Greece

Hi. Only visited both these locations on a cruise, but thought Santorini more beautiful. It should be wonderful in Oct - I was there in Nov and except for hoards of cruise ship day-trippers, place was empty.

Either one would be good. Do you have a preference for one over the other? One factor to consider is which one fits best with your overall travel route.

You may get some good ideas by having a look at the excellent Greece Travel website.

Took RS Greece tour in May and June, 2014. Some tour members had gone to Santorini pre-tour and said it was full of cruise ship passengers. Be warned.

We are on the late September RS tour and chose Naxos for our pre-tour island "experience". It is not on most cruise ship itineraries and only has 1-2 flights per day from Athens, so it should be significantly more laid back (and cruise-ship passenger free) than either Santorini or Mykonos, if that is what you are looking for. We thought hard about Santorini because of the amazing caldera view from Oia and the Akrotiri archaeological site, but ultimately decided we wanted a more relaxing and uncrowded island experience than appeared to be available there (plus the beaches are reported to be much better). We are planning to visit both islands via one of the day-trip excursion ferries available from Naxos-the Mykonos one also includes a few hours on Delos, and we may try to forgo the usual bus tour of Fira and Oia in favor of a visit to Akrotiri on the Santorini day trip.