Dear Travelers

I finally have a rough itinerary planned and want your opinion on a few things. We( my husband and I) are planning on departing CHicago on the 18 of May. We arrive in athens and are whisked off to Crete for the first three nights where we are staying at a hotel that offers B, L and D. Then we are off to Santorini where we stay for 3 nights with B. We then head to mykonos for three nights where B is included in the hotel. We return to athens for a classical tour lasting 4 nights with halfboard included. And an extra night in Athens before flying home. The price the agent is quoting us is around 7000 USD for both of us. Now my question is, does this sound reasonable. And do meals really account for a 3000 USD difference from other organized trips I have seen from Friendly planet and so on? I had the agent skip mykonos, and see what that does to the price.

You need to change your subject line, since the subject you give seems to ask about what to eat.

It sounds very high to me but much depends on the quality of hotels booked and the cost of transportation involved. Since you haven't booked your flights yet I can assume that it will cost you a minimum of $1200 each from Chicago to Athens (could be more). That leaves $4600 for what appears to be a total of 14 nights. You don't say whether or not you're flying or ferrying between the islands. Assuming that you're ferrying, the combined extra cost of the ferries would be in the range of $300-$400 (economy tickets for two) by highspeed ferry for 4 island hops, leaving a balance of $4200. Assuming that transfers to your hotels are also part of the package, deduct another $120 for this. Now you're down to $4080. This translates to about $290/night for your rooms and included meals. Understand that all this is a _very_ rough estimate.

To determine if this is a good price or not you need to know which hotels are involved and what their published rates are for May, which is normally considered "Low Season." I suggest you do some internet research on the hotels.

Also, contact Fantasy Travel and Dolphin-Hellas Travel in Athens and ask for a quote for the same package. These are to very reliable travel agencies there with excellent reputations for customer service. It's a good idea to have a local agency to contact if you run into any problems.

www.fantasytravelofgreece.com/english/index.html

www.dolphin-hellas.gr

I started trying to answer your question, but got bogged down by the absence of details about where the $7000 goes. Does it include airfare from the US? How much is that? How much of the $7000 is for transportation to and from the islands? How much is for tours? I can't analyze the food and hotel expense without knowing how much of the $7000 is attributed to these costs.

Also, I'm curious why you want to have so many of your meals at the hotels. Breakfast I understand because this will give you the coffee that so many of us need to get going! But for lunch and dinner, you will get better food and pay less if you go to local restaurants for lunch or dinner.

I agree with Eleni. One of my greatest pleasures when in the Greek Islands is sitting at an outdoor table having a meal. There are so many family-run restaurants and tavernas where you can get an authentic Greek meal. Sometimes you can even go into the kitchen to pick your food. Apart from breakfast, I would not want to eat at the hotel.

I agree. With such a great variety of restaurants and foods it doesn't make sense to have all your meals in one location.

Nomad, i have the same opinion as all other who answered to you. I would not take any other meal than breakfast. there are so many good restaurants and taverns, most of them with live music..so why to eat daily in the hotel? Why to have lunch there , maybe you want to make a day trip and you will not return for lunch?

Regarding your meal package. It sounds as though you are paying an extra $3000 in meals for 14 nights. That's over $200 per day. That is quite high for Greece. Breakfast will most likely (but not always) be included in your hotel rate. Unless you are going to the absolute top places to eat in Athens and the rest of the country, this is way too much money for Greece. You should be able to eat lunch and dinner quite nicely for an average of less than $100 per day for two people, with drinks. I don't know what options you have on your Classical Tour out of Athens, but for the rest of the trip, I would skip the meal plan.

ttt