Just returned from Best of Greece

We're doing this tour next Sept/Oct. I'm interested in what island cruise you were on. I'll take into account your advice on some of the places in Athens. Im looking to go to Athens a couple days ahead and doing a island cruise after would be great. Or vis versa.

We were on an Azamara cruise which went to Santorini, Crete, Amorgos, Rhodes, Ephasus and Mykonos for 7 nights. Originally I had looked at Viking but their cruise was 11 nights and that's too long to combine with Ricks 14 day tour. Then I booked Windstar but switched to Azamara which was less expensive and included beverages, gratuities, internet. Their ship had 700 passengers. Good food, tours comparable to other cruise lines. Came back every day from our tour and hit the pool - plenty of loungers on the deck.

We fly in a day early pre cruise and stayed in town (Radisson Blu - nice pool but not centrally located). Took a taxi to the airport to catch the cruise (welcome pickups). Post cruise - Hera hotel for an extra night. Were able to hit the Benaki Museum and caught the changing of the guards, wandered thru the National Garden before the tour started .

Overall we were gone 23 days - our longest trip ever but it was worth it.

Thanks that's all very useful information!

I was wondering how the weather was by the time you were leaving. We're looking at travel from Sept 17 to Oct 7th. Our RS tour is Sept 19-Oct 3. We're looking to stay on one of the smaller Saronic islands (Aegina or Agristi (probably visit both as they are a short boat ride apart). Would have liked to go to Naxos but its farther out and given it will be from Oct 3-6th I wanted to stay closer in from a travel time and a weather perspective figuring the Saronic Islands may be warmer and more sheltered so that we may have an opportunity to get into the water some. Do you have any opinion on how the weather and water was by the end of your trip? Some have suggested I do the islands prior to our tour, but it really seems to work better before. I would change my mind if indeed the weather would be so much better at the beginning.

We left the USA sep 5th with our cruise Sept 7-14. It was in the low 90’s most days but we didn’t go to any beaches while on the cruise although those type of excursions were offered. Rick’s tour was 15th to 28th. The water was nice when we took time to swim at Mani Peninsula stop where we could walk from the hotel. We wanted to swim on Hydra but the water was a little rough so we didn’t. It might have been ok at the beaches but we were too lazy to take a taxi there.

Originally, I had wanted to do the cruise last as a rest up from touring, but that would have meant more days in between the two tours as not all of Rick’s tour dates were published yet. It worked out ok as the temps were warm but not too hot for the land tour.
Hope this answers your questions.