First time in Greece+Turkey: trying not to overschedule

Regarding all your 4 options:

I don't know why you want to go via Samos. There are no direct ferries from Samos to Naxos or to Crete. You will have to find a connection via Mykonos or return to Piraeus to take a ferry the next day to Naxos or Crete (and this will not necessarily be possible every day).

From Naxos, Paros or Crete, even if you take the first ferry to Piraeus, you won't get there before 3 p.m. (and probably not until the next morning when leaving Crete). This means that in the best case scenario, by renting a car in Piraeus you will not be in Delphi before 6 or 7 p.m., when the site closes.

Option 2 is totally unrealistic, and above all impossible in the timing you have established.

The best you can do if your stay in Greece follows Turkey is taking a flight to Athens and plan an itinerary from there.

Um, wow. Okay then. Apparently I misread the ferry websites as I thought we had to get to Samos before heading to any of the Greek islands. Regarding being unrealistic, that's exactly why I posted. I have never been to Greece and came to the forum for feedback/suggestions. With your feedback, I guess I know what NOT to do!

I don't know which website you will refer to, but to find out the possible destinations from a departure port, check the ferryhopper map:

https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/maps/ferries-map

Enter the departure port and you will see all possible direct ferry destinations if a price is displayed.
Note that even if a fare is displayed it does not mean that there is a daily ferry, it may only be once a week.

For example from Samos (the port is Karlovasi) you can go to Mykonos. If you click on Mykonos you will see all possible destinations from Mykonos.

What I suggest to you and which might work for what you want to do is to start with the islands and see if you can find a flight from Turkey to Naxos (or Paros, or Crete) via Athens.
Then return to Athens by flight or ferry, rent a car and visit the Peloponnese.

Regarding the sites to visit in the Peloponnese you can refer to this map:

http://www.aspel.gr/mapview.html

Don't try to visit too much if you don't want to spend your time driving and seeing a country through a car windshield.

These are generally small mountain roads where you will not drive more than 45 mph.
You would need at least 3 weeks to visit the main places.

After the Peloponnese return to Athens, drop off the car (you don't need a car in Athens) and keep 2 or 3 days to visit Athens, so you will be there to take your return flight.

Both Turkey and Greece offer so many options that it makes planning difficult. We've been to both several times and I'd like to offer another possible itinerary.

Would you be open to rearranging your trip, putting Fethiye at the end, and using Rhodes as your jumping-off place for Greece? I checked Sky Scanner for October 1, and there are many flights from Rhodes to other Greek islands, as well as to Athens.

So your trip could look like this: Istanbul, Cappadocia, Izmir (for Ephesus), Fethiye, ferry to Rhodes, fly to Paros or another island? ferry or fly to Athens, visit Peloponnese.

This plan would mean skipping Antalya, but if you want another stop in Turkey between Ismir and Fethiye, I can recommend Dalyan -- you can take an interesting river cruise, see Lycean tombs, visit a sea turtle nesting beach and hospital. We had a lovely stay there at the Kilim Hotel.

You can also ferry to Rhodes from Marmaris, which might have more ferries than Fethiye. As I said, lots of options.

@JoLui: Thanks for the additional info. I had been using Ferryhopper as my source, but I was apparently not reading things correctly (thinking "All Ports" meant non-direct but still viable ports). I appreciate your clarification. Yes, I agree about not trying to do too much, which I what I hoped to learn from all of you who are familiar with the region. We prefer "experience the area" trips rather than "hit-and-run" trips, as evidenced by our 5-week trip last fall that only covered northern Italy from Milan to Trieste and north to the Austrian border. Many questioned what we "did" for all those weeks in one "small" area (their words), but we had a wonderful time and got to explore many off-the-beaten-path spots. I know that to do either Turkey or Greece justice would take months if not years, so we're trying to figure out the best use of our 4-5 weeks. Your insights are invaluable in doing so. Based on your previous reply, we've decided to visit Peloponnese prior to Athens. The time between Rhodes and Peloponnese is still up in the air.

@Charlene, your suggestion of rearranging the trip was also suggested on another forum I've tapped into. His suggestion was Istanbul > Izmir (Ephesus) > Cappadocia > Antalya > Kas > Rhodes > [Crete or 1-2 islands or directly to Peloponnese] > Peloponnese > Athens. We think your and his idea of moving Ephesus after Istanbul makes a lot of sense. After Rhodes, it gets a bit stickier, which goes back to the advice @JoLui gave. We think we'd like to go to Naxos between Rhodes and Peloponnese, but it looks like getting there will involve many ferries and a couple of days, including one several-hour "layover" that occurs in the wee hours of the morning. Taking a flight could make sense, but it would involve going through Athens. We're not opposed to island-hopping our way to Naxos (or Paros), but we need to mindful of time and fatigue factor. I've really only begun investigating the logistics between Rhodes (or Kas/Fethiye/Marmaris) and wherever we visit before Peloponnese, so we'll see what where that takes us!

Many thanks to you both!

but I was apparently not reading things correctly (thinking "All
Ports" meant non-direct but still viable ports

You were reading things correctly, it's ferryhopper who is wrong when it displays a list of Arrival Ports by direct route.
Even if Naxos is selectable from Samos "All ports", you will not find a direct Samos→Naxos ferry

There is the option of reaching Crete from Rhodes by ferry with one or two ferries per week and 8 to 10 hours of travel.
But there is also the possibility of the daily flight Rhodes→Heraklion with Sky Express, it's 1 hour flight.

And still with Sky Express or Olympic you can fly from Rhodes to Naxos via Athens. It will also be faster than a Rhodes→Crete ferry

Ahhh, well that makes me feel a bit better. Thanks for letting me know, @JoLui!

Okay, our latest draft of the Greek portion of our trip looks like this:

• 3 nights in Rhodes (arrival from Kas via Kastellorizo?)
• 3 nights in ??? island (possibly Naxos; decided against Crete this time)
• 4 nights in Peloponnese
• 3 nights in Athens
• depart ATH

Questions:

• I'm getting conflicting information on ferries to Rhodes. Also, there are no ferries showing in October on ferryhopper. Are the ferries not running in early October, or have the schedules just not been released yet? If they don't run at all (or much) in October, we'll need to move our trip earlier
• having a hard time deciding which island to visit between Rhodes and Peloponnese. While Mykonos and Santorini are supposed to be awesome, everyone else seems to have them on their itinerary and it sounds like they're being overrun. We'd love to walk/drive around whatever island we choose, see interesting sites, swim in the beautiful water, and relax - preferably in a quieter island. (We're not partiers.) Whatever island it is, it would have to be accessible by ferry (or plane) from Rhodes and Athens/Piraeus.
• is a 4-night stay enough for Peloponnese? We've heard Nafplion is awesome, but it is a ways from much of the island. We're also interested in seeing Delphi and Corinth, either while in Peloponnese or on our way to/from Athens.

As always, advice is much appreciated!

Edit: when we were in Italy, we enjoyed wandering the streets of towns and villages. We're not big shoppers, but we loved the personality of the different towns. Being able to do that on this trip would be lovely, too.

There are daily ferries from Kastellorizo ​​to Rhodes with Blue Star Ferries, Dodekanisos Seaways or Saos Ferries, timetables for October are not yet published. The journey takes 3 to 5 hours depending on the type of ferry.

But from Rhodes there will probably be no more than one ferry per week to Crete, the Blue Star Chios, and none to the Cyclades Islands. If you prefer quiet and authentic islands, forget Mykonos and Santorini.

4 nights (3 full days) in the Peloponnese is very short. Enough to see 25%.

See: http://www.aspel.gr/index.html

Good info, @JoLui. We have decided against Crete this time because the time is too short.

I'm beginning to wonder if we should abandon the idea of visiting an island between Rhodes and Peloponnese, instead giving one of the three days to either Kas or Antalya and the other two days (or maybe three, if I include ferry time) to Peloponnese. Having never been to the islands, I feel like we'll be missing out on an iconic Greek experience if we don't include one of the islands, especially one of the Cyclades, but maybe we'll have those experiences on Rhodes, in Antalya & Kas, an in Peloponnese. Each place is so different - it's like comparing two states in the US or two islands in Hawai'i.

If we do drop the intermediate island, we can just fly RHO-ATH, which is cheap and only takes an hour.

Another option might be to spend a few nights in Pyrgi on Chios, close-ish to Kuşadası where we'll already be. I'd have to check out the ferry schedule to see where we'd need to embark from to get to Chios.

By visiting the Peloponnese by car you could travel to Kythira, an island 2 hours from the port of Neapoli (south of Monemvasia). A car is also essential on Kythira as there is almost no bus network. We spent 6 days there last year and as regulars of the Cyclades we found this island superb with preserved authenticity.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TjtNFpAE65iMAnZX7

Okay, we've pretty much decided it doesn't make sense to try to add an island between Rhodes and the Peloponnese given the time we have and the logistics of getting around. So, here's the latest draft for the Greece portion of our itinerary:

• Ferry to Rhodes via Kastellorizo (Rhodes 3nt)
• Early flight to Athens. Pick up rental car. Drive to Patras via Delphi (Patras 1nt)
• Drive to Gytheio, hugging the coast as much as possible (Gytheio 3nt)
• Drive to Nafplion (Naplion 3nt)
• Drive to Athens via Corinth. Drop off rental. (Athens 3nt)
• Depart ATH

I think we're getting closer. We still need to do a lot of logistics research to make all the transportation work. And then we've got to figure out lodging and see where we'd like to hire guides. But... progress!

You won't like my answer.... but doing Turkey and Greece is already overscheduled. Pick one country and explore it in greater depth. Of course, if I had my choice it would be Greece every time.

You won't like my answer.... but doing Turkey and Greece is already overscheduled. Pick one country and explore it in greater depth. Of course, if I had my choice it would be Greece every time.

LOL, I appreciate your comment. We've thought about only doing one of the countries, and we may still decide to do so. I could see us spending a month in either country.

You won't like my answer.... but doing Turkey and Greece is already overscheduled. Pick one country and explore it in greater depth. Of course, if I had my choice it would be Greece every time.

LOL, I appreciate your comment. We've thought about only doing one of the countries, and we may still decide to do so. I could see us spending a month in either country.

We just talked through this, and we may very well split things up with a month this year in Turkey and a month next year in Greece. It's not a firm change yet, but there's a feeling we're not doing either country justice with our current plan. There are so many places in Greece we're not even touching, and there are places in Turkey we'd like to add. I'll post when we've decided.

Good for you for rethinking this. We once did Greece and then Paris for a week on the way home. We were tired and Paris ( which we love...normally) just did not get its just deserve. We never did a trip that combined two countries again.

Good for you for rethinking this. We once did Greece and then Paris for a week on the way home. We were tired and Paris ( which we love...normally) just did not get its just deserve. We never did a trip that combined two countries again.

Thanks for the feedback. It feels a bit like going backward, but we think it's the right thing to do.