Can someone tell me if it is really true that you get a better rate when booking a hotel through a travel agency in greece than you do booking directlywith the hotel on your own? I am very accustomed to making my own arrangements and i am a little wary of putting my vacation into someone else's hands...

Heather,<BR><BR>I've been to Greece six times and sometimes I have used an agent and sometimes not. I have never found the agent rates to be less expensive than booking directly. Often the rates are similar or the directly booked rate is lower.

I dealt with a Greek travel agency located in Toronto (we have a large Greek population here). I had them book my hotels on Rhodes, Santorini and Naxos. Rates were basically the same or a little lower than if I had booked on my own. I booked my own hotel in Athens, because she didn't have any cheaper hotels listed and I got a better deal on my own.

i also read / heard that one advantage to booking hotels through an agent is that the agent will take care of all the transfers (ferry/flight) if you go from island to island. comments?

Heather, you are correct -- a travel agent can arrange for all of your transfers for you. When you book directly with a hotel they can also arrange this for you (at least the ones I have stayed at).<BR><BR>One problem I have found with using travel agents for booking hotels in Greece -- and this applies to the agents in Canada and in Greece -- is IF you change your itinerary after you have booked and paid you will NOT receive a refund for any unused nights at a hotel. Greece is the only country where I have run into this problem and it has happened to me more than once with different agents. In one instance we were stuck on Rhodes wishing to fly to Santorini because of a "one-day" Olympic Airways strike. We ended up covering the charge for the hotel stay in Rhodes and getting charged for the "missed" night in Santorini. Neither the hotel nor the agent would refund the difference -- luckily our travel insurance stepped in and refunded us the difference. <BR><BR>Depending on the time of year you are planning to travel and the islands visited you may want to only prebook a few nights here and there. Once you get to Greece this will allow you to be more flexible with your time and choice of accomodation. You can always call ahead for accomodation or stop into a travel agency (they are a dime-a-dozen on the larger islands) and have them book something for you. I have travelled to Greece six times and this is now my preferred method of booking accomodation.

Rita, do you think we need to prearrange our accommodations for April?

I just got a reply from GreeceAd.com which quoted a higher hotel rate (120 Euros) in Santorini than the hotel itself (85 Euros). I too am accustomed to making my own arrangements, glad I did! My feeling is, no one is looking out for the best deal for you, but YOU!

Rita2, I don't think you will need to prebook in April but then again I have never travelled to Greece in April. I would definately book the first two nights wherever you are landing first and from there I would just wing it.