I just got back from the trip to Greece, hopefully the itinerary will be helpful in determining what may be realistic if a bit grueling.

Costs came to $11K for 2 adults

We had car tire issues requiring multiple pressure checks and topping up air.

The ferry to Santorini was suddenly cancelled due to a strike - a major disruption - which led to an overnight ferry and all-nighter but also opened up time for more mainland trips.

Be aware that some of the island old towns have an old town/castro that you cannot drive in so parking can be tricky and require walking in the old town, examples notably include Naxos and Mykonos.

Weather was great this time of year. Just x2 half-days of rain in 14 days. Comfortable weather.



Day 1
Flew into Athens in early AM
Check in to AirBnb
Panathenaic stadium
Spanish fountain
Zappeion
Temple of Olympian Zeus
Arch of Hadrian
Syntagma square
Change of the guard/Evzones
Panagia Kapnikarea church
Irini square
Monastiraki square
Old Mosque
Hadrian's library and Tetraconch church


Day 2
Athens Acropolis including Theater of Dionysus, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Propylaia, Temple of Athena Nike, Parthenon, Erectheum
Areopagus
Acropolis museum
Hill of the Muses, Kimon's tomb, Philopappos monument
Pnyx Hill
Prison of Socrates
Ancient Agora of Athens, Temple of Hephaestus, Stoa, and Museum
Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens
Tylixto gyros near Monastiraki square dinner - highly recommended


Day 3
Aristotle Lyceum
Ecumenical church of St. Nicholas
Agia Dynamis
Church of Virgin Mary Gorgoepekoos and St. Eleutherius
Holy church of St. Nicholas Rangavas
Roman Agora
Cave of Winds
Pantheon of Athens
Kerameikos archaeological site
Mt. Lycabettus and church
National Archaeology Museum
Loukoumades near Monastiraki square snack/lunch - highly recommended
Krasopoulio tou Kokora dinner - highly recommended


Day 4
Went to airport, picked up rental car
Drove to Sounion Temple of Poseidon and viewed
Drove back to Daphni monastery and viewed
Eleusis archaeological site
Isthmus of Corinth
Ancient Corinth archaeological site and museum
Epidaurus archaeological site and amphitheater
Drove back to Athens AirBnb


Day 5
Drove to Akrokorinthos and hiked it
Drove to Palamidou Fortress in Nafplio and hiked it
Overnight Ferry Piraeus to Santorini
Pidalio dinner in Nafplio - highly recommended


Day 6
Viewed Oia town, churches
Viewed Fira town, churches, and archaeological museum of Thira
Akrotiri prehistoric site
Emporeio castle
Ferry Santorini to Naxos
Scirocco dinner in Naxos - highly recommended


Day 7
Viewed Naxos Castro
Naxos Archaeological museum
Catholic church of presentation of our Lord of Naxos
Monastery of the Virgin Pantanassa Naxos
Temple of Apollo - the Portara
Archaeological site of Yria, sanctuary of Dionysus
Bazeos castle
Temple of Demeter and Basilica of Sagkri
Ferry Naxos to Mykonos
Viewed Mykonos old town
Little Venice
Church of Panagia Paraportiani
Mykonos castle ruins
Mykonos windmills
To get to the Temple of Demeter on Naxos use Google Maps and not Apple - Apple took us the wrong way to a closed gate and very rough roads
Avli tou Thodori dinner in Mykonos island (not in the town, near one of the southern beaches) - highly recommended


Day 8
Ferry to Delos
Delos Archaeological site and Museum
Delos ferry back
Armenistis lighthouse
Kalafati beach
Ferry Mykonos to Rafina
Drove to Nafplio
Sakis Grill gyros lunch in Mykonos - highly recommended


Day 9
Acronafplia fortress
Ancient Tiryns
Ancient Argos and Theater
Larissa Castle
Ancient Mycenae and museum
Beehive tomb/Treasury of King Atreus
Drove to Kalamata
Archaeology Museum of Messinia
Kalamata Castle
Ypapanti church
Kalamata Harbor


Day 10
Mystras Archaeological site, museum, churches, and castle
Monument to Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos
Sparta Archaeological site
Leonidas’ tomb
Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia
Drove to Temple of Apollo Epicurious at Bassae
Drove to Patras
The Temple at Bassae is well worth seeing but involves narrow windy mountain roads that take a long time to traverse


Day 11
Archaeological Museum of Patras
Patras Castle
Odeon
St. Andrew’s church - viewed the relics of the Apostle Andrew
Patras Lighthouse
Drove to Olympia
Olympia Archaeological site, museum, and museum of the Olympic Games
Drove to Delphi
Taverna Vakhos dinner in Delphi - highly recommended


Day 12
Delphi Archaeological site and museum - The Tholos of Athena Pronaia site was closed due to rockfall
Drove to Hosios Loukas and viewed the monastery
Distomo massacre Memorial
Drove to Thebes
Temple of Apollo Ismenios Site
Cadmea
Electra gaste
Arcaheological museum of Thebes
Holy Church of Luke the Evangelist - viewed the relics of Luke the Evangelist
Drove to Kalabaka
The church of St. Luke is open at 6 PM and I believe for 2 hrs or so. It is closed during the daytime but the grounds are open


Day 13
Psaropatra lookout
Roussanou monastery
Main lookout on Meteora
Holy Trinity monastery
St. Stephen's monastery
Varlaam monastery outside (closed this day)
Great Meteoron monastery
St. Nicholas Anapafsas monastery
Drove to Athens
The Meteora monasteries do not allow photography of the interior frescoes


Day 14
Flew back to the US

What did your stays cost you? $11k for 2 people for 2 weeks? Wow. That’s crazy. I don’t think my wife and I ever spent more than $3k in a 2 week vacation anywhere, Italy and Greece included, even when staying in 4* hotels. Unless you stayed only at 5* tourist hotels, I can’t see how that happened. I mean, it sounds like it was lovely, except for the Mykonos and Santorini parts.

I'm not sure how you could do it all on $3K but that is impressive.

I visited Greece in 2001 and took a bus down and for x2 people back then a 10 day vacation with tour group came to $1400. Inflation has brought costs up a lot.

Average hotel/Airbnb cost was $224 per night. Splurged on some like Mykonos and Kalamata but not on most.
Airfare + baggage fees + taxi/Uber to airports and car rental came to $2125
Ferry fees for 4 ferry trips (Athens -> Santorini; Santorini -> Naxos; Naxos -> Mykonos; Mykonos -> Athens) + insurance for ferry cancellation and rescheduling (which happened unfortunately) for x2 people + 1 car came to $1216
Rental car with the all the insurances was $1124 and add in gasoline at $360, this comes to $1484
Entrance fees for all the museums/archaeological sites/attractions came to $1084

So I'm not sure how you did $3K for 2 weeks, 2 people, even just with airfare, ferries, and car rental taken into account unless it was a tour package or some incredible airfare deals.

Well, it might seem impressive to you, but it’s all about budgeting properly. When we go to Athens, we take the metro to our hotel which costs way less than taxis. No u er in Greece, by the way. We didn’t pay more than $120 a night for our hotels. We don’t use Airbnb anymore, for various reasons, but, mainly because their cleaning fees are out of control, and even if one leaves the property spotless as we always have, we get negative reviews. We used it for 13 years continuously. We booked all of our hotels directly with the properties, not third party websites, which reduced prices considerably.
Car rental for almost $1500? When I was in Sicily in 2018 we had car rental fees of $1400, but it was my fault since much of it were tickets for entering ZTL, and a couple of speeding tickets. Gas usage was minimal, even after driving 1200 miles in two weeks. This trip, we only rented a car in Rhodes, and that was only for two days. Total cost? $76 including gas, which was included and we didn’t have to leave it full. Yes, we paid $38 a day to rent a car.
$1084 to enter archaeological sites? In Greece? The fees to enter Greek archaeological sites are the absolute cheapest in all of Europe. Did you use the vip entrance only? Did you pay at the sites or “pre book”, which is a scam by some third party sites?
We’ve never done a tour. Our flights were direct. Delta to Milan, as we always visit Italy before and after our vacation to visit friends and family. Boston-Malpensa $546 each round trip. Hotel in Rhodes, a total of 6 nights- $683- we got a discount because of the length of time stayed. Ferry Rhodes to Symi- R/T- $138.
Bed and Breakfast on Symi $215. Not a single meal went over €75 except for two on Symi but they were well worth it because tables are usually hard to come by but we stayed in their hotel as well. We’re budget travelers, but as we’ve gotten older, we spend a little more because we can afford to and always look for better deals. We’ve been traveling for 40+ years, my wife’s been traveling since she was a child and knows better than I how to find great deals.
I still can’t wrap my head around your $360 gasoline usage for a rental car for two weeks unless it was a very large Jeep or something, but, even then, it wouldn’t be THAT high. In 2024 we stayed on Milos and rented a Jeep (huge mistake) and even after 7 days still hadn’t even used the tank of gas it came with. But, every traveler is different, and has different needs and does things differently. Still can’t imagine spending $11k in two weeks on Greece.

Thanks for your insights. The metro would have saved me $100 or less. You can call taxis using Uber in Athens (and Istanbul, London, Rome, etc.) even if it may not be official. Uber in the US is unavoidable, or I pay long term parking which is a lot more expensive.

Your flights to Greece weren't direct if you went through Italy. Your ferries did not involve a car. You got a discount due to lengthy stay - we didn't stay anywhere for 1 day except Athens because of the scope of the travel and driving.

I liked AirBnb the most but it wasn't cheap and came to approximately $300 a night in a very nice part of Athens. Worth it to us.

I'm also traveling with my sister, not my wife, so separate beds/larger space were a must and raised hotel costs.

Car rental at ~$1000 is what I saw for Enterprise and Budget in Turkey, UK, Italy, and Greece. Nothing was less than $900. Perhaps you use a different agency. Or use a lot less insurance. We took full insurance and are glad we did as we acquired some scratches on the way and this covered it.

Gasoline to drive 1700 miles in Greek mountains did come to $360. Not a Jeep it was a Suzuki Swace, mid-smallish car. Is that a surprise? To me it is not.

Yes, the archaeological sites all added up to $1084. No VIP access, no 3rd party vendors. All purchased on site. Temple of Olympian Zeus is 20 euros per person. Acropolis is 30 euros per person. Acropolis museum is 20 euros per person. Hadrian's library is 10 euros per person. National Archaeology museum in Athens is 12 euros per person. Roman Agora is 10 euros per person. It all adds up. We saw a lot of sites and museums (40+) in many different parts of Greece and relished every minute of it. Greece does not have the cheapest deals. Turkey had that when I went in 2024 - by far, due to their 14 day museum pass, and I daresay even England had a better deal with the English Heritage pass and London travel pass. Greece (and Italy, from what I could tell) didn't have a plan you could use that way.


Thanks for the tips and all the best for your next vacation.

I never said we flew to Greece. Our flights to Europe were direct and our flight from
Bergamo to Rhodes was €129 for the two of us round trip which is still less than what we would’ve paid if we flew from Boston to Athens or Rhodes, which still isn’t a direct flight. You’re nitpicking on small, inconsequential things that have zero bearing on the fact that we knew how to budget properly. $300 a night for an Airbnb in Athens is highway robbery, if you ask me. We stayed in a 4* hotel and it was still a lot less than $300/ night. Just because you NEED uber everywhere doesn’t mean everybody else does. I’m aware Uber exists in Greece, but, it’s avoidable and using the metro would’ve saved you a lot more than $100. You took your rental car onto the ferries? Did you tell them that you were going to? Honestly, it’s not worth the money. I don’t rent from American rental car companies abroad as they’re ALWAYS independently owned and operated even though I have enterprise, hertz and budget points accumulated, because I’ve always found their services abroad to be subpar, sono always rent from local companies, such as I did in Rhodes and that included full insurance. Don’t assume what you don’t know. Even driving 1700 miles in Greece or anywhere in Europe, such as I’ve done in the past, wouldn’t cost $360 in gasoline costs. Sorry, I’ve lived in Italy, in the north, with mountainous curvy roads, which has zero to do with gasoline usage, and can’t imagine using $360 of gas to drive 1700 miles. Perhaps you had a large automatic vehicle. I always drive a standard (manual) transmission.

Athens: I would just had added the 2 Mitroupolis to Kapnikearea and visited the Cycladic Museum.
It might have been easier to visit Sounion from Rafina and sepnd the whole day 4 between Korinthos and Epidavros.
Wyh not Mistras/Sparta - Kalamata etc.- Bassae - Olympia - Patras?

Do you communicate this way with everyone or only with people you mean to insult? I don't understand the purpose of your posts - there's very little constructive and specific that someone can use for their future trips other than using a local car rental agency and booking hotels directly rather than through Expedia - fair points.

Most everything else is idiosyncratic and couched in ignorance about the specific circumstances of the travelers, like flying through Italy to get to Greece (because you have family there - what about those who don't?), not taking a car to the islands (so how do you get from the coastal city of Naxos to the Temple of Demeter in the mountains of the island? - or do we rent a separate car for each island even if we're just there for 6 hrs?), lugging 4 large suitcases after a sleepless overnight flight on an unfamiliar metro, and driving manual (hard to do when 1 out of 2 people in the party drives only automatic), etc.

That said, I think my 2 weeks in Greece was very different from your 2 weeks.

No need for a reply, I have registered your points quite well thus far.

Would see the Cycladic museum another time I'm there. Agree on Sounion/Rafina but some was play by ear and I knew if I left Sounion for end of day I might miss it. So it was back and forth east to Sounion then west to Elefsina/Dafni/Epidaurus, etc.

I agree it lacked efficiency because we were so exhausted some days we didn't get out of the hotel as early as needed and some sites took longer than anticipated like Olympia etc. Big loss of time was backtracking from Patras to Olympia and then back at night from Olympia through bad weather/fog to cross over to Delphi at night.

Likewise, Mystras took way longer to climb than anticipated but yes ideally it would be Nafplio -> Tiryns/Argos/Mycenae -> Sparta (stay overnight) -> Mystras -> Kalamata -> Bassae -> Olympia -> Patras (stay overnight) -> Delphi etc.

Don't worry! you enjoyed your trip: that's what counts!