Hi - My daughter is getting married in September and I am helping them plan their honeymoon. We have gifted them two weeks of timeshare that are carved in stone, so we are working around that. My soon-to-be son-in-law is a sous chef at a fine dining restaurant here in Canada and my daughter is a bartender there, so food and drink are very important to them. They prefer creative high end dining in a more casual setting. They've travelled extensively through southeast asia a couple of times but this will be their first trip to Europe together and they are nervous about cost. They prefer local charm type accommodations over big resorts, so I have been focusing on looking for low cost accommodations that are central and well-located with private baths and air conditioning, but not much else so that they can focus their budget on meals and experiences. We're trying to stick to under $100CAD/night for accommodations, or as close to that mark as possible.

The itinerary that we are working with now is:

Week 1 (partial) - fly into Athens, stay for 3 nights. The Tempi Hotel, Athens Commercial and Marble House Pension all come in under budget and seem to fit our criteria.

Week 2 - fly to Paros, stay for one week at timeshare in Drios.

Week 3 - free week in the Greek Isles using the ferry system to travel between islands. Option 1, we started out playing with 2 nights in Santorini, 2 nights on Naxos and 2 nights on Mykonos and then stealing that last day for next week in Spain, but are wondering if that is too busy and too expensive (especially Santorini and Mykonos, where it's tough to find anything for under $200/night). My daughter has been to Oia with me about 10 years ago and we stayed at a fabulous cave home with a glorious deck overlooking the caldera (a spectacular recommendation from someone on this board!). While she would like to recreate that for her fiancé, I'm afraid that anything with any kind of a caldera view is just too expensive for them although they might splurge if there was something fabulous in the $200-300/night range. Option 2, would be to travel from Paros to Crete, taking a slow ferry that stops in Santorini just to see it from afar, and stay on Crete for 7 nights at the Karma Minoan where we can get a deal through our timeshare organization. I'm also a little worried about how touristy Santorini and Mykonos will be in September (last time we went was in May so it was shoulder season and much quieter). We are completely open to other suggestions for this week.

Week 4 - free week in Spain, and we're thinking some combination of Barcelona and San Sebastian and possibly Madrid. If they have 7 days, they're thinking of going to Barcelona for 4 nights and San Sebastian for 3 nights. If they have 8 nights, they could spend 3 nights in Barcelona, 3 in San Sebastian and 2 in Madrid. They are thinking of flying between cities because flights are cheap and it will save time as those train rides to and from San Sebastian are long! While I might have suggested that their week would be better spent not going so far out of the way north, they are quite keen to go to San Sebastian given its reputation as a foodie destination.

Week 5 - they will fly to Malaga, rent a car and spend a week at a timeshare between Marbella and Malaga. The car will give them opportunities to do day trips to Ronda, Granada, Malaga, Frigiliana/Nerja, and car rentals are surprisingly cheap. They will fly home from Malaga.

Any advice you can offer on this itinerary would be most appreciated. As well, we'd appreciate any recommendations for any must-do's along the way, including restaurants, vineyard tours, etc.

Thank you so much!

it is hard to be very positive about a holiday that just seems like a pepper pot shaken over the map of Europe, but your decision.

Greece and the ferries are a lovely idea but I seldom get that excited about Athens

San Sebastion without going to Bilbao and the Rioja region seems a waste of an opportunity

Barcelona without going to the local towns and a vinyard like Torres??

Malaga is a nice town, Marbella is not

I'd cut down the number of massive movements, try and appreciate the small areas near the "big" cities where the culture helps form the foods and drinks of the area.

So basically they have time shares in a Greek Island and in the dull area between Malaga and Marbella. I'd take the train to Seville to find out about the foods there, I might consider a few days in Jerez to discover Sherry

Thanks very much biloburgler. Dividing their time between Greece and Spain are a given, but your suggestion to reduce locations in Spain and focus on one area is a good one. We thought that by visiting the main cities in the free week, they can leave smaller town exploration for the week near Malaga, but I can see the benefit of limiting their time to northern Spain for that free week - San Sebastian, Rioja region and Bilbao - and then use their week in southern Spain to explore the towns in that area, leaving Madrid and Barcelona for other trips...although I know they would love those cities too.

Or, as you say, perhaps free week is Madrid, Jerez and Seville before landing in Malaga for timeshare. Maybe that's the best option with less time spent in travel and train travel being the way to go...

the trains in spain (there is a song there) are very good but tend to take you city centre to city centre. But with just a little taxi you will find you can get out to some of the best without having to learn the whole local car thing.

As an example Barcelona has great city public transport but you can catch the train to the town near the Torres vinyard or the Freixenet town (other sparkling wine is also in the town) then either walk or take a taxi to the area of interest.

seat61.com gives some good overviews

Visiting Rioja from the larger towns is probably a car hire though

Instead of both Mykonos and Santorini, consider staying on only one of those islands since they are both expensive. I haven't been to Mykonos, and I have no desire to go there, but we visited Santorini last May and we loved it. We stayed at Blue Dolphins Apartments in Firostefani for $230 USD per night. Our room and balcony overlooked the caldera. Gorgeous views!

Another hotel to consider in Athens is the Airotel Parthenon for $140 USD per night. This hotel is in an excellent location - right around the corner from the Plaka, and about a 5-10 minute walk from the Acropolis. I really like Athens. Your daughter and future son-in-law might really enjoy wandering through the Athens Central Market, which is fascinating with its fish market and meat market.

Given the visit to Paros and the desire to show her new partner Santorini, I would probably visit Naxos and Santorini (more time on Naxos) and skip Mykonos. Flights to Spain are likely to be more available from Athens rather than one of the islands so I would consider visiting Athens last rather than once at the beginning and once at the end.

For Spain, given the Malaga stay (we liked Malaga), I would focus on the south. Seville is beautiful, has great food, Jerez has sherry, and there is a heap to see in Seville itself and the broader area. I'd consider staying the week in Seville and doing a day trip to Jerez and another to Cordoba. Both are worth much more than a day trip but it's more relaxing to not have to move hotels. Trains run early and late. Seville has an international airport. I'm pretty sure I read a trip report on Fodors some time ago about someone's food focused trip to Seville so you may wish to hunt it out.

The Seville focused trip report was most likely this one by ekscrunchy-https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/sevilla-and-cadiz-province-carabi-eros-cuttlefish-eggs-and-the-temple-of-red-tuna-1664968/

Skip Mykonos, just not worth the extra time and effort. Add those days to Spain, especially Seville or Granada.

Thanks so much for the great advice. They have decided that they really want to focus their free week in Spain on the Rioja region and San Sebastian, so will spend 3 or 4 nights on Naxos in more modest priced lodging, 2 nights in a splurge hotel on Santorini and then fly into Bilbao. They'll spend 1 or 2 nights there and then rent a car and head off to Haro where they will spend 2 nights and tour the wineries there. Then one night at a charming inn at San Vicente de la Sonsierra and 2 nights in Logrono doing a day trip to Arnedo for the Theft of the Saints Festival. After that, they'll drop the car off in San Sebastian and spend 2 nights there before flying to Malaga. They're a little sad to be missing both Madrid and Barcelona this trip, but it just means they'll have to go back!

Thank you for this Maribel, I intend to use this next week when my husband and I will be in Seville!

My budget gem in Athens is HOTEL PHAEDRA ... dream location... only 21 rooms on 3 floors, but all with bal conies, the west side balconies look right up at Acropolis, the East side rooms look down at sunken courty ard of St. Catherines Church... and out toward Mt Lykebettus. The lobby is plain, as are the corridors, but it has a tiny elevator, the beds are comfy, the linens are crisp and white, and it has a wonderful roof terrace open 24/7, wide-canopied tables with a view.. great for bringing up breakfast, a snack, sunset wine & munchies ... Often Ive sat there reading for hours. A double room (ask for top floor) isn't over €100 ... MUCH better location and ambience than Tempi or Marble House. Only drawback is, I've been singinig its praises on 3 Greece forums for years, and it's getting hard to book. Good luck!