Feedback on itinerary for 6 week Greece trip

[Scuba]

DH and I have done a fair bit of research now and have come up with the following draft itinerary. If you’ve been to Greece and have suggestions, please share. We want to see as much as we can, but not at a frenetic pace so we’ve tried to balance moving about with staying put long enough to appreciate a place. We’re into nature, local food/wine/people, beaches and the ocean (sailing, snorkeling, SCUBA), and want to see some history but will get burned out with too many consecutive days of archaeological ruins, museums, etc.

The itinerary we’ve drafted is:
- Land in ATH, stay overnight and travel the next day to Skopelos for 4 nights
- Return to Central Athens, stay 4 nights, visit historical sites
- Rent car & drive to Peloponnese Peninsula for 6 nights, using Navplion as a base to explore the region
- Fly to Santorini for a 3-night stay
- Ferry to Milos to pick up sailboat charter; stay 1 night on Milos
- 7–night sailboat charter seeing “off the beaten path” Cyclades Islands. Charter ends in Paros
- Ferry to Naxos for a 3-night stay
- Fly to Rhodes for 9-night stay in Rhodes with some day trips and possible overnight visits to a few Dodecanese islands (any specific ideas on islands here?). We have friends who live in Rhodes so will spend some time with them as well.
- Fly to Athens, overnight before flying out the following day.

Thanks for any input/suggestions.

 

[DrRoy]

I have not been to Greece, but I do a lot of travel planning. I like how you are going to stay in various places for several days and explore. That is how I like to travel too. You seem to have made good choices for locations from what I have read and seen photos of.

 

[marko]

Sounds like an awesome trip!

I have no insightful feedback except that for me, it sounds like a lot of packing/unpacking but that's just personal preference. Even for a six week stretch, DW and I prefer to settle in one great place, immerse ourselves and make day/overnight trips but that's just us. In the case of Greece however there's just so much to see!

We'd make an exception for that 7 day sailboat trip.

Have a great time and send pictures!

 

[Meadbh]

I have never visited Greece, but FWIW, I took a trip in 2016 that involved sleeping in 9 different beds in 5 countries over 7 weeks, and I think the pace of your trip sounds very doable.

 

[audreyh1]

Wow six weeks! The most we’ve done exploring (part of) a single country so far is about 4 weeks (not counting NL where we have family).

We also prefer to stay in one location several nights and do day trips from there.

I like having plenty of time.

Our Europe trips are about five to six weeks but we usually spend at least a week in NL at the start or end.

 

[Bamaman]

I have been to the Greek Islands, however no feedback is warranted. You are going on a trip of a lifetime that few people have ever thought of. Your planning is incredible.

Have a great trip.

Note: I was not so up on visiting Athens. Other than the Parthenon, Athens is a sea of 3 story white concrete apartment buildings as far as the eye can see. I would like to see the rest of the country, however.

 

[Scuba]

Thanks for the feedback. Greece is a huge country and it’s not that easy getting from one part to another. We are skipping Crete and the Ionian Islands plus a big chunk of the mainland in order to see our highest priority destinations. Buy maybe we’ll go back and see other parts!

 

[Freedom56]

DH and I have done a fair bit of research now and have come up with the following draft itinerary. If you’ve been to Greece and have suggestions, please share. We want to see as much as we can, but not at a frenetic pace so we’ve tried to balance moving about with staying put long enough to appreciate a place. We’re into nature, local food/wine/people, beaches and the ocean (sailing, snorkeling, SCUBA), and want to see some history but will get burned out with too many consecutive days of archaeological ruins, museums, etc.

The itinerary we’ve drafted is:
- Land in ATH, stay overnight and travel the next day to Skopelos for 4 nights
- Return to Central Athens, stay 4 nights, visit historical sites
- Rent car & drive to Peloponnese Peninsula for 6 nights, using Navplion as a base to explore the region
- Fly to Santorini for a 3-night stay
- Ferry to Milos to pick up sailboat charter; stay 1 night on Milos
- 7–night sailboat charter seeing “off the beaten path” Cyclades Islands. Charter ends in Paros
- Ferry to Naxos for a 3-night stay
- Fly to Rhodes for 9-night stay in Rhodes with some day trips and possible overnight visits to a few Dodecanese islands (any specific ideas on islands here?). We have friends who live in Rhodes so will spend some time with them as well.
- Fly to Athens, overnight before flying out the following day.

Thanks for any input/suggestions.

Nice trip - Santorini is pretty awesome and the food in Greece is great. We went to Istanbul Turkey on our trip also if your are into ancient history. The food in Turkey was also great.

 

[athena53]

If you're interested in Christian history, you should visit Patmos in the Dodecanese Islands, where St. John was exiled. (See the reference in Revelation 1.) He is said to have written the Book of Revelation in a small cave which is now a church- it's halfway up the mountain and open limited hours.

You're right about getting from one part of Greece to another. DH and I really wanted to see Patmos. There's no airport on the island and we took an overnight ferry from Piraeus, spend the day there, and then took another overnight ferry back. (We got an inexpensive hotel room to rest in the evening.) It was one of our more memorable travel stories- I'll never forget standing in the dining room of the ferry that morning with a cup of bad instant coffee, watching Patmos loom up ahead of us and realizing John must have had the same view.

 

[Scrapr]

Sounds like a great trip. A trip report after action report would be great. Mrs Scrapr really wants to see Greece. And our 25th anniversary is coming up....

The one thing that kind of jumps out at me is the first night in Athens. Getting over jet lag takes me about 2 days. But we don't do a lot on international travel. YMMV

 

[Fishingmn]

You might post this on the Trip Advisor Greece travel forums. Probably would get more feedback from people who have done a lot of travel there before.

 

[Nemo2]

I was not so up on visiting Athens. Other than the Parthenon, Athens is a sea of 3 story white concrete apartment buildings as far as the eye can see.

Agreed.....I'd rather visit Meteora and Thessaloniki, and tool around the interior for a couple days.

 

[Scuba]

Agreed.....I'd rather visit Meteora and Thessaloniki, and tool around the interior for a couple days.

I’d really like to go to Meteora, but we’ve never been to Athens so we’d like to see the Acropolis/Parthenon, the Plaka area, and maybe a museum or two. I think we will need to make another trip and see Corfu, Northern and Central Greece, and maybe Crete. That is probably another six week trip.

 

[Scuba]

You might post this on the Trip Advisor Greece travel forums. Probably would get more feedback from people who have done a lot of travel there before.

Yes, good idea. I’ve posted on Fodor’s and Frommer also. Thanks.

 

[Scuba]

Nice trip - Santorini is pretty awesome and the food in Greece is great. We went to Istanbul Turkey on our trip also if your are into ancient history. The food in Turkey was also great.

We thought about Turkey. I really want to see the natural pools in the white limestone cliffs, and I’ve heard there are several really interesting places to visit there. But I think we’ll be out of our travel budget by the end of this trip, and we didn’t want to sacrifice Greece for Turkey. Another trip perhaps. Also DH wasn’t keen on the political situation in Turkey right now.

 

[Scuba]

If you're interested in Christian history, you should visit Patmos in the Dodecanese Islands, where St. John was exiled. (See the reference in Revelation 1.) He is said to have written the Book of Revelation in a small cave which is now a church- it's halfway up the mountain and open limited hours.

You're right about getting from one part of Greece to another. DH and I really wanted to see Patmos. There's no airport on the island and we took an overnight ferry from Piraeus, spend the day there, and then took another overnight ferry back. (We got an inexpensive hotel room to rest in the evening.) It was one of our more memorable travel stories- I'll never forget standing in the dining room of the ferry that morning with a cup of bad instant coffee, watching Patmos loom up ahead of us and realizing John must have had the same view.

Sounds like a memorable travel moment!