Six women are cruising together in June. On three of the Greek islands - Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes - we would like to have private drivers give us an overview of the island. Our travel agents has gotten estimates and they are in the $225 range PER PERSON for 4 hours!! That's outrageous. Does anyone have suggestions for us. We would want an English speaking guide and are willing to break up into 3 and 3 if space is an issue.

Have you done a Google search for private tours, private guides, land tours or island tours?

Take brotherleelove2004's advice, and whatever you do, don't go through travel agents; it's always much more expensive. A much cheaper option that worked well for us in Rhodes was simply asking a taxi driver to take us on his "personal bests" tour of the island. It was a little bit of a risk in that there was no advance planning, but it worked out very well. I think for the four of us it was about $175 for half a day. This was two years ago. Good luck!

I wanted to add that getting a taxi driver to do a private tour in Mykonos might be trickier since there are very few taxis available on the entire island ( I think we were told that there are only about 25 of them, total!).

And a taxi driver may know the roads but that doesn't mean you'll get an informed guide in the bargain.

A further budget problem is that as OP stated, there are 6, so it would require TWO cars.

MYKONOS -- very little reason for a taxi tour. You have the TOWN (twalk the mazey lanes & shop, take pictures of the windmills, have a meal)... the BEACHES (go out on a bus, walk the beach, sunbathe?). SIGHTS? -- There is NO archeological dig of interest and only a small museum. The "sight" is Delos, a 30-minute ferry ride away, open 9am-3pm. THere are guided tours u sign up for at waterfront but if your ship is on wrong schedule, only way u can go is thru their excursion.

RHODES -- Rhodes Old Town can only be explored by foot. Googling a few websites like this one & printing them out would enable you to do a D-I-Y tour with ease
http://www.faliraki-info.com/rhodes/old-town.htm
Lindos is about 1 hour away by road; you can climb to the (reconstructed) classic acropolis on your own without any background lecture. The vista is wonderful. Lindos town itself is awfully touristic. I would advise taxi if time is limited; as brotherleelove says, you can "google" for various services. For Rhodes if this is a typical cruise you arrive about 8am and leave about 8 pm so you if you walk Old Town & see Lindos you wouldn't have time to drive all over the rest of the island anyway, this is not a tiny island like some in the Caribbean.

SANTORINI -- this is one island where the pvt taxi thing may be worthwhile, but needing 2 cars puts it into the expensive category. Research as Brothrlee says.

travelerjan and weadles are correct about Mykonos.

However, I have a little leaflet here that I picked up last year when on the island. It is for a 4-hour bus tour around Mykonos. I know you would prefer a private guide but these tour buses are small and if there are six of you that may half fill it.

The tour visits some of the island's beaches i.e. Agios Ioannis (a must see!), Ornos, Agios Stefanos, Tourlos, Kalafati and St. Anna and there is also an 'ouzo' stop (!). Included is a visit to Ano Mera village and its Panagia Tourliani monastery (another must see). The leaflet says the tour runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The cost is 30 euro per person.

All there is on the leaflet is a telephone number but I can make some enquiries to find out if they have an email address, if you are interested.

Bill

For Santorini i had used http://www.ankor.gr/
We where a group of 9 and they used a mini bus. The cost was
euro 60 per hour. That did not include a guide but you can ask for one and decide.

Good luck

Thanks for all the input. We are slowly formulating a plan. Does anyone know if the Akoriti ruins on Santorini are open?

No.

However, If you go to the Arch. museum (next to Cathedral, open until 2 or 2:30pm), it has super dioramas etc depicting volcano eruption & effects + many artifacts from Minoan civ. ALSO, if u walk NORTH along Firi parapet rim beyond Cable Car u will find Nokimos Conference Center (he's the rich guy who also donated the cable car). THis place has a corridor w. HUGE photos showing the excavation story. It also has (for a fee)exhibit of super- realistic reproductions of the famed Akrotiri murals. PLUS the Center's terrace is a SUPERB vista of the Caldera...best in Fira Town.