Greece Itinerary question
 

For the Greece portion of my honeymoon in early October, I have made the following tentative plans – any suggestions or comments?

--Saturday and Sunday in Athens at the HOTEL GRAND BRETAGNE
--Monday thru Thursday in SANTORINI – Katikies
--Friday and Saturday in CRETE – where should we stay??? Is it necessary to rent a car for such a short period in Crete? We are trying to go a little less expensive for these two nights.
--Sunday we go to ATHENS where we’ll spend the night again at the HOTEL GRAND BRETAGNE

I am planning on booking the smallest (and least expensive) double room available in the hopes that we may be offered an upgrade once we tell them it is our honeymoon. How realistic is that? I figure that the least expensive room in places like these won’t be so bad.

Any help would be appreciated!!! Thank you -

Bringing your question back up "to the top" since it is your first time here - - (how do I know that? click on your own name; this is a valuable tip that Fodors fails to tell you about, when they send you the e-mail confirming your registration).

Best wishes,

Rex

In Crete, stay in Chania. In October (outside the British school holidays) you will have no difficulty finding cheap accommodation, even on the harbourside. You could easily spend 2 days in Chania without a car. Mind you, going to Crete without seeing Knossos would be total loss. But you can do that by bus.

We stayed in the Bretagne last summer and were upgraded with our Starwood Gold. It was a lovely room with a balcony and view. Last year Starwood was offering possible upgrades if you used a Starwood Credit card. I did that too, so not sure which got us upgraded. At least apply for a Starwood card if you don't already have one, that and the honeymoon status might help. We loved the Bretagne. It had been over 10 years since we stayed in the old hotel. So nice now with the same fabulous views. We had dinner at the roof top restaurant and the food, staff and manager were wonderful.
We stayed in Santorini at the Tsitouris Collection. If you are looking for luxury, but privacy, this place is wonderful. We received so much personal attention. The first night we asked where they would recommend we go for dinner, and they had someone walk us to the restaurants and make suggestions. Only drawback is that it doesn't have a pool. I thought I would mention it in case you don't get Katikies for some reason because it was wonderful. Free wine and drinks in your minifridge, pretty much everything you could think of for breakfast. Anyway, you will enjoy the Bretagne and from what I have read on this site, Katikies too! Have a great trip.

I would agree that staying Chania (Hania no coincidenc is my favourite place in Crete). I usually stay at Anatasia Hotel in the old town. You can take a bus to Elafonissos beach or rent a car for a day but if you only have 2 days you can enjoy yourself seeing the market and walking around the town and harbour. Have you checked out fly past Crete?

Thanks so much for the help!! I have another logistical question - From Santorini we plan to take the Flying Dolphin to Heraklion. We are planning to stay at Casa Delfino, and the lady from the hotel said she can arrange a cab from the port to the hotel for 100,00 Euros - is there a better way? I guess there must be a bus that would be cheaper, but is is comfortable, as the ride looks to be about 2 hours? The comfort and the door-to-door service of a cab may be worth the extra expense. What do you all think?

I would think it would be better to rent a car in Heraklion and drive to Chania. It would probably only cost you 30 or so Euro/day, and the drive would be nice. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.

Either that or Aegean Airlines has flights from Santorini to Chania via Athens for 120 Euro/each (includes tax).

Add 100 Euro for the taxi to 2 Flying Dolphin Economy tickets, 56 Euros, for a total of 156 Euros. Obviously you'd save 84 euros by hiring the taxi, but your time is worth something too.

I'd go with the taxi. As some Greek taxi drivers can be pretty crazy, I would ask for a slow driver and make sure the driver knows that you are more likely to tip if you are not frightened to death! This usually works wonders. (Siga, siga means slowly, slowly in Greek). The buses are often crowded and it would be a shame to spoil the end of your trip. Hania is a lovely town.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding. You have chosen beautiful spots for your honeymoon. Grande Bretagne and Katikies on Santorini will not dissapoint. About upgrades- I think it is very realistic to hope for an upgrade at the GB, especially if you go to the Starwood website and sign up for their "preferred" club. There are enough rooms at the hotel so that there will likely be upgraded rooms available, and they really do upgrade routinely if you have the preferred membership. As for Katikies, I think it is less realistic to hope for an upgrade, mainly because they are always so booked, but also because most people there are honeymooners (at least when we were there last summer this was the case- we only met one couple NOT on their honeymoon). If you are visiting when the hotel is not very crowded, this may be different and they may offer you an upgrade, but you shouldn't have your heart set on it. Be sure to book a room you would be happy with if there were not an upgrade. Really, the public areas of the hotel and the service are so spectacular, I think you would enjoy it regardless of the room category. I can't speak to the upgrade practices in Chania- I haven't made it there yet. Good luck!

Has anybody ever taken the catamaran run by the Flying Dolphin compnay as opposed to the hydrofoil? It seems like it would be more fun.

Congratulaions RLW! My husband and I plan to take essentially the same route in July. How will you be getting from Athens to Santorini and from Crete back to Athens? This is something I'm debating for our trip...

(Katikies looks BEAUTIFUL. Unfortunately, this is NOT our honeymoon and have decided to take the more cost-efficient route. Enjoy it!)

From Athens to Santorini we will fly (Olympic or Aegean airline) and from Santorini to Crete we will take either the Flying Dolphin hydrofoil or the catamaran. And Crete to Athens - fly again. Haven't made the reservations yet - not sure how far in advance this should be done (for each - the flights and the hydrofoil/catamaran) Any advice from anyone out there? :)

I'm hoping someone will also give us their input on the catamarans? I love sailing, and would love to incorporate it somehow.

I think the hydrofoils are now obsolete, and the new Flying Dolphin is now a catamaran.

I plan to stay 3 nights on Santorini, 3 nights on Mykonos, and 2-3 nights on el Cairo (Egypt) and somewhere in between, a daytrip to Athens! ...Am I crazy??? You guys are the only ones I trust.

I will be going the first 2 weeks of October (boy am I behind!), but Im not sure if this itinerary is convenient, help greately appreciated...

Just took the Flying Dolphin from Santorini 12 days ago and it is a cat. Smooth, quick, and comfortable but I wouldn't say "fun" particularly; it's a big ferry. More like riding on a plane - a big, wide plane. Holds a couple hundred people or more. However, I'm sure the 1 hrs. 45 min. trip is a lot more fun than taking a plane back to Athens and another to Crete. In May there was plenty of room on the boat, so we could have done it walk-up. Imagine Oct. is the same. A week or two should be sufficient then for booking. (And this from a person who is incredibly anxious if she doesn't have everything in order 3 mo. ahead.)

If you decide to take the Flying Dolphin, be advised that it doesn't go every day. I know it makes the trip, leaving Santorini (supposedly) at 5:30PM, on Mon. & Tues. and I believe on Fri. plus another day or two. So plan your schedule accordingly. If you plan to leave Santorini Thurs. night in order to have a full day Fri. in Crete, I'm not sure you can get the Flying Dolphin, might have to check on other ferries. (I ended up adjusting my entire schedule around the Flying Dolphin from Santorini to Heraklion and a tour in Athens which was later cancelled. :-( Ended up with my longer period in Athens at the end but it worked out really well.)

And if the boat is late, which I understand is pretty common, stop at the taverna closest to the building at dock #4 (where the Fly. Dol. docks) and enjoy the entertaining taverna owner and a frappe or beer. He'll yell over to the FD employee at the door from time to time to check on the boat's progress for you. Nearly all the other passengers went into the building and waited rather crowded together while we enjoyed some drinks and more things we shouldn't have been eating - and chatted with the owner's wife - from Pittsburgh!

Oops, forgot the hotel question. We stayed in the Best Western Porto Veneziano in Hania and liked it pretty well. I read a lot of reviews before I decided and am not unhappy with the choice. It's right on the harbor at the far eastern end, so it's quieter than most places but the additional walk to restaurants is no more than 5 min., if that. Rooms nice but typically European small - we had 2 twins pushed together and the room was probably about 9x12+ or maybe 13. Breakfast was pretty good. Booked on the BW website and got it for 103 Euros Senior rate, but I think the Best Rate or AAA or something similar was only about 10 Euros more. If you have a car, there's a parking lot very close if you can't find parking beside the hotel, and that can be a terrific advantage in the old city. If you check the BW website, though, it's a bit peculiar. When I selected Chania or Hania it wouldn't give me a hotel, but if I selected Heraklion or even Santorini, the Porto Veneziano came up in the list. Maybe they've fixed that now, but it did that from when I began checking out places until I booked 2 mo. later.

We are taking the ferry from Santorini to Heraklion in Crete. We are staying at Mythos Palace at Kavros which I believe is 35 km from Chania. Can you provide any information on transportation options and costs to get from the pier to our hotel?

Best hotel in Chania is Casa Delfini a really stylish old Venetian mansion right in the old town close to the harbour.
Rethmynon also has some similar type hotels and is a very nice town in some ways better (less commercial) than Chania, but the best part of Crete is in the south west (Sfakia) although hotels are not as luxurious as the north.

Santorini is an awful place (in my opinion) it's like a Greek island Disneyland and is about as authentic Greek as Disneyland is authentic American. Also be careful the bandits in Santorini wear white shirts. I was there just last week and the first day it happened (again) a coffee amd cake which cost €8.50, I handed a €50 note and the waiter gave me €1.50 change, I said it was a 50 and he said "oh sorry I made a mistake" it has happened to a lot of others too.
These people are spoiling Santorini it's just so commercial, nothing like the smaller much more friendly islands like Amorgos,Folegandros or Sikinos (or Turkey !)which are also more beautiful by far.
Still, if sitting watching the sun set from the caldera edge is a must do, then you have to go there, but be careful Santorini is the "Greek island experience" for American and Japanese tourists and they will try to rip you off.
Katikies is superb, but there are a lot of similar classy and expensive places close by.