Greece - May 2010

You have not mentioned any other place in Greece. Is Athens your only stop? If you want specific recommendations for other destinations within Greece you first need to decide what they are, then come back with a proposed itinerary, budget concerns, required hotel/apartment amenities and preferences for things to see and do so the information you receive is pertinent to your particular needs as a visitor.

You will find tons of information on the TripAdvisor website, not to mention in the various guidebooks for sale online and from bookstores. Check Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Frommers, Let's Go, Rough Guide, T. Cook's "Greek Island Hopping."

Dear Lee Global Family,

Thank you for your kind response. I've read your reply and greatly appreciate your considerate recommendations. Congratulations on your residence at Global Family.

FYI, for fellow humble travelers like ourselves, we only today excitedly purchased our Athens tickets. We understand we have loads of research to do on details of our trip. Thank you for your sensitive reminder on that. We are looking at possibly spending some time in the Greek Isles. We've heard from many friendly travelers this is a wonderful experience.

We've done a little traveling of our own and freely offer advice to others. Should you consider traveling outside your comfort zone at Global Traveler, feel free to contact us.

Thanks again for your caring response. Best Wishes for your life in the Global Family.

Greg

Clearly my response did not please you but the fact remains that without more specific information from you there is just too much guesswork involved in trying to help you plan your trip. Help us help you. Give us something more to go on.

Greg,

You might enjoy having a look at www.greektravel.com/ as there's LOTS of information on every part of Greece. I especially enjoyed the description of the food!

I'm also thinking of heading for Greece next year so have been spending a lot of time on that website. I'll probably take Rick's "Athens & the Heart of Greece" tour, and then head to some of the islands on my own.

Good luck & happy travels!

My most honest advice for Greece is lay out an itinerary, then plan on doing about half of that. It seems the country in general operates on it's own time, Ferry, even bus connections are always dependent on many factors. For a simple rule of thumb, for an average stop, plan on two nights, leaving an uninterupted day with a travel day between stops. Nearly all buses and ferries operate in the daylight and can take up a good share of the day. There are a few night ferries, and flying (Aegean Air) is handy between the far islands and Athens. Athens you will find is the hub, everything starts and ends in Athens, and often travel will route through Athens to get where you are going. I can also say that you will be overwhelmed by the choice of islands, but stick to only a few, and those need to be along the same ferry route to be efficiently done. Aside from that, you will find most of the Archeology on the mainland, beaches on the islands, however, do not overlook Crete in your planning.

Hi Greg - From Athens you certainly can hop a ferry and travel to The Cyclades, a wonderful group of Greek Islands - Santorini and Mykonos are the absolute best of the group and deserve as much attention as you want to give them. From Santorini it is a fairly short trip to Rhodes, a great island - part of The Dodecanese group of Greek Islands. From there it's only about 11 miles to Turkey - a truly amazing country. From Marmaris you can go up the Turkish coast to one my favorite cities - Kusadasi - fascinating place - I have many friends there and the shopping is the best in Europe - no Euro - great buys.
Whatever you decide greg I can guarantee one thing - you guys will have a blast. I'll be over in the islands the exact same time as you - I'll look for you - lol

Greg

The Greg from Jupiter said:

From Santorini it is a fairly short trip to Rhodes, a great island

"Short" is hardly the word. It's at least a nine-hour ferry ride.

Just be aware...

"It's at least a nine-hour ferry ride."

More like 7.5 hours, maybe a little less: http://www.bluestarferries.com/site/content.asp?sel=624&loc=2 It's an overnighter so you can save money on a hotel by sleeping in an aircraft-style reclining seat.

OK, thanks for posting the link. It's better than what I could find for Blue Star Ferries. In May the trip can be just under eight hours from Santorini. Three days a week. Midnight departure.

I think my point stands. It's hardly a "short" trip.

My recommendation would be to do 2-3 days in Athens at the end of the trip. My favorite islands are Santorini, Mykonos/Delos(a day trip to see the open air museum), followed by Paros, Naxos, and Crete.
Each island has it own characteristics.

I went by myself many yrs back. What I did when I landed in Athens, was to find a place to stay for a night and hit the Plaka. There are travel shops lined up and I shopped around. They customize my travel plans for me per my interested. I wasn't into drinking or partying. It was a fraction of the costs had I done the same thing in USA. Also, all the ferry tickets and meeting and greeting were arranged. Just to confirm the ferry tickets sometimes take half a day at the islands. Even if you don't have accommodations, all the B&B places will come to the ferry terminal to greet the new arrivals.

Thank you all for your great advice. Little by little, we're educating ourselves on Greek geography and beginning to put a plan together.

We're kinda sold on the idea of spending only 1 night in Athens upon arrival, walking around the Plaka and doing a little sightseeing that first day, then coming back to Athens at the end of the trip.

We did that in Rome last year. Flew in there, spent a rainy afternoon walking around a little, had a great dinner at an established Mom & Pop restaurant down the street and hit the sack. We got up early the next morning and went down to Amalfi, spending a week there. After some time in Florence & Tuscany, we came back to Rome and spent our last 5-6 days walking everywhere. What a blast.

We've picked out a couple possible destinations at this point. We don't want to spend all our time traveling. Made that mistake earlier this year on a 12 day whirlwind through Austria, Czech Republic and Switzerland. Will not do that again.

Santorini looks very nice. How many days would you all recommend on Santorini? Is it possible to day trip around from there? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see a reason to spend a week there, unless you just wanted to go and relax and soak up the sun and enjoy the views.

Nafplion looks interesting for the history. Is there enough to keep us interested there for a few days? Again, are day trips a reasonable expectation from that locale?

Thanks again for all the helpful advice.

To see all of Santorini you'll need a minimum of 3 full days not including the days you arrive and depart. There is a boat daytrip excursion into the caldera and out to the volcano and hotsprings which also makes a stop at Amoudi Bay below Oia and across the caldera on Therassia Island.

Greg

Nafplio is a good location. As well as having a scenic headland, and a massive Venetian fort, it is also easy to get to Mycenae and Epidavrus by local bus. Tiryns is only about 10 minutes away, again by local bus, and Argos has a good (and very undervisited) roman theatre.

The town itself has a lot of good restaurants and is nice to walk around.

You ask for jokes, and here is something that has amused us. We have a map of the Nafplio area which grades the sites in three categories. The English translation is not of the best and the categories are 'interesting', 'very interesting' and 'much too interesting'. On this scale Mycenae ranks as 'much too interesting' and is not to be missed!

(The mistake is a common one for Greeks speaking English. Greek doesn't distinguish between a lot and too much. I've also been welcomed to rooms by a woman saying. 'Come in. We have too many English people staying here.')

Cheers
Alan

Alan,
That's just plain funny.

Looking at Santorini geography, we're seeing Oia on the north side of the main island, Akrotiri to the south, and Fira center, near the airport.

A few questions come to mind:
First off, is there a good reason to stay in or near Fira? Does it have a view of the caldera or the other coast or would staying in or near Fira have more to do with being close to Fira Town?

Second, we're finding good feedback about Oia area. Is that somehow preferable to staying in the Akrotiri area?

Thanks again for any help!

It depends on your expectations and the ways you like to spend your time. Akrotiri is very quiet and there's not much there but a very small village with a couple of restaurants, great for ultimate privacy. Fira is the island's social/commercial hub with the widest selection of shops, galleries, restaurants, hotels, clubs, discos and bars. It also has the worst traffic and is where most of the cruise ships disembark their passengers, and by May it will be very busy there. Not as busy as July and August, of course, but still VERY busy. That's not to say you can't stay someplace away from all the traffic and still have a view of the caldera, but the overall "feel" of the village is commercial. Akrotiri, Fira and Oia all have excellent views of the caldera, just from different vantage points. Akrotiri is not as high up over the sea as Fira and Oia. Oia is the most beautiful and romantic village. There are lots of excellent shops, restaurants and galleries there but the nightlife is limited to the restaurants, cafes and a few mellow bars. If you're after nightlife then stay in Fira or Firostefani, which is just 15 minutes' walk from the center of Fira. If you're in the Fira party mood and want to stay in Oia don't try renting a car. Take a taxi instead. The road is VERY dangerous at night.

Lee,
Thanks for the tips. We're now convinced that flying into Athens and immediately moving on to an island is our best bet. We understand that flights run from Athens to Santorini and back. Don't know about Athens to Crete.
Is a ferry from Santorini to Crete or Crete to Santorini a good idea, depending on which island we choose to visit first? Or should we be looking at using inexpensive flights between? Are flights back to Athens equally available from both islands?

Thanks for the input.

Both Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air offer several flights each day from Athens to Crete, to both Chania and Heraklion. To fly between Santorini and Crete means either a return to Athens, or using Sky Express, a small Cretan airline, for a direct flight. But S.E. is more expensive and the baggage allowance is a lot smaller and very strict because of the size of their planes.

http://www.skyexpress.gr

If you sign up for the Aegean and Olympic email newsletters you'll be notified about 2 months before May when their promotional 'saver' fares for May are posted. With Aegean these will most likely be €39 or less, all taxes included. Right now their lowest fares are at about €60, which isn't bad.

I don't know what Olympic will offer but I assume it will be similar.

http://en.aegeanair.com/newslettersubscription.aspx

http://www.olympicair.com/Newsletter.aspx?a_id=562

The Hellenic Seaways FlyingCat 4 is the most convenient and affordable method of travel between Crete and Santorini. The FC4 schedule for next May will probably appear sometime just before Greek Easter, which is April 4. Historically it's been the same for many years now, with a 9:45am departure from Heraklion for Santorini and a 5:45pm departure from Santorini for Crete. Be sure to take note of the no-sail dates when the new schedule is posted. They're always on Wednesdays.

http://www.ferries.gr/hfd