daria

Hi fodorites,

My husband and I are planning a trip next May to Greece and Italy. We will have a week or so in each country. We plan to go to Greece first, starting out in Athens. We will then go to one or two islands and, from there, move on to Italy. I have started researching the islands and would really like to go to Santorini. So, at this point, we are trying to decide which other island to visit or whether we should just stick with one. Also, I am concerned about the logistics of all of this.

If we want to visit Santorini, is it too complicated, logistically, to visit another island outside of the Cyclades (i.e. because we will be moving on to Italy)? How hard is it to get to Santorini from islands outside of the Cyclades? How hard is it to get to Italy from Santorini? Thank you!

brotherleelove2003

Santorini is a good choice. There's an airport so you may be able to fly there from some of the other islands outside the Cyclades. Look on Olympic Airways website. If you plan on using the ferry system you will waste a lot of time unless you confine yourself to the Cyclades and Crete, which is about 65 miles from Santorini and therefore easy to reach by express boat.

From Italy you might be able to find a charter flight, but in May, before the summer season, that's not too likely. It's more likely that you'll have to fly to either Crete or Athens first.

AP6380

If you visit Corfu, you can take the 24 hour ferry (more like a cruise!) to Venice. The ship I took was run by Minoan. Maybe you could fly from Santorini to Athens, then fly to Corfu the same day. But if you have only a week in Greece, it wouild be somewhat of a rush to split it up between Santorini & Corfu. If you did do it, I would do 3 nights Santorini and 4 nights Corfu. But then again that would mean eliminating Athens altogether this trip, and taking a flight from Athens to Santorini the same day that you arrive in Athens. Probably focusing on the Ionian Islands would be easiest if you wanted to take a ferry to Italy. Check out www.ferries.gr

Silivia

Hi Daria,

Did Greece and Italy in mid May this year. Flew into Athens, stayed a couple of days, flew to Crete ($101) for a couple of days to check out the Palace of Knossos and then did the high speed ferry from Crete to Santorini ($32) for 3 days. Flew from Santorini to Athens ($99) and then on to Rome ($155). Stayed in Italy a week and a half. All flights were on Olympic Airlines and we bought tickets the day before or the day of the flight.
I will probably head back next May if it is not too crowded before the Olympics. I want to explore more of Crete.

Silivia

Also, I wish I had done Italy first (noisy, fast past, crowded and tons of American tourists) then headed to Greece (very laid back, cheaper, few American tourist, quiet)

daria

Thanks for your responses. I will check out those website. I am going to have to think about this. I thought we would be able to get a boat from one of the islands to Italy, but that is sounding less likely and/or perhaps like a long ride. All of that flying is expensive. Also, I am not thrilled about back tracking to Athens.

Sylvia, did you feel like that Greece itinerary worked for you? Or did is seem like a hassle going back and forth so much?

AP6380

In rethinking what I mentioned as an option, I would say an idea is to fly into Athens and spend 2 nights. Fly from Athens to Corfu, spend 5 nights. It is a large and beautiful island with a lot to do. One of my favorite excursions was a day trip to Saranda, Albania. You can also do an organized trip to Parga on the mainland and the island of Paxos, which is beautiful. The 24 hour ferry to Venice from Corfu was great, shopping, restaurants, a deck to lay out on. Literally the size of a cruise ship. There are also cabins although we were cheap and did airplane seats. Arriving in Venice via boat is spectacular. This plan works and isn't too hectic if you are ok with saving Santorini for another trip, and assuming you want to see Venice?

daria

Thanks! I've been to Venice. In fact, I got married there. We were thinking of perhaps stopping off in Venice for a visit, but I was kind-of hoping to make our way there through Italy perhaps stopping in Ravenna which I've heard is great. I had heard that there is a boat that goes from Corfu to a town in Southern Italy (forgetting the name right now, but it starts with a "B&quot, so I was kind-of hoping to do that.

Corfu is definitely high on my list of island choices, but I just don't know if I can give up Santorini. We may have as many as 9 days, so perhaps we can somehow fit it all in.

Any other advice will be appreciated!

AP6380

Bari is probably the town you're thinking of! Santorini will work if you don't mind the flights within Greece.

Silivia

Daria
The Greece itinerary worked out nicely. The flights were short between the islands - usually 30-45 minutes and the flight from Athens to Rome was 2 hours, they fed us and it was cheaper than taking the ferry from Patras to Bari then trying to catch a train to Naples - 24 hours of travel. There were a ton of flights to and from Athens to Crete which would have saved us some hours at the Athens airport if we had gone there last. We looked into ferries, but with our short amount of time, the inter island flights were time savers even though they were 2 to 3 times the cost of a ferry.
Whatever you do, try to come into Santorini during the day on a ferry - it's beautiful and what a ride up
Santorini only has an early am and a 6 pm flight to Athens (we did not see flights to other islands). Also, ferry service is limited during May-it's low season which means lower cost, less crowded, but not as many ferries.

BeniciaChris

Hi-My husband & I just got back from 3 weeks in Greece. We were there in April & May. The ferrys arn't quite into full swing at that time. We had to fly from Santorini to Athens to Crete. We were in Corfu on our last trip to Greece and logistically that would be closer to Italy. You really loose days if you try to move around too much. This was our 2nd trip to Greece and next June we are going to our 2nd trip to Italy only going to Southern Italy and up to Rome. Have fun planning it-Chris

daria

Thanks everyone. I am starting to think that, logistically, I may just stick with one island. I would prefer to go to Santorini, but I am still confused about the best way to get to Italy from there. I looked at the website above and there are no flights from Santorini to Italy, so I am assuming we will have to go back to Athens. . . . we shall see.

Silivia

Daria,
You will have to catch a flight from Santorini to Athens. In May the flights are usually 7 am or 7:55 pm on Olympic and maybe 2 pm on Aegean Air.