i am planning a trip to greece and turkey in mid may for almost 3 weeks. i am having a little trouble figuring out the greece leg of the trip. So far i know where i want to go but dont know how to route it. Athens, Corfu, Nafplion,Santorini, Mykonos, metora and rhodes are the plan. from rhodes to cross over to turkey. i wud really like to add crete to the list but i dont think its going to happen. I need help routing it so i am not all over the place and back tracking. i do want to avoid long bus or ferry trips. flying is ok. thank you.

Hi

I would leave out Corfu, Nafplion and Meteora - they're worth it but I think you're zig zagging too much. That way you can include Crete. So Athens by ferry or you can fly Aegean Air to Mykonos , then ferry to Santorini, ferry to Crete then fly to Rhodes - http://www.skyexpress.gr.

How long is the Greece leg of your trip? Even if you spent the whole (almost)3 weeks in Greece this is too many destinations. I agree that Corfu is the first to be eliminated. Depending on how much time is allocated to Athens/mainland, Nafplion is an easy trip. Overnight there would be better if you want to see all of the areas sites.
I think you should also skip Crete unless you have a decent amount of time to dedicate to it, the island is huge!
I would suggest Athens (including a trip to Nafplion & even Meteora if time allows), fly to Mykonos, ferry to Santorini (depends when you are going), then overnight ferry to Rhodes. This part is a long journey, but at least you can treat it as a 'hotel' for the night!
Key details needed are time frame & month of travel.

Hey! You forgot Delphi! ;-)

Seriously, though, you need to prioritize and cut your Greek destinations. Unfortunately you have given us little to go on. Information such as month of travel and length of stay in Greece are essential. Most important of all, what are your interests? Ancient sites? Museums? Beaches? Water sports? Hiking? Nightlife?

Corfu has no place in your itinerary - it's in the Ionian Sea, and you need to be in the Aegean if you want to go to Turkey.

If you concentrate your trip on the mainland, you could see Athens, Nafplion, Meteora, and yes, even Delphi! Then fly directly to Rhodes for your move into Turkey. If you have enough time, you could fly to Santorini, then take the overnight ferry to Rhodes as suggested by Yiassas.

There are endless permutations to a trip like this, but you need to be realistic on what you can see and do in three weeks. If you left Turkey for another trip, it would enable you to see more in Greece.

This is great advice, thanks for all ur help. we wud probably be in greece for almost 2 weeks (mid may) or just a lil under. from all ur suggestions i guess corfu is out. can nafplion and meterora be possible day trips from athens or even delphi? which ever ones are less hectic and do-able. i chose rhodes also as an entry point to either fethiye or bodrum. both of which are on my turkey list. i looked into skipping rhodes for either kos or chios and wasnt very impressed.

Yiassas, who lives in the Peloponnese, knows much more about the mainland than me, so wait for her good advice. What I will say, though, is it's possible to do day trips from Athens to Nafplion and Delphi, but better done as ovenight trips. Meteora is too far from Athens for a day trip. You may be able to do all three in a round-robin trip by rental car.

For your trip to Nafplion it depends a lot on whether you want to see all the sites in the area &/or en route. The journey to Nafplion itself can be done in just over a couple of hours, loads to see once there. Around the area & on the way to/from there is the Corinth canal, ancient Corinth, Nemea, Epidavros, Mycenae, Tyrins, you see why the overnight might be a good idea?
Delphi is possible in a day, a very long day, but again better with an overnight in Delphi or nearby.
With either of these trips a car will give you the flexibilty of how early you start & how much you fit in.
Meteora is 4-5 hrs away, so not a day trip at all.
As Heimdall suggests, if you want to fit them all in, a rental car & 4 days/3 nights minimum is the way to go.
So, if we say 12 days in Greece-
at least 2 days in Athens, & 4 days on mainland trip, takes care of a week. Choosing to do all of that means you then go on to Santorini (fly)& the overnight ferry to Rhodes. Trying to include Mykonos would be too much. If it's a must then you need to reduce the mainland side trip.
It boils down to what your interests are, the historical sites & amazing Meteora, or some beach/chill time on Mykonos?
There are several ways to create itineraries, all of which cover some of your choices, but please don't underestimate the travel time in Greece between destinations. Often the more places you go, the less you "see".

thanks yiassas. i am beginning to figure out that travel times around greece are a major consideration. i think we r going to skip rhodes and fly into turkey. is renting a car the best way to get around to delphi and nafplion and meteora? is public transportation between these places pretty good. my husband and i would like to avoid driving if we can. thanks for all the help

DRiving is about the only way to do it in limited time. Do you have a map, do you have any notion of the distances & roads? People can give you short answers, but I don't think you'll grasp it unless you do some actual route-planning yourself Here is the link to Michelin PLan My Trip website... http://www.viamichelin.com/tpl/hme/MaHomePage.htm

Put in your departure city (Athens) and then destination city (Nafplion).... it will show you a map, the route, the duration of the drive, even how much your gast will cost. Then put in Nafplion with destination Delphi. Ditto. THen put in Delphi with Destination Meteora. Ditto. Then Meteora and Athens... this will give you the complete route and you will see. The only way u can do it without all 3 without driving is via a CHAT or KEY bus tour, and then you won't have control of where you go when.

Actually you may want to drop out Meteora, because winter storms caused a major rockfall impeding the main highway... it may mean a time-consuming detour on bad roads... Yiassas can advise you about that.

thank you travelerjan. i did not know about the storm in meteora, will have to look it up. certainly wud not want to get stuck with that.

Please don't panic because of Jan's info! You won't need to make a detour to get to Meteora, the road that is closed is not on the route you need to take. However, the last part of your journey to Meteora may be affected by heavier traffic than normal as the road you will use is part of the diversion.
Map showing the Tempi Valley closed section & diversions that apply,
http://www.aegeanmotorway.gr/pdf/press/181209entemp.pdf
It may all be academic anyway by the time you get here, the last reports I saw (about 2 weeks ago) said 3-4 months until the road is open again, so unless there are real setbacks I would hope it is open by mid May.

yiassas, i am taking ur advice and dropping mykonos from our itinerary. between santorini and rhodes, i am hoping we will get some greek islands in our system. meteora was on my must see list,i cudnt bring myself to drop it. mykonos had to be sacrificed.
we decided to stick to public transport for meteora and delphi. how easy is it to get to the sights and get around in Meteora? i remember reading i will have to still take a taxi to get to the sights. i am hoping it isnt gonna be too complicated. thanks all for the helpful advice.

"we decided to stick to public transport for meteora and delphi."

If you factor in hotel, transport and meals is it cheaper than a tour eg.

http://www.allgreecetravel.com/tours...2days-tour.asp