Greek Islands in October?
 

Our only time to travel would be October 11 - 21 and wondered if this would be a good time for weather in the Greek Islands such as Santorini, Mykonos, Skiathos, or Crete? Is the weather too cool for beach or swimming then? Thanks for your help.

Hi Mary

I've been to Mykonos a few times in mid-October and enjoyed my visits very much.

Daytime weather is warm, evenings are much cooler and a light jacket is needed.

The water should be OK for swimming as it has had the whole summer to heat up.

Some things you need to know about though. There are less ferry connections and each time I have been on the island in October some have been cancelled due to windy weather.

Some restaurants do not offer their full menu as they will soon be closing.

To balance that, you will be able to pick up some superb bargains in the local shops before they too close at the end of that month. Also, it is great seeing the town when it isn't heaving with visitors.

Bill

We've also done Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes at mid to late October and have had wonderful weather. In 2004 we spent a week here and it was in the mid to high 80's F every day!

This is good to hear. We will be honeymooning in Santorini the second week of October!

We were planning to go by ferry from Crete (Heraklion or Kissamos) to Santorini or the Peloponnese at end of Sept and early Oct.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any ferry schedule beyond Sept.25 (I mean slow ferries, no flying cats). One source says forget it, another says wait until mid-Aug for additional publications, a third says this is a specially bad year because of high fuel prices.
So it looks like we'll have to be flexible, book a hotel if and when and where we arrive.

We were in Chania (Crete) and Hydra in early October last year. Weather was good - warm and sunny. Not a lot of tourists about but still busy enough that it didn't have that 'dead end of season' feel. I'd rather go at that time of year than peak season when the islands are heaving.

We caught an overnight ferry from Chania to Athens and the ship seemed pretty empty. We booked online through ANEK shipping lines.
Kay

KayF, thanks for the info.
Yes we, know about ferries back to Athens. The Greek hub-and-spokes system -- centered in Piraeus and Patras -- is subsidized to run year around.

What stops running -- as mentioned on this Forum under Greek ferry posts -- is connections between the outer island or mainland groups: for example regular ferries Heraklion-Santorini or Kissamos-Gythio.
And I seem to notice a lack of integration and of comprehensive thinking, in time or space, by Greek travel agency websites. The ferry schedules (like some beginner travel agents in the US) accept only a schedule request for a specific date, without providing "fuzzy" information on adjacent dates. The Kalamata harbormaster will only tell you that no ferries run at the requested time into his port, without caring to tell you of connections into the nearby Gythio port. Watch out, you may find some hidden website telling you of a ferry connection ... which turns out to be several years old.

I am not complaining. Will travel to this wonderful country prepared to accept their own standards.

Hi tableronde,

According to
http://www.ferries.gr/hfd/default.htm FlyingCat 4 continues to run daily between Heraklion and Santorini until the end of October. Note the no sailing days.

We haven't been to Greece for a long time, but we did visit in October and the weather was wonderful. Warm enough evenings without a wrap in Athens. We visited Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes and Crete and had excellent weather in each place.

I've been to Santorini twice in October. Both times the days were sunny and mild but windy and the nights were chilly but not really cold. Mornings can be a bit damp. Take some clothes for light layering just in case.

bookmarking

Roundtable -- about ferry websites .. if you say that they will only accept specific dates, perhaps you are using the wrong website.
Try http://www.gtp.gr/RoutesForm.asp

in the slots put your port and destination, ie., Pireaus &Santorini.
Leave the year at 2008, put the month as 9, but leave the day as "any". Your search will show ALL Septemer ferries: time and arrival AND how long each particular departure will be on the schedule (i.e., til 10/25 etc).

In fact, people who are planning to go NEXT year at this time might do this and print out examples -- this at least shows the typical PATTERN of ferries serving a certain port.

Thank for the suggestions; I now see the ANY (day of the month) option on the GTP website. Still, if we were to go to Crete in October:

- the connection Kissamos (KIS) to Gythio (GYT) gives me no hits
- in which case plan B from Heraklio (HCR) to Santorini gives me no conventional ferries, only the shaky flying cat or jet boat, which may not run in windy weather.

Hence I've been fishing for the chance that the October ferry schedule hasn't been published yet; this before I consider Plan C: having to return from Crete all the way to Piraeus.

Tableronde, the only ferry running between Kissamos and the Peloponnese, afaik, is F/B Mirtidiotissa, run by the Anen Lines: http://www.anen.gr/AnenUK.htm

This is the press release the company sent out earlier in the summer: "After the unlucky incident to our ship F/B MYRTIDIOTISSA and in order that our company serves at the better possible way the residents of islands Kythira , Antikythira, and the regions of Gythion ,Neapole and Kisamos, haw chartered F/B EXPRESS PEGASOS that will replace our boat for as long as time interval needs. The above boat will leave today 25/7/2008 from the harbour of Piraeus in 17:00 so that it realises the programmed itineraries of F/B MYRTIDIOTISSA The passengers which were to travel Thursday of 24 July from [Kythira] for Piraeus, can travel from [Kythira] for [Neapoli] with corresponding return of tickets difference or with the itinerary of Sunday of 27 July from [Kythira] for Piraeus."

If you can't find that ferry on the timetables, suggest you contact Anen Lines directly.

If you are wondering what that "unlucky incident" was, read here: http://www.kytherafamily.net/index.p...amp;pageflip=1 ;-)

Heimdall, thanks for your well informed reply. It, and some other members' forum comments, beat in reliability any electronic info I could get from Greek ferry websites, travel agents, or city tour offices.

How on earth did you dig up this info, without keeping a pulse on life in remote Kythera? Out of curiosity I retried the ferry schedules and Googled Myrtidiotissa: no mention and no changes 3 weeks after this incident. Maybe the Greek language pages would give me more info, but my Greek isn't that far up the learning curve.

I don't mean to "hijack" Mary's original topic. To the contrary, I hope this has added some spice to what the islands are about. Unfortunately, our plans to enjoy the islands in the off-season are running into such transport restrictions. The Crete to Peloponnese ferry connection seems to be quite remote on the post-season ferry plans. All good island connections lead to and from Athens (and maybe Patras, Thessaloniki to a lesser extent).

I wonder how dependent island life is on tourism. Or how much effect the new Rio-Antirio suspension bridge across the Bay of Corinth has had on opening up the Peloponnese to economic development.

Roundtable, the reason that all good ferry connections are between a given island and Athens is that Most Greeks who take a ferry are going to Athens (or Thessaloniki) & back -- they live on THEIR island, and seldom visit other islands.

In order to unite a nation scattered all over an ocean, Greece developed a complex ferry system. This system is subsidized, to be affordable for a citizenry of very modest means -- and we as tourists are beneficiaries of this, since the rates are lower than ferries in other places. However, because of this, the islanders' needs are paramount.

Tableronde, further to your question about Kissamos-Glythio: Express Pegasus (the substitute for Mirtidiotissa) seems to be sailing that route on Thursdays. The OpenSeas website currently shows sailings through Sep 18th, and as timetables are updated there will probably be additional sailings in October. See: http://tinyurl.com/6ryd2l

Thank you for all of your responses. Wealth of info. I have saved the ferry links and it looks like we can find transport during that period. Great help with the weather- sounds like it will still be nice. Has anyone been to Folegandros? Have Mykonos booked and would like to go then to Naxos, Folegandros, Sifnos, Santorini, with longer stays in Mykonos & Santorini.