Greek Islands Plan

If you are interessed in photography there is a photo festival in Athens at the Benaki museum located Pireos St from June 8 to July 24.

https://www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_events&view=event&id=1016285&lang=en&type=1

There are more than 100 populated Greek islands, with some (I.e.Rhodes & Crete) larger than entire countries (I.e. Malta). So no, two weeks is not too long for the islands.

You can take a ferry from Athens or Rafina to an island, then ferry to the next, and so on. There are very few islands suitable for using as a base for day trips to other islands.

Getting to Sicily from Greece will likely involve flying from either Athens or Crete to Palermo or Catania. Check flight availability before heading out for the islands. If you decide to fly from Crete>Sicily, you could fly or ferry directly to from Athens and spend your island time exploring Crete. Or you could island hop by ferry to Crete.

A more interesting option, in my opinion, would be to visit Turkey instead of Sicily. There is a big Blue Star ferry that travels from the Piraeus port in Athens to the island of Rhodes several times weekly, stopping at other islands along the way. You could get off on an island, stay a day or two, then ferry to your next stop. I think you’d have to buy tickets for each leg of the trip but they are inexpensive.

Once you reach Rhodes, there are daily ferries to Marmaris in Turkey. Then you can rent a car or take buses and explore all the wonders of Turkey. Look for ideas on the Turkey and Trip Reports section of this forum.

The website Rome to Rio can give you ideas how to travel between different places.

Charlene,

Thanks, that actually was sort of my original plan. I have a cheap plane ticket from Athens back to Paris, the return ticket was only 20 euros... so maybe I can utilize it June 15th.

I'm still unsure of the route I should take, or which islands I should see. Say 1 week Island hopping and 1 week in turkey.

Navagio, Zanthos, Milo's, Thera, Delos, Mikanos, Samos, Santorini and Rhodes appear to be the islands I'd like to see most, based on my research... but I'm afraid there is another one I don't know about, lol, and still not sure about order to visit, length to stay or ferries... I guess the boat is the hard part... if only I could rent a speed boat like I can a car... I'd probably get myself killed, hehe.

You’ll need to do some research. If you want to island-hop over to Turkey, I believe there are 4 Greek islands with ferry connections to Turkey: Rhodes/Marmaris, Kos/Bodrum, Samos/Kusadasi and Lesvos/Ayvalik.

Confirm timetables/days of week, etc., then head toward your chosen island, staying at a couple of other islands on the way. You may not be able to visit many of the specific islands on your list but most Greek islands have plenty to occupy you for 48 hours.

You will need the help of a ferry website (try Ferryhopper.com) to map this out but I would not buy tickets online. There are ferry ticket offices at every port. You might be able to find a ticket office in Athens willing to help you map this out.

Once in Turkey, gettin back to Athens to use your ticket would mean a flight from Istanbul ? Or a ferry back to Athens.

Navagio, Zanthos, Milo's, Thera, Delos, Mikanos, Samos, Santorini and
Rhodes appear to be the islands I'd like to see.

Navagio is not an island, I think you are confusing it with the very touristy beach of Navagio on the island of Zante in the Ionian Sea (quite close to Italy).

I also assume you mean Thira (not Thera) Thira and Santorini it's the same place. Thira is the Greek name for Santorini.

Delos is not an inhabited island but it can be visited mainly from Mykonos (and not Mikanos which does not exist).

Delos, Mykonos and Milos are Cyclades islands in the Aegean Sea.

Samos and Rhodes are islands located near Turkey, so completely opposite to Zante.

If it is possible to find ferries connections between the Cyclades and the islands of the dodecanese, there is no ferry connecting the Ionian islands and the Dodecanese islands.

To visit all these islands you would need several weeks. So, you will have to look at a map and make realistic choices.

Wait 🫢why did you say you are skipping Turkey bc it’s too aggressive? What do you mean? I’m going there in Sept….I want to know. 😰

Nova, I believer perhaps all that gunslingor meant (despite his agressive screen name) was that it might be too agressive a plan to attempt to add more countries. (Turkey's current political stance is not that admirable, but I don't think OP was concerned about it).

Haha, yeah, I ment to agressive of a travel plan, lol, not too agressive of a country lmao... but what do I know, I haven't been yet and don't know enough. I am just now getting a good feeling for greece after 5 days.

Thanks for all the advice peeps... tomorrow I'll try to do corinth site, where I am staying tonight (unfortunately i can't seem to find and Corinthian leather here, lol jk), and Sunion... then I think I will stay in athens another night to drop the car... need a plan to island hop to greece asap, what route does anyone recommend? No worries if unknown, I'll figure it out, just limited time and knowledge so help appreciated to get me started.

Sicily is where the better Greek ruins are though, I already went to paestum and it was Great... a little sad how badly damaged all the Greek archeology is in greece =(, they've had a rough history I guess, I guess we all have... still want to go to the UK to see the best Greek statues that were stolen and still unreturned... BAD BRITS BAD!

Hello team!

Spent 3 hours trying to plan this ferry hoping route to turkey last night, i didn't make progress for a number of reasons (e.g. never did the ferry thing before, I keep stumbling on interesting things, my brain won't stop trying to see everything, etc). I am starting to come to the conclusion that it might be easier to fly into Istanbul, do 3 or 4 days in that city, rent a car to see other areas of turkey and then ferry hop back to athens... or maybe I should just pick a freaking island and plop my butt on a beach... lol... hard to plan the unknown when travelling.

Deleted. Will start new post.