greece

With two weeks I suggest you limit yourselves to only Greece and begin your research with guidebooks available at the library.

In the past NYC has been a good place to begin because they offered non-stop service to Athens. Begin your search for tickets and prices.

I have not been there but we are going there in mid-September for two weeks.

We also looked at going to Turkey but it is a long way from Athens so you would have to take a very long ferry ride or fly there. From the Greek islands the ferry connections to Turkey were a bit limited and the ferry cost, visa cost, port fees, etc start to add up just to go there for a limited time. Many Cruise ships stop there to see Ephesus(which sounds great) so taking a cruise could be an option if that is in your budget and you like cruises.

We have the book “Greek Island Hopping 2009” which seems to be very good for deciding where to go.

I like Tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews.

Athens has quite a few seedy areas and seedy hotels. We got a good deal on Hotwire.com for a high end hotel for about a hundred dollars per night.

Outside of Athens, in September it looks like you should be able to find acceptable lower priced hotels for around 40 Euros on most islands.

The ferry service is unpredictable and can be cancelled because of the weather or mechanical problems. It is best to be as flexible as possible and not lock yourself into too many reservations. Plan on being back in Athens in plenty of time so you will not miss your flight if there are delays.

Island hopping can eat up at half or more a day each time you travel. For a two week vacation Athens and two or three islands is plenty.

Some Hotel rates drop after September 15th.

If we end up at Santorini last, we may try to fly back to Athens from there to eliminate a long ferry ride.

My impression of the islands(not having been there yet);
Naxos: Laid back and some of the best beaches, lots to do.
Delos: Great ruins, it would be would be a shame to miss seeing them.
Amorgos: Very undeveloped, great hiking trails
Santorini: Touristy but worth going to but just for a short time.
Paros: Great for ferry connnections, good beaches.
Folegandros: Real un-touristy if that is what you are looking fo

Athens is great for 2-3 days: Parthenon/Acropolis; the new archeology museum (at the base of the Acropolis); Syntagma Square; the Plaka area.
Mykonos by high-speed ferry: small island -- Mykonos Town (Hora) lovely and easy to get around -- no cars allowed -- you just wander around the labyrinth of tiny lanes/streets.
Santorini -- IMHO, one of the most beautiful places in the world. We just stayed in Oia and enjoyed the beauty. Went down to Ammoudi Bay to eat seaside (you are practically ON the water) -- you choose the type of fish/seafood and they grill it outside in front of you.
You probably could add another island or two to this list or see more of the mainland -- Meteora is incredible. Happy travels!

I can also highly recommend Fantasy Travel--an agent met us at the airport and brought us to our hotel in Athens. She also handed us a package with all of our hotel/transfer to and from ports/ferry vouchers...it was a breeze. Not sure how much markup there was as we had a budget in mind and the cost they gave us fell in the range so we didn't price it all out ourselves.

If you're interested in Turkey and non-touristy islands, you might fly from directly from NYC to Athens to Rhodes and spend a couple of days there getting over jet-lag. Then use ferries to island-hop up the Dodecanese to Samos, stopping on some small islands along the way. Do some research and see what strikes your fancy -- maybe Tilos or Kos, Leros or Lipsi, and Patmos. Stay in Samos a couple of nights so you can take a day trip to Ephesus in Turkey. Then fly back to Athens from Samos and spend a day or two seeing the sights in Athens.

Be sure to allow some flexibility in your itinerary in case bad weather strands you somewhere for a day.

Have fun!

Hi Joyce - not touristy!! Wrong , in my opinion - I've been travelling to the Islands for many, many years and now actually own a home on Santorini and I have to say that the "touristy" Islands are definitely Islands you need to see!! Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Corfu are amazing - The best time to see them is in May or October when the tourist rush is down BUT you must see them - They are INCREDIBLE!!
And, if time allows Bodrum, Kusadasi, or Istanbul are turkish ports that are very impressive.

Send me a private if you want and I'll send you my phone in Jupiter and we can talk!!!

Greg