I am planning a 30 day trip to Greece for September. I am thinking of allowing half of the time for the islands and half for the mainland. I could use help with routing for the islands. I want to go to Rhodes, Santorini, Naxos, and Crete before doing the mainland. I am open to flying as well as ferries. I have read that the local airlines change flights after booking & wonder if that happens often. I plan to reserve hotels before we go. We plan to use public transportation at all locations rather than renting a car.

Thanks for any help!

A good route would be from Athens>Naxos>Santorini>Crete>Rhodes>Athens, or fly to Rhodes then go from Rhodes>Crete>Santorini>Naxos>Athens.

Flight schedule changes happen occasionally, but usually before the season begins as they're sorting things out for the season. Olympic has a poorer record for keeping to their schedules. Aegean is much more reliable in that way. Olympic flies to all the islands you've mentioned. Aegean flies to all except Naxos. SkyExpress is a small Cretan Airlines that flies to Santorini and Rhodes.

Marsh, we appear to be going to Greece around the same time for the same amount of time. I too am in the process of planning my trip. My Itinerary so far is fly to Crete, Santorini, Naxos, Antiparos, Nauplino (sp) and Athens with day trips to some of the other islands. I return home from Athens.

Have fun with your planning and maybe our paths will cross in Greece.

jdc

ttt

Hi Marsh,

There are lots of different ways to route your island itinerary. What is certain, is that Rhodes and Crete are furthest from Athens, and also the most problematic in finding ferry connections with other islands on your list. My recommendation would be: fly to Rhodes, then make your way back to Athens via the route suggested by brotherleelove.

Find a copy of <i>Greek Island Hopping 2009</i> and familiarize yourself with the Greek ferry system.