Greece options... please help with itinerary!
 

I will be spending August 9- Aug 20 in Greece. I am a 21 year old female traveling by myself. I have several options for my stay in Greece, but would also be open to other suggestions. I would love to hear suggestions on any cities too visit on the mainland... Please help me make my first trip to Greece amazing!

In any of the following options, I would like to take a day trip from Athens to the Temple of Poseidon, if that is plausable.

Option 1:
Day 1- Milan to Athens
2- Athens to Santorini (land at 7am). Day in Santorini
3,4- Santorini
5- Santorini to Athens. Take bus overnight to Corfu.
6,7- Corfu (Pink Palace, is this safe?)
8- day in Corfu, Take bus overnight to Athens
9,10,11,-Athens
12- Athens to Munich

Option 2:
Day 1- Milan to Athens
2- Athens to Santorini (land at 7am). Day in Santorini
3,4- Santorini
5- Santorini to Athens
6,7,8- Athens
9- Athens to Meteora
10- Meteora
11- Meteora to Thessaloniki
12- Thessaloniki to Munich

Option 3:
Day 1- Milan to Crete
2,3,4- Crete
5- Crete to Santorini
6,7- Santorini
8- Santorini to Athens
9,10,11- Athens
12- Athens to Munich

Please read my trip report here:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ort-may-08.cfm

Thanks for the trip report... Now I have to decide where to go other than Santorini and Athens! I was considering Mykonos, but seeing as I will be there on a holiday (Aug 15th) and that Santorini and Mykonos are so alike, I've ruled out Mykonos.

Any other suggestions?

Anywhere on the islands will be packed around Aug 15th. I like your option #2, provided you add Delphi before Meteora. :-)

Thanks Hemidall! Would you suggest cutting one day out of Athens and spending one night in Delphi?

It's difficult to say where you should make the cut - there is so much to see everywhere you will be going. Delphi is amazing, though, and not far out of the way on your route to Meteora.

Would it be better to take the 730 bus from Athens to Delphi, on day 9, stay for about 5 hours, then head to Meteora? I've seen some people suggest to do this, then take a few bus changes to Kalambaka. Some of the people suggested a bus change in Lamia?

How does this sound? Any further insight into a route from Delphi to Meteora?

I also like option 2. I would definitely take a day out of Santorini to fit Delphi in your mainland part.

I'm not familiar enough with mainland bus routes to advise, but five hours would probably be enough to see the Sanctuary of Apollo and the Sanctuary of Athena. Add the museum, and it would be a bit rushed. If that's the only way you can fit Delphi into your itinerary, go for it!

Of course it all depends on your priorties but I would skip Thessaloniki this trip.

Travelling by bus on the Greek Mainland is relatively straight forward but that is a LONG bus from Athens to Corfu (8hrs at least + a ferry) so I would consider a hopper flight with Olympic or Aegean Air. If you do choose Corfu - I would stay in Corfu itself and not out at the Pink Palace (personally). Corfu Town is fantastic and without a car it is the epicenter of bus transport naturally. Corfu is too far to only hop over for 3 days. If you go to Corfu I would a) see if you can get there directly from Milan first off and save yourself some backtracking. If you are going to bus I'd spend a night or two in Parga on the mainland on your way to or from. Barring that try to line up your flight from Milan so you can leave later that same day for an island.

How about this if busing it:

1. 4 x Corfu Town (Achillon Palace, Paleokastrika, Corfu Town, getting there/Corfu Town)
2. 2 x Parga
3. 2 x Kalambaka (Meteora)
4. 3 x Athens
5. Fly home

or....if Santorini is a must....

4 x Corfu (get to Corfu right on your 1st day)
2 x Kalambaka (a travel day to get to Kalambaka by bus and 1 to see the monasteries)
4 x Santorini (leave Kalambaka as early as possible and get to the airport taking a flight to Santorini in late afternoon)
2 x Athens (again leave Santorini early so you have 1.5 days in Athens)

Once your at Kalambaka you can see a few monasteries without a car - I'd taxi to the top monastery and you can easily walk to about 3 others (but it is a hike) - I walked back to Kalambaka but I would try to figure out a way to get a taxi to pick you back up. With a car rental you could see more in the area, but its not strictly necessary.

Its all subject to your energy level and your own personal "must see's"

Just some ideas,

Naxos

I am searching my memory for how long it took me to get from Athens to Trikala (near Kalambaka) and from Trikala to Corfu by bus....I can't find the website to the long distance buses online at the moment but it was around 5 hrs from Athens to Trikala and 30 min or so on to Kalambaka.....it took a long time to get from Trikala to Corfu via Ioannina + a ferry to the island - but I did it all in one day - probably 8 hrs when you counted the waits between buses and ferries etc. It was a nice trip though - the bus had some nice views.

I will try to scrounge up the timetable.

I am a proponent of bus travel when on vacation - its a whole different view of a country.

Naxos