Sumanhm

Hi,

A friend and I will be visiting Greece for 2 weeks (june 1st - 14th, 2017)

We intend to do a day tour in each of the below cities:

Chania (4th June)
Santorini (6th or 7th June)
Milos (9th June)

We are looking for tours that will take us to a couple of *picturesque, pristine beaches*, snorkeling, sunsets, tours that have a lot of young energetic people, music and maybe even serves beer!

1. Kindly suggest tours we could take
2. Would it make sense to just go to Greece and find tours locally or should we pre-book the tours online?
3. Would it be possible to go to beaches of our choice (by boat/ bus) on our own or does it make sense to go on an organized day tour?

Please note that we are budget travellers (2 girls, 25 years of age). We intend to not rent a car or a bike. But, if there is no other way, we are open to renting a vehicle.

Thanks in advance!
Su

Kathie

No need for any tours, you can go to beaches on your own. Indeed, if you are hoping to meet other young people you are far better off going on your own rather than going on a tour.

kja

I agree with Kathie. I would add that a good guidebook or two would likely prove incredibly valuable. The cost would be nugatory in comparison to the cost of your trip, you would get answers to these kinds of questions, maybe find some cost-saving tips, and find information you don't even know you need (but do).

Good luck!

PaulKilfoil

Kathie and Kja are right. Forget organized tours, just go on your own - it is far easier than you think, much more fun and cheaper too. But get a good guidebook (sorry Fodor's, but my favourite is the Rough Guide).

tonib

Forget about guided tours if you are on a budget, I agree with the other comments here. You can always go on your own and explore, or ask the locals, most of them speak English easily and fairly good, and they are happy to help.

isabel

Hmmm - normally I hate 'tours' but in the case of Chania the 'best' beaches are a ways out of town and the most convenient way to get there is a bus/boat combo. Balos/Gramvousa was amazing but it was actually cheaper/faster to a 'tour' than just take the bus then the boat. I describe it and how to get there in my trip report (it's way at the end so scroll all the way down). It's not really a tour but you 'buy' the 'tour' from one of the many organized tour offices in town - there are a ton of them.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ith-photos.cfm

Heimdall

I wouldn't bother with land tours, but while on Milos consider a round-island boat trip, which will take you to beautiful beaches. On Santorini are caldera sunset boat trips, volcano tours, etc. Personally I don't think it is worth paying to look at a hole in the ground (volcano), but a sunset cruise might be fun.

Mimar

We took a bus tour on Santorini that went first to Acrotiri (archeological site) then to a beach. If you're interested in Acrotiri, it's very hard to interpret without somebody to explain what you're looking at. There are a few signs but not many. (Caveat: our visit was a few years ago.)

crazyh

You haven't given us a breakdown of the number of days on each island.

A rental car will give you far more options on what you can see and experience. They really aren't that expensive and in the end may be worth the money rather than spending the extra cost for a guided tour.

Remember the tours are scheduled for the agencies time, not yours. You'll probably get rushed from one place to another and not really have enough time to experience what you are witnessing.

Crete is the largest island in Greece and would need many days to explore it and get a feel for what it has to offer.

There are numerous day tours but a rental car will give you more options.

Santorini is one of Greece's most popular and heavily touristed island. There are numerous tours on the island, depending on what you want to see.

Milos is small enough that you can do a do-it-yourself tour, especially with a rental car.

A little info on your part with number of days for each island would help.