I am planning a trip to Greece from New York. I would like to stay in Athens for 2 nights, Mykonos for 4 nights and Santorini for 3 nights. Do you recommend staying in Athens at the beginning or the end of the trip? Should I stay in Santorini for 4 nights and Mykonos for 3 nights?

Jean, <BR> <BR>We were in Greece last September and chose to travel straight to Mykonos for 4 nights (via Athens), on to Santorini for 5 nights and close the trip in Athens for 2 nights. It worked well for us and we originated in California.

I would do Athens first. Reason: It is a large, very congested, dirty city with some very famous sites to see. Go there on the start of the trip, do the famous sites and then go to relax on the islands. You will have a better time in my opinion. At the end of your trip it will seem a hassle after the beauty of the islands.

We ended our trip in Athens. Our rationale was that we didn't want to be flying back from Naxos (the last island we visited) the day we were flying home, just in case there was a problem with the flight. So we'd have to go back a day earlier anyway. We didn't want to spend time in Athens at the beginning and end of the trip, so we decided to go directly to the islands and spend the last 2 nights in Athens. We found that worked well for us.

I'd recommend ending in Athens since you will probably need to fly out of there anyway. alternatively, you could split your Athens time, beginning and ending your trip in Athens. Two years ago, I flew NY to Athens, Athens to Santorini, stayed in Santorini a few days, then flew to Heraklion, spent a week in Crete, then flew from Chania to Athens, stayed a few days in Athens and flew home from there. Santorini was a good place for recovering from jet lag, and staying in Athens before flying home was idial. About 25 years ago, I spent a few days in Athens at the beginning and end of my trip, and went to Rhodes and Samos in between. That worked fine, too. The only thing I would NOT recommend is being anywhere other than Athens on the night before an international flight out of Athens.