Help! need advice

It's understandable that you're having trouble. But how can we help find your accomodations without knowing what your combined maximum daily room budget will be (in EURO, please) and which Santorini village you've chosen for your stay? Without this information there are just too many choices. Or if you prefer to search for yourself, use the filter system at http://www.booking.com to narrow down your choices to a manageable level. Search village-by-village or for the whole island at once. Booking.com and tripadvisor.com are excellent sources for hotel reviews.

This map will help you understand the locations: http://www.santorini-web.com/map.pdf The clifftop villages are Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia. The main beaches are Kamari and Perissa/Perivolos.

Ferry from Athens: 5-8 hours and the distinct possibility of an overnight in Athens or Piraeus before your departure time.

Flight: 30 minutes several times each day on Aegean Airlines/Olympic Air (now the same company) to accomodate your arrival in Greece. Allow 2 hours to comfortably make the connection.

Save all your time in Athens for the end of your trip to avoid backtracking and to give yourselves those extra days to return to the mainland in case of any unforseen delays or cancellations out on the island.

Thank you for the map.
I think we would like to stay in Fira. Just hard to decide to stay with the caldera view or near the beach.
We are flexible with our budget. Since there are 5 adults we understand that it will cost more.
As far as ferry vs. flying, just concerned with sea sickness and a long day at sea. Is the faster ferries better?
Which is the best line to use?
Is it easy to get to the beach using the bus service?
Sorry, so many questions, but first time to Greece.
Thank you for your help!

I had never used booking.com before and decided to use it for all my reservations for our month in Europe simply to keep up with them all in one place. They do have some great reviews and you can reserve without paying in advance. Most internet sites work this way but I have had problems with a few others so I opted to try this new site.

Jenny

When we are staying somewhere for more than three nites with friends, we always investigate an apartment. We have used VRBO (Vacation rentals by Owner) thruout the world..........but there was only two of us last year when we stayed in Santorini....so no apartment..

Find an apt with good reviews, and make sure that you call the owner to verify. And it is always best to find one that takes credit cards, though that is not always possible in Greece, where cash is king.

Here is one, and there are many more to pick from. http://www.vrbo.com/940140ha

We flew to Mykonos and ferried to the other islands. IMHO I would fly from Athens.

Thank you for the replies!