Santorini and Lesvos

Aegean and the 'new' Olympic are both of comparable high quality. Prices do vary but both offer periodic promotional domestic fares; sometimes Aegean is as low as €39, all taxes included. Sign up for their email newsletters and you'll be notified a couple of months before the time frame offered. There's no quick or convenient way to get from Santorini to Lesvos by ferry. They're in different areas of the Aegean with no connecting routes. The only way by ferry I can conceive would be from Santorini to Mykonos to Samos to Lesvos. The Mykonos connection might also be Naxos or Paros depending on what route that ferry company uses next year (it changes). It's possible the www.skyexpress.gr might have flights from Santorini to Samos but their schedule for next May isn't available now. Unless you have the extra travel time to spare, and since there's no easy way to get between Santorini and Lesvos or Thessaloniki, it might be better, practically speaking, if you were to choose a different island than Santorini that's on the same ferry route as Lesvos and Thessaloniki, such as Limnos, Chios or Samos. Fly from Athens to Lesvos and return to Thessaloniki by ferry, stopping along the way.

i took the aegean flight from athens to santorini in sep. and it was very nice. when i bought the tickets it's cheaper with aegean than olympic, and i never used olympic. i thought the aegean flight was more comfy than a lot of domestic flights i usually take out of seattle - good seats, clean and good service on a short ride. i didn't see people cycling on santorini, but suppose you could do that in say Karami or other not so busy areas. wouldn't try that between oia and fira (would rather hike) - big slope, sharp turn, heavy traffic.

There's a secondary road between Fira and Oia along the eastern shorline that's practically flat and not at all curvy. Traffic is light on this road. You woud have a good ride of about 8 miles. If you were to take it heading towards Oia the last mile would be a strenuous uphill challenge.

Karen, I think you need to re-think, based on transport realities. Bottom line, you'd like to be on an island where you can fly DIRECT to THessaloniki, when it's time to visit friends. This means you might have to switch from Lesvos to another isle that that direct flight, which may be easier to reach. BUT do not fear over=touristy... in Early May, except for Santorini & Mykonos, almost no isles will be over-touristy. And also, some isles will be better for cycling. My suggestion: Rhodes! Why? Well, you get all your wishes. You could Stay in Athens 2-3 days, fly to Santorini. You get your dose of "white sugar-cube houses" blue shutters, red flowers... the classic calendar pix of greece. Save your cycling, Santorini is not good & some roads actually dangerous (drivers). Then, you time your departure for one of the 3 x per week midnight sailings on the brand-new Blue Star I or II ... at 7:30 a.m, you're in Rhodes! Look at Google & you'll find many sources for bicycle rental in Rhodes. Coastal areas are flat, and from Colorado u are tuff enuff to manage some of the steep grades to get from East to West coast across some passes. In May, once you get away from Rhodes Old Town & Lindos, you will be in non-tourist Eden. When it's time to go to Thessaloniki, Aegean has ONE flight daily, about 9 pm, 1 hour, direct to THess. If u sign up for Aegean Nwsletter you can snag a discount rate for this, but Do not wait too long to book this... it will be in demand as only direct flight. About Athens, don't take a bus tour in the city!! Go to Trip Advisor Greece forum, use "Jump to more Specific Forum" choose ATHENS. Then click on R-H box "More aboutAthens" -- it will give you precise itineraries for 2 days & 3 days the advice of true dedicated experts who live/work there, not just someone who once was there before a cruise.

Thanks for the replies. I'm still evaluating. We'll do Athens on our own, with guidebooks, etc. Still exploring getting out of Athens - some have suggested a overnight tour to Nafplio and surrounding area. Generally we would travel on our own - is it really hard to get around in that area without a car?

Karen
We love Lesvos. We've been there twice in the past 5 years and are going again in 2011. It's a great place for cycling; we've met people who have cycled for weeks around the island. We found a great little hotel north of Mytilene (Hotel Votsala) which is very inexpensive and may well talk you out of self-catering. Feel free to PM me or come to the Denver RS meeting in December. Or check Hotel Votsala on Trip Adviser. Admittedly, Lesvos really is out of the way. If I were doing Santorini and Lesvos, I'd probably fly to Lesvos from Thessaloniki, and then fly back to Athens and directly to Santorini. Then you can have your ferry experience at the end, from Santorini to Athens. You'll want to be in Athens at least a full day before your flight home, so you might want to save your Athens sightseeing for the end.

If it were my trip, I'd do it like this: Arrive Athens Take ferry to Santorini, spend X days Fly back to Athens Sightsee Athens, spend a couple days Fly to Lesvos, spend X days
Fly to Thessaloniki Forget ferries from Santorini to Lesvos or vice versa; you'll be zig-zagging all over the Aegean. You can make all the flights on Aegean Air, which does fly direct Lesvos > Thessaloniki.

I am a huge fan of Nafplio... in fact if you check Trip Advisor, I'm a "Destination Expert" on that gem of an Old Town. About going there with/without car... you do the math. 1-way bus ticket = about €12 = 24 for 2 PLUS €10 taxi fare to get to bus station. You could rent a small car for under €40. No problem exploring Nafplio itself w.o. a car... but if you want to see Mycenae, Epidaurus (+ maybe Tiryns or Asine), you cannot do more than one ancient site per day by local bus ... the schedules just don't work out. By contrast, last May we had a 1-day car rental in Nafplio, went to Mycenae, grabbed some lunch, drove to Epidaurus, then drove to Asine (which is by a DARLING pebbly cove beach named Kastraki), explored the ruin, sunbathed & swam, had dinner at sunset at the ONLY little taverna there ... and on the way back to our Nafplio hotel, drove up the back way to Palamidi, to overlook the entire town & the bay (it was closed but we stood at the parapet for the view of lights & sea).

We are planning our trip for Greece next April and we all decided (there is 4 of us going) that after 16 or 17 hours of flying from San Francisco to the East Coast than on to Athens we do not want to get back on a plane or boat. We want a couple days to get rested. I have not been to Greece before but I would say it would be easier for you to do Athens first.

We've done it both ways ... spending a few days in Athens first or flying directly to an island. We come from Denver, and it's a long trip too. But we've found we prefer hanging around the airport and catching that next plane. The islands are all less than an hour away, and there's nothing like waking up on a Greek island on your first day of vacation.

That "waking up on a Greek isle" line hooked me good - Can I go now?? After a high of 20 degrees yesterday in Colorado Springs, it sure sounds nice :).

I seem to remember when the name of the 2nd island in the subject line of this thread (spelled in English) was spelled a little differently. I'm curious if the English spelling of the island's name has been officially changed? Or is this just PC?

There's a lot to be said for waking up on Santorini for your first look at the caldera, especially if you've arrived after dark. Both 'Lesvos' and 'Lesbos' are just phonetic approximations of the name. The spelling of 'Lesvos' more accurately captures the correct pronunciation.

"Lesbos" is the most accurate transliteration. When spelled in Greek, the 4th letter in the island's name is Beta, the Greek "B". There is no letter in the Greek alphabet that transliterates to "V". I think if you look at most older maps, the island's name will be spelled "Lesbos." It's no big deal either way, but I think Kent's comment is accurate.

Beta (bay-tuh) is nothing more than the Western mis-pronunciation of the Greek letter B but it's not actually the way Greeks pronounce the letter. I may not be fluent in Greek but I speak enough to know that the corrrect sound is 'vee-tuh' not 'bay-tuh'. Lesvos is pronounced with a V, not a B. In fact, there is no hard B sound whatsoever in the Modern Greek language.

I first saw Lesbos, but since the airline websites and the recommended Matt Barrett's site both use Lesvos, I went with that. Since neither are accurate since they are English, it's mostly a matter of knowing that you are talking about the same place and can find the information you need with either name - not so much politically correctedness.

Kent, what may be part of the confusion is that in ancient Greek, beta is pronounced using the "b" sound whereas in modern Greek, beta is pronounced using the "v" sound.

Laura: Thank you for explaining that! Now I understand.

Regardless of how you pronounce it, the most accurate anglicized spelling of the island's name would be Lesbos.

I'm not sure why this matters, but just out of curiosity I took a quick look through the maps, brochures etc. I collected on a 3-week stay in Lesvos five years ago, and without exception, everything used the spelling Lesvos. If the residents of the island consider that the proper spelling, I think that answers the question. Anyone who's stayed at the Hotel Attalos in Athens may have noticed the Lesvos Shop next door -- a good place, by the way, to shop for last-minute souvenirs (olive oil, soap, etc.). Lonely Planet also spells it Lesvos. My Thomas Cook Island Hopping guide is the only place I've ever seen Lesbos. Maybe that's the British spelling? Is that what you mean by anglicized, Tom?

"Anglicized" was the wrong word for me to use. My only point was that the Greek letter "beta" is traditionally converted in written language to the letter "b." It is also correct, as Lee aptly pointed out, that "beta" is pronounced "v." www.greek-language.com/Alphabet.html

I'm with Charlene - if the locals use Lesvos as the "english" transliteration, that's what I will use.

"if the locals use Lesvos as the English transliteration, that's what I will use." A photo here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7520343.stm shows someone, apparently a local, holding a sign in English that says: "If you are not from Lesbos, you are not a Lesbian." The sign, and the lawsuit relating to it, may be at least some indication that the locals may not think the correct English transliteration is Lesvos. (In case anyone is wondering, the sign relates to court action brought by some residents of Lesbos, in Greece a few years ago, to prevent use of the word "lesbian" by those who aren't residents of Lesbos. Fortunately, the residents lost. A Google search on "Lesbos" gets 15.2 million hits. A Google search on "Lesvos" gets 622,000 hits.

The sign referred to is in English, not in Greek, and in no way indicates any local preference for B vs. V when it comes to the correct pronunciation, especially since there IS no B in the Greek language. Any of you lesvians out there want to kome out of the kloset?

Lee, I am not a Lesbian; but I love Lesvos. To end this bickering, why don't we all refer to this Greek Island as Mytilini as does Aegean Airlines and the Greek Ferry System. Arguing about transiliteration is like arguing about what color to paint the bathroom. Everyone has a different opinion, and in the end it is not terribly important.

Apparently it was important enough for you to chime in here, and my guess is that you will again.