A few friends and I want to travel to Greece or Croatia next year (maybe September). We are not "tourists" (even tho we are)... meaning we do not enjoy sightseeing and shopping in the heavily populated cities/towns. Our preference is a smaller village where we can rent an apartment, a car, have reasonably close access to facilities such as a tavern, grocery shop, bank or ATM. We prefer to experience the smaller villages and markets. A seaview would be nice .... on the beach would be even better! An island that is easily accessible traveling from the states I would not want to have 3-4 stops. Aren't there some smaller regional airlines in Europe that fly from London or Paris or ?????. Have no clue where to start. We will have about 12-13 days including our travel days.
Any help is appreciated.
Recommend for Trip to Greece or Croatia
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What you are saying is sort of a contradiction if by term "not "heavily populated" you mean plenty of visitors around! If you are looking for direct international flights, obviously destinations will be touristy up to a point! Why to have international flights if no one goes there?
I can't comment on Croatia but on Greece most islands feature villages or towns with less than 5000 or even 2000 or even 1000 permanent citizens, while mainland offers plenty of such locations too. How many visitors are hosted is a different matter... I think you need to be a bit more specific as it is nearly impossible to narrow down such a general inquiry...
Other posters may disagree, but my impression of Croatia is of a place which is lovely to vist, but the remnants of the prior regimes are still great enough that the idea of an easy to rent appartment, car, shops, etc., may be hard to pull off in Croatia. I'd stick to Greece, and in particular, Crete, may fit your bill nicely.
Actually, docdan, it could not be easier to travel in Croatia. With 1000 islands, a secluded spot is usually just a boat ride away. Of course you may want to pick up the car in a city before heading out. kassav, you'll have to spend some time on kayak or some similar site to figure out flight options.
Same for Greece--and I agree with the Crete suggestion, you may be able to get a flight into Chania and out of Heraklion.
Docdan, it's quite easy to rent apartments and cars in Croatia. And there are plenty of shops and restaurants. Here's one web site for self-catering accommodations: www.adriatica.net/villas/villas_en.htm
To the OP, if you decide on Croatia, consider flying into Split. It's interesting in itself (built in and around an old Roman palace), and it has good tranportation connections to assorted islands and up and down the Dalmatian coast.
Easyjet flies into Split from London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle. More expensively, Croatia Airlines flies into Split from Frankfurt and Rome.
Or fly into Dubrovnik, rent a car and take the ferry from Orebic to the island of Korcula. Korcula town is interesting, the whole island is delightfully laid back. One of the most charmingly relaxing places I know.