Folks

My 15 year old son and I are going to Greece for one week in early April. I know that may not be enough time but we don't have more! I like us to see both the historical treasures there as well as the Greek life - my son has some special needs and I like to expose him to various lifestyles and cultures, and food of course, which is his favorite activity. We want to visit the Islands, or at least one Island- I think we can pull off doing two islands, depending on how much time we spend in Athens. A friend has suggested Crete would best fit our needs. I would love to hear from you suggestions for the itinerary, as well as hotels. I tend to prefer boutique or luxury hotels but I am also very interested to stay in places with strong local flavor, rather than big chains, especially smaller places ( I don't like really big hotels).

Safa it is hard to advise you, you have given good info about your interests, but advice will differ depending upon what the "special needs" are … whether son is developmentally disabled or has a physical disability. WIth the former, perhaps a whole lot of historic ruins & museums might not be of interest to him, with the latter, maybe some places might have difficult walking/climbing aspects. And the beach -- which is a hit with ALL 15-year-olds -- it's too cold for it really, except to walk along the sand; if u get lucky with the weather u can sunbathe face & arms, and enjoy sunsets. I hope he will like Greek foods; there are good pastries and ice creams of course (AND these days alas one CAN get US-style junk food & french fries), but standard Greek food DOES involve a lot of vegetables & salads also, and as I remember, my son at 15 was not so hot on those.

With such a cruelly short holiday we could advise better on an itinerary if you could be SPECIFIC about arrival/departure DATES and TIMES of DAY... it changes your options a lot (i.e., flying out to an island immediately upon arrival OR going into Athens first). Does the week include travel to/from USA? Or do u have 7 full days "in country"? You probably will have to do domestic flights; might u also consider a short car rental?

With more info, I could give u a scenario, because I am very familiar with crete and 15-18 other possible destinations, but to develop one by guesswork could be a waste of time & effort.

Thanks travelerjan. My son has developmental needs but is physically very capable - in fact, we quite often do a lot of walking and hiking in our trips. We are arriving on Sunday night, the 5th of April, in Athens, and leaving Athens mid morning on Sunday the 12, so we have six full days in Greece. I thought we could spend the first two days, Monday and Tuesday, in Athens, and fly or otherwise get to the islands on Wednesday. As the islands are close, I assume will be there by noon, at the latest. I don;t mind island hoping, especially if we could do it quickly with a ferry, preferably for day trips, as I prefer not to move hotels too many times. But I am open to suggestions. Thanks.

Hi Safa1

Is there any way that you can extend your trip by a day or two or three? That's a L O N G way to go for six days. Coming from New York, the flight is about 10 hours on a good day, and that doesn't include the typical hour or two of sitting on the runway at JFK or Newark! We've found that it takes us at least a day or two to recover from the flight/jet lag before we feel like we're really in Greece.

Anyway, if there's absolutely nothing you can do about it, try to connect straight through to your first island destination from Athens, unless your arrival time makes that impossible. It will save you some backtracking with such a short trip. Visit Athens at the end of your trip so that you don't have to worry about potential delays from the islands, and are in place for your flight home.

We really enjoyed Crete and Santorini, both of which have good connections to and from each other, and to and from Athens in the summer months. I'm not sure what the schedules for planes/ferries are in April, but I'm sure that travelerjan and other Greek experts can help you out with that. Have a great time!

Safa1
-- First of all, ferries are not fast. Even fast-ferries go 30 mph .. so any islands take a while. AND you have to be back in Athens the day before your flight out, just to be sure, because of possibility of weather delays. Here's what I see as a do-able scenario -- it does NOT include Crete, but does give you 2 islands.

APRIL 5 -- On arrival, FLY IMMEDIATELY to SANTORINI. I asked you to give the TIME of arrival, which you did not... but I looked up flights anyway. You must check in to a domestic flight 45-60 minutes befdore departure. There is an Aegean flight at 1935 (7:35) arriving Santorini 8:20. There is an Olympic flight at 2125 (9:25) arriving 2215 (10:15). Booking at an upscale "boutique" or luxury hotel, you can arrange to be met at the airport by them. THUS, on your first night, yo will be on your island, and can wake up to the view of the caldera.

LODGING SUGGESTIONS -
(1) The most luxurious hotels (spas etc) are in Oia at the northern tip of the island. However this is isolated and in first week in april, practically nothing will be open. Therefore I suggest something in Fiostephani, which is an easy walk downhill to Fira Town, or in Fira Town itself. The best location in Fira T own, te Hotel Atlantis is right by the Cathedral on one side, the museum on the other, and a big terrace facing the caldera. However it is not a new hotel... if you got top luxury suite it might do for you.

(2)Another option which might be VERY good in Firostephani is Villa Illias which gets excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. http://www.villailias.gr/index.html. I presume u want to share a room with your son, but not be crowded. Many Santorini hotels are geared to honeymooners, but Ilias has a very nice unit "Standard Studio" which is a room double the size of regular room with 2 double beds & a private balcony. Illias has its own parking lot, and NO steps needed to reach one's room (Very good since many hotels have vertiginous steps down the face of the cliff!).

APRIL 6 & 7 - Enjoy the views of santorini; hope the weather is fine! Some people talk about the hike to Oia, but that's about 8 mies. Why not rent a car, drive to otherside of island, up a bluff half-way, then hike to the top, to the ruins of ancient Thera! Fantastic view of several islands.

APRIL 8 -- Take the BLUE STAR Ferry at 1530 (330) pm to NAXOS, arrives 5:30 pm. This is a large ferry, open decks, so u can see the santorini view as u leave... AND the lovely NAXOS view as you arrive. I recommend Nissaki Beach Hotel as most convenient AND upscale
http://www.nissaki-beach.com/index.html ... ON the beach yet directly adjacent to Naxos town http://www.skymap.gr/?ElementId=59724&Category=0

APRIL 9 -- explore Naxos Town & beaches (rent a car?)

APRIL 10 -- There is an 11 am Olympic Flight to Athens Airport arrive 11:40, in a taxi u can be in a Plaka area hotel by 12:45. HOtel AVA is a small Suite hotel in Heart of Plaka.
Rest of day exploring Athens... you can go to Acropolis at sunset, avoid the AM crowds.

APRIL 11 -- More of athens. If you want 2.5 days in athens instead of 1.5, then go from Santorini to Naxos on Aft of Tues Ap 7 instead of Wed Ap.8
APRIL 12 -- To airport by 8 for 10 am flight

That's a scenario that WORKS ... if u need more details e-mail me.

Thanks very much travelerjan for such a detailed itinerary suggestion. Let me add a few things that I had left out:

- We arrive late, at 9:30 PM in Athens - I can't change the flight, and I can't add any more days. I like the idea of starting in the islands and ending in Athens, so we don't have to have two hotel stays there, but I didn't find any flight that late at night - and it would be a little tough on us anyway after a long flight.

I also need to clarify how my son and I do our trips. My son is in the Autistic spectrum and as such, has limited attention and focus. We tend to limit our visit to places like museums (if a museum deserve a full day, we try to get some glimpse of it in couple of hours, with some breaks). On the other hand, we can do a good deal of walking in the cities, and driving between them - we have done a fair amount of both in Europe, Mexico and elsewhere. We really enjoy the serendipity of finding small villages on our ways, getting lost from our main course and finding new places.

I also know from past posts that nearly all of the Fodor's experienced travelers are horrified at the relatively short amount of time we tend to spend at each destination- I understand that, but it really works for us! We tend to do at least three stops on an itinerary that most folks would say two is absolute maximum, but we get a lot during our travels, not just at the destinations.

A friend has suggested that we do day trips from Athens to one or two islands, and then possibly spend 2 or three days at Crete. I do want to see Santorini and Naxos sounds interesting too - Among other candidates for me are the Ionian Islands, and a visit (drive, probably) to Peloponnese (which I really like to do).

So given all this and your obviously great travel experience in Greece, I wonder if you have any updates on your suggested itinerary.

By the way, we are returning with an 11:30 AM flight on Sunday from Athens, which is another reason I thought we'll leave Athens to the end.

Thanks much for your help.

No I don't have any updates to suggest here, because I have already spent time futilely, due to working out advice based on guesswork. I already suggested you could click on my name and find my e-mail, and perhaps we could arrange to talk by phone -- that way, ALL details are clarified and wasted effort is avoided.