Greece itinerary

I can't address the merit of your itinerary but only have a question about your car rental upon arrival at 6am in Santorini. I'm assuming you're picking the car up at the airport. Are you sure it's open that early?

Also, consider renting the room in Santorini starting the night before. That way, when you arrive, you can check right in; no bag storage, no waiting till the usual 2 or 3 pm check in time.

Day 1: Landing Athens 2AM

Arriving from where?

I think you are trying to do to much in the time you have.

Going through customs is rather quick and you'll have time to "freshen up" at the airport before your flight to Santorini.

Your first day there could be quite exhausting as you'll arrive after a long flight, depending on where you are flying from. You have 2 days planned for Santorini then you are off to Athens then drive to Delphi and then head for Meteora. It's a long drive.

Then you'll be driving to Olympia (another long drive) for 2 days then a drive to Nafplio for 2 days, then drive back to Athens for days 7, 8, & 9. Three days in Athens is good.

You may want to eliminate a destination and spend more time in the others.

Every time you travel, especially driving eats up valuable time which takes away from the time you have at a destination.

Quality is more important than quantity.

@Peter - Thank you. Yes, I had considered getting accommodation the night before in Santorini...will look into that and the car rental.

@joe32F - flying in from New York.

@tommyk5 - Thanks. Yes, I guess you are right. Quality is surely more important than quantity. I will probably reconsider some of these stops. I could have eased up this itinerary a bit, if I had skipped Meteora - but having heard so much - that was one place I really tried to fit in.

I would suggest you arrange transportation ahead of time to your hotel on santorini and not rent a car. The roads are more challenging than you might think and you will be exhausted. We had a shared van that we arranged ahead of time and was very glad to not be driving after an over night flight.

We hiked from Oia to Fira and then took bus back to Oia where we were staying. I am guessing you are staying in Fira as you are going from Fira to Oia. We did the hike the second day after we arrived and it was a great way to get over jet lag. I am not sure all of our group could managed it the day we arrived but maybe with a short nap first.

We rented a car the second full day we were there and went to many of the places you are intending. The rental car place let us return car at ferry and I would guess the same for airport so you might check into that (even though we rented in town).

You give no clue as to what datesyou are going, and yes it really DOES matter. Santorini is best visited between Fri - Mon, because M-T-W-TH are the days when the huge monstercruise ships invade and create jam-pack conditions in OIA & Fira between 10 - 4pm. If you are unfortunately co-occupying with cruise mobs, we can suggest evasive action. Also, dates matter in Nafplio... actually it's better during the week because Athenians pour in on weekends. In addition, if you are traveling during the week that includes August 15, (Greece's BIGGEST summer holiday, #2 holiday of entire year) -- you may have some real challenges in hotel bookings, car booking, traffic, ferry ticket etc. Are you aware of this? Any problem with sharing specifics?

@BethFL - Thanks so much for the tips.

@janet - last week of June/early Jul. Even in early July, it was difficult getting reasonably priced hotels in Athens. The others places were not that bad..