Greece trip in 2019.....need help
 

Hello everyone. My wife and I were married in 2014 and never got to go on our honeymoon to Greece as we had hoped. Five years later we are finally going to do it. We both have very limited knowledge of travel to Greece so we are looking for recommendations from all of you out there. We know we would like to go for approximately 12 nights give or take. We were recommended to use Travelive to plan the trip but haven't committed to anything. Any information, recommendations, must do's would be appreciated. We do know we want to see Athens for a few days and the islands for the rest. We obviously do not want to do a group tour type thing but would like to have some guides to show us around in Athens and anywhere else??? Thank you all in advance for your help.

You have plenty of time to plan. The best advice I can offer at this early stage is for you to get a good guidebook and start figuring out where you want to go and the sort of island experience you want. In a guidebook you will most likely find information about tours as well. Narrow down your options and come back with specific questions. Also try using Trip Advisor to get first-hand knowledge from the regular contributors and the Destination Experts for any island or mainland destination that interests you. Once you're on a TA forum page you can click on "Things to do" at the top of that page to get an idea of what your options there would be. Without knowing your travel style, budget and travel dates there are just too many options. Help us help you.

Yep, guide book! There are so many choices, I have always had a really hard time conceptualizing a Greece trip, and I am an experienced traveler. I cannot imagine not looking through a book (or web site) as a first step in grasping your choices and all the practicalities.
Get some specific ideas in your head and then come back--and make sure to indicate which month.

Another vote for a good guidebook or two! FWIW, I used about a half dozen when planning my time there, and found the Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, and Michelin Green most useful.

And just in case it helps, here's a link to my trip report. (But honestly, I'd start with the guidebooks. :) )
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...reece-1460735/

When you do your planning, please appreciate that Greece is more than just Athens and the islands. If you have any interest in culture at all, try to incorporate Delphi and/or Nafplio in your trip. There are more ancient sites in the Nafplio area than all the Cyclades Islands put together. Nafplio is considered by many to be the most beautiful city in Greece, and was once its capital.

The beauty of the mainland is: you can rent a car and travel at your own pace, free of ferry timetables and worries about weather. The KTEL bus system on the mainland is excellent too. Go to the islands first, then save the mainland and Athens for the end of the trip.

@ Heimdall: Well said! :tu:

Thanks for all of your help so far.

Guide books and good websites are recommended. Most experienced travelers do-it-themselves as far as booking, transportation and researching where to go.

Some of my favorite books are the The Blue Guide to the Aegean Islands, Lonely Planet, & Greek Island Hopping

Lots of options for islands and don't overlook the mainland, especially the Peloponnese.

Check out this website for Greece:

https://www.greecetravel.com/

Alas, crazyh, I believe that GREEK ISLAND HOPPING is no longer being published, but its common-sense advice on putting together a do-able itinerary will always be timely. And it's skewed toward the 20-somethings, so it's useful at steering people toward fun Stuff as well as culture stuff. Another one -- The Rick Steves Guide to Athens & the Peloponnese almost totally omits the islands, but is quite good for first-timer visitors to Athens, and uniquely offers free help to do-it-yourself touring ... his webpage offers FREE audio downloads to Acropolis, Ancient Agora and Nt Arch museum that give step-by-step guidance so you can DIY on your timetable instead of being tied to tour-group schedules... and if you want it in print, it's in the guidebook. His Delphi is pretty good as well.

A major service of the guidebooks is that they help you "filter" the Niagara of information, to a stream of informed info that you can cope with ... and the best of these books (Rough Guide is one) adds a precious ingredient -- CANDOR. Such guides not only tell you abut the beauty of a beach or a landmark -- they warn you about times of year (especailly July- August) or times of day, or certain days of week, when huge crowd influx can interfere with enjoyment. Some online websites specialize in photoshopped "calendar shots" that are too perfect to be true... and lead sometimes to disappointment.

Yes, Greek Island Hopping is no longer being published. The copy I have is from 2010. True, a lot of it is more tourist-oriented and I have found myself disagreeing with many of its island recommendations and/or reviews. Still offers good advice.

My favorite now is the Blue Guide to the Aegean followed by Lonely Planet. Steves' Athens/Peloponnese guide is quite good but has limited info on islands, mostly Hydra.

My recommendation is to not rely on just one source but get a variety of sources and/or advice as possible. Relying on one source is not always good, not just for travel but for anything.

Thank you for posting this, mbess411! We're hoping to take our first trip to Greece in 2019 as well -- perhaps in May. We'll have only a week, however, and we're in our 50s not 30s, but I am eager to see the advice you get!

I'm off to order Blue Guide to the Aegean and Lonely Planet!

(Blue Guide is 2010 edition; will start with Lonely Planet)

Blue Guide (2010) & Lonely Planet are excellent books. Even though BG is from 2010 you'll find very few things change in Greece that drastically not to rely on it.

BG offers lots of info you won't find in other guide books, especially out-of-the-way and non-touristy Greece in addition to the usual things people go to Greece for.

I just got the new LP edition and it is very good . . . both will provide info you can use.

oooh thanks for that information. I am not the op but I'm planning a trip for late august

I no longer buy guidebooks, but when I did, noticed that they changed very little from one edition to another. Even the same mistakes were repeated. Blue Guides is the most detailed for museums and archaeological sites, and of the others it's a toss-up between Lonely Planet and Rough Guides. Lonely Planet uses the more conventional spelling in English for Greek place names, which can be transliterated more than one way.

Greek Island Hopping was excellent, but its ferry timetables were out of date even before each edition was published. It was useful to help understand the ferry routes, though. I wouldn't use any guidebook to search for hotels and restaurants—posts here on Fodor's and on TripAdvisor are much more useful.