I was just told by my boss that I can't travel in September, so we will have to do our trip to Greece in early October. Will it still be relatively easy to get ferries to some of the smaller islands, or should we give up on that plan? We will have a full two weeks. I was thinking of islands like Sifnos and Serifos, and/or possibly Naxos (which I know isn't small) and Amorgos. Thanks in advance!

Ferries to Naxos will be a daily occurrence On this same daily route from Athens/Piraeus are Paros, Ios and Santorini. Schedules for the others probably won't be available until late September.

Thanks! What about amenities on the islands? Will things still mostly be open in October?

Lots of businesses stay open until the end of October, but it's difficult to say how many. Things will definitely be winding down, shops, hotels and restaurants closing, ferries cutting back their schedules. The more popular the island the longer the season will last.

we were in greece in october (9th-24th). flew into athens, overnight to crete chania, boat heraklion crete to santorini, boat to naxos/paros and mykonos/delos. then boat to athens ... it was a pain to get the schedules until the week before departure but they were all there.

i didn't find anything to be really closed, although mykonos was quieter than usual and some of the garden/outside evening restaurants in chanio were shut down for the season, but on the main drag all were open.

the water was a bit chilly for swimming, but there's so much to do anyway ...

We were in Greece for the first 2 weeks of Oct. We visited Crete, Santorini, and Athens (in that order).

We had a great time, it wasn't so crowded, and our transitions were fairly smooth. The ferry schedules are a little trickier, and we had to show some flexibility from Crete to Santorini, but it worked out okay. We stayed an extra day in Chania, and cut one day from Santorini, due to ferry schedule issues. We flew from Santorini to Athens, so no boat issues there.

Also, the water was a bit cool for swimming, but we had some great weather overall. Not sure what your experience would be with the islands you mentioned but HTH.

We were there in late October 2003, and the later it gets the harder it is to find hotels open, but there are some. I'd suggest making reservations so you know they'll be open.

The only bad thing is that the Aegean can get some nasty storms and hold up flight/ferry traffic.

Other than that we had a lovely time. Not terribly crowded, and beautiful.

Happy travels,

Jules

Rather than going to the islands during off-season, why not concentrate on the mainland? You can still visit the Saronic Gulf islands (Aegina, Hydra, etc) on day trips, and go to the classic sights of the mainland when the weather is cool and the crowds gone.

Fly to Santorini for a couple of days, perhaps, but steer clear of the small islands. Some of them have only one or two ferries per week, and those can be cancelled in bad weather.