Greek Isles, but not cruise
 

My wife and I are in our early 30's. We are an active couple and like hiking and do water sports. We want to plan a trip to the Greek Isles this fall. I have read a lot of posting about windstar and similiar cruises, but I am not sure if we want to do the cruise thing. <BR><BR>Has anyone out there traveled to the Greek Isles and NOT used a cruise line? Is it easy to get to other islands by ferry? Which would be the best island to use as your base?<BR><BR>

Start doing searches on Greece within Fodors and you'll soon see that most people do the isles without cruises. Its is not an undiscovered area. You'll find more than you ever thought possible on the message boards. There are so many Greek isles - all with their own flair. If you go to the Cyclades area, the most common - Santorini is the most popular island (with good reason), but its hard to use as only a base. Its very easy to take ferries from island to island - but they take several hours. Good for a longer trip, but not day trips. Many people go to Crete or Rhodes only - they are large islands.<BR><BR>Another option is to go on a yacht trip. We met lots of people last year who were doing that and it seemed like a lot of fun. You can hire a captain and cook and for the same price as a high quality hotel vacation - they'll take you island to island and you can sleep on the yacht (sailboat).

TV, Consider chartering a sail boat. It's cheaper than you think. www.gpsc.com is the outfit we used. It was fabulous. Also, see Matt Barrett's website www.greektravel.com He also did the sailboat thing and has a write up about it on his website.

My wife and I honeymooned in Greece last August and I can tell you about a couple of the islands. While I agree with a previous message that Santorini is not a real good base with which to do trips to other islands it is probably the most beautiful place I've ever been and should not be missed. We also went to Rhodes and from there you can take a day trip to Simi or even Turkey among others. They have those hydrafoils which move pretty quick and are pretty interesting just by themselves.

My teenager and I are leaving soon on our second Greek islands trip. Getting from island to island is relatively easy and they each have their own "personality" re: night life, sport possibilities, overal look, etc. We loved Naxos and Rhodes and now are visiting the Sporades and Crete. Scuba diving and snorkeling are great, hiking on Crete is supposed to be full of beautiful possibilities. I'd say go on your own, rather than be trapped with a bunch of other tourists...

Crete is perfect for the adventurers. No end of possibilities from hikes to parasailing. There is a lot of information on the internet, but also the Greek National Tourist Agency can send you lots of info.<BR>Vera

Hi there TV<BR><BR>Just jumping on a hydrofoil (flying dolphin) & deciding which island to discover next is so cool. <BR><BR>Why do you need a base? Why not take a charter flight into Rhodes or Samos, and work your way up the Dodecanese or North Agean chain, flying back to Athens from another charter airport?<BR><BR>Here's a helpful map from the tourism authority:<BR><BR>http://odysseas.gnto.gr/Map/map.html<BR><BR>And check Olympic for where they fly:<BR><BR>http://www.olympic-airways.gr/<BR><BR>HTH and have fun!!!

By all means do it on your own. We spent a little over a month hopping from island to island, although we had our itinerary all mapped out and reservations advance booked -- by internet. Crete is a must for you. For hikers to go to Greece and not do the Samarian Gorge hike would be a sin.<BR>The most difficulty we had was getting real schedules for ferries and hydrofoils in advance. In fact we went all over Iraklion, Crete trying to confirm that there was a regular ferry going out the next morning to Santorini and everyone -- including our hotel and three local travel agencies told us no, so we booked a hydrofoil. The next morning when we got to the harbor we saw a huge ferry just pulling out going to Santorini. But there are numerous options for traveling from island to island. We also did Olympic Airlines between Rhodes and Crete and also from Mykonos to Athens. It was quite inexpensive.