What is the best way to get from Dublin to Santorini, Greece? I've been searching the Internet and it seems there are no easy connections. Do I have to go through London and then Athens?

See www.aerlingus.com .

In June of this year we flew from Dublin to Santorini with xl travel - www.xl.com . They are a package travel firm but they also sell direct flights - I think they're the only flights directly from Dublin to Santorini.

HOWEVER I would have reservations about using them again, for the following reasons
- there is very little legroom in the seats - think Ryanair - which didn't bother me too much but DH is 6'4" and after a four and a half hour flight he found the conditions very cramped indeed. There is slightly more legroom in the first five rows so try to book them when you check in.
- they charge for EVERYTHING, from booking seats together to every drop of food and drink served to headphones. Again think Ryanair. If you are travelling as a group it could really add up. The food was mediocre - you'd be better off bringing your own.
- our return flight was originally delayed 8 hours due to a problem with the plane flying to Santorini and recurring on our flight back. We then had to make an unscheduled landing in Athens where we were delayed a further 17 hours. As xl had no representative in Athens we were at the mercy of the airport staff there - who turned out to be wonderful and organised hotel accommodation and so on.

In the end we were a full 24 hours late coming into Dublin - so we missed a full day's work. On reflection - while a lot of the problems with the delays were out of their control, I still would hesitate about flying with them again.

Kim-George,

I did this route from Shannon in 1996. I flew to Gadwick, spent the night at an airport hotel and flew out the next day. It was easy because of the overnight stay. My two favorite places to visit.

Have fun, Joan

Thanks for your replies. After spending practically all day working on this, I think we'll probably end up flying from Shannon to London Gatwick, spend the night, and then fly on to Santorini the next day. We only have 3 nights in Santorini before heading to Mykonos, so I hate that pretty much a whole day gets eaten up with travel getting to Santorini. I hope I'm not missing something as far as ways to get there. I did look into the xl.com travel site, but it appears they don't have a direct flight from Ireland to Santorini the day we'd need it.