Looking for feedback on a two-week trip in late October

This plan sounds ideal and I'd do it myself!

Sounds fine except for the part about Turkey. Why not give Greece 2 weeks and do Turkey another time, when its a democracy.

A good, reasonable plan considering the number of days you have.

Note that for around €100 (without checked baggage) with Aegean, the Greek national airline, you can fly from Istanbul to Santorini in a single ticket with a short connection in Athens. See if the flight schedule works for you.

I think Mr. Erdogan won't appreciate Janet's response... LOL

We are doing a similar trip in reverse, starting in Athens and ending in Istanbul for five nights, before flying home to Australia.

We have three weeks though, so will add in Naxos and Rhodes too.

For us. after coming from such a long way, it is good to get a taste of another country as well.

We are like you and don't want to rush around, a minimum of three nights in one place.

When are you going? We fly out on 10th October and leave on 1st November.

Thanks, ladies. Yes, Greece and Turkey don't see eye to eye, but we wanted a taste of both. And yes, we are planning to take a short flight from IST to JTR (all the flights seem to have a change in Athens--that's what I meant) and then JTR to ATH.

Debating between taking Aegean and SkyExpress. For some reason, Aegean allows EITHER a carryon OR a personal item on board, not both on their A320s--haven't seen anything like that anywhere. We'll try to clarify this policy with them. SkyExpress is even worse, flying small planes that take only 8" thick carryon luggage, which we'd have to buy. We'll figure it out ("sort it," as the Brits would say).

The Aegean fare you're referring to is the "Light" fare, the cheapest, and flight change fees apply to this fare.

For a few euros more, you can book a Flex ticket, which allows you to have hand luggage (to be placed under the seat) plus 8kg of cabin baggage; there are no flight change fees.

Regarding Sky Express, the cheapest Skyjoy fare allows one piece of hand luggage AND one piece of cabin baggage up to 8kg. but the maximum allowed sizes (40 x 30 x 15 cm) are different on the ATR72 turboprop aircraft between ATH and JTR, which are small planes with approximately 70 seats.

If this doesn't suit you, you can upgrade to a Skyjoy+ fare, which adds a piece of checked baggage weighing up to 15 kg.

In terms of service and comfort, the two airlines are roughly the same. For flights to Greece or domestic flights, I take the one that best suits my schedule, and I always choose a ticket with checked baggage anyway.

This saves me hours of hesitation regarding my baggage weight and sizes.

Thanks, JoLoi. Looks like that's what we'd have to do. That's unfortunate, because a connection in ATH increases the chances of a lost baggage, something we try to avoid.

For the record, I've never had any issues with lost baggage with Aegean or Sky Express. But of course, it could happen.

Last year with Aegean, we had a connection of only 35 minutes in Athens with checked baggage (an international flight followed by a domestic flight to Thessaloniki in one ticket).

Our checked baggages and us arrived in Thessaloniki as planned, and on the same flight!

JoLui, Thanks again, and sorry for misspelling your name. This Add Reply form does not allow seeing the other posts!