I am planning on visiting Athens, Santolini and Istanbul from October 18-26. Would like to spend 3 days in each city. Is this reasonable amount of time? Is Oct a good time to travel to Greece and Turkey? I'm flying from the US. Any recommendations on good airline deals?
Thanks so much!

It will likely be windy and maybe cold on the islands. 3 days at each destination is not a lot of time, but it's better than nothing if you can't extend your stay. I recommend that you stay 2 nights in Athens and 4 nights on Santorini, in the village of Oia.

Stay in the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul so you are close to all the major attractions. Make sure you go to the Grand Bazaar.

Thanks so much for your feedback. I'm finding ticket prices to be quite steep from Boston to Athens (around $800). I thought prices would dip after the tourist season in September. Any advice on websites that I should look for deals?

Check out fares to London, and there are really cheap flight from London with small airlines like easyjet.

SthephenG's right, get a ticket to London then fly Ryanair or Easyjet to Athens, it'll be much cheaper.

I do not agree with Stephen's suggestion!

If you want to combine 2 countries (Greece and Turkey) it is a nonsense to fly via UK on one of these no-frills airlines i.e london/athens/london/istambul/london

1/ easyjet does not fly to Turkey
2/ you have to add,loss of time , multiple airport taxes ,plus the hassle and cost of reaching the various London airports (Luton or Gatwick)

The best solution is to buy a transatlantic ticket on Luftansa up to Athens or Istambul and then continue you european journey with a europass tickets (3 coupons at a fixed rate)flying on Turkish airlines or Lufthansa or any other associated airline.check the star alliance website for the europasses condition

I don't think anyone here was suggesting flying back to London from Athens to pick up another flight to Istanbul. Obviously this would not be possible anyway, since there are no cheap flights to Istanbul from Easyjet or Ryanair. What is possible, however, is to fly to Athens from London and then make your way to Istanbul by bus or train or plane from Athens, or by ferry through the islands into Turkey (which is not practical and takes much too much time). Then after Istanbul you can return to Athens for the return to London. This is not an unrealistic itinerary, in fact many people post questions here about just such a possibility.

The suggestion of buying a transatlantic ticket to Athens or Istanbul by Lufthansa is a good one as long as the cost is comparable to the other suggestion.