Greece 9 Day Travel Itenerary
 

Hi,

Need help with Greece Islands travel. We are arriving in Athens on Sep 11th (1:30PM) and departing on Sep 21st early morning (8:00AM)

We are not party people - beaches, nice scenery, white-washed towns with nice cobbled streets - that's what we love.

Here's a few options - please let us know if this is feasible.

1) Thursday seems like a bad day to arrive in Athens for connecting flights to islands - one option is to do a quick evening in Athens - see Acropolis and stay near airport

2) Friday - Flight t to Naxos or Milos (3 nights) - please advise which is better based on our interest ??

3) Monday - Ferry to Santorini - (3 nights)

4) Thursday - Ferry to Chania.. (pretty much 3 nights) - Saturday night flight - Chania to Athens. Stay in airport.

Depart Sunday morning.....

Is this too much or doable ?? Should we shift nights ??

We can also do this in reverse somewhat - on the day of arrival (we arrive at 1:30PM), there is a 9:00PM Ryanair to Chania - we would have 7 hours to kill - perhaps just do a quick visit to Acropolis and back and skip staying in Athens until the last night ??

Thanks a lot.

Any reason you are not looking into Aegean also upon arrival?

ATH to Chania?
A3336 16:10 (may be tight)
A3344 21:45

ATH to Heraklion?
A3322 18:55
A3326 19:55
A3328 22:15

Ryanair was significantly cheaper - but we are not set on it.
We can do agean as well.

But, are all these islands even doable, without feeling like packing/unpacking, and in transit all the time ??

We have only been to one island, Naxos, and it definitely fits you interests. You can see our pics here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...7627668851905/

With the amount of time you have I would fly right to the island of your choice, and would stick to two islands and Athens. We would personally stick to one island and Athens but you could do two.

With the time you have I would skip Crete/Chania this time. I would add 1 night each to Athens, Naxos or Milos, and Santorini.

There is more to see/do in Athens than the Acropolis. IMO should have 2 full days there. We stayed at the Athens Gate. www.athensgate.gr In a good location with rooms with views of the Acropolis and the Temple of Zeus. We had a very early morning flight back to the US from Athens so we stayed at the Sofitel. It's right across from the airport. We walked with our luggage-about 5 minutes or less. There's a metro stop there that we took into Athens town for our last evening. A nice dinner with a view at Orizontes.

On Santorini you can visit a winery or two. We went to Santo Wines and Sigalas but there's lots more. Boutari, Canava Roussos. We stayed in Oia. Very scenic but no beaches on the caldera view side. We had a car so we did drive to Perissa beach-black sand but nothing spectacular. The next day we went to Red Beach-hard to find but it was a nice beach-scenic. Then we went to Kamari Beach which was also ok but a bit too wavy for me. Perivolos is another beach but we didn't get to it. If Akrotiri is open definitely a must see visit IMO. On the caldera side you can go down to Amoudi Bay. Can have a meal. Nice scenery. Or take a boat trip to the volcano, hot springs, Thirasia port.

Didn't visit Naxos or Milos so can't offer any info. We also visited Mykonos, Rhodes, and Crete but we had a month+ in Greece.

If you do want to substitute a destination for Chania have you checked out Nafplio? It's on the mainland, about 3 hr. drive from Athens. Upon arrival Athens Airport we rented a car. Nafplio is charming. Beach Tolo-pretty, sandy, warm water when we were there in June. Can do day trips to Mycenae and/or Epidauros. Nafplio was a favorite of ours.

We stayed with Greek friends in Chania which made our time there special. We were there almost 2 weeks and while enough time for Chania there's a lot more to see/do in Crete which is why I suggested leaving it until you have more time than 3 nights. Beaches-Agioi Apostoli is close to Chania town and was very nice. By car we also went to Elafonissi and Falaserna Beaches. The Samaria Gorge is very scenic but not an easy hike. Lots to keep you busy in Chania!

Whatever you end up with have a great trip to Greece!

Chris45 has provided pretty good advice. Although Chania is one of my favourite places I would suggest you either drop it or spend all your time in Western Crete.
The reason is the time you have to spend in each island hop.
Getting from Crete to Santorini is only a two hour ferry trip however it only departs from Heraklion so that means you have to get from Chania to Her4aklion which is 2.5 hours by bus so you are realisticlly only going to get 2 nights in Chania and one in Heraklion.

While I also am very fond of Milos it has a fairly short tourist season. We were told it starts June 20 and ends at the end of August. For sure in early June there were not many tourists around although the island is lovely with so many different beaches.

So that leaves Santorini and Naxos.

There is a flight on Aegean/Olympic at 19:10 to Santorini. That is a 6 hour layover but there is nothing like waking up in Santorini on your first morning.

This is an island to blow your budget but be sure to get a hotel with a Caldera view. That view is worth every penny.
Santorini http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632154800782/

For many people 3 nights maube 4 is sufficient in Santorini. And for many of us 3 nights is all we can afford.
Its a 2 hour ferry ride to Naxos which is the ideal companion island to Santorini. It has the same white and blue buildings, a charming old town topped by a kastro and St George beach is a short stroll into Naxos town so you can have the best of a beach holiday and the cobbled back alleys you described.
Best yet Naxos is still going to have decent number of tourists, just enough to make it interesting and all this at way less than half the cost of Santorini for both hotels and dining. Costs in Naxos allows us to afford a few days in Santorini.
So that will give you 3 nights in Santorini and 5 in Naxos.

I too think you should spend at least two nights in Athens at the end of the trip. Find a hotel in the Plaka area near the Acropolis and get your antiquities fix.

Naxos Town http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632094558042/
Trip around Naxos http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7634605629689/

And Athens
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632121475515/

If you decide on Western Crete instead let us know I have lots of images of Chania and the West.