<i>I kept fretting about the 12.5 kg baggage allowance for the flight from Crete to Rhodes on skyexpress.</i>

No need to fret. Olympic Air also has flights direct from Heraklion to Rhodes, and their baggage allowance is 20 kg. Now that you are skipping Crete it doesn't matter anyway. :-)

That's a very good point, Heimdall. I had looked at Olympic Air...why didn't I remember that? Oh well. I know with either itinerary we will have a great time. For some reason, the last one is speaking to me more. I have to admit this has been by far the hardest trip for me to plan. (Also the first time I've ever posted itineraries for strangers to consider.) When I started reading I was just so overwhelmed with all the absolutely amazing options. Other trips have been much more obvious.

Well I'm happy but more importantly hopefully you'll be happy too! We stayed in Firostefani and really liked it but if I were to ever go back I'd stay in Oia just so charming. I am sad that you had to give up Crete though -- we really liked Chania and wished we could have seen more of the island. Oh well...so many places so little time!

I know how hard it is to prune one's itinerary down, like chopping off limbs. But, in general, when traveling in Greece and Turkey (and Italy) where schedules are not always written in stone, I think it's more practical not to have too tight an itinerary.

That said, you could switch off day 17 and 18. Instead take the ferry from Rhodes to Kusadasi, bus to Selcuk, see Ephesus, and fly on to Istanbul from Izmir. Depends on how you want to spend your time.

Hi Mimar, Thank you, but if I'm not mistaken, there is no ferry from Rhodes to Kusadasi. Rhodes is much further south. It's Samos-Kudadasi, isn't it?

You can get from Rhodes to Samos via Kos or Kalymnos. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but is possible. One scenario would be: Dodecanisos Pride leaving Rhodes at 0830 and arriving on Kos at 1100. Then connect with Aegean Flying Dolphins leaving Kos at 1430 and arriving at Pythagorio on Samos at 1800. This would be a bit of an adventure, and dependent upon daily ferry schedules. :-)

Sorry, brain fart. It's the island of Samos which has a ferry to Kusadasi.