Help with somewhat messed up itinerary-Greece and Venice
 

Ok we have messed up our itinerary by booking airline tickets that were free with dividend miles. Because we couldn't get the flights we wanted to Athens we have ended up in London. Four of us will be leaving May 26 next year-my husband and I and daughter and soninlaw.

Here is the desired fix for that-but wanted to get comments on how to do it:

May 26 - fly JFK to London Heathrow (two flights to get to JFK)

May 27-arrive London 6:30 am. Transfer to Gatwick-fly direct to Santorini. Flying from Heathrow preferable, but very little options there. Stay Santorini.

May 28,29,30 - Santorini

May 31- ferry or fly to Chania on Crete. Stay Chania

June 1,2,3,4 - Chania

June 5 - fly direct to Venice. Stay venice

June 6,7,8. - Venice

June 9 fly home from Venice


The only thing booked at this time are the flights to London returning from Venice.

Any comments or thoughts around London and staying, having to transfer to Gatwick (how best?), flying to Santorini.

This has caused us to give up on spending a day or two in Athens. Flying to Athens will cause us to have another day of travel to Santorini after a long horrendous travel to get to Santorini.

Thanks.

Fly from Heathrow to Crete and when you have spent 4 nights there take the boat up to Santorini- an easy trip but it leaves from Heraklion at 8am so you need to be in Heraklion the night before.
After Santorini travel to Athens ( so you get your time there) and then fly to Venice.

Frances-what airport do we fly into on Crete from London? Do you know of airline that flies that route?
Thanks for the idea!

I believe Aegean flies direct there from heathrow

In trying to find the answer for you I went to Aegean Air but my initial enquiries all involve changes. However they DO fly direct LHR to Athens so as a start look at turning around my suggestion and fly from LHR to Athens. Then when you've finished there you can travel to Santorini - either by boat ( via Paros/Naxos- I love this journey) or fly. Then from Santorini drop down to Crete and from there to Venice.
Other options I haven't been able to try yet are Olympic Airways and Easyjet , Ryannair.
I'll come back to this later . I'm desperately trying to finish an outfit for a wedding next Thursday and I'm at an age where fine needlework can't be done under artificial light.
Don't fret about this. You'll manage it!

From Gatwick Thomson, monarch and easyjet fly direct...and it looks like norweigan.

Watch the limits to baggage weights on easyjet and maybe other carriers.

Oh darn, Aegean would be perfect - they are listed as flying direct!

Thanks Frances and Jamikins. Please finish your dress and I will look at the flights-you have helped a lot.

I am seeing that it will work- it will just make for long long journey to first final destination. If we get to Santorini initially-we will be relaxing in that location. Athens would be busier with sightseeing and may be too much.

I'd be happy to help you, but need some more info.

Where are you flying from?

Since the dates are so far out, can you flip the itinerary if you want to? Into Venice, out of LHR, or better yet, Athens?

A few things to think about:

Avoid Gatwick. It adds at least several more hours on to an already long travel day.

SKY EXPRESS is the only plane service offered between Santorini and Heraklion, Crete. Keep in mind that SKY EXPRESS uses very (!!) small planes, and that Heraklion is a TWO hour drive from Chania.

There are no non-stop flights on Aegean/Olympic from Chania to Venice. The planes stop in Athens.

More later...

You'll want at least 5 hours between landing at LHR and flying out of LGW. And even that would make me nervous. You'd need to take the express coach between the two airports. If your flight is late you'll be SOL.

>>Any comments or thoughts around London and staying,<<

not sure I understand this bit. It doesn't look like you're planning on staying over in London.

If it was me and I couldn't find a flight out of LHR, I would stay a night in London and relax, flying out of LGW the next day.

I agree with JanisJ. I would spend a night in London and fly to Santorini the next day. You can take one night from any of the other destinations, as you don't seem to have scheduled too little time anywhere.

The flight I have turned up from Gatwick on Wednesday (as you said you were intending to leave the same day as you arrive in London)is Easyjet but as their schedules for next Mayaren't up I'm working on a date at the end of August this year. This flight goes at 6.30 am-ish so if this is the one you were looking at you wouldn't get it- you'll still be stacking to land in Heathrow.
There is an Easyjet flight on Thursday (again looking at the end of August schedules for comparison) This also leaves at the crack of dawn.
On this basis it doesn't look as if you have a choice if you want to fly direct to Santorini you'll be in London overnight.
In that case I would book a hotel within walking distance of Gatwick and go there direct from landing at Heathrow to recover however you want to. You will be up at 5.00 the next day for the Satorini flight BUT you are due to land before 2 and all being well you could be looking at THAT view by 3!
Santorini is very small so its not far from the airport to any hotel.

Oh jeeze - if the only easyJet flight is at 0dark thirty -- then unfortunately you'll probably want to stay over AT LGW. Killing a whole day at the airports is a bummer -- so w/ such an early arrival, I'd go into central London, stash the bags at Victoria station (or at a couple of other stations depending on what you want to see/do during the day in London -- Kings Cross/St Pancras or London Bridge are other possibilities)

Spend all day exploring something (again - lots of options), have an early dinner, collect your bags and take the train to LGW in the mid evening, check into a LGW hotel and be ready to fly out then next morning.

Where are you coming from? 2 flights to JFK could mean that you have even more time zones than just coming from the East coast. In any event you will have been overnight on a plane.
My choice would be to make it to Gatwick and if you decide that you have the enrgy to go into London tnen you can do so easily after you have slept. Have you done an overnight flight before? If not you have no idea how it will affect you. It may be that two of you can keep going all day but one may sleep and another may nap.
At Gatwick I use the Marriott. This has a shuttle but is within walking distance also.

I know you're using miles, but the dates so far out, there's got to be a way around it. Ask if you can be put on a waiting list for seats to Athens. Ask ASAP!!

There's no way I'd want to take a 2-stop flight to LHR, overnight in London, then take a nearly 3.5 hour flight early the next morning out of Gatwick to Greece. UGH. You'll be wrecked.

Look into flying to Rome. You could overnight near the airport, then fly out the next day on EASYJET to Santorini ( about 2.5 hours).

And keep hoping that those seats to Athens become available! They often do down the road. Good luck!

Good point -- I was just trying to avoid the extra London/LGW journey.

Have you traveled overseas a lot? How does the jet lag affect you? If you are used to hitting the ground running -- I'd do my LHR > London > LGW plan. If you are beat up by overnight flights (or don't have much experience and don't know for sure) then Frances' plan makes more sense.

Didn't see WWK's post. My response was to Frances' post . . .

BTW, flight to Santorini runs about 2 hours, not 2.5...

Thanks so much for all the responses.

We are only flying from Indianapolis-but taking the long way for some reason. This is only our third European jaunt (all since 2008) but we didn't have any issues with jet lag on the first two. However, traveling further after getting to London, rather than being at our destination early morning, makes me afraid we will be jet lagged.

Janis-the staying in London question was because I did expect someone to recommend staying in London overnight before flying to Santorini-as you did. I am leaning towards taking your advise....thank you for suggesting it.

Thanks Frances-after your post I starting looking on Aegean and see flights from Heathrow to Athens and the Greek islands-including Santorini. So that may be a possibility for us. I hate not being able to book the flights for another couple months because it prevents me from making reservations of places to stay.

WWK-great info about Gatwick, and the distance between Chania and Heraklion. Also, I will see about a wait list for Athens flights. I had not thought of that as I wouldn't have dreamed it possible. We were on the phone for three hours( one phone call) trying to make these four flights work with the miles we had in our account.

You are all soooo helpful I can't thank you enough!

Many hotels in Europe will now operate a cancellation policy and this far in advance I would hope that you could book up what you want at a decent price without being stuck to it.
Heraklion to Chania is two hours. It is a fast dual carriageway from the airport in Heraklion and by passes Heraklion.
Last year we stayed in Casa Delfino in Chania which has become one of my favourite hotels anywhere.