Mamos

Hi, I would love some assistance on my family's trip to Greece. We will hope to have 5 weeks in Greece and a week in Italy(Aug to end of Sept 2011) While in Greece, I would like to take the family to the regular sites around Athens and surrounds. I would love to take them also to Meteora. My husband has family in Markopoulon? area so we hope to see that. We also want to go to Rhodes, Kos and Kalymnos, having family in Kalymnos. Can anyone help me in suggesting routes, tours, etc? My daughters are 13 and 8 and are a good age to see some wonderful things. Any recommendations on accomodation etc would also be great. I would prefer to fly to Rhodes from Athens also.

travelerjan

Note: could you clarify whether the Markopoulo you refer to is the village on the island of Kefalonia, or the suburban town in Attika?

YOu have a very complicated agenda, and I'm not sure that I can tackle it. Meteora seems to be WAAY off the grid -- perhaps you should do a bus trip out of Athens to Meteora & back.

I will just pass along some advice given to me by a couple of GReek-American families who had trouble staying in control of their itineraries, once they made contact with the Greek relatives:

• Only arrive at the relative's town/island when you have FIRM, UNBREAKABLE arrangements for when you are required to be elsewhere. OTherwise the 4-5 days with them will expand and expand and eat your holiday alive. IT can be excruciatingly difficult to disentangle yourself once you're on their turf, lovable as they may be. My Greek-Americans advised me that the best time, actually, to visit the relatives was the 3-4 days before the scheduled international flight... because that was accepted as a fixed ticket that could not be changed.

Mamos

thanks for the info. Its Markopoulo, suburban town in Attika. I understand the relative issue, thanks for the advice.

Stefanel

Before you travel to Italy from Greece, you may stop in Corfu island for a few days, amazing landscape, especially in nw region, history and excellent locals! From Corfu you have a lot of ferries to Italy. Ciao from sunny Corfu, all the best, have a nice trip, even you have a huge agenda!

travelerjan

You have not had a serious reply Mamos (Corfu-man is just promoting his isle, god bless him) because you set a HUGE task, without enough info, or enough research on your part. You need to find a good guidebook. Australia has excellent public libraries, and if your local one does not have copies, they can do interlibrary loan. These are useful ones to help u grasp your Project:
• HK's EYEWITNESS - The Greek Islands (succinct graphic/pictorial overview of highlights)
• T Cook's GREEK ISLAND HOPPING - How islands link together, candid, realistic young-oriented
• Rough Guide to Greece - Overall Tops- logistics, details, good maps, candid. The one to buy - you can pull out sections (Athens, Cyclades etc) & "Bind" with duct-tape to make little "guidelets" for pockets instead of lugging heavy book.

YOu are vague on timing;I had to look at calendar to see that u really mean about Aug 21 - Sept 30. Avoid islands 1st week; they will be jammed. Per weeks, one approach may be:
Aug 21-27 -- Athens - 2-day Meteora trip... Relative --Visit Markopoulu only at end, when u have tickets AND reservation for Next stop!!
Aug 28 - Sept 3 -- 2 Cycladic islands?? Paros or Naxos & Santorini??
Sept 4-10 Rhodes (there's a Great O'nite ferry, Blue Star i or II from Santorini to Rhodes) In Rhodes u can rent a car, see a lot, do a day trip to Symi
Sept 11 - 17 -- Kos (why do u want to go there? be aware, it's a very Package-holiday place now) .. Kalymnos (ONLY when u have FIRM reservations onward)

Sept 18 -- Fly back to Athens (u can get a €60 ticket 10am Sunday; cheaper than ferry?
-- Rent car, drive to Nafplion 2.5 hours, on Bay of Argos in Pelopponnese
Sept 18 -- 23 or so; Enjoy Argolid area, beautiful + beaches + ancient sites, do local tours if u wish; here's a great website http://www.visitnafplio.com/visitnafplio.com/Home.html and a Fodorite' slide show; gorgeous! http://travel.webshots.com/slideshow/551991579dJbWvh
-- Sept 24 - return car & Fly to Italy for final week.

If u insist on "fly to Rhodes" u would need to do it the Sept 28 week -- and do the Cyclades islands after Kalymnos -- and there is no ferry or Air link -- and as I said you could very well get trapped on Kalymnos w.o. excuse for leaving such as "nonrefundable plane tickets".

If you want help on arrangements, think about setting up an e-mail relationship with a Greece-based agency, but be aware: these agencies have to make a living by commissions from hotels, so they won't be booking u into small family-run hotels (which do not pay commissions), and they'll also want to tack on costly "transfer" arrangements from port to hotel & back, when u can easily hail a taxi or take a bus. Two well-regarded agencies are Aegean THesaurus and Dolphin-Hellas; click my name to contact me for more.

You're coming a loooong way for this dream trip, so start plans now, and good luck!