Suggestions about trip to Greece in June 2013
Feb 2nd, 2014, 01:11 AM
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Suggestions about trip to Greece in June 2013
I will be travelling from Turkey in early June to Greece with my 20 something daughter for 1 month. We are looking for more of an authentic holiday rather than clubs and resorts and I was thinking perhaps Santorini, Milos and Crete might be good places to go. We have never been to Greece before and would need to finish off our journey in Athens to fly out to Canada.
We are both chilled and relaxed women and want to stay on the Islands where we can kick back, discover natural beauty, get about easily as neither of us will be driving, enjoy good food, meet great locals and soak up the culture and live the simple life. We don't want to stay at the best hotels but would like to stay near the ocean. I would rather not be ripped off or hassled unnecessarily. That being said we are both sociable and cruisy and really enjoy good company and great conversation.
What would be the best route to do these places? Any idea how long it would take us to get to each place? and any suggestions about good friendly, clean, safe and hospitable accommodation near or on the beach in these places? (that won't break the bank) Also how long would you stay at each place?
Cheers
Nadiene from Aus
We are both chilled and relaxed women and want to stay on the Islands where we can kick back, discover natural beauty, get about easily as neither of us will be driving, enjoy good food, meet great locals and soak up the culture and live the simple life. We don't want to stay at the best hotels but would like to stay near the ocean. I would rather not be ripped off or hassled unnecessarily. That being said we are both sociable and cruisy and really enjoy good company and great conversation.
What would be the best route to do these places? Any idea how long it would take us to get to each place? and any suggestions about good friendly, clean, safe and hospitable accommodation near or on the beach in these places? (that won't break the bank) Also how long would you stay at each place?
Cheers
Nadiene from Aus
Feb 2nd, 2014, 01:55 AM
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Will you be in Greece for the whole month or does that include Turkey? Does your budget allow for flights or ferries? What will your last location in Turkey be? How long it takes to travel between these islands depends on the order in which you visit them. If you want accommodation recommendations please state your maximum daily room budget in EURO. How long to stay depends on how much time you have and the sort of experience you want. It takes a minimum of a week with a rental car just to barely scratch the surface of Crete. It's huge. You won't be driving so you will be spending some of your time on buses if you want to explore the island's coastline. I think you need to do some more research until you get a clearer idea of the sort of holiday you're after, and then let us know.
Feb 2nd, 2014, 08:35 AM
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Ditto, you leave out as much info as you provide.
How did you pick the 3 islands you mention? Why did you not pick others?
" We are both chilled and relaxed women and want to stay on the Islands where we can kick back, discover natural beauty, get about easily as neither of us will be driving, enjoy good food, meet great locals and soak up the culture and live the simple life. We don't want to stay at the best hotels but would like to stay near the ocean. I would rather not be ripped off or hassled unnecessarily. That being said we are both sociable and cruisy and really enjoy good company and great conversation."
When I read that, I can easily picture going to a smaller village on the coast of Crete or perhaps Rhodes and spending the entire month there. In that amount of time you will get to know some locals and indeed 'soak up the culture and enjoy the simple life'. Moving from place to place simply means you don't spend as much time in one place and therefore do not have as 'in depth' an experience. You're just getting to know a place and a few people and then you move on.
So my advice if you really mean what you wrote is to find one spot and stay for a month. For example (one of many possibilities) take a look at this possibility. A small self-catering apartment/studio where you can 'live' for a month quite easily. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZONubMSgT0
Here is a site that tells you more about the village and is obviously written by a long time fan. http://www.haraki.eu/
Right on the water with a promenade (no cars allowed) and a castle overlooking the bay.
How did you pick the 3 islands you mention? Why did you not pick others?
" We are both chilled and relaxed women and want to stay on the Islands where we can kick back, discover natural beauty, get about easily as neither of us will be driving, enjoy good food, meet great locals and soak up the culture and live the simple life. We don't want to stay at the best hotels but would like to stay near the ocean. I would rather not be ripped off or hassled unnecessarily. That being said we are both sociable and cruisy and really enjoy good company and great conversation."
When I read that, I can easily picture going to a smaller village on the coast of Crete or perhaps Rhodes and spending the entire month there. In that amount of time you will get to know some locals and indeed 'soak up the culture and enjoy the simple life'. Moving from place to place simply means you don't spend as much time in one place and therefore do not have as 'in depth' an experience. You're just getting to know a place and a few people and then you move on.
So my advice if you really mean what you wrote is to find one spot and stay for a month. For example (one of many possibilities) take a look at this possibility. A small self-catering apartment/studio where you can 'live' for a month quite easily. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZONubMSgT0
Here is a site that tells you more about the village and is obviously written by a long time fan. http://www.haraki.eu/
Right on the water with a promenade (no cars allowed) and a castle overlooking the bay.
Feb 4th, 2014, 11:29 AM
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Thank you both for your responses. Let me fill you in more. I plan to travel Turkey for 3 months solo then my daughter will meet me for my last 2 weeks there and we will fly to Athens
(somewhere I don't want to stay very long maybe a couple of nights). That leaves us with 1 month to explore Greece. Sorry about my lack of information so far but part of my preliminary research has been reading, people's reports on different blogs and asking some basic questions to get a feel for where we should go. This is how I came up with these 3 places as they were the ones that stood out for me the most. As far as budget goes, we can afford to fly but are ok with taking ferries also I guess the denominator is the cost of flights as compared to ferry rides if there is a huge difference than I would rather take ferries and spend our money on accommodation and lifestyle etc. Our maximum daily budget for accom is 60 EUR and the accomm at Haraki is suitable for what we need.
So in my opinion Santorini is a must see (1 week) and then we could either do another 2 places or stay in 1 place for the next 3 weeks. I looked at the links you sent me on Haraki it looks lovely but I am erring towards Crete more. If Crete is as large as everyone says then we would probably be happy to stay and explore there (3 weeks) so I would welcome some suggestions about similar accommodation as Haraki on the island, transport and possible routes between Santorini and Crete please? Once again thank you for you help
Cheers
Nadiene
T
(somewhere I don't want to stay very long maybe a couple of nights). That leaves us with 1 month to explore Greece. Sorry about my lack of information so far but part of my preliminary research has been reading, people's reports on different blogs and asking some basic questions to get a feel for where we should go. This is how I came up with these 3 places as they were the ones that stood out for me the most. As far as budget goes, we can afford to fly but are ok with taking ferries also I guess the denominator is the cost of flights as compared to ferry rides if there is a huge difference than I would rather take ferries and spend our money on accommodation and lifestyle etc. Our maximum daily budget for accom is 60 EUR and the accomm at Haraki is suitable for what we need.
So in my opinion Santorini is a must see (1 week) and then we could either do another 2 places or stay in 1 place for the next 3 weeks. I looked at the links you sent me on Haraki it looks lovely but I am erring towards Crete more. If Crete is as large as everyone says then we would probably be happy to stay and explore there (3 weeks) so I would welcome some suggestions about similar accommodation as Haraki on the island, transport and possible routes between Santorini and Crete please? Once again thank you for you help
Cheers
Nadiene
T
Feb 4th, 2014, 02:38 PM
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It sounds like a pretty tight budget. You should be able to get into the Haraki Mare for that if you book ahead. June is obviously a pretty busy time.
http://www.harakimare.gr/en/prices.php
Whether you can find somewhere for that price on Santorini would be the question. I expect a 100E a night is more likely. You should be able to on Crete though. I don't have any personal favourites.
It is easy to get to Rhodes from Turkey by ferry from Marmaris, Bodrum or Fethiye. There is no ferry from Turkey to Crete or Santorini. Here you will see Turkey to Greece ferries. http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/t...ndFerries.html
This is the site to look at for ferries within Greece.
http://www.greekferries.gr/
So I would have to say that depending on budget, what makes most sense may vary. There is no doubt the cheapest way to get from Turkey to Greece would be by ferry. But you only have so many choices of where it will get you to directly. You will need to transfer from one island to another and of course each time you do that it cost more and the route may not be that simple/direct.
While I would say I have no particular preference of Crete vs. Rhodes, Rhodes is simply easier to get to for you. You can easily get around Rhodes by public transportation. While public transportation also exists on Crete, the distances can be greater obviously. There's some advantage if you're trying to save money to having everthing relatively close together.
Personally, I'd still opt for the whole month in one place and then on to Athens for your return home, much simpler. It's your dime of course. Enjoy.
http://www.harakimare.gr/en/prices.php
Whether you can find somewhere for that price on Santorini would be the question. I expect a 100E a night is more likely. You should be able to on Crete though. I don't have any personal favourites.
It is easy to get to Rhodes from Turkey by ferry from Marmaris, Bodrum or Fethiye. There is no ferry from Turkey to Crete or Santorini. Here you will see Turkey to Greece ferries. http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/t...ndFerries.html
This is the site to look at for ferries within Greece.
http://www.greekferries.gr/
So I would have to say that depending on budget, what makes most sense may vary. There is no doubt the cheapest way to get from Turkey to Greece would be by ferry. But you only have so many choices of where it will get you to directly. You will need to transfer from one island to another and of course each time you do that it cost more and the route may not be that simple/direct.
While I would say I have no particular preference of Crete vs. Rhodes, Rhodes is simply easier to get to for you. You can easily get around Rhodes by public transportation. While public transportation also exists on Crete, the distances can be greater obviously. There's some advantage if you're trying to save money to having everthing relatively close together.
Personally, I'd still opt for the whole month in one place and then on to Athens for your return home, much simpler. It's your dime of course. Enjoy.
