We are traveling with another couple to Greece end of Sept (flexible). We are in our late 60's and enjoy food, diving, fishing, kayaking, hiking, history, and relaxing. The request from our friends, who have been to Greece once before, is to see Rhodes and Paros and a few days in Athens. This is our first time. We have 21+ days and that does not include travel time to and from Athens. Nothing has been booked yet, but I'm looking at flights from west coast to Paris (overnight to sleep) and on to Athens. My current itinerary looks like this. Can you see if it makes sense before I start booking? Too much or too little time at any one place? Does the route look reasonable without too much back tracking?
Fly from Athens to Milos (4 nts)
Ferry from Milos to Santorini (3 Nts)
Ferry from Santorini to Paros (4 nts)
Fly from Paros to Rhodes (4 nts)
fly from Rhodes to Athens (3 nts)
Train to Meteora (2nts)
back to Athens (stay at airport hotel)
fly home
I have looked at flights and ferries and It looks like I can get at least 1 to the Islands and to Rhodes. Ill probable get back on for more details, but I need the bones so I can book airfare from California and a few critical hotels.
Posted by
11156 posts
You could take a day away from Meteora. Are you considering Delphi? I would rank that above Meteora. Consider adding Napflion on the Peloponnesian Peninsula, one of Greece’s most beautiful small cities which is surrounded by some Greece’s most significant antiquities.
Posted by
France Southwest
1814 posts
Since you wrote "flight Paros to Rhodes" Just to tell you that there is no direct flight between Paros and Rhodes, you have to go through Athens. (I guess that's what you intended)
What can also be changed in the islands part is the order of stays on the islands. It would be more logical from a travel point of view to do this:
(since Milos and Paros have an airport with flights to Athens you can swap Milos and Paros, it depends on the ferry schedules and the type of ferry you want to take)
1/ Flight Athens to Santorini
2 Ferry Santorini to Milos
3/ Ferry Milos to Paros
4/ Ferry or Flight Paros to Athens
5/ Flight Athens to Rhodes
What also surprises me is that you haven't planned any days in Athens.
Posted by
2497 posts
They are in Athens after Rhodes.
If you are willing to drive, you could save a night. You could even add that to Delphi as a poster suggested. You could drive to Delphi, spend the night, and then drive to Meteora and spend two nights. Drive back to airport and return car and go into Athens for three nights.
We are driving to Delphi and Meteora and doing what I just proposed after flying back from Crete in a few weeks.
Posted by
🏔PNW
159 posts
I’m also going to Greece for 21+ days in late Sept 😂maybe we will cross paths. I’m from WA (west coast) I’m curious why you are flying to Paris for 1 night. Is that just the flight itinerary or intentional? Just curious. I’m trying to split Greece & Turkey in 1 trip and I think I might be squeezing too much 🥺but I wish you the best!!! I too am stumped with the logistics. It’s a hard country to master an outline u less you have traveled there before. Best wishes
Posted by
83 posts
Looks like you will have a wonderful time in the islands! We just returned from Greece last week. I liked Delphi, but loved Meteora, so would encourage you to keep your two nights there.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thank you for the help. I will look into Delphi. Getting there seemed difficult as we did not want to go on a large tour or rent a car. Maybe I can convince the group to rent a car. I think we have the time to add it to Meteora. JoLui - I will look into the sequence of the islands. I know getting from Milos to Santorini is not straight forward. Nova- our choice to stop in Paris was only because we’ve learned to break up our travel and stay overnight at an airport hotel. I looked at stops in London or Amsterdam as well. That way we have a short hop to Athens and have the strength to continue on to an island. We have several stops from Sacramento to just get to Europe. AirFrance had a long layover that worked well. I’m so thankful you are giving me your expertise to make this trip even better.
Posted by
France Southwest
1814 posts
If you make a stopover in Paris before flying to Greece, it will depend on the day and time of your arrival and for the end of September I think that the schedules are not yet all available, but maybe you could find direct flights to Rhodes or Santorini from CDG Airport with Aegean, Easyjet, Volotea or Transavia (which belongs to the Air France group).
Posted by
TX, USA
4076 posts
Just adding my thoughts to the Delphi - Meteora equation. I loved both but loved Meteora more and am glad you are scheduling 2 nights. I drove, so don’t know anything about tours - but I will say that the last part of my drive to Delphi and where Google Maps took me from Delphi down to the highway for Meteora was the hardest part of my week of driving. But you may have more experience with narrow mountain roads than I do.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
I just saw a posting from James saying he is doing -
Meteora (2 nights, Jun 26-28), train to Levadia on the 28th, then taxi from Levadia to Delphi. We were hoping not to drive to Delphi, but this may work for us. We would still do 2 nights in Meteora as that is a must for us. But we could get to Delphi for 5 hours on our way. Taxi is $50 each way from Levadia to Delphi and we are 4, so not too bad. We could also take a day from Athens where we now have 3 nights to stay overnight in Delphi. I also found taxi tours from Athens (2 nights, 3 days) to both spots with a night at each place. But no pricing on WEB. So I need a quote. But that makes it very simple.
I’d also like thoughts on where to stay on Milos for 4 nights. We will take a fishing boat trip, dive and kayak. But we can rent a car if needed.
Thank you all.