Hello, my husband and I are planning a Greece trip for our 50th birthdays the weeks of May 24 and 31. We will be coming from Los Angeles and will arrive in Athens Sat., May 22 around 5 pm. We will fly home Sat., June 5, so we'll have 13 full days to explore. We are interested in the history and experiencing Greek culture (food, wine, genuine Greek towns). We're active but not hikers. We don't want to spend time on the beach but love beautiful natural scenery. Ideally we're looking for a mix of history, scenic beauty, and Greek culture, as well as a mix between sightseeing and relaxing. We are not shoppers and aren't into the party scene. We considered a cruise but decided we won't get to spend enough time in any one place and wouldn't really experience the culture.

I was thinking of an itinerary including:
Athens - 3 days
Nafplion - 3 days
Mykonos/Delos - 2 days
Santorini - 2 days
Rhodes - 3 days

My questions are:
- Any feedback on this itinerary given our interests and the 13 days we'll have?
- Is the above order what you'd recommend? Or should we immediately fly from Athens to Rhodes and work our way back up to Athens?
- I can't find any non-stop flights from LAX to Athens ... do any airlines fly non-stop?

Any advice would be most appreciated!

There's not much else to do on Mykonos but shop, party and sunbathe, but you can avoid Mykonos and still go to Delos from either Paros or Naxos on a daytrip excursion 3-4 days/week.

Fly immediately out to Rhodes then take a ferry (M,W,F:5pm-12:40am) back to Santorini, then take the ferry 2 hours to Naxos so you can visit Delos, then fly or ferry back to Athens for the mainland part of your trip.

There are no non-stop flights to Greece from the west coast.

Were it me, I would do the itinerary in reverse of the order you have listed.

Given that you've allocated only two days for Mykonos/Delos, it would probably be best to stick with it rather than staying on Paros or Naxos (that's one of the few points where Lee and I disagree ;-) ). My reasoning is that the Delos/Mykonos excursion takes a whole day, leaving you little time left to explore the wonderful islands of Paros or Naxos, so you may as well stay on Mykonos and be done with it! There is also a risk, since the excursions from Naxos/Paros leave only 3 day/week, you could miss Delos completely. I've been to Delos twice, both times from Mykonos.

I agree with brotherleelove to save Athens for last, and fly straight to Rhodes if you can get a flight that evening. Note that you will be arriving on Pentacost weekend, with Monday a national holiday. That's a popular weekend for getaways to islands and coastal villages, but most Athenians will have started their travel before you arrive, so you should be okay. Nafplion and Mykonos will be crowded, but Rhodes is large enough to absorb an extra holiday traffic that weekend.

agree yo should skip mykonos - v pretty in a slightly overly cleaned up way but not worth the effort unless you're gay. naxos is beautiful varied authentic and has great ferry and flight connections. suggest it would be better to spend a cpl of days there.

Portuense has got it completely wrong, and I resent the implication that if you go to Mykonos you must be gay. Mykonos attracts a wide variety of people, including Greek students, middle-aged couples on cruise ships, honeymooners, and affluent Athenians. It is very popular with Americans, as you can see from posts on this forum.

Yes, I prefer Paros and Naxos, but look at it from a practical side: if those two days on your itinerary include arrival and departure, you would have little chance of seeing Delos from either Paros or Naxos. Even if they are two full days on the island, they would have to coincide with the excursion boats' sailing on Tue, Thu, or Sun. If that one day of opportunity is windy, the excursion boat may not sail at all, and you will miss the most spectacular archaeological site in the Cyclades.

Instead, stay on Mykonos. Excursion boats to Delos leave three times each morning from Mykonos harbor (except Mondays), and take only 30 minutes. You can see Delos and be back on Mykonos in time for lunch. That will give you another day and a half for the beach, and exploring beautiful Mykonos Town. My favorite beach is Agios Ioannis, famed from the Shirley Valentine film.

First of all, thanks! for providing enough information to enable people to give good advice; all too often, "newbies" leave out vital data, such as WHEN going or Length of trip.

I agree with Heimdall, do the trip in Reverse (Rhodes first) with a few tweaks, and (tho it pains me) there's no time in your tight schedule for a Naxos stop. As usual when I'm procrastinating my chores I got involved with your challenge, looked up some air/ferry timetables and (with 2 domestic flights), your destination list is do-able.

One confusing aspect: You say "will be arriving May 22 at 5 pm" so it sounds as if you already have booked flights... but then later ask whether there are nonstops from LA, so maybe not yet booked. If NOT booked, I urge you to look at flights that go nonstop from East US (NYC: Delta/Olympic, PHL, USAir, Newark, Cont'l). Why? because these are the only ones that arrive in the AM (from 9 to 10 am). Give you MANY more options for maximizing your time at your destinations, minimizing time-waste in GReek transport.

EXAMPLE: if you stick with a flight arriving 5:20, your only catchable flight to Rhodes will be 21:20 arr 22:20 (9:20-10:20Pm) @128€ on Aegean. IF you arrive 9:30 am, you can get Aegean Air @12:30 - arrive 1:30 @ 52€. Yes, perhaps connecting in US will cost a bit more than connecting in Europe, and yes, you'll have to start out quite early from LAX Friday to make the East connection at 4-6 pm -- BUT you gain a full half-day additional to enjoy Rhodes, PLUS saving 76€!! on your domestic flight. Please consider this! It is with such an am arrival time that I envision this scenario for you:

SAT May 22 - To RHODES on 12:30 flight
SUN-MON-TUES - Explore Rhodes
TUES 5 pm -- Blue Star ferry to Santorini ...arrive just after midnight: (12:40pm) -- OR you could perhaps take Sky Express ... (small planes, about 24 lbs limit on luggage)
WED-THURS - Santorini
FRI - 10 am or 11 am Catamaran to Mykonos (about a 3 hr trip)
FRI & SAT - Mykonos
SUN MAY 30 - Return to Mainland: I suggest Aegean Air @107€... either 6:55-7:30am or 12:10-12:45... yes, pricey, but otherwise you cannot fit in your desired NAFPLIO time, because ferries (not cheap) take waaay too long. You pay in either TIME or MONEY. Sigh.
SUN MAY 30- pick up rental car at airport drive (modern hiway!) to Nafplio --2.5 hrs max, or you can take a bit longer & check out Nemea, a wonderful Ancient sacred game site just off highway 1/4 mile on right, after Corinth. Afternoon - explore Nafplio Old town.
MAY 31 - JUNE 1 - Nafplio ... Epidaurus? Mycenae
JUNE 2-3-4 ... Return car to airport in AM, Metro to Athen Plak district 3 days in ATHENs
June 5 - fly to US

heimdall - i couldn't care less whether someone is gay straight or hermaphrodite...but i stand by what i say. mykonos is tourist greece and it's not hard to get beyond that. and it is indisputably a place where gay people go to have a great time

Well, portuense, you must frequent places I never go to. ;-) Both times I have been to Mykonos were in late May, and I never saw anything overtly gay. Yes, I know it's there, but you have to go out of your way to see it.

Same experience here, Heimdall, and furthermore, I've met gay travelers in just about every Greek island ... not having parades or anything, they are just traveling, llike the rest of us.

Well said, travelerjan.

I think it was Noel Coward who said, "You don't have to be happy to be gay!" Just thought I'd mention it.....

Wow - thanks for the quick responses and great suggestions! Travelerjan, I really appreciate the info on flights and ferries. Unfortunately we only have 2 weeks off (have to work Friday, 5/21). We could do a red-eye to the East Coast Friday night but I think that wouldn't help us get to Rhodes any earlier, right?

Are there particular places you recommend for just enjoying the culture/people, food & wine? That's as important to us as seeing historical sites so we want to make sure we have the balance right.

Thank you, everyone!

don't know about that...i'm a bit too old to attract knowing glances now.

you've got loads of culture/food/wine options in the peloponnese - we once spent a week or two there having travelled by bus from athens but you can get flights to nafplio or kalamata for example.
somewhere you haven't thought of (i'm guessing) in the NE Aegean...Kavala is a beautiful town in a very different part of Greece - greener, more turkish/near east feel to it and is the hop on point for crossings to thassos - itself an interestin g island with good beaches and other things. better still is lesbos. really beautiful, varied, great architecture, great food, culture and pretty sohpisticated by greek standards - and not so visited. again, flight connections with athens are frequent. none of these flights (save maybe crete) between athens and the rest of greece lasts more than an hour so they are v do-able without taking much off your schedule.

Hi portuense,

Good to see a helpful post from you. I hate the negativism that seems to creep into some of the Fodor's threads. My guess is, you've never actually been to Mykonos, but perhaps that's wrong.

I've never been to a Greek Island I didn't like, but obviously like some better than others. When I make an island suggestion, it's because it seems to fit in best with the OP's itinerary - not because it's my favorite.

All the best, and enjoy your future Greek travels.

heimdall, thank you for your patronising reply. i've visited greece at least 20 times and have certainly stayed on mykonos or passed through on half a dozen occasions, so pack your presumptions away in your wheelie suitcase and don't let them fall out again.
surely the whole point of a travellers forum is to advise and that includes the negative side of any location.
I'm not sure whether you're attempting another dig in your second par but frankly i don't care. posters are free to offer what advice they like and if OP sees a post then changes an itinerary that's up to them.

I have found this thread very interesting as my wife and I are planning a similar trip to Greece but in the fall of 2010. Without highjacking the current agenda we would also like to visit Turkey for a couple of days...suggestions??

Thanks...Myles

mgwest, you ARE hijacking the thread. I will just say that turkey is nowhere near the isles mentioned in this thread; do look at a map! If you want Turkey from these place, you would have to go back to Athens and fly to Istanbul... but a "couple of days" (!?!?)

This is like saying, I'm coming to the US for 2 weeks, and want to visit a number of places going down the east coast ... starting in Boston, go To New York, then Philadelphia, then Washington. Oh and by the way, we'd like to visit Portland Oregon for a couple of days.

If I said that, you would tell me, look at a map.

travelerjan, I feet adding Turkey to the possible lists of places to visit from Greece to be pretty reasonable and your rant about maps, US no less, is not very helpful.

portuense writes:

>heimdall, thank you for your patronising reply. i've visited greece at least 20 times and have certainly stayed on mykonos or passed through on half a dozen occasions, so pack your presumptions away in your wheelie suitcase and don't let them fall out again. surely the whole point of a travellers forum is to advise and that includes the negative side of any location<

heimdall's response was far from patronizing.

you wrote earlier

>heimdall - i couldn't care less whether someone is gay straight or hermaphrodite...but i stand by what i say<

now followed by

>surely the whole point of a travellers forum is to advise and that includes the negative side of any location<

We are all therefore left to presume that YOU feel being gay is negative. Surely if you didn't, you wouldn't care that Mykonos has (now not so many) gay visitors.

I agree fully with both travelerjan and heimdall's comments but would further add that you need to leave your prejudices at home and not introduce them to this forum.

Mgwest, Adding Turkey to the list of places to visit from Greece is reasonable IF your chosen Greek Isles are Samos, Chios, Patmos Lesvos Kos or Rhodes .... but NOT reasonable if your "Musts" include Santorini and Mykonos which are way way far away from Turkey. That is what made me think you had not looked at a map.