Highschool Graduation trip-Greece and Pompei

For the Greece portion of the trip, don't bother taking a day trip to Aegina. The 3 nights in Athens will already be tight enough just to visit and enjoy the city.

3 nights ( 2 days) in Naxos aren't enough either. At that point, it's not even worth going for such a short time. In my opinion, it would be wiser to stay on the mainland and visit a place like Delphi. The coastal area south of Athens isn't particularly interesting unless you're into tourist resorts. Another possible day trip from Athens is the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

I would never do Greece and Italy in just 7 days.

Sorry to be a buzzkill, but all of this is moving way too fast.

I have never been to Greece so I can’t help you with that. I just want to say if you are looking at such a short trip — seven full days — do you really want to spend one of them traveling from Greece to Italy? It may sound like a quick flight, but you have to check out, get to the airport early, then get to your hotel in Italy. That will add hours to your flight time. Alternatively, you could spend that time enjoying Greece. Your daughter is really young. She has her entire adult life to see Pompeii.

Believe me, I understand the desire to visit Pompeii. My first travel dream was to go to Pompeii; this was at age 10. I’ve been very fortunate to travel all over the world, but for one reason or another I didn’t get to Pompeii until I was 68. It was worth waiting for. : )

My first thought when reading your post was "that's wonderful! I hope they have a great time!" and I also thought "too bad the friend can't stay longer but that doesn't mean you have to cut your Mom/Daughter time short. Friend can get home on her own, eh ?"

Everyone wants Greece, daughter wants Pompeii, friend can only be gone 10 days, which really isn’t time enough for both. Solution: spend the 10 days in Greece. Friend flies home on her own from Athens with your assistance getting her to airport, because you and daughter will be flying that same day to Italy for as many additional days as you can spend to visit Pompeii. At. 18 friend is plenty old enough to do that. Get friend RT ticket to Athens, you and daughter have open jaw into Athens and out of Naples or Rome, plus one way Athens to Italy.
Edit to say tripleblessings and I were thinking the same thing at the same time.

My two cents is to go for it. Even with the ability to go for more days, I love 7 day trips. For one thing, you can spend more per day and not feel guilty. Do Athens and Naxos in a few days and have fun. Enjoy the atmosphere and food. Make sure to pre book tickets in Athens. Definitely do the first morning booking for the Acropolis.
Kids can always go back.

Slate has a good plan

Thank you all for your honest thoughts. When I thought we had 10-12 days I told them three locations. I will see if they can choose two. Yes, I did mention picking Greece or Italy. Hopefully we can figure out a reasonable plan soon!

HI there, you've gotten some good advice - Please let us know what you decide so we can perhaps help a bit more. Slate did have a good plan - I wonder if you can walk daughter's friend to her gate in Athens for the return flight? (I know you can do this in the US, no idea if possible there, might calm some nerves.)

IF you DO fly to Naples and really 'only' want to see Pompeii, I would skip Naples entirely, get a car pick up at NAP to Pompeii town, stay at Hotel Forum and conveniently walk to the ruins the next morning. (Of course Naples is wonderful, if you have more time which you don't!) Take a group tour, spend rest of day on your own. If you can stand it, our LONG trip report is here, with details about the ruins. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/great-trip-to-pompeii-naples-over-new-years-december-26-january-2nd-2026.

If you haven't already, I would urge you & your daughter to watch PBS "The New Dig" about the latest excavations.

What an adventure!!

I took my daughter to Greece as a high school graduation trip at the end of June 2025, we had 9 days on the ground - here's a brief summary of what we did:
Landed in Athens on Monday afternoon, went to hotel.
Stayed in Athens Tuesday and Wednesday, did a tour that included the Acropolis on Tuesday.
Flew to Naxos on Thursday morning.
Stayed in Naxos (without a car) until the following Monday. Did this bus tour on Friday https://www.naxosbustransfer.com/tours/half-day/ Lounged poolside and on the beach (our hotel had both, it was glorious!), we were supposed to do a tour of Delos and Mykonos by ferry on Sunday but it was cancelled because of high winds so we used the local bus system to visit a couple of smaller towns on Naxos for the day.
Took the ferry back to Athens on Monday
Our flight home was very late Tuesday night so we had time to do some last minute shopping in Athens.

Enjoy your trip, whatever you decide to do!

Thank you so much! I wrote down a few possible plans for them to talk about this weekend.

inventingliz- Your daughter's Greece trip sounds fabulous! That sounds like that would be a great plan for us as well!

I will come back with more questions.

Sandancisco- I just read your trip report. Thank you for linking it!