Paris to Greece Help
 

I am not sure what is wrong with my computer (or maybe it is just me). I could not respond to my previous message - Paris to Greece. I want to thank 111op and brotherleelove2004. Your suggestion links have a lot of great information. Also I want to get some more expert opinions about Greece.

My tentative plan (hopefully won't be change again)
July 2 evening leaving Paris to Greece and returning to Paris July 7.
I am hoping to go to Athens and Santorini. If time allows (say I am lucky enough to get one more day off and return to Paris on July 8) I would love to go to Mykonos as well.

I am very interested in the culture and visiting places with history. I have been reading different people's opinions on Santorini and Mykonos. With my limited time, do you think I will be better off going to Santorini or Mykonos?

Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

Hi, tarepanda, you're welcome. By the way, it looks like you're new here -- you can get a list of the threads you started by clicking on your name. Here's the previous thread:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34498140

I've not yet been to Mykonos but I'll be there in a few weeks. I was in Santorini last year. If you'd like to visit both, you'd probably want to visit Santorini first, as I believe the ferries/hydrofoils for the Cyclades stop at Santorini and then Mykonos. You should investigate what the schedules are like for those dates. On the other hand, I never know if I can be sure if I can believe the ferry schedules on the web.

Guide books all seem to mention that there're direct flights between Santorini and Mykonos during the high season, but I can't seem to verify that through the online schedules on Olympic or Aegean. So if you fly, you may have to go through Athens.

My own impressions are that Mykonos is a much more party sort of town. I stayed in Oia when I was in Santorini though, though I was away from the crowds and the action that supposedly permeate Fira Town. While I'm not really a party person I've decided to visit Mykonos to see what it's like en route to Crete.

Re Santorini vs. Mykonos -- now people will tell you that Santorini is very beautiful. There're the ruins at Akrotiri (some people think they're a joke) -- I enjoyed them.

Based on what I've read Mykonos itself doesn't seem terribly interesting, but it's the gateway for Delos, a very important site in ancient Greece. That said, I've a friend who said that this is a total joke.

So I guess you need to go see for yourself. :-)

ttt -- I think that tarepanda can use more advice.

Hi, 111op. Thanks for the advise. Yes, I am pretty new. My co-worker has suggested me to try use the fodors forum because she has gotten a lot of good advise here.

How was your flight/ferry experience? I have read somewhere that they are not always on time and a lot of cancellations. How long will the ferry ride be? Is there anything I can do on the ferry??

Sounds like Santorini is more quiet. I suppose you will find out how much partying goes on at Mykonos when you are there in a few weeks.

Hi, I've never taken the ferries -- I've heard that the schedules can be erratic, as you have. Since my travel time is usually quite limited and it seems more difficult to get information on the web, I've decided that flying is easier.

The hydrofoils can be quite fast -- if they're available it should take you about three or four hours and this can be competitive when you figure in times to get to the airport and to check in, etc. And the hydrofoils are also cheaper, and that's also a consideration. I'll have to let people who've used them tell you more about them.

But apparently flights can be erratic too. Anyway, when I flew to Santorini from Athens last year, I used Olympic and they were actually fine. Supposedly they're prone to delays but I didn't experience them (fortunately).

People say that Fira Town in Santorini can be quite noisy, but I didn't get that impression when I was there. As I said, I stayed in Oia, so that's more traditional and quiet. Oia seems to be the standard recommendation here. I think that Fira isn't as bad as it's made out to be, and if I'm there again, I may even choose Fira. The two are well connected by a bus that runs regularly. But Mykonos definitely seems to me to be a party town, but I'll find out for myself, as you say, in a couple of weeks.