Planning a trip to Athens/Mykonos/Islands
 

Hi all - great forum! I would like to plan a surprise trip for my girlfriend and I for May (her birthday). Am hoping for around 10 days (hoping that's a good start since it's our first time). Would love to see the sites in Athens and then hopefully travel to the islands for a few days of just r&r. We've seen some shows on Mykonos, and thought it was gorgeous, so that's an obvious place we want to be.

Any suggestions on an agency to book through, what to see/what not to see, getting a tourguide in Athens (if recommended), etc? Any trip we've done in the past was just done free form, and we've never travelled overseas before

thanks in advance!

forgot to mention - budget wise, something in the $3k-$4k range including the flights from NY, if that is doable? I don't need the highest of the high end hotels, but something nice, clean, and reputable

thanks all

Let's do some calculations aj. on your $4,000 budget.

Two May RT tickets From NY starting on a THursday, back on a Sunday -- you can get Olympic tix nonstop for $917; with transp to/from Airport = $1K each. THat leaves you $1,000 each for the 10 days = $100 per day each. Today's exchange rate is $1.34 =1€. That gives you 75€ apiece per day.

You CAN do it on that, but not high end at all; you will have to budget a bit. A convenient Athens hotel for 3 days will run a minimum of 80€ per double I think. A simple taverna dinner in Athens, 30-35€ for 2 with some wine. A ferry ticket to Mykonos @30€ or so each way. Mykonos is 1 of the 2 most expensive islands, so a fairly nice hotel can run you 70-90€ per day, tho u can find bargains if you do some patient online research. And clubbing runs the bill waaay up.

An agency can save you from having to do any planning yourself, but I don't know if you can afford one. That's because they may want to book you into more expensive hotels (they live by commissions after all). Also, you can lower costs by splitting your island time 3 days Mykonos, 3 days at a less costly island like Paros, right next door. At isles like Paros or Naxos in May you can get nice hotels just by doing "walk-up", for 30-35€ per day; meals & drinks are cheaper too.

It adds up to this: May is the perfect month to travel to Greece (I am going then myself), you can have an unforgettably glorious time, and on your budget... IF you're able and willing to put in time online, reading a guide book and figuring your daily costs in advance.

A helpful website for travel planning for Greece is Matt Barrett's Travel Guide to Greece at www.greektravel.com. Matt recommends several travel agencies.

Matt Barrett's Site is fairly good on ferries, busses, etc, and getting around Athens. However, much of his stuff on the islands has not been updated in a loooong while, and methinks he does promote places and goods & services of his friends way too much.

I DO see why people like his site a lot, because it's easy to navigate and grasp, with pictures integrated with text. I only recently found a site that I think is BETTER -- and it's by a Greek, a very knowledgeable one, and super-easy to navigate and learn from (no surprise, because he is a teacher). Check it out!
http://www.greek-islands.us/
It has pictures integrated with text throughout, begs to be printed out.

I also think Rick Steves' section on Athens is succinct, gives you the highlights quickly, enables a D-I-Y approach to the Acropolis, Agora & Archeological Museum.
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti...ece/athens.htm

...Yes Matt Barrett is useful, but no longer the main game in town.

You have had many great suggestions. Possibly we could suggest a travel agency only because we learned from another traveller, whom we met at a bed and breakfast in Anchorage, Alaska that experience and knowledge of the ferry schedules and advance booking is key to travelling to a few islands, keeping travel time to a minimum. Some islands do not have daily stops and not all ferries connect to all the islands. We landed in Athens in Sept. 2007 and immediately went by high speed ferry to Mykonos. Our other stops included Paros, Naxos and lastly Santorini. We would highly recommend Fantasy Travel, Greece - located in Athens. (website under same name)

They offer advance ferry ticketing, as well as selection of A, B or C levels of accommodation. You can book travel, transfers to and from ferries and accommodations and still have the flexibility of exploring the islands and sites as you choose.

We selected moderate cost accommodations and were very pleased with our selections.

On our last three days on Santorini, when ferries did not sail because of high seas, we really appreciated having a Greek tour connection on stand by to return us to Athens in time for our flight home.

Our other suggestion would be to leave Athens to the end of your trip and perhaps take a tour of the highlights. This was the only group tour we took, and we arranged it once we returned to Athens at the Fantasy Travel office.

George Gerassimidis is the owner. Ms. Paula Simopoulou made all our arrangements after we told her which islands we wanted to visit. She also made suggestions as to our itinerary. We have travelled extensively and this was our first time using an agency. It was a fantastic, 21 day trip.

Calgary, Alberta

Dusty boots, I am curious --- according to calculations, Ajb & girlfriend have only 75€ per day apiece. Did your adventure with Fantasy Travel come in at that budget??

Our best recall is that accommodations cost us about 80-90 euros a day. This was for a mid-range accommodation. One can select from an A,B or C range of pricing. The price for mid range accommodations included a hot breakfast and travel to and from the hotels. So, our recommendation is advanced only on the chance that the "C" range accommodations may suit ajb1820's budget for the couple of islands they want to visit.
Our request of the agency was to only provide a cost for the most cost efficient transport between the islands, and acccommodations. Hope this helps!

Dustieboots, I agree with you that Fantasy Travel is reasonable & reliable. Sounds as if they provided you with a really good experience.

However, unless I am misled, I think ajb is lowballing it a bit more. I may be misunderstanding him, but I think he has $100 per day per person (which is about 75€) for EVERYTHING. Not just hotels, breakfasts & transfers to/from ports -- but ALSO ferry tickets,site admissions, local tours, bus & taxis. lunch & dinner, snacks, drinks & nightlife, beach chair rental -- EVERYTHING!! Correct me if I am wrong AJB!

I know how to do it, but I have long experience at frugal-yet-comfy; I do not think AJB could afford the agency level of lodging & service, IF his $$ figure is indeed for EVERYTHING.