Need help with itinerary (Delphi+Arachova+Meteora+Santorini), thank you!!!

You are going to get lots of comments on how aggressive your schedule is. I am going to skip that and just make a few suggestions.

Day 1: Stay in Delphi instead of Arachova. Also keep in mind that you could arrive later to Delphi than you plan (your flight could be late, could be traffic, or car rental process take longer than you think). So you could potentially have little to no time there.

Day 2: Take a lunch and don’t waste time driving back down to Kastraki. Have dinner in Kastraki if you plan to go back up for the sunset. Also realize that the sunset parking gets full fast, so be early.

Day 3: This would make me nervous. But I’d advise spending more for flexible tickets to Santorini in case of delays.

Day 5: I think you may need more time for dinner. How long you need for car drop off depends on who you rent from. My one experience was easy - park, leave the keys on the floorboard, and leave. But that’s been a few years.

@TexasTravelMom
Thank you very much! These advice are realistic, to be honest I was really struggling whether to cancel our flight to Santorini (needs cancelation fee) and lengthen our time in Delphi and Meteora, and spend the rest days in Athens, but my friend really wants to see Santorini so I'd need some strong points to persuade him.

Day 1: That's good idea! Book hotel right away.
Day 2: Another good idea, we'd just have some sandwich then. Also thank you for the parking advice!
Day 3: Yeah that makes me nervous too. Our current plan is to get up early and drive slowly.
Day 5: Yeah we'd probably dine at 18:00, and leave the town around sunset time. Will def. check the drop off time with our provider.

Meteora: it took us 4 hours to get there. You might consider not doing rock climbing as I am guessing with a tour and you have to be on time.

I would suggest a taxi from the airport rather than two buses on Santorini. We pre booked it. You have an aggressive schedule and can’t afford the time.

I also would consider dropping Delphi. We really enjoyed it but right now you have less than a day devoted to Meteora and only a couple hours to Delphi. It just seems like you will be hard pressed to see both and will spend too much time driving.

@BethFL
Thank you for your suggestions! Drop rock climbing, taxi from JTR airport, and drop Delphi, capiche!

I think you will enjoy your trip more with following these and TexasTravelMom’s suggestions.

It is not clear where you plan to stay in Meteora. I would stay in Kastaki over Kalabaka. It is much more charming.

We went to the sunset point when we were there. Had an early dinner in Kastaki and headed up. It was really fun to be part of all the people there. Just a hint: our best pictures were taken before we thought we should be taking them.

I also love Kastraki over Kalambaca - and in particular Boutique Plakias Guesthouse (and restaurant). It’s nice but not fancy, but such nice people.

I am glad Beth suggested dropping Delphi in your situation. With the amount of time you have, I think that’s wise. Add that night to Meteora.

@BethFL @TexasTravelMom
Thank you for your advice, I've checked and found out that we could actually do train instead of driving to Meteora.
I've edited the original post with the updated itinerary, please let me know your thoughts, if any, thank you!
Also Boutique Plakias Guesthouse seems really nice! We've secured a night thanks to your suggestion:)

Can you rent a car in Kalambaka?

Most people I know have taken tours when don’t have a car. We took two with Visit Meteora even though we had a car.

You now are trying to squeeze in Athens so doesn’t seem much better to me. You basically want to see more than you have time for.

Whoosh, I don’t know. A couple of things would make me nervous. One is the absolute need to time your trip to Meteora. I really think in this case, renting a car at the airport on Day 1 and returning it there on Day 2 gives you some room for delays.

Day 2 is probably too full, but with a car and the willingness to just leave when you need to, it is at least possible.

Day 3: any chance you can get a slightly later flight to Santorini? (I haven’t looked at flight schedules.) An hour or two would give you more time for the Acropolis and not really affect your evening Santorini schedule.

Edit: Beth and I were cross posting. Another option is a taxi tour in Meteora. I have seen these. But a rental car is going to ease your potential problems with train schedules.

@BethFL @TexasTravelMom
Yeah I've seen suggestions on renting at Meteora, actually the majority of people I know do so (the other part mostly drives straight from Athens to Meteora), hence the decision.
The plan is to, if all goes smooth, take regular train to Athens, followed by IC train. But if we couldn't make it, taxi to Athens is the Plan B. As to Plan C is to simply hop on a later IC train many hours later, sacrifising the chance to see sunset in Meteora.
We've re-scheduled our flight to Santorini 2h50mins later, so I guess that gives us the room to have a lunch without worrying about time too much.
Also, I've overhauled the Santorini schedule, please give a look!
p.s. About day 4, I don't know if there's a possibility for hiring someone (hotel in Oia, catamaran company...) to help transport our luggage to Oia, if that could be done then it would save a lot of time. The reason I do not choose to rent car and drive at 15:00 is because we'd most possibly drink a glass of wine or two on the catamaran.

Sounds like you have a back up plan in place and are willing to sacrifice some things if you need to.

I have only been to Santorini once and my experience and research there won’t be helpful. Hopefully someone else’s will be!

And I think scheduling a later departure from Athens will give you a bit more time to enjoy the Acropolis and museum.

You have two nights in Santorini but are staying in two places. Why not just stay both nights in Oia?
That would save you from having to transport the luggage.

We did the hike from Oia to Fira and then took a bus back. Perhaps you could do that and do the Catamaran cruise from Fira. Or you could take an early bus to Fira to do the hike from there.

Is your rental agency in Oia open as late as you plan to pick up car? And all the parking is in a big lot outside town so you aren’t driving far unless you are staying outside Oia. You might pick up car in the next morning.

Edit: on second thought, it would be much easier for you to stay in Fira for two nights. You can stay in Oia after your catamaran cruise to have dinner and sunset. You could rent your car in Oia and leave it in the parking lot until after sunset (very close to rental agency at least when we were there). Then you could drive it back to Fira after sunset. There are big parking lots in Fira too. You then would be closer to the things you want to see on your last day. Oia is a bit out of the way.