Hi there,

My boyfriend and I are flying to Madrid for two days and then off to our main destination, Greece, in early June and so far the itinerary is scheduled for:

Madrid: 2 days
Crete: 5 days
Santorini: 4 days
Milos, Hydra, Naxos or other small island?: 2 days
Athens: 1-2 days

Any suggestions on hotels (we want something nice, but also affordable and close to the water), restaurants, and things to do would be greatly appreciated! Also, does that sound like enough time in each location? We only have a little over 2 weeks for the entire trip but the islands are really our main destination.

Thanks!

If that's the order of your itinerary, I suggest you wait until you're on Santorini to choose the next destination. You might just decide to stay, or if not it's easy to catch a ferry onward to Ios (Party Central!), Naxos or Paros on the way back to Athens. You really don't need to have reservations in advance unless you feel more comfortable doing so. You will be met at the ferry docks by local touts offering rooms, or you can just call ahead from Santorini using an OTE phone card to make a reservation at a hotel you've researched in advance. Have several choices ready in case your first choice is full.

Hello,
I think your itinerary looks good, given my limited experience. For your stay on Santorini, I can recommend Hotel Daedalus www.daedalushotel.gr/ as a clean, comfortable and very reasonably priced place to stay. Free hot breakfast, too. I spent 4 days there last year and found it to be well located for getting to the water, restaurants/night life, or just a good place to relax by the pool with a good book and a drink from the bar. The pictures on the website don't do the place justice. You should make a reservation.

Melissa

Thanks Melissa, I'll definitely check out their website, sounds like a centrally located hotel near everything we're looking for while in Santorini! Cheers!

Are you flying directly from Madrid to Crete? That will certainly save you some time as opposed to flying into Athens and going from there to Crete. You can get from Crete to Santorini by highspeed catamaran.

From Santorini you can take the main Cyclades Central ferry route, stopping at Naxos or Paros (either would be a good choice) or the Cyclades West route which stops at Folegandros, Milos, Sifnos, etc. Either Folegandros or Sifnos would probably be a better choice than Milos, the former being a quiet contrast to busy Santorini. There are more ferries on the Santorini-Naxos-Paros-Piraeus route, so that would be easier than the other.

Hydra is a Saronic Gulf island, accessable from Piraeus but not on the route you will be taking from Crete and Santorini.

I agree with Brotherleelove that you can wait until getting to the islands before making your final decision. The people waiting at the docks with hotel room offers are not necessarily touts - many are owners of small hotels hoping to fill their vacant rooms. You can negotiate rates, and usually get a better price than had you booked in advance. There is no shortage of rooms in June.

Lastly, you might consider spending fewer days on Santorini and adding them to your stay on Naxos, Paros, Folegandros, or Sifnos, for example.

Thanks Heimdall,

That's a plethora of good info! I agree about substituting a day in Santorini to tack on to the third chosen island. Can you (or anyone) recommend the best nature island? We're not looking for a bunch of museums, we're mostly interested in active things to do like hiking, snorkeling, SCUBA, etc...especially since the weather should be nice and warm by then.

We haven't booked our flights just yet but flying into Crete would be a good time saver, thanks for the suggestion, I'll have to see what I can work through the travel websites.

Good idea Botherleelove about waiting to choose the third island...no sense in feeling obligated to get somewhere in case I fall in love with one of the islands I visit!

Thanks everyone, your suggestions are much helpful and this will be my third trip to Europe but I can tell the Greek Islands are a bit harder to plan than mainland destinations.

Well, chiquita, my favorite island, Antiparos, has a good scuba/snorkling company, http://www.blueisland-divers.gr/, and one or two sea kayaking companies as well. You can easily reach Antiparos by taking the ferry to Paros, and then a 30 min excursion boat from the main docks at Paros. If you want a nice, laid-back island with good beaches and restaurants, you could do worse.

BTW, I don't know if there are any direct flights from Madrid to Crete, but your OP sounded like those were your plans. Should you fly into Athens there are plenty of flights with Aegean and Olympic airlines from there to Crete. You could fly to Crete, and then work your way back to Athens by ferry, stopping at Santorini and Paros (for Antiparos) on the way.

Just jumping in to ask Heimdall for more details on the sea kayaking in Antiparos. We are planning a few days in Athens, a week on Paros w/day trip to Antiparos, and then a week on Crete. Have checked out some Paros websites, but looking for good rec's on things to do there. Also wondering the best place to spend 3 nights in between Paros & Crete.

Sorry to hi-jack, chiquita...your trip sounds fun. I would be very interested in hearin how you figure out a way from Spain to Crete -- I want to visit a friend there at the end of the Crete portion of the trip, and haven't worked that out at all.

(love Madrid, by the way!)

Annabelle, there are a couple of people who arrange sea kayaking on the island. One of them can be contacted at Yannis Place, where I usually have breakfast, if you are already on the island. I Googled for websites, and came up with http://www.seakayak-greece.com/, but I'm not sure if they are the same.

I love Crete, but the island is huge. Get a seperate guide book for Crete - with a map to get around. You might want to check out some people that specialize in Greek itineraries - www.oti.travel or www.landofthegods.com (I think). Sounds like a great trip.

I would suggest taking a day from Santorini and adding it to Naxos or Paros.

BTW, there was a thread earlier this year from someone who did the sea kayaking on Antiparos. I don't remember the specifics, but recall they were impressed that they landed on Tom Hanks' beach. Do a search and you may find it.

Thank you, I will check those tips out later this week!

Annabelle, I found the post to which I was referring:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34838639 (scroll down to the part about Antiparos).

Wug, are you out there? You described it much better than I could have done.

Everybody else has covered the itinerary capably, so I thought I'd just weigh in about Scuba DIving. Scuba on your own is forbidden off Greece & Greek Isles -- because of theft & smuggling of valuable underwater antiquities. Scuba diving is permitted only through diving schools at selected sites & costs about 50E per dive. Snorkeling is permitted pretty much anywhere.

Thanks for the SCUBA info, if anyone else has any recommendations about which companies are best around the Crete-Santorini-Paros islands for SCUBA please let me know.

What's your favorite Greek island and why?

Thanks Heimdall for the kayak link. I think we will definitely try to do this. Chiquita, how is your planning coming? How are you flying from Madrid to Crete? I may want to do the reverse (Crete-Madrid). Have you found a hotel on Santorini yet?