We will be traveling to Athens next month and would like to spend 3-5 of our 10 days days on other Greek Isles. Would like to get to Crete to see Knossos and spend time in Rhodes. What is the best/quickiest way to get to these islands, where would you recommend staying?

Best/quickest way: fly from Athens to Heraklion on http://www.aegeanair.com. Go to Knossos then fly to Rhodes on www.skyexpress.gr so you don't have to backtrack to Athens.

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Oh great! Thank you!

We also we;re thinking of going to a Sanotini-like island. Any suggestions?

While on the mainland we were thinking of place like Delphi, Epidaurus, Meteora, and Olympia. Which are the "must sees" of the mainland?

Also would you recommend traveling with a rental car or on a guided tour while meandering through the mainland, Crete and Rhodes?

We would like to go off the beaten path for some of the trip!

I think that you are trying to do too much for 10 days. Knossos was wonderful, but most of Crete was disappointing to me. I have not been to Rhodes, so I have not opinion. I think you need to choose when and where you are going on the mainland. Epiderus is drivable from Athens. Some of the other places may be further. You will be off the track in many of these places.Greece is a wonderful, beautiful place to visit, but it takes time to get to the destinations. Have a good trip. Are you saying you have not made reservations and you aare traveling next month. You really need to make some reservations or be disappointed in what is available for rent.

Well, I dont want to do everything, just trying to figure out what in everyone's opinions were the best places they visited. We have ten full days, plus the two extra for the flights back home.

We want to go to two or three island for 1 or two days each and then spend the rest of the time in athens or taking a bus to the other mainland places.

If you're on Crete you can fly from Crete to Santorini then on to Rhodes, or if you're on Rhodes you can fly from Rhodes to Santorini, all flights on Sky Express. From Santorini you can fly back to Athens on Aegean or Olympic Airlines.

3 islands and Athens is more than I'd attempt in 10 days. When I travel I prefer to relax and get to know my environment a bit instead of just going there long enough to add it to a list of "been-there-done-thats".

"While on the mainland we were thinking of place like Delphi, Epidaurus, Meteora, and Olympia. Which are the "must sees" of the mainland?"

You've mentioned most of them
aside from the Parthenon in Athens.

The problem you'll have is that Meteora is a long way north of the Peloponnese...pretty well a day's journey each way from Athens. You could combine Delphi/Meteora and that would take 2 - 2.5 days from your 5 on the mainland.

I suffered a similar time constraint in May and had to forgo Meteora concentrating on the Peloponnese and Delphi. Mycenae was the highlight of my trip.

I'll have to get to Meteora
the next time...

Have fun!