lindz634

I will be traveling with 2 friends (3 of us total) to Greece possibly in June 2014. We're looking to stay for about a week. I would like to do some type of cruise, even if we only go to one island. I would also love to visit Meteora. We're on a tight budget (trying to spend less than $2000 USD/person total - including flights from Boston). Is this possible to include everything for that cost? By what I'm seeing, we might have to choose either to do Meteora/Olympia/Delphi or an island cruise, but not both. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for the help!

Nikki

There are one day cruises from Athens that go to three nearby islands (Aegina, Poros, and Hydra) for a taste of the cruise concept. Or you can do as I did with my daughter, and take a day trip to the island of Aegina by the ferry. There is a beautifully preserved temple there.

clausar

I don't know how much a flight from Boston would cost, but assuming you would have 1000 USD to spend for a week in Athens, that would be around 735 Euro.

Calculating about 40 Euro per person for accommodation in a triple room in a hotel near Syntagma Square, you would have 455 Euro for everything else,which would be about 60 euros per day, based on a 7 nights stay.

This might be enough if you stayed in Athens with eventually one side trip to Delphi or the Argolis.

Southam

Take a look at www.itasoftware.com, which covers many airline fares (it does not sell tickets.) It shows nothing under $1,300 Boston-Athens, leaving you with under $100 a day for everything else. No space in that sum for side trips, or even a fancy meal. June marks the start of the high season for trans-Atlantic tickets. To go cheap, or at least cheaper, go in October, still warm and before the winter rains start.

greg

"island cruise" = big boat cruise like Costa? It is difficult to do one of these at less than $100/day per person. Even if you find such a cruise, you have no budget to do any organized shore activities. Popular towns on popular islands like Mykonos and Santorini come with high accommodation prices.

travelerjan

$100 per day per person = €73 at today's rates, which were simliar last June. My very best budget hotel in Plaka area (right near Acropolis) last june, with 10% online discount, was €70 double, €80 triple.... so that's about €27 each, leaving you each €46 per day for everything else. If you ferry to an island like Naxos or Paros, you might be able to get a beach triple for €70 in June -- but a one-way ferry ticket would be at least €35. Short answer, your budget is cutting it a bit too close. ALso, it's a really looong (and costly) flight to stay just 1 week.

dulciusexasperis

I think you need to start over with both what can you do and what budget will you need.

First, flying from Boston for a week which really means 5 days since your arrival and departure days are lost, is not much time to do anything.

Unless you transfer to a flight to an island right away, you can forget islands. A 'cruise' just means you spend time on a ship, with very little time on land seeing/doing anything.

Really, you have said nothing about what your interests are and why you want to go to Greece. So for anyone to suggest anything really doesn't make any sense.

If you want to get off the plane, rent a car and head north on the mainland that would be OK I guess but you need to say what kind of accomodation you want at least so people can consider whether your budget is reasonable or not for doing that. A lot depends on just how much of your budget goes into the airfare. Without taking that out first, figuring if the rest is enough really can't be done.