Confused..Turkey to the Greek Islands to Athens
 

Hi
I have read many of the posts but am still very confused with possible paths and transport modes. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
We end our Turkey leg in Kusadasi (sat morning 1 Sept) and then have 3 days until we want to be in Athens.
We are not sure which island to visit but are looking for somewhere that isn't so far to get to on that route (I assume ferry is the most likely mode?).
We are pretty laidback early 30s and would rather wander the streets and check the sights than be at the beach/bar all day/night. What would you suggest? I would love to go to Santorini for the views but am thinking it's too far out? Should we take ferries the whole way?

It's not clear when you have to/want to arrive in Athens... Tuesday Morning or night? Wednesday morning or night?

Ferries in the Eastern Aegean are not nearly as frequent as in the Cyclades.

The easiest island to reach from Kusadasi is Samos, and I happen to find it VERY charming... it isn't touted much on thee boards, and the UK people who go there mostly go on package deals to the north coast or to a beach resort called Pythagoras.

I happen to like the main town, Vathy, on a teal-blue bay. There's a small family hotel about 300 yards up the way (to the left of the port) Hotel Pythagoras, with balconies on the bay and a lovely patio/terrace ditto. It's VERY reasonable (25-30E per double in May...prob. a little more in Sept). There's a wee beach visible from the balconies, good for a quick dip.

The town has some good restaurants (the one Right next to Hotel P. is THE BEST, the tables are almost in the water). There's also a small but choice museum featuring The Biggest Kouros in the World (not kidding). Great for hiking around the island, or rent car or scooters (Ano Vathy, the 'high town' is lovely to hike.. with divine bay views -- reminds one more of Lake Como).

This island is not one of the "blue & white" Cycladic isles, it's more the mellow-yellow with terracotta roofs -- the Other Great Greek look.

If you have to be in Athens by Tues or Wed, you can't get to the Cyclades anyway... no direct ferry to Santorini OR Naxos. You'd have to take a 5 hour ferry to Myknonos either Sunday or Tues at 5pm, then try to get a Mykonos-Thira ferry.

Give it up. YOu only have 3 days and yo are way the heck in the Eastern Aegean. Look at a map. Even a Ferry from Samos to Piraeus takes all night and stops everywhere. My advice... hang out in Samos, then get one of those cheapo Aegean Air tickets to Athens. You'll be able to tell friends you 'Discovered" a Greek island they don't know about!

From Kusadasi, there are boats every day to Samos (www.meandertravel.com).
Onwards from Samos to Pireas, there are ships run by GA Ferries (www.gaferries.gr) and Hellenic Seaways (www.hellenicseaways.gr) and a fast ferry run by Kallisti Ferries (www.kallistiferries.gr). The main port on Samos is Vathi, and most also call at Karlovasi and at the neighbouring island of Ikaria. You could save time by booking a cabin on an overnight service. Both GA Ferries and Hellenic Seaways call at Mikonos.

Why not just spend the three days on Samos, then fly straight to Athens from there? Both Aegean and Olympic have flights from Samos to Athens.
http://www.aegeanair.com/aegeanen/home/
http://www.olympicairlines.com/

And I just checked: those "cheapo Aegean tickets" for Sep 4th are going for €87, while Olympic tickets for the same day are only €50. Or did I read that wrong?

Yes, I did. When taxes are included the Olympic price goes up to €76. Still cheaper than Aegean, though. Sorry about that - Olympic has just changed its website, and now add taxes on the second page.

Thanks so much! Am taking your advise and have booked for Samos. We got cheap flights with Olympic back to Athens.

Aegean's flights vary immensely in costs according to day of the week and even time of day. Out of curiosity I checked their web site myself and found that while the Sept 4 Samos-Athens flights are Euro 87 the same flights on Sept 5 and 6 are Euro 37 (prices including fuel surcharge but not including other fees and taxes, which you have to book to see -- something I hate on ticket web sites.) If anyone checks this you might not get the same results, since Aegean's price also seem to change frequently.

littlebigshot i know what you mean by 'you have to book and see' for taxes etc, but that's not the case with Aegean.
I mean, you have to put your name etc (which is time consuming..i know!) but on the next step BEFORE giving your credit card details they tell you the total cost and then you can decide if you want to book the ticket!

Route for route, Aegean airfares are almost always higher than Olympic's, unless you are lucky enough to get one of their promotional prices. Everyone has heard of the €19 tickets to Santorini, but full fare passengers make up the difference for those who get the cheap tickets. When I tried to book a flight with Aegean last May, tickets were over €100 on the day I needed to travel, while Olympic tickets were only €85. Guess which airline I used? If you can get a cheap ticket from Aegean, snap it up - they don't last long.