi JoLui

I have to finish at santorini as I will be fly out from santoriini.

I plan to go from athen to milos-> paros-> santolini.

I saw only seajet operate from athen to milos and plan to use seajet for the other 2 trips

Could you please tell me more what do you mean by uncomfortable? It seem to have a quickest trip.

Thank you.

NJ

nipapornj164

Sorry, I thought you had an itinerary starting from Rafina to Paros.

To go from MIlos to Paros, the Seajets "intra-Cycladic" ferries are alternatively the SuperJet or the SuperJet 2.
They are the smallest in the Seajets fleet and they have a bad reputation because they are very "uncomfortable" when the sea is rough. I have traveled on these ferries a few times, sometimes with very rough seas, much worse than:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIclfEOtNwk&ab

I don't get seasick, but not everyone does. There is no possibility of going outside to get some fresh air. It's a bit like being on an airplane. They are also very often delayed.

Anyway I'm afraid you wont have any other choice to go from Milos to Paros. But don't worry if the sea is calm everything will be fine and it's only barely 2 hours after all.

Regarding the Athens (Piraeus) → Milos I guess you have no other choice than a Seajets (I don't know your dates). That being said, the Seajets ferries which make this route are large catamarans which are much less sensitive to bad seas than the small ones. Most of the time they have an outdoor space where you can get some fresh air (and wind!)

See below a large Seajet in "stormy conditions" seen from a conventional Blue Star ferry where no one seems to care about these stormy conditions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUgrSaLKZZU&ab

@JoLui- those are stormy conditions? I have to laugh because where I live, and need to take a ferry to get anywhere, stormy conditions usually means seas of 6-10 feet and only slow ferries run in those. Fast ferries here can run in 4-6 foot wave conditions

I wrote "stormy condition", in quotations because it's in the title of the video, and we see a large Seajets catamaran.

In fact, I don't think it's stormy conditions either.

Navigation bans in the Aegean Sea are decided from 7 or 8 Bf or more. Generally all ferries, including traditional ones, are impacted.
In the video below, it's 7Bf winds.

https://youtu.be/q9kwckiKFiw?t=15

This is one of the two intra-Cycladic Seajets that I mentioned above that you will probably take for a Paros→Milos, after 2 or 3 hours of travel like that, I understand that some people do not prefer to try again

But the most important thing is to avoid to get wet when getting off the ferry. :)) (see below)

https://youtu.be/b5slAxqxrlU?t=244