Itinerary Questions for April 2020 Trip

We went by cruise ship to many of your destinations and also took in Malta and Ephesus.. It was the most inexpensive way for us to see the region, and we had no hassles traveling from place to place.

Unless you have a specific need to go there, instead of spending your first night in Rafina why not just book a flight to Santorini on the same day you arrive? There will be afternoon flights available to you. Check the Aegean/Olympic and Ryan Air websites. If you can "tough it out" it's a lot nicer waking up your first morning with an island view than fighting off your jet lag to make it back to the airport the next morning.

With respect to Seajets 2 it is one of the smaller seajet ferries and it does have a reputation of being pretty bouncy in rough seas. This is the first time I remember every seat having seat belts. It is also notorious for being late. Having said that we took it in mid September and the crossing was fine. There is always a chance that ferries will be cancelled because of wind. That happened to us in September. all the ferries were cancelled for one day due to wind and rough seas. Its good to have a flexible attitude when you are ferry hopping everything works well but sometimes stuff happens.

Personally I would go with Lees thoughts. Fly immediately on arrival to Santorini, ferry to Naxos likely on blue star but consider just staying on Naxos the rest of the time. Mykonos offers has nothing superior to Naxos except high end expensive shopping hotels and meals. You can fly back to Athens or take the blue star ferry. It is stable.

Naxos images
Naxos Town http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632094558042/

Trip around Naxos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157634605629689/

Thank you for your reply Stan! It is your posts and Janet's that introduced me to Naxos. I think that dropping Mykonos makes sense because it would be a shame to pay a premium for a hotel on Mykonos and not be able to use it because of a ferry cancellation. We had a few bumps in our original trip 20 years ago but we made adjustments easily because we did not have any hotel reservations and there were only 2 of us. With the internet and the fact that we need a quad room not making room reservations seems too risky. If we flew directly to Santorini, stayed three night, ferried to Naxos slept 4 nights could we squeeze in 3 nights in Nafplion before spending 4 nights in Athens? (In order to accomplish this, we would have to fly to Athens and then bus to Nafplion). Does that make sense, or would you recommend more time in Naxos. Thank you so much for your insight.

Julie, just a footnote to your planning... is there any special reason you need a Quad room? ou say these kids are teenagers; could they not have a separate adjoining room? Quad rooms are still pretty much the bailiwick of large chain hotels... some others do have quad rooms, but not the size you are used to at American chains, Red Roof Inn, etc. Often a double bed & 2 singles all jammed in. No place to put 4 suitcases, so everything gets untidy. And besides, at home do you all sleep in one room? No, but you can have security and still be able to spread out a bit.

I have the idea that yu want a fairly authentic Greek isle experience, and both I and also Stanbr & spouse have had the most enjoyable stays at smaller family-run places. They would either have side-by-side rooms, or what's called a 1 BR Studio unit. Best of both worlds! Typically these have a BR with double bed, then a larger main room that has a kitchenette ell, table & chairs and 2 "day beds" serving as couches, plus a balcony, also with table & chairs for outdoor meals. Naxos has tons of these with directly-on-sand sea views, which we can recommend. For Athens, thre are also some convenient hotels that have 2 rooms with a connecting door... naturally in demand for families, but going in April you should have no trouble. I recommend you consider these options.

Janet,

We are open to two side by side or across the hall rooms and are definitely more interested in a small family run establishment rather than a hotel chain type hotel. We do not need luxury. Any recommendations for Naxos and Nafplio would be greatly appreciated.

(In the past, we have booked quads because we have found them to be cheaper than booking two doubles, but it is our anniversary and we could splurge a little lol!)

Thanks,

Julie

Good to know, Julie. And off-season as you are going, one of those 1 br studio units in Naxos, with a sea view on St. George beach directly adjacent to Naxos town could be as little as €50 per night. Surely that would not be more than a Quad.

As Janet said there are lots of small family run hotels at St George beach. When we brought our kids we had our room and they had a second room in the same hotel.
If you want a real nice hotel consider Kymata at St George. If you can afford it get the two rooms on the top floor. They come with a huge patio which is private. You will have a 180 degree unobstructed sea view. Even the smaller rooms on the second floor have that view just from a lower angle.

Other good options would be Studios Kalergis which is right on the beach. Hotel Spiros is a lovely small hotel with a pool and sea views from second story rooms. It also has a pool.
Here are images of St George and several of the hotels.
St George Beach Hotels Naxos http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/sets/72157632162394787/

One of the two rooms on the roof top of Kymata has a suite with two beds off the main room. It has its own tv. One of our sons ended up staying there. It is not that large but would amount to a quad but with a door between the two rooms. Much better than sleeping in the same room. We did that when our kids were small but really hated it as our kids became teenagers and didn’t go to sleep before us.