Family Trip to Greece
 

My family is going to go to Greece in Auguest for about 5-6 days....It is myself, a single dad, with 4 kids, ages 21, 13, 12, and 10.....and maybe another friend of mine. We want to take a family trip, but dont really know where to go with such a wide range of ages....I was thinking of Athens, and then an island for a couple of days, but am open to ideas. I am not sure how long to spend in Athens, nor what island to go to that would be kid-friendly. Any suggestions?

I would suggest not spending much time in Athens at all, maybe a day or two then go out to one of the islands. Also August is high season so I would start booking now.

A really good website on Greece is www.greektravel.com it's full of good information and will help you find an island good for kids.

Good luck
Kay

OTOH, there are many travellers who enjoy Athens and would spend 4+ nights there.

The problem is "5-6 days" is such a short trip, even flights to the more distant islands could consume many hrs each way, what with airport and ground transport qeues. Ferry would be out of the question, unless it's to a nearby island like Hydra or Aegina.

Certain island, eg Mykonos, have a well-deserved reputation as party-central during the summer, or "drunk boors gone wild" ... and wouldn't be my idea of an enjoyable vacation.

I was going to recommend Naxos or Paros, but tom_h makes a good point about your time constraints. Another factor is: the islands get very busy in August, especially around the Aug 15th Greek holiday.

Perhaps you should stick to the mainland and combine Athens with a trip to Delphi, Meterora, or Napflio. You could take a day trip to Aegina or Hydra if you still want to visit an island.

1/Book a hotel on the Athens riviera (Vouliagmeni,Lagonissi)and combine resort living and sightseing or day trips to Hydra, Delphi or Nafplio.

2/Book a family appartment in a resort hotel,like the Olympian Beach of Aldemar or the Grecotel in Kyllini in Peloponese near Olympia (4 hours drive from Athens)

3/book at the Hinitsa bay hotel in Porto Heli9a fabulous family resort and organize day trips to Spetses island ,epidavros etc...

I agree with the last poster, Vouliagmeni would be a good base, nice coastline and beach, transport along the coast to Cape Sounion, easy access to Piraeus and up to Athens. You could take a one day trip to Poros, Aegina and Hydra islands but I would overnight in Aegina, I think it would have more for young people than Hydra.
For that short amount of time just doing this would fill up your vacation.