Well, thanks to all the help I received from this forum, we had a fabulous 2 week trip to Greece. Special thanks to Brotherleelove and travelerjan, but also to all the others who helped me make decisions and gave me good ideas. I'll do a couple of other trip report posts but I thought I'd start with some general notes/observations.

1) The latter half of May was a GREAT time to go. The weather was perfect, we never had a drop of rain. It was warm during the day (hot in the sun), and cool at night. The only crowds were when the cruise ships came in.
2) Even with being shoulder season, there were less people than I expected - I think the economy is taking a toll on tourism.
3) The itinerary you helped me put together - start in Santorini for 3 days, then ferry to Naxos for 3 days, then fly to Athens for 3 days, then pick up a car and drive to Napflio for 2 nights, and then spend a day driving back to Athens and stay near the airport before flying home - was perfect. Having busy Athens sandwiched between the more relaxed locations was just right. It would have been too much to start there.
4) Driving is not a problem. We rented a car for 1 day in Santorini and again in Naxos. And driving in the Peloponnese was fine too. I must say that they're a little stingy about road signs, but we never got TOO lost.
5) I was very glad that I had (a) learned to speak some basic phrases and (b) learned to (sort of) read the Greek alphabet before we left. I always find it's appreciated anywhere you go, if you can at least say good morning, please and thank you, can I have the check, and where's the bathroom. As for the alphabet - not EVERYTHING is in Greek and English, particularly road signs. I knew a lot of the lower case letters from statistics, but the upper case ones were a mystery, and all the tricky ones (lower case m and n, the 75 different letters for the sound 'e') kept me on my toes. I was glad I had studied.
6) Lodging - I did a lot of homework on this, and everywhere we stayed was great. We obviously spent more in Santorini and Athens, and less in Naxos and Nafplio, but we tend towards nice but not too expensive places.
7) Eating - such good food! Those tomatoes! We found portions to be pretty big and did a lot of sharing. Gyros are the best cheap meal you'll ever eat. Fresh grilled fish is fabulous. Lots of interesting mezze. I never really ate sweets except for gelato a few times. It IS hard getting used to eating so late though - we tended to leave for dinner around 8 (typical tourists), but I know most locals didn't hit the restaurants until 10.
8) I LIKE the fact that things shut down from 2-5 in a lot of places. Napping is good.
9) Everyone, everywhere was NICE. Really nice. It was a pleasure.

I'll do trip reports on our locations over the next week or so. I do have to spend some time whittling down my 300+ pictures, and I also have to WORK (sigh).

But again, the trip was fabulous, and you guys were a tremendous resource.

Alice

Sounds like we are in for a great report!

Oopah! I've got to get to Greece before I die!

Reports like yours just might help to pry me away from beloved Italy in the future. Thank you!

Sounds like a great trip - which is really good for me cause I'm about to do almost the exact same trip! We leave June 28. So I'm very anxious to read your experience. I do have a couple questions now though - who did you rent your car from for the trip to Napflio? And where did you pick it up? Did you reserve it before you left home? For the Naxos car rental, where di you rent it and did you reserve it ahead of time? Obviously I'm at the car rental portion of my planning so I'd really love to hear what you did.

Can't wait to see the photos too.

Oh Alice although I haven't been to Greece (our trip got cancelled, long boring story) I am so looking forward to your trip report and pictures!

Yvonne, many of my Italian friends in Italy love to go to Greece for their vacations. I hope you are able to one of these times.

isabel, we just rented the car from the guy who ran our hotel in Naxos. We didn't take care of that one until we got there, and it was no big deal.

My husband shopped around pre-trip for the one we rented in Athens, drove to Nafplio, and then back to Athens - we ended up renting from Avis. We picked it up in the city (he found an office near our hotel, walked there, got the car, and came back for me and the luggage) and dropped it off at the airport.

Alice

I am eagerly awaiting your report as I am going to Greece in September. I'm not visiting the islands this trip, but I will pretty well cover the mainland and the Peloponnese. I'm especially interested in dining recommendations for Athens and Nafplio.

I too am studying Greek and the Greek alphabet so at least I can have some basic idea of what I'm reading. All I can say is that to me it's even harder than Hungarian and Czech, which, until now, have been the hardest languages for me to pick up.

Thanks for taking the time to write a report. Often people ask questions on the forum but never let us know if they have taken any suggestions or what their experience was.

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

Thank you. I find these sorts of general notes and observations to be much more valuable (and interesting) than specific, blow-by-blow, day-by-day accounts of one's trip. Wish more people would do them.

I knew I forgot something, so let's make it an even
10) Smoking - I had seen dire warnings all over the forum about how much smoking there is and what a problem it is. Well, I'm pretty sensitive to smoke, and I have to say, we never had a problem. Now, we almost always ate outside, and sometimes one or two people were smoking, but there was a breeze and it was fine. I did see smokers congregate at the coffee places that are everywhere - the main activities seem to be talking, smoking, drinking some form of coffee and people watching. But we didn't really hang out at those places. So maybe it's more of an issue when the weather is hotter, or when there isn't a breeze - but for us, no prob.

Alice

Thanks for sharing your observations. I'll be on the plane in 48 hours... my first trip to Greece

Alice - could you please decide for us ... should we follow our Italian 10 day visit with a week in the Greek islands or a week in Switzerland? We can't decide.

To anyone still reading, it is understood that the above question is ridiculous.

Alice - I'm glad you had such a great trip and thank you for your observations. Please post the rest of your report SOON! We leave Saturday and are doing almost the same trip

We were there in May in the 1980s and remember the lovely 80s weather. Many of the Greek folks were still in coats though. Looking forward to a virtual revisit in your TR!

Hey Alice! I just saw your other posts. Thank you!!!

colduphere - hey that's YOUR decision, and as far as I can tell, there's no wrong answer! Well, depending when you go I guess. If you're going early in the season, parts of Switzerland might be too cold, roads closed etc.

And I will try to get to the rest of the trip report shortly, promise.

Alice