zandarzenderis3771

thanks for the tips here, I am slowly but surely realizing the troubles of island hopping, albeit that is the most fun, but also the most time consuming and expensive.

zandarzenderis3771

thanks for that point, it might. be unless delphi could be on the way as I look around from athens to the peloponnese, if I take northern loop (e65?) along the gulf of corinth to get to olympia, nafplion and corinth etc, I am not even sure if that would be worth it, are there other great spots along the e65 or close to it to make it worthwhile?

travelerjan

NO, Delphi is NOT "On the Way"... please please, do less internet roving/commenting and more map study - https://tinyurl.com/zekuft9 it's exhausting, giving you "Greece 101" step by step. HAve you invested in a reliable Guide Book yet? Several of us have suggested it (and you can get v. good used copies of FODORS, or LONELY PLANET or ROUGH GUIDE on Amazon for under $10) -- but still you chatter on. Research. Homework. Then come back.

zandarzenderis3771

Okay, cool, thanks.

MFNYC

One thing I do whenever I begin trip planning, I print out a map. I make a wishlist, based on research, of places I'd like to see. I highlight all the spots from my wishlist on the map. I then look at distances, time and ways of getting from point A to point B. From there, I narrow down my wishlist to what makes the most logical sense given my time frame (never enough time to see everything). Then I determine what are day trips, or overnights and take it from there.

As I type this post, I have a map of Crete and the Athens area sitting on my desk (as I am planning a trip as well), with notes of driving/flying times and distances. I do tweak my itinerary as I get advice from the "experts" in this forum. Information here is invaluable.

zebec

On Crete, travelers benefit by going way up into the mountainous areas. Those remote villages can be way less touristy.
I am not knocking the coastal towns---they are fantastic.
Just sayin'
I am done. the Kritikos

zandarzenderis3771

this is a very good suggestion, I am fool for not thinking of this, I beleive that this will help tremendously! thanks again, I am trying to not ask any new questions as I have been cited by a user or two for asking too many questions, haha! I am making my trip in a document and now a map as well. I plan to get it pretty set up before I inquire any more from the forum to not bog you guys down with novice inquiries!

zandarzenderis3771

thanks zebec, crete is looking to be a very interesting addition to the trip if I can fit it in, there is a lot to see on that island I am finding out!

michaelpianko

In October 2018, I took a solo trip to Greece. I didn't rent a car. The day I arrived in Athens, I took the buses to Nefplio, spent 3 nights there then overnight ferry to Crete, a night in Heraklion, a night in Chania, another overnight ferry from Chania back to the port at Piraeus, from there to Delphi, a night in Delphi, then my last 5 nights in Athens. If I was planning my first trip to Greece again but if I was wiser, I would skip Crete (and skip any islands) and I would include Olympia, the most well known of the 4 site of the ancient Greek Olympics. I am unsure whether islands feel more special than mainland. Nafplio is by the coast, which is almost as good as going to an island. Nafplio is a good place, it has a venetian fortress, an archaeology museum with the Dendra Panoply, and more. From Nafplio you can take day trips to Epidauros, Mycenae, and possibly other sites I didn't make time for. I checked multiple guidebooks. Fodor's has a Guide to Greece; also I looked at the Rough Guide to Greece. If you check a third guidebook, look at the Lonely planet guide. You might want to hold off going to Crete until you can spend at least 6 whole days there. You might want to see if the mainland has enough to occupy you without going to any islands, for your first trip to Greece. But if you go to Crete, check the Rough Guide to Crete or the Lonely Planet Guide to Crete.

zandarzenderis3771

thanks michael! appreciate these tips! part of me was thinking about staying in the athens/peloponnese region the entire time and skipping to nearby zakynthos as well.

michaelpianko

If this helps, given that you may not have much experience in travel: I was 32 when I took my first solo trip that was a vacation from my work for leasure. I was 35 when I went to Greece solo: My mother was horrified at me. The trip worked out ok anyway. The biggest problem was, I made reservations at hotels on booking.com; there are other sites that would work ok too. After I made my reservations, but before my trip, I got a call from the credit card company asking whether I had charged $400 worth of nike brand stuff. The answer was no. They sent me a new credit card with a new number. But I forgot to update my information or profile on booking with my new credit card number. The original hostel I had reserved a space at in Athens, cancelled my reservation because they couldn't validate my old defunct credit card number. After 2 hours checking the internet and checking two places in person that had no space, I ran into a group of about 4 nice people at a bar, who could have been up to 10 or more years younger than me, who one of them called a place and talked in Greek to the employee at another place I identified on booking, to confirm that it had a space before I spent more on another taxi ride...

zandarzenderis3771

oh wow, what a story and very good to know. I live seven miles form Nike's HQ btw, ha, not that that fact is relevant. Greeks seem to be very friendly from what I have gathered via this forum and through other people. I will make sure to keep this in mind. I hope to use exclusively AirBnB or Vrbo while I stay in Greece, although different countries have diff policies and avail with those two so I have research in store.

CaKnK

If you will have a car for transportation on the Peloponnesus peninsula, I’d recommend stopping at Nemea. Some Olympic Games were held there, too. We couldn’t make our way all the way to Olympia on our stay so instead visited Nemea. We had the place to ourselves! There were about 2 other people there by the time we left. The museum is great as is the archeological site. We were able to walk through the reconstructed temple.