Hi!
I am landing in Istanbul March 13th and have a flight out of Athens March 22nd. So far I have no plans in between. Does anyone have recommendations for a travel path? I would prefer to see at least a bit of the south of Turkey (Olu Deniz etc) and spend a day or two on the Greek Islands. Is this feasible in low season?
Thanks!
Gabe
You can fly from Istanbul to Fethiye to get to Olu Deniz, then you can take the ferry from Fethiye to Rhodes. There is a ferry that connects Rhodes to Athens/Piraeus that will stop at Kos and Santorini. If it were me I'd take a quick look around Rhodes and catch the very next ferry to Santorini. From Santorini you can ferry or fly back to Athens.
Thanks Lee. This sounds like a good trip. Do you have any tips on ferries during the low season? It looks like many of them only run in summer season.
In March the Blue Star Ferry will leave Rhodes on M,W,F at 5pm, arriving at Santorini at 40 minutes past midnight. Not the best arrival time but you can have your hotel arrange a transfer from the ferry port for you. I'm not sure what they'll charge after midnight. I know in Athens it's double. If that's the case a taxi should be no more than 50 euro to the furthest point from the ferry port, which would be the most beautiful village of Oia. Some hotels have special arrangements with drivers so you might get it cheaper.
Here's a list of hotels on Santorini that stay open in the off-season:
http://www.santonet.gr/hotels/allyear.htm
There will be a daily ferry from Santorini back to Athens, and both Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines can fly you there as well. Both have websites for e-ticketing but lately people have been reporting problems with Olympic's website.
Great! Do you have similar information about ferries from Bodrum/Fethiye to Rhodes? Those seem to be the trick routes that are closed in low season.
This is the website I always use for Turkey-Greece ferry connections: http://www.feribot.net/feribot/?lang=en
