suggestions for 10 days islands between 2 RS tours

Hi jag, you can fly non-stop from Athens to Santorini (Thira) and take a ferry to Mykonos. From Mykonos you can fly non-stop to Thessaloniki and spend a couple nights in Thessaloniki before taking a non-stop flight to Istanbul.

Consider Hydra. Very convenient to Athens (90 min ferry). Traffic free. Not a lot to "do" but relaxation, take in the atmosphere, and GREAT seafood.

Thanks.

Flying to Santorini is a good idea. It eliminates one ferry and could be done on same day as land tour ends.

We're doing Hydra as part of the land tour.

If I was going to do 3 islands (8-10 days total), would Santorini & Mykonos be top picks (see original post - ruins, not parties).

I'd consider going to Crete for the entirety, but if you had your heart set on multiple locales, then you can group Naxos with Santorini and Mykonos.

Ferries from “central” Greece to Turkey normally require at least one change as you get close to the Turkish coast and they don’t go to Istanbul; see also https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains/turkey-rail-passes. Flying from Athens or Thessaloniki (or from an island with a connection in Athens) is your best bet to reach Istanbul. Greekferries.gr should have all the ferry schedules you need within country (but only a few months in advance) and we like www.skyscanner.com for flights within Europe. .

In Santorini, visit the Akrotiri Minoan site that’s also a great area to stay in. From Mykonos you can take a 45-minute ferry to Delos and visit the archipelago site for the day. What makes Mykonos special are its windmills.
Since you’re working your way to Istanbul, you can fly nonstop from Mykonos to Thessaloniki making it a shorter travel day vs a full day. Here’s a link that mentions Thessaloniki’s ancient sites: https://www.greeka.com/macedonia/thessaloniki/sightseeing/ancient-sites/.

Or you could fly to Rhodes from Athens and concentrate on Greece’s Dodecanese Islands near the Turkish coast.
If you want to visit the Cyclades, go to Paros or Naxos to have a more Greek experience than Santorini offers and spend the bulk of your time there. Spend a few days on Santorini to see the views but more time on other islands. Definitely visit ancient Delos from Mykonos as a day trip.

εύρηκα - we have a solution! We found a cruise that EXACTLY fits into the time slot between the 2 RS trips. So here's our schedule:

• June 19 fly YOW to ATH (overnight)
• June 20 - arrive Athens, 1 night in hotel on our own
• June 21 - start RS tour "Athens & the Heart of Greece in 14 Days"
• July 3 - end RS tour in Athens, 1 night in hotel on our own
• July 4 - board cruise Celestyal "Idyllic Aegean" in Athens (8 days)
• July 11 - disembark cruise in Athens, fly ATH to IST, hotel on our own
• July 12 - Istanbul hotel on our own
• July 13 - start RS tour "Turkey in 13 Days"
• July 25 - end RS tour in Izmir, fly ADB to IST, Yotel airside hotel
• July 26 - fly ATH to YOW

That's a 39-day trip.

How's that for perfect timing! It gives us a couple of extra nights in Athens and Istanbul, and only requires 2 local flights - ATH to IST and ADB (Izmir) to IST.

The cruise is out & back from Athens and goes to:

• Kusadasi (08:00 - 19:00 = 11 hours) - Ephesus excursion included
• Rhodes (08:00 - 18:00 = 10 hours) - Lindos acropolis, Citadel of knights excursion included
• Crete (Agios Nikolaos) (08:00 - midnight = 16 hours)
• Santorini (07:00 - 02:30 after midnight = 19.5 hours)
• Milos (08:30 - 13:30 = 5 hours)
• Mykonos (19:00 - 23:00 next day=28 hours)

The only duplication is Kusadasi/Ephesus tour, which is fine with us. The amount of time in each port seems pretty darn good, considering this is a cruise.

I know many people prefer ferries/hotels instead of cruises, but this cruise eliminates a lot of planning for us and seems to provide a good amount of time in the ports to explore.

Hey Jag,
I'm not a cruise person so I don't really understand the appeal but to me - landing in a port for a couple hours isn't really seeing an island. I've been in a similar planning stage and have finally narrowed down my island hopping dreams to the islands that really appeal to me and work in my time frame. Seems like your cruise is spending a lot of time in Mykonos but not so much on other islands. Considering how busy you'll be on the land tours (jealous!) I would concur with others and pick an island or two and just chill... Crete is pretty busy but good for a long spell, I haven't been to the islands yet but we chose Naxos, Amorgos, and Santorini (we'll fly back from Santorini to Athens). If you are happy with the cruise then please don't let me sway you but, FWIW, I think you could enjoy just chilling on your own pretty easily. Either way, enjoy!!

landing in a port for a couple hours isn't really seeing an island

Very true, cruises are designed to give you a glimpse of a place so you can decide if it’s a place you want to re-visit. You miss out on the cuisine and being there at night that can be magical.

Hi,
I neglected to say that at the time I posted, we had already booked the 2 RS trips and the cruise. So it's a done deal.

We appreciate the input regarding "cruise vs on-your-own". Once we had booked the 2 RS trips, we researched options for the 10 days in between the 2 tours. We read many opinions and points of view across the net, many of which favoured "on-your-own" over a cruise, for some of the reasons stated above. Generally speaking, we agree with those comments.

For someone staying on an island for several days, I guess the cruise shore times do sound like "a couple of hours", but they seem reasonably generous, especially since I expected shore times to be more like 5 hours than the 10-24 hours being offered (refer to sailing times in my post above).

We're pretty busy right now booking the 2 tours, cruise, 4 flights, 6 extra hotel nights and managing the travel logistics between these places. Coming off the Greece land tour to a relaxing cruise for 10 days prior to the Turkey land tour seems to be ideal and we're pretty happy that we were able to get a good cruise that fits exactly into the available time slot.

Years ago, we did tours in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Italy (twice - north and south of Rome), and Tunisia. Each one was a separate tour. Life intervened, and our travel dwindled. Now we are on a mission to see more of the Mediterranean countries - in this case Greece and Turkey. We are more interested in seeing as much as possible (ruins!), rather than just chillin' on the beach. It's not likely we will get back to Greece/Turkey. We are young at heart, but time is marching on, and there are so many more places in the world to see while we are still able to travel.