joshb5

My wife and I are looking into taking a trip to Greece late this summer for 10 days or so. We're both in our early 30s, are quite active, and love to travel and enjoy great food as much as possible. For this trip, we're currently thinking to probably spend one day in Athens, and then a few days each in Mykonos, Santorini and Crete. The twist is that there's a chance we might be able to extend the trip to a total of 15 or so days, and we're wondering if it's a good or bad idea to try to make a trip over to Turkey to see Istanbul, Cappadocia and potentially Izmir. One benefit to this (aside from seeing another country) is that flights for us are easier and cheaper if we fly into and out of Istanbul. Is this simply too ambitious for the time alloted? We've wanted to see Turkey for a while, but we're concerned we might be spreading ourselves too thin. If we're fine seeing cities for two days each, is this itinerary doable? Does anyone have advice around the logistics/transportation we might use for this type of vacation, or for a suggested itinerary (we've never been to either country and want to make sure we're as efficient as possible in terms of not back-tracking a ton). Once we answer some of these more basic questions, I'll likely be back for advice on the specifics. Thanks in advance for your help.

Michael

An extra five days will do for Istanbul only.

Jackie

Seems like too much to me, but that's because my travel companions don't like moving around too much. We tried to combine Turkey and Rhodes last year--ferries weren't feasible and it required 2 additional flights. I contacted travel agencies in both countries about the ferries, but they could only help in their own respective countries.

For a Greek Islands trip, I spent a night in Athens, flew to Crete for 5 nights, took morning ferry to Santorini for 3 nights and had early am flew back to Athens. (I considered Mykenos on that trip, but decided it was too much.) From Athens, you could fly to Istanbul. Last Sept, we spent 4 nights in Istanbul and then flew to Cappadocia for 5 nights--most people seem to be content with 3 nights there. There are several daily flights from Istanbul to Cappadocia; its a one hour flight with very reasonable prices.

brotherleelove2004

10 days is definitely not enough time. Don't forget the time wasted in transit between islands from when you check out of your hotel to when you check into the next one. That'll be at least half a day. Crete takes a minimum of a week with a rental car just to scratch the surface.

With only 10 days, choose Athens and one island. Relax and enjoy.

akinakin

you must spend more time in Istanbul.

travelerjan

Josh, when you make some decisions and come back, you will get the best advice if you can be quite specific about dates, not just "late summer" ... there's a Greek holiday in August that can bollix up your transportation plans a lot, unless you know bout it... also, don't count arrival day (except for getting to your first island) or count departure day at all, in saying how many days you have.

I concur with the others in urging that you not bite off more than you can chew ... even with 15 days, you can just make a start on discovering Greece. With VERY careful planning (and you need to nail down the transport logistics before y ou book lodgings), you might be able to do 3 islands that have good links, and a few days in Athens.

About Turkey -- if that's where you really wanted to go, do that. Don't try to combine the 2 countries in 2 weeks. Best to consider and decide: