Greece Tour

The weather in Europe this year has not been very predictable. Personally, I wouldn’t want to go to Greece before the second week of April or preferably, into May as it may well be very wet before then.

After a lot of thought, we decided to go in March of 2019. It's really hard to rely on any weather but March in Athens is commonly in the 60s, based on historical data and that's just fine with us. We're hot when it's in the 70s and pretty unhappy with anything higher than that. I'd rather be a little cool than warm.

What tour are you considering? We looked at a lot of them and then discovered that a private driver is almost the same price as a tour for the two of us and then we're not traveling around with 44 people.

Hi Valerie: I am thinking of the 14 day Rick Steves Greece tour and there are a max of 28 people on the tour. I have been on several RS tours and enjoy them. Thanks for your thoughts on the time of year!

Ahhh....we're just doing a 4 night tour out of Athens - Meteora, Napflio, Delphi etc. When we priced it vs. Gate 1 type tours we realized the private driver was a way better value.

As I have said before and elsewhere, I have lived in Athens for a year some 30 years ago and trying to predict the weather to determine your visit and length of stay makes no sense..
One can have weeks of warm and sunny weather and weeks of cool and rainy weather.
Just make your plans and go, prepared for any kind of weather, or, better yet, buy whatever it appears that you need when you are there--umbrella, rain jacket, cap.
That's the best plan.

Spring break? Who’s spring break and what is your concern? Crowds? Greece is a tourist destination, there are always crowds. You’ll be on a tour that navigates sites very well to avoid as much as possible peak crowds. The only way to nearly guarantee no rain is to go in July or August and RS does not run tours then, for good reason, the heat would kill you. Late April, May, less rain but as others have pointed out, weather is unpredictable and changing.

Actually Easter 2019 is on April 28 in Greece and most of the rest of the Orthodox world. Easter Sunday is pretty quiet, especially in Athens. Most sights are closed and half the city is out of town spending the day with family, so I would not recommend taking a tour beginning on the 29th, if you want to spend a couple days in Athens pre-tour. If your our includes Easter, the itinerary will take that into account. Last year Wray took the tour in late March, I took the tour in late April. We both wrote about our experiences on the Greece forum. Wray had some rain, no hot days. I had no rain, but by early May the temps were over 80. There are a number of hikes with little shade and lots of up and down. If you want to bathe, bring water shoes (the beaches were all pebbly) and go as late as possible. The water was pretty chilly at the beginning of May, not many people in the water at any time, and no one for more than 20-30 minutes. I wouldn't worry about spring break crowds in Athens or the Peloponnese, maybe the more popular islands if you are thinking of doing that pre- or post-tour.

As Chani said, I took the first tour last year, which was the last week in March and the first week in April. I don't like hot weather, and I'd say most people thought the weather was perfect. I was surprised that most of the days were in the 70's. I prefer 50's and 60's weather, and was hoping for that (weird, I know). We did have rain, but it was only twice: once over night and once when we were on the bus, so no interference with our tour. At the main sights like the Acropolis or Olympia there were other people, but it was hardly overrun with tourists. The rest of the time, most of the time, there was hardly a tourist to be seen. I felt like we had most of the towns to ourselves. I was happy with this time choice as I wouldn't have wanted it any warmer. I did do a scrap book this year so you can look at the photographs and see how beautiful the landscape was and how we watched the flowers explode as the days moved on. Actually, Sarah was on my tour as well, so both Greece scrapbooks are from this first tour (and sadly neither of us won.) This is a great tour. You'll love it, rain or not.

We went in midMay several years ago and the weather was very pleasant. However, it was a bit too chilly to swim in the hotel pool at that time. I have a friend who just came back from the RS Greece tour and she loved it. From her photos, the weather looked really nice. As others have said, weather is unpredictable. But having traveled in sountern Europe in June and July, I would avoid June, July and August unless you had some overwhelming reason to go at that time.