September itinerary for Island Hopping
 

We are an adventurous senior couple traveling to Greece the beginning of Sept to the end. How does this sound to Greek experts?

Day 1. Fly to Athens and then fly to Crete
Days 2-5. Crete (5 nights)
Day 6 Travel by Ferry to Santorini
Days 7-11. Santorini (6 nights)
Day 12. Travel to Mykonos by ferry
Days 13-14 Mykonos (3 nights)
Day 15. Travel to Naxos by Ferry
Days 16-18. Naxos (4 nights)
Day 19. Travel to Athens by Ferry
Days 20-21 Athens (3 nights)
Day 22. Fly home

Questions:

Is order good?

Will there be problems with ferries Sept 15 to 26th?

Suggestions for MUST dos.

Thanks for any help!

IF u are adventurous, I would suggest taking 1-2 nights off Santorini (lovely view of caldera, but not adventure) and adding 1 to Crete, 1 to Naxos (THOSE are the isles w adventure) … fly in to Chania, enjoy exploring old-town & area 2 days, then car rental .. various routes south, then N.E to Heraklion area for ferry. After Santorini, any reason why direct to Mykonos??? Its farther than Naxos, why not reverse the 2? Then u could do Mykonos to Rafina port if u wished.

PS: if u want to avoid cruise crowds on Santorini & Mykonos (they can totally clog the lanes of Mykonos Town, Oia & Fira Towns at midday) be advised that the large cruise ships are concentrated on T-W-Th. you can however check the schedule for Sept on these 2 links
http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/G...eptember_2014/
http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/G...eptember_2014/

I think the cruisett site underestimates the number of boats. I checked against the actual cruise boat count vs. the site, and I observed more boats in ports than the list. I also think the mid-week is the busy time at these two islands. If you look at cruise booking sites, these Mediterranean cruises, leave Istanbul, Venice, Athens, etc, on weekends. They don't get to these islands until mid-week. So if you go to Santorini, Mykonos on weekends, many boats are still loading passengers in Venice, Istanbul, etc.
One of the day I was in Mykonos, there were five boats carrying more than 8000 passengers. While you associate Greek islands as relaxing laid back, on this kind of day, it felt more like a subway station during the rush hour.

Naxos does not get Mykonos/Santorini crowds. Big cruise boats don't go there. It looks more like a Greek island you have seen in old movies.

The ferry schedule on non-trunk like gets cut back around Sept 15 to shift to the low season schedule. The Mykonos is surprising not well connected to Naxos during off season. Last year, until mid September, there was a BlueStar from Mykonos to Naxos. After that, only Seajet consortium had a direct Mykonos-Naxos connection. More reliable and stable (bigger boat that does better on rough seas) Hellenic Seaway ferry went to Paros first. Except for BlueStar, the ferry schedules change up to the departure. Rely on your hotel staff to guide you. They know how to deal with the whimsical boat schedules.

Santorini, though spectacular, is very expensive--particulary lodging. I was happy with our 3 nights there last month. Like the other respondents, I suggest taking one or two nights from Santorini; add one to Mykonos, where you'll want to spend a full day visiting nearby Delos. Add the other to Naxos, which was my favorite of the islands we visited and has plenty to explore. Visit Naxos before Mykonos. (We also added Paros between Naxos and Mykonos, and did a day trip from Paros to Antiparos. Loved them both, but with Crete in the mix you probably don't need to add any more bases.)

Lucky you.

Rooms on Santorini go for as little as €25/night. That's far from expensive by any standards. You just have to do the work to find them. A good tool is the filter system at http://www.booking.com. You can search island-wide or village by village.

Once September 1 has arrived you will find the most accurate cruise ship arrival schedule for Santorini here: http://www.santorini-boatmenunion.co...cruiseship.pdf

Hmmm, I forgot how precise one needs to be when posting here. What I should have said was "Santorini, though spectacular, is very expensive--particularly lodging, if you want a hotel overlooking the caldera, which most people seem to want (for good reason)."

There are caldera-view hotels with double rooms that charge €100 or less. What do you categorize as "very expensive"?

Thanks for all the help. I can always count on Fodors. One question, is it easy to rent a car in Greece. For other countries I had thought it was better to arrange from U S but I'd like to be more flexible. Which companies are reliable?

Yes, it's easy. The best auto rental agents are not always associated with international companies. You'll get the best prices by waiting until you're there to do some local price comparisons. Be sure to go to your local AAA office to pick up an International Driving Permit, no test or membership required. Bring 2 passport photos with you to save a few dollars.

I did some adjusting so how does this sound to my fodors experts?Day 1. Fly to Athens and then fly to Crete (Chania)
Days 2-6 Crete ( 6nights)
Day 7 Travel by Ferry to Santorini. (Ferry from Heraklion)
Days 8-10 Santorini (4 nights)
Day 11 travel to Naxos by ferry
Days 12-14 Naxos (4 nights)
Day 15. Travel to Mykanos by Ferry
Days 16-18. Naxos (4 nights)
Day 19. Travel to Athens by Ferry
Days 20-21 Athens (3 nights)
Day 22. Fly home

Yeah now it more sensible. But if I were you i would like to make it in reverse. Mykonos->Naxos->Santorini->Crete->Athens

this sounds like a very good itinerary to me--either as you plan it or in reverse.

Be sure to rent a car in Naxos and visit the wonderful interior. We rented through our hotel for 2 days at 25 euros a day. Nice new car, basic insurance included. It was easy to drive around, and simply gorgeous. A lovely surprise was the cove and pebbly beach at Abram, where we had a tasty homemade lunch at the taverna overlooking the cove. It was one of those inviting little places where you basically go back to the kitchen and learn what they'be made for the day's trade--very local, and delicious. That, to me, epitomized what is special about the Greek islands we visited. Have a wonderful time!

Just interested in your reason to reverse it-weather, ferry availability or something else? Seems like if we reversed it, we would have to stay overnight in Athens and take the ferry out the next day. We are supposed to arrive in Athens around 1:30 so it doesn't seem likely that we could get a ferry that day.

In your june 19 itinerary, you plan to FLY on first day to first island, not take a ferry … so I think april meant for you to FLY to Naxos on arrival. However,there is only 1 flight per day to Naxos, around mid-day, so you wouldn't make it. However, if you did wish to do it in reverse, you could easily get the 17:30 (5:30pm) Blue Star ferry from Piraeus to Naxos arriving about 10 pm. IYou could get reserved-economy "aircraft seating" for snoozing, but it still would make for a very long day. I would stick with a plan that would enable you to enjoy a 5:30-6 pm sunset on Chania harbor, not standing on the pier in Pireaus..

In addition, the reverse scenario makes a further change. Your original plan calls for a flight into Chania, then leaving from Heraklion … exploring Crete west to east, no backtracking. A reverse itinerary would require arriving in Heraklion, flying out of Chania.

I was responding to trvelingseeker's suggestion to start with Mykonos, which I liked simply because Santorini is so spectacular, it's nice to save it til later. And you could fly from Athens to Mykonos if the timing works for you. But I have not been to Crete so don't know how those logistics work from Santorini.

In Milliebest's revised itinerary, it appears that she now plans to see Mykonos as a day trip, on the excursion vessel from Naxos.

I think she actually has a typo there--said Naxos but meant Mykonos. That is what I assumed anyway (4 nights in Naxos, 4 nights in Mykonos). I could be wrong though!

Yes, you could be wrong … because Naxos (and Paros) have very popular day- excursion boat services … 2x a week to Delos/Mykonos, and 2x to Santorini … very handy for people who wish to see these popular islands, but prefer to actually stay in less touristy (AND less expensive) islands.

Sorry that was a typo!

Days16-18 Mykonos (4 nights) and from there to Athens by ferry.

I think I like going to Crete on the first day and working our was back. I do appreciate the suggestions.