hello, I will be traveling to Greece with my family of 2 this June. (children ages 13, 17). This is our itinerary so far:
Athens 2 nights (grande bretagne?)
Nafplion 2 nights (amphitryon?)
Crete 2 nights (??)
Oia 3 nights (? and Ikies Traditional houses?)
Athens 1 night (grande bretagne?)

I am in the process of booking hotels of Athens, Nafplion, and Oia. I do need a location and hotel for Crete. Any suggestions will be extremely helpful. Also I have 2 nights booked in Oia, but I need another hotel for the 1st night there. Again, suggestions would be great. Thank you

I'm sorry, I meant family of 4 in my earlier message

Take a day away from Oia and give it to Chania,Crete or Napflion.

Not far from Ikies is the Volcano's Villas. Definitely DO NOT take a day away from Oia, you'll love it!

thank you so much for your input. I know that I will be spending time on Crete, I'm just not sure where. Should I go to Chania or Heraklion? My top priority on Crete is the Palace of Knossos, but Chania is supposed to be one of the most beautiful towns in Greece. Which do you recommend?

Personally claire, I think you are seeing too much in only 10 days. You are going to be losing a lot of time to travel between places and your trip is already so short.

I would fly into Athens and head directly for one of the islands, spending not less than 3 nights on each (or maybe 5 just on Crete?) and ensure travel time between islands is not overly lengthy. I would keep Nafplion and Athens to the end.

It all depends on how rushed you like to be. I would find less than 3 nights on an island too rushed. I spent 5 nights+ on several islands and have always been happily amused.

I would maybe pick two Cyclades islands - divide 3 nights between each, then 2 nights in Nafplion and 2 in Athens. I would consider seeing Crete on a different trip.

Delphini Villas in Oia is nice...there is a website if you google it. Reasonable price and nice owner.

Just a few thoughts.

Whatever you do - Greece is lovely!
Have Fun.

MB

I agree with the other poster who suggested going straight from Athens to one of the islands. I would probably advise heading straight to Crete, and yes, to Chania, which is far more charming and beautiful than busy Heraklion.

In Chania, we stayed at the Palazzo di Pietro, very close to the harbor, which we really liked. It's a lovely renovated townhouse that dates from Venetian times. The owner's family has filled the rooms with beautiful furnishings and antiques.And the family goes out of its way to help you with any questions, information you might need about Chania, or the rest of Crete!

I've also heard very good things about Casa Delfino in Chania, so take a look at that, too.

Since all the ferries/hydrofoils to Santorini only leave from Heraklion, spend part of a day there seeing the Palace of Knossos, then head out to Santorini.You can get to Heraklion from Chania by bus, or,of course, by car, if you've rented one. The trip takes about two hours.

DON'T CUT any days from Santorini. It's one of the most beautiful islands I have ever visited, and you will be sorry if you shortchange it. Try to arrange a half day private excursion to the volcano and the sulphur springs. We went out with a young local named "Captain George", and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

Also definitely have dinner down at Amoudi Bay, where there are several excellent fish restaurants. We dined at Dimitris, and the seafood was amazing.

As far as Athens goes, you only need a day or two there at most. It's not the most riveting place on Earth, and it's very smoggy and can be brutally hot in the summer.

We've stayed at The Grande Bretagne a few times. It's an excellent choice location-wise, although some of the standard and even superior doubles, despite their exorbitant price, are quite small and look out on an interior courtyard. However, the spa, the rooftop restaurant, and the outstanding service make up for a lot of what some of the rooms lack.

Have a wonderful time in Greece!

Wow! Casa Delfino looks great. I think we will stay in Chania instead of Heraklion because of its famous beauty. How far is the Palace of Knossos from Chania?

Knossos is just outside Heraklion, and Heraklion is about a 2.5 hour drive from Chania, a bit longer if you take the bus since you'll have to go to Rethymnon first to change. If you're going to Santorini after Crete you will need to go to Heraklion to catch the ferry, so if you do so early on the day before you go to Santorini you will be able to take the time in Heraklion to go to Knossos.

Hi Claire

Sounds like you have a wonderful trip planned. On our first trip to Greece, we only had 10 days and it definitely was not enough time, consindering travel between locals.

You might reconsider and leave Nafplio for another time, as traveling there from Athens will take some time. There is so much to see and do in and around Nafplio, and with only 2 days, I believe you will wish you could stay longer. That's the saddest thing about travel in Greece, always wishing you had more time to spend in a particular place.

In my opinion, I would extend your time on Crete, I know for sure, you will wish you had more then 2 days there to explore the many wonders and I think you children will enjoy the extended time too!!

Happy Travels - Sandy in Oregon

Thank you so much for your feedback! We've really reshaped our trip according to your advice. But I have one more question: should I wait until I get to Greece to book the inter-island flights and flights to and from Athens to the islands? Or should I book ahead of time? I'd like our travel time to be kept at the very minimum so I think I'd like to fly everywhere, and avoid the ferries which I hear can change their schedules because of the weather.

Claire

Yes, book your flights in advance. Once the season is underway they are usually sold out. As far as ferry cancellations are concerned, it's not likely that will happen in June because the winds aren't very strong then. Also, by checking early with Aegean Airlines you might get lucky and catch some of their 10 euro (plus taxes) promotional domestic fares. If you don't see them on your travel dates now just keep checking on a regular basis. They'll show up eventually.

http://www.aegean-air.gr/aegeanen/home/

Definitely book those flights asap!

I'm going to Greece in May and a few weeks ago, we booked our flights on Aegean from Athens-Mykonos and Santorini-Athens (total was around 100 euros for both flights after taxes and fees). The very next day after we booked, the fares went up considerably.

I guess they limit the number of seats available at the discount fares or something, but I was surprised that the fare went up so fast.

Hi Clair,
We had a similar trip last year to Greece and we had a great time!
The Nafplia Palace is much better than the Amphitryon. Maybe you would like to reconsider that. I think that you must spend at least 3 nights in Crete and yes, Chania is one of the best cities in Greece. We arranged our trip with Antelope Travel http://www.antelope-travel.com and they did provide us with very good hotels and hints about our trip. You might find them helpful with your arrangements.
Have a great time in Greece!

Cheryllj,
Wow, you were lucky to find those fares! I've been checking that site for a while and never saw that cheap fare from Santorini to Athens.
I'm traveling in April.
The fares listed now are almost 100 Euros per person and I'm not sure that even includes taxes!

Bettina: Keep checking. I'm told that the discount fares might appear again at the beginning of the year, maybe even as low as 10 Euros.

The fare we got on each flight was quoted at 19 Euros, but when all the taxes and fees were added, it came out to be about 38 Euros. So the total for *both* flights was about 76 Euros pp. (I was wrong above when I said 100 Euros, it was actually considerably cheaper than that.)

I just checked the Aegean site again and the fare they are now quoting from Athens-Mykonos on May 13 is down to only 10 Euros (not incl. taxes).

The Santorini-Athens fare, otoh, is at the much higher fare of 77 Euros. Who knows if that will come down, but I suspect it might. The moral of the story is keep checking, and when the fare is good, grab it quickly.

Thanks for your reply!

In regard to your itinerary:

there is plenty to seee in Athens and surrounding area so I would say two nights are fine. I might plan a half day excursion to Delphi if you have time.

Nafplio is one of the loveliest small cities in Greece, but I would say you need no more than a day to see it. Having said that, there are many important ancient sites nearby, the most important of which is ancient Mycenae about an hour away and well worth the visit. Nafplio is about two hours from Athens by car. You did not say if you would rent a car or not, but I think it would be worth it.

Personally I think Crete is too big an island for two nights. I might opt to visit another smaller island instead. Santorini is wonderful of course...we have not stayed in Oia, but bear in mind that it is very small and very crowded in the evenings. The beaches are not so close. The main town on the island is about 20 minutes away by bus...it's the town with the post card views.

Instead of Crete, I might consider Rhodes. Other islands that are wonderful to visit are Corfu on the Ionian side (not so practical considering the rest of your itinerary) and the Sporades (Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos).

Hotels in Athens: the Grande Bretagne is beautiful of course. Another lovely small hotel in Plaka is the Electra Palace on Navarchou Nikodimou Street. Very close to where you will want to be in the evenings (Plaka), rooftop pool and terrace, gorgeous views of the Acropolis from the rooms on the top floors, refurbished before the Olympics.

I agree the Sporades group (Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos) are incredible (my favs!) but the travel and distance involved in getting there from the Cyclades and/or Crete would use up too much precious and limited time.. I also agree that Crete is WAY too big to tackle in a couple of days..but many do opt for the 'glimpse' or taste as it's better than nothing! With that in mind, I think what someone earlier here mentioned would be best..flying directly to Chania then visiting Knossos, if possible, on the day you travel to Santorini as the boats leave from there.. IMO, stick with Ikies..incredible If you can plan on at least 3 nights at each of these isles then you can do any and all mainland at the end including Nauplion and Athens..BOTH worthy of the 3-4 days you have left so you may want to consider basing in Athens (GB is a great peoperty/locale to base!)and possibly to a day trip from there..again, that would be up to you..Athens is loaded with sites, museums galore, cafes, tavernas, boutiques,etc...if you can tear yourself away from that spectacular roof-top pool Have a wonderful time and Enjoy!