My husband and I are finalizing our Sept. 2019 Greece itinerary and want to ask a few questions before we start booking lodging, etc.
We are older and not in the best of shape. We like walking around cities and museums as well as swimming. I snorkel. We've driven in Ireland and Italy and are undaunted by what we read about driving in Greece. :-) We've learned to plan on one major site each day, but will happily fill in quick stops along a journey. Our interests are centered around looking at/ visiting ancient/prehistoric art and sites (I call them 'pagan'). We marvel at the connections us moderns can make to people from 1000s of years ago through their cities and art. We tend to skip Medieval stuff and are uncertain how we'll feel about Byzantine. Our next passion is for excellent food, and that looks like an absolute no-brainer in Greece. My husband doesn't drink alcohol, so wineries and the like don't get planned into our itinerary.
While we don't have a budget and are able to splurge, we generally don't spend a lot on lodging (since we know we'll mostly be sleeping in the room rather than hanging out there). We will always pay a bit more for a private bath and quiet room. We're good with taking local transportation, or taxis, and plan to rent a car on Crete and to drive on the mainland.
Right now, our 3 week trip looks like this:
Sept 3rd and 4th (travel days -- SEA to Heraklion, Crete, see note below)
Sept 5th thru 10th: Crete
Sept 11th: travel to Santorini (via ferry)
Sept 12th: Santorini
Sept 13th: Santorini to Naxos (via ferry)
Sept 14th -16th: Naxos
Sept 17th: Naxos to Mykonos (via ferry)
Sept 18th: Day trip to Delos
Sept 19th: Mykonos to Athens (via ferry)
Sept 20-21: Athens
Sept 22: rent a car and drive to Delphi, Hosios Loukas on the way (sleep in Delphi)
Sept 23: sightsee Delphi, drive to Mycenae, Diakopto along the way (sleep in Napflion)
Sept 24: sightsee Mycenae & environs (Nemea and Epidavros) (sleep in Mycenae)
Sept 25: Sounion seeing Ancient Corinth & Eleusis along the way (sleep in Sounion)
Sept 26: return car & fly out
Questions/notes:
Do we need a rental car on Naxos?
We're debating whether to cut Naxos and be able to extend our time on the mainland. We want to include Mystras, and there is a resort town on the west side of the mainland that janet from Philadelphia has mentioned that we like the look of.
Flights are significantly cheaper to HER, but we'll likely stay elsewhere on Crete.
We are literally just going to Mykonos for the day trip to Delos.
At this time, we are booked SEA to FRA on the 4th, likely going to catch the 18:55 flight to HER (ar. 22:55). We don't love how late that is (it's a 10 hr layover), but other options were more expensive and added significant travel time. We are also going from ATH to CDG to spend a few days there on our way back to SEA. We'll catch a direct flight.
Does this sound like a good first trip to Greece?
