Advice on Greece trip

[Scuba]

DH and I are planning a trip to Greece in Sept./Oct. 2018. We will definitely visit Athens for a few days (never been to Greece) as well as Rhodes (we have friends there). Would also love to see/stay on Santorini and Naxos. We enjoy some historical sites, but also want to spend a fair bit of time enjoying the beautiful beaches, people, culture, food & wine of Greece. We enjoy "off the beaten path" relaxing destinations rather than going to where all the cruise ships stop, although we don't want to miss Athens or Santorini. We might be interested in diving if there is really something special to see, but diving is a low priority for this trip.

We're thinking of a 4-6 week trip. Greece has so many options that it's getting overwhelming to try to decide where we want to visit and how long to stay in each place. Any recommendations from those who've traveled there?

 

[Souschef]

You will love Greece. We enjoyed our time on Rhodes and we actually got married on Santorini.
I have attached a copy of opur trip story

 

[Scrapr]

We are looking at Greece as well. Will check back in after I talk to our friends that are Greek. They promise to give us the low down. We will see them in a few weeks at the Greek Orthodox Crab Feed. There will be lots of Greeks there! Always a good time

 

[JoeWras]

We were all over the place in Greece, from the far north of Tessoloniki to the south of Crete and honestly, I loved it all! Santorini was nice, although I thought Mykonos had a lot going for it. Rhodes has the unusual medieval history. Loved walking through the old city. Just so much... all good.

While in Athens, Delphi is a day trip. You will still have a lot of tourists, although I think that is a stretch for cruise ships. Steeped in history. Stop in the ski village Arachova nearby.

If you want to get away and go deep into the interior, try Meteora (near Kalabka). No cruise ship traffic here, although it is a tour spot, but tourists must work to get there, so traffic is fairly low. You can visit monasteries that somehow cling on cliffs. Also a good place to get hand made icons. It is deep enough in that this was the one place in Greece I ran into locals when I had to go to the pharmacy and nobody spoke English. All good, we worked it out and they were so, so gracious.

You won't go wrong no matter what. Here's a little of the beauty and intrigue of Meteora:

 

[Bamaman]

This would be a good question for Rick Steve's Travel Forum. They will tell you to purchase a really good travel book on Greece and read it.

We saw Greece from a 2 week cruise ship that started at Rome and hit Malta before going into Greek Isles. We spent one day in Athens and that was long enough for me. We also hit Turkey which was great.

The Med has very clear water, and I would assume there is some good diving there.

We still want to visit the countries on the east side of the Adriatic Sea that used to be part of Yugoslavia.

 

[Nemo2]

Meteora & Thessaloniki are two of my favorites.

 

[FireFool]

We've been twice, both times in early September. 1st time Athens and Crete (Paleochoro & Falasarna), 2nd time island hopping (Samos, Mykonos, Paros & Santorini). My advice is for you to head to the beaches first, early September is a wonderful time to enjoy them with less crowds, October may start to get cold and will be more ideal for sight seeing in Athens - chances are you'll probably be flying out of Athens on your return trip home anyway. Ferries are definitely how to get between islands, but watch the schedules as I think frequency drops off into October. Depending on which island you're starting with you can either ferry or use one of the European budget airlines (e.g. RyanAir) to get to a starting island. On our way home we flew from Santorini to Athens as opposed to taking the ferry to save time - both are a choice though. Good luck - a wonderful place to visit.

 

[NW-Reader]

This was 25 years ago, but one of our favorite parts of our trip to Greece was Nafplio. A very pretty port, and near interesting sites like Epidaurus and Mycenae. A few smaller cruise ships do call there, and it's popular with the Rick Steves crowd, but it's worth checking out... https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/greeces-peloponnese

 

[Scuba]

You will love Greece. We enjoyed our time on Rhodes and we actually got married on Santorini.
I have attached a copy of opur trip story

Great trip story, thanks for sharing! I particularly enjoyed the story of your wedding as well as the pictures.

 

[Scuba]

Thanks to all for the responses. Great idea to hit beach areas first, then Athens at the end. We had done a lot of research and planned a trip several years ago, but we had to cancel. We planned to visit Athens, Santorini, Naxos & Nafplio, but we only had 2-3 weeks. Now that we have more time, we can add other islands but it is a bit overwhelming - there are so many!

 

[brett]

We love Greece. We typically go with open jaw tickets. Fly to Istanbul and home through Athend. Last time it was in through Athens, home from PAris via an inexpensive flight from Crete.

We enjoyed our last trip. Rented a car and toured the Peloponnese for ten days. Then hit the ferries and made our way to Crete. Apart from doing some research and having s general itinerary I would keep the schedule very open.

The ferry system in Greece centres around groups of islands. If you are going to spend time there you may want to get a good understanding of the general routes prior to leaving. We like Crete. Been there three times for a week at a time. So much to see. Get a rental. Last time we rented a car for a day on each island. Naxos is one of our favourites. If you want , we have the name of a great family run hotel 100m from the beach.

One more thing. Pack light. We have been doing carry on only for the past six years. It makes our travel so easy and so much more enjoyable.