Tommmo

Hi. We have just booked to fly Brisbane-Istanbul arriving Sept 28 and leaving from there 4 weeks later. Having spent some time in Greece and Turkey previously this visit will concentrate on Lesbos to Samos . It seems Lesbos will be warmer then and a better place to start from

We thought perhaps to fly direct to Izmir on arrival and make our way to Lesbos for 12 days or so before heading down to Chios and Samos.

Can someone suggest a good way to do this in late Sept.?

otherchelebi

There are ferries to Lesvos only from Ayvalik on the North Aegean coast of Turkey, as far as I know.

In case of the Turkey, the coast around lesvos is usually colder than the coast around Samos, but the reverse may be true for the islands.

Check Bora jet flights to Balikesir Korfez for flights to Ayvalik. You may need to do that through Ankara though.

Bus from Istanbul or ferry + bus will take about 7 hours

Flight to Izmir, shuttle to bus depot, bus to Ayvalik will take about the same.

rental car from Bandirma ferry landing after taking ferry to Bandirma may be a good option.

Another option is combining Gallipoli, Troy, Assos and Pergamom with rental car on the way to Ayvalik. Possibly three days pf fun and discovery.

vincenzo32951

I don't even want to tell you how I first read the title of this post.

immimi

At the risk of seeming negative, we were in Samos the last
week of September and first week of October and the island
was definitely closing down for the winter.

Many restos were closed already and the open ones weren't too
enthusiastic about being there! The weather was sunny but
very windy and quite cool.

Lovely island - differs from the Cyclades - but not a good
off-season vaca spot (at least imho).

Tommmo

Thanks all. I guess you have to travel when you can and no choice is there for us...
We found a cheap flight to Izmir ($14) and booked that so we only transit at Istanbul on arrival (we leave from there later)
We had assumed it would be warmer in Lesvos in Oct.- will have to check this.

Heimdall

<i>I don't even want to tell you how I first read the title of this post.</i>

Greeks prefer it to be spelt Lesvos. In the Greek name Λέσβος, the β is equivalent to the letter v in the Latin alphabet, e.g. ταβέρνα or taverna. ;-)

Tommmo

Thanks for that Heimdall.
And how is it correctly said?
We've decided to bus Izmir to Cesme (1 hr) book into a hotel at the port (been travelling about 35 hours by then ) and have a sleep. Then ferry to Chios (Hios in my Rough Guide) for a few days before ferrying on to Lesvos...
Any advice on Chios would be most welcome.....