Greece - Santorini, Peloponnese, Athens in 10 days

I can only answer no. 7 - we used our credit card at all toll booths, except one. We entered the hiway at Volos and the booth was un(wo)manned and took only coins. Fortunately we had just enough!

5.Reasonably priced rental car company at Athens airport? We are 5 adults. At the maximum(maybe less) will have 2 med checked-in bag(27”) and 3 hand carry bags. Which automatic car would be suitable?

What is "reasonably priced' to you?

Looking on expedia ( just to get a rough idea) a 7-9 passenger AT van is $132 per day. Stick shift a bit less.

Given your baggage it seems a 7 passenger van is the minimum that would do the job.

A few suggestions......

1) In Santorini, the sunset views from Oia are famous. It will be crowded but worth it. Also in Santorini, the Akrotiri excavation site. The entire site is covered to protect you and it from the elements. One of my favorite stops. Get there early to beat the crowds.

2) Corinth Canal is underwhelming. However, the ancient site at Corinth is interesting. Two different places.

3) In my opinion, the Acropolis museum should not be missed. (And I'm usually not a big museum person.) It's about a 10 minute walk from the Acropolis. I suggest you get to the Acropolis when it opens to beat the crowds, then take a walk to the Acropolis museum, and afterwards have lunch. You can even eat at the Acropolis museum and have a wonderful terrace view of the Acropolis.

In Nafplio, I stayed at the Amphitryon hotel. It wasnt' good. Some rooms are good, some rooms are horrible. Most rooms have no wifi signal.

We have rented twice at the Athens Airport from Athens Car Rental. I have found them less than others, although $132 a day for a van is a low price. When we had a group of 7, we rented two cars. It is difficult to maneuver a van on narrow roads. We had a medium sized automatic this time and your luggage would not have fit.

Does your hotel in Athens offer a shuttle? Otherwise, I am not sure what you are referring to. We took a bus because there was a metro strike.

We went to Mycenae on our first trip. Parts of it are amazing and easy to appreciate. Other parts are very difficult to visualize.

The road to Naplio near Cornith is not marked that way. We had two cars and I got lost. My husband had his brother in the car who had bought a map in Cornith.

Thanks for your detailed itinerary, easy to understand. My comments & also answers to your Queries;
SANTORINI - Glad u r staying in Firostephani, great views no crowds. What hotel? DAY #1 - u can dine @ sunset v near yr hotel, Hotel REMVI has diningroom w superb sunset view. (or do on day #2 if u skip cruise) DAY #3 no need to walk to Fira to get bus to Oia, ask yr hotel to direct u to the Firostephani bus stop, get EARLY bus (8 am?) to beat tour crowds.... also insttead of looong cliff walk consider walking Oia-Imervogli, THEN catching bus to Fira Town

NAFPLIO AREA - This superb website a MUST - http://www.visitnafplio.com- click EVERY link!! DAy #4 - Outbound, skip Corinth Canal, save for inbound if you feel like it; ( to do it, Exit is Isthmus, stop by Old bridge, take pix, then get back on big highway, 1/2 hr max). Better to reach Nafplio earlier, time to explore... Do Acronafplio (find elevator in cliff!) for both the Clocktower AND park at peak of peninsula point (view!!)... also consider late-day water-level walk around that point, then cafes along promenade for sunset superior to Santorini. Appreciate Bourtzoi from there. Save Palamidi for AM. DAY #5 - drive up back road to PALAMIDI for great PIX. Mycenae next? Can be tiring/too much - instead stop @ TIRYNS. right on road, just outside town , same Huge Fortress, Giant Boulders, not restored, NO crowds - https://hubpages.com/travel/palace-of-tiryns - we LOVE it. Drive on to EPIDAURUS, don't get weary walking acres of rubble, just go to Stunning THeatre; a big THRILL. If any of u care about swims, on road back to Nafplio, check the tiny cove at ASSINE, with ONE taverna, have a dip, then a snack (or early dinner) & sunset.

ATHENS - DAY 8 For Acropolis, if u want to avoid tour crowds & are up for DIY, download R Steves FREE Audio guides to Acropolis AND Agora step-by-step. Buy tix at SOUTH entrance, no ticket lines.. YES, Do lunch-with-view @ Acrop Museum Terrace, they also r supposed t o have audio guides but ?? u can get FREE audio download online - http://www.playandtour.com/audioguides/athens-en/moussio-akropolis MOmastiraki? Big Busy Square, skip Flea Market, now just tourist-tat DAY 9 - Syntagma -- 11 AM regular guard-change, dont wait for Sunday "special" & Note - pickpockets target crowds then. Temple of Zeus - cando if got 6-pack ticket pkg... but can also be a walk-by, like Roman Agora. Kerameikos? hmmm a far walk. for Nat Arch. Museum R Steves also has good audio download, (10 top must-sees) avoids gettng lost for days in huge place...

Rental Car TYpe -- for 5 Adults, doing a bit of driving, I'd get a full-size Honda Accord type at minimum, & if u r affluent, a Mercedes or similar for back seat, unless 3 of you are small skinny women.

Appreciate all your advise on tolls and itinerary suggestions on Santorini, Corinth, Acropolis musuem, etc. Also Janet thanks for all your suggestions/tips on Palamidi, Mycenae, Tiryns and Athens. I’ll check with my family, and tweak my itinerary.
Will book hotel by this weekend, looking at Sunset Hotel in Santorini, which is pretty close to Remvi. Remvi looks like a great place for dinner, not sure we are up to doing dinner on Day 1 after our flight from US west coast, but definitely try to reserve for one of the other 2 days in Santorini.

Thanks all for car rental car information. My concern is getting a rental car that’ll meet our needs. We are going to pack as light as possible for the 5 adults. Our drive will be Athens airport-Nafplio(Palamidi Fortress, Tiryns, Epidaurus)-Monemvasia-Mystras-Athen airport. So I was thinking maybe an SUV type of car will be suitable. How will be drives on this roads for an SUV?
After dropping rental car, are shuttles available from car rental place or airport to Athens hotel? Do we need to prebook? I haven’t done hotels yet, so perhaps they can help arrange?

The Mycenae includes some the most important of the Greek antiquities so do not skip them! Read about Lion’s Gate, Agamemnon’s Tomb and more. The Archeological Museum in Athens has many treasures rescued from this site. I can’t imagination such a rich archeological site getting “ mixed reviews!” The Mycenae should be among sites at the top of your list.

SUki, I suggested TIryns because not all visitors are as immersed & absorbed in ancient history, and instead more about the visual impressions. In info provided, no particular queries re classics/archeology.

Chiming in just to suggest maybe skipping monemvasia. Beautiful but IMO a similar type of experience to Nafplio - strolling aound pretty streets and eating :)

With limited time you don't need to visit Bourtzi.

We also found Mycenae somewhat missable on an exhausting day but then again i am brutal about cherry picking my ruins experiences. We got quite a sense of the granduer of it from visiting archeological museum in Athens.

Do not miss acropolis museum for sure.

One pro tip was that in high season we cannot recommend highly enough going to the acropolis itself as late as 7pm. That's still close to 3 hours of golden light, cooler Temps and less crowds.

In Nafplio the King of Asini Beach/ taverna recommended here was a major find. 5 euro for a sun bed/umbrella that includes a drink. Perfect swimming and good food.

One other thing we did enjoy greatly was a kayak trip with Pan Expeditions out of OLD Epidauris, swimming over an ancient sunken city and visiting the small epidaurus theater.

MM, am a bit confused regarding the recommend for "King of Assini Beach" taverna ... do you refer to the ONe taverna that is on the small pebble-beach cove of Asine, just off the road, across from the Asine ruins? There is also an Assini Beach Hotel in Tolo... but I love that small family-run place on the cove, was just there again in 2019, hope it hasn't changed.

The Mycenae site was a bit underwhelming to me. The history of the site is fascinating that’s for sure but there sure is a lot of speculation about the Mask of Agammenon and how much it looks like Heimlich Schliemann, the archeologist who found it. At least that’s what our guide told us and I was on the RS tour. If I had to pick, I would make time for Akrotiri in SantorIni. It predates Mycenae back to 1600 BC and there’s more to see there than Mycenae. It shows how people lived versus just burial tombs in Mycenae.

AGree with Claudette re Akrotiri vs Mycenae... have been to both several times because of interest by newbie travel companions. Also, on one Santorini visit, enjoyed going up on Ancient Thira. Needs advance prep to figure out ruins, but the view of entire island is stunning! Car or taxi takes you up to a high turn-around... then you scramble up a goat path for another 15 minutes to top. Take water & snacks, few amenities. I heard there was a WC, didn't see it then. We walked down the paved road all the way (25 switchbacks) and got a bus from beachfront to Fira Town.

Yes, I wish we had time to go to Ancient Thira and also the Archeological Museum in Fira that has all the artifacts from Akrotiri. They sell a combo ticket to all 3 sites that is good for a few days, can’t remember exactly for how many. Also recommend you get a guide in Akrotiri. They are waiting at the entrance to gather a group of about 10 people and it costs €12 per person. Well worth it!

While it would be nice to have a guide for Akrotiri, it is not always possible unless you hire a guide in advance. We were there in May. There was only one guide waiting outside, and she recruited us and about 8 other people for a tour. Would have cost about $10 or so per person. But she only accepted cash. Three people dropped out when they heard this; so we waited a few minutes for more people, but then people got tired of waiting, and more people dropped out. The guide insisted on waiting to recruit more people, so we decided to see Akrotiri on our own. There is signage but it is not detailed. We still enjoyed what we saw. But I just want to give you a heads up that it might not be possible to hire a guide at the site.

I would recommend Aetoma Hotel in Nafplio. Their hospitality is unsurpassed.
innAthens Hotel near Syntagma Square is modern; great location and reasonable price point.

Thanks all for sharing your experiences and hotel recommendations, will be helpful in my planning. I will definitely add Acropolis Musuem, not sure how I missed that.