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Santorini to Turkey end October

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We are 2 adults and a 2plus girl travelling to Greece and Turkey for the first time.
Booked leave to travel from 26 October -7 Nov (14 Days). Not the greatest time to travel to Santorini AND Turkey, i now know.

Need some help with my itinerary especially on ferry services connecting Santorini to Turkey. I know there are no direct ferry to Turkey but only to nearby islands and from there, need to take connecting ferry to Turkey.

Day 1 Arrive Athens and overnight

Day2 Athens then fly to Santorini

Day3-4 Santorini to MyKonos or any other island convenient to subsequently travel to Turkey

Day 5 Santorini to Greek islands nearest to Turkey -Samos was my initial choice but after scouring the web for ferry schedule available online , i have came up nil, hence Kos/Rhodes/Bodrum will do too.
Overnight preferably at Selcuk or Aphrodiasis

Day 6 Ephesus/ Aphrodiasis then travel to Pamukkale

Day 7 Undecided if to travel on to Cappadocia via car (long distance and the advise is to break up the journey and overnight at Konya (7 hrs drive) then on to Gerome (6hrs) or drive back to Izmir and take a flight back to Istanbul then to Kayseri (drive ~4hrs, flight 3hrs 40mins + at least an hour earlier to airport before flight)
** Suggestion is greatly welcome to cut down travel time or should i give up Pamukkale? Travelling with a toddler is the challenge here.

Day 8-9 Cappadocia

Day 10 Fly Kayseri to Istanbul

Day 11-14 Istanbul before flying home

The greatest hurdle i have now is finding the ferry services to connect Santorini to any Greek islands with dependable ferry services to Turkey. I have read of someone travelling via ferry from Santorini to Rhodes around my travelling date in year 2012 and that's about it. Please advise if indeed no ferry services exist beyond mid October. I will have to cancel out Santorini and keep to the nearby Greek islands off the Turkish coast. Thank you.

Posted by
139 posts

On my recent trip to Turkey my group flew from Izmir to Kayseri. Cappadocia was interesting but I don't think it would be fun with a toddler. The caves would be hard to maneuver with a toddler and I don't think I would want to do a balloon ride with a 2 year old either. Ephesus was great but again a lot of walking on uneven terrain. We also had our initial overseas flight then 2 domestic flights in Turkey then our flight home. It was a lot of flying in a short time. I would be concerned about the toddler's ears. One of the teenagers in our group ruptured an ear drum on the trip. I would try less traveling from place to place and spend 2-3 nights in each place you choose to visit. Wish I could help with the ferries but I can't. By the way, the Hilton in Izmir was lovely and I only paid $50 a night for my room.

Posted by
3122 posts

A possible challenge to your itinerary is the availability of ferries between Rhodes and/or Kos and Turkey in October/November. Be sure that you can make that crossing when you need to.

http://www.feribot.net/feribot/?lang=en It looks like you'll have to go to Marmaris from Rhodes then or from Kos to Bodrum or Turgutreis.

Posted by
16893 posts

The Samos-Kusadasi ferry departs daily at least through October 31, as posted online at http://www.feribot.net/feribot/?partnerid=Mzg=&lang=en. It never is reflected at www.greekferries.gr, but that can be a good resource for other connections. Plan to buy tickets the day before, allowing time for a passport check, and therefore to stay overnight on Samos. The boat to Kusadasi departs from the town of Vathy, but some ferries from Greece come into the town of Pythagorio, connected by bus. The Kos-Bodrum route is served by a bunch of private boat operators, so I'm sure you'd always find one at the port; again it's standard to reserve the night before.

To explore flights, see www.skyscanner.com. For instance, you could fly from an island back to Athens, then connect with Pegasus Airlines to Izmir, Turkey. Aegean Airlines also flies from Santorini to Istanbul.

I like Pamukkale, but you can keep it lower priority on your list. If it makes a handy overnight spot, then you can see the water features easily without wading into the more strewn-out ruins of Heiropolis.

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