Greece and Turkey Question
 

Hi,

Would the following be too much for a 10 to 14 day trip?

Any thoughts on the quickest path between Greece and Turkey would also be appreciated.

Istanbul 2-3 days
Ephesus 2 days
Crete 2-3 days days
Santinrini 2-3 days
Simi 2 days

You've offered of an itinerary that averages less than 3 days in each location not taking into account travel time, which is not always that fast unless you plan to fly. There's no fast and easy way to get from Crete or Santorini to Symi. This is too much to do in too little time. Either extend your vacation or rethink your choices and plan a more realistic route.

Thanks Brotherlee Love,
I loosely based the days on what I read in Frommer's Suggested Itineraries.

How many days per place would you suggest?

It's more complex than just adding days, it's about coming up with a plan that allows you to visit each location with the least amount of wasted time. If you had the same amount of days, 14, then added the necessary travel time to it you could enjoy all 5 of these destinations. If you go to Istanbul first but can fly home from Athens you won't have to backtrack. Symi is the most difficult to fit into any easy route. Can you eliminate it and change to Samos instead? If so you can easily go to Samos after Ephesus, and from Samos you can get to Santorini by first going to Mykonos or Paros depending on the day of travel. From Santorini you can go to Crete and from Crete back to Athens.

Another possibility would be to go Bodrum or Marmaris after Ephesus then on to Rhodes (instead of Samos), then on to Crete then Santorini then Athens.

If you learn to use www.gtp.gr to help you figure out a route you'll see there's no easy solution to setting this up.

Istanbul and Ephesus are definitely worth seeing, so I hope you can figure it out.

Hi

I'm going to Turkey and Paros in September. I'm flying from Istanbul to Paros via Athens using Olympic. However I've got 4 weeks all up. I agree with Lee's comments. You're covering far too much. Either do Turkey or the Greek islands but not both. I would suggest Turkey. You can do some islands from there eg. Rhodes, Kos.

Have a great trip