Short Addon
 

Following a tour (have never been on a tour) to Israel, we're thinking of adding a few (maybe 4-6 days) to get a taste of Greece (we've never been).
I assume we'd land in Athens which is probably not of great interest to us.

Is it possible to visit two island, go back to Athens and then fly home to South Florida?

Just started to think about this so possibilities are pretty open.

yep, why Athens of no interest?

It's possible, but it may be cheaper to fly roundtrip from the USA to Tel-Aviv than open-jaw TLV - ATH and TLV has direct flight to Miami(Athens doesn't).

When are you going?

There are seasonal direct flights from Tel-Aviv to a few Greek Island airports:

Heraklion, Mykonos, Kos, Rhodes,

bilbo,

You ask a good question. I'm guessing we'll only have a few days.

So it might be better to fly to/from TLV

Cyprus is another great island if you want to get a taste of Greece/Greek culture. It's the closest to Israel with frequent and cheap flights.

I thought bilboburgler meant: Why no interest in Athens? Whatever was meant, that's my question for you.

The problem is six days is a short stay. At least for a bigger island. You could fly into Rhodes and take one of the day trips to Symi.

I have the same question. Have you been to Athens before and just don't need to see it again, or do you really have no interest in it?

You can do this but it comes down to timing and flights. I think to at least see enough of an island to make the trip worthwhile, you want 3 nights minimum - that gives you just two full days. You could fly into Athens from Israel, then connect out the same day to an island with an airport. Either enjoy all your Greece time there and fly/ferry back to Athens or fit in another island if you have time. The direct flights mentioned above from Tel Aviv make sense if you are skipping Athens. I'd guess they will only be available during the peak summer months.

I would not recommend travelling from an island back to Athens on the same day as your international flight home. If you get stuck on the island because of bad weather, or whatever, you'll miss your flight home. Have at least one night in Athens and depart the next day. If you decide to visit two islands, it's much easier if they are in the same ferry grouping. Otherwise you need to travel back to Athens and back out again. As an example, Santorini, Mykonos and Naxos are in the same grouping.

Regarding Athens, we love the Greek islands but don't like Athens. Each to their own.

Kay

Also interested in why you don't want to go to Athens. Have you been before? There's more to Athens than just the tourist sites. While it's not Rome or Paris it does have its own unique character and often surprises first-time visited with what it has to offer. Check out this web site to see what Athens is all about:

https://www.athensguide.com/

4-6 days may get you one island and a couple days in Athens or spend the entire time on one nearby island like Aegina which has everything one wants in a Greek Island.

Bear in mind you still need to get back to Athens for your flight home and everyone recommends getting back to Athens at least one day before your departure in case of any delays so that means you'll probably will spend 1 day in Athens. Make it 2 and that should give you a taste of Athens.

Would not travel to Greece or the Greek islands between November and April.

Thin,aristocrat 🏝

It appears we'd there some time in May.
About Athens. I just guessed.
No, we've never been to Greece. Whenever the topic came up I kept reading about the possibility of getting stuck with ferries not running.
This would be a scouting trip to see if we wanted a longer trip in Greece.
We're not super history buffs. i think i want to see what would want us to come back. Not sure what that would mean. I just started to think about this idea.
A few years ago we stopped in Lisbon for a few days on the way back from Italy. Now I want to plan another trip to Portugal.

You don't want to see the Parthenon, Mask of Agamemnon, Kroisos Kouros, the Benaki Museum, or wander around the Plaka?

Wow!

Thin,aristocrat 🦜

I had a similar "Taste of Greece" trip last week. Ferries will be a concern out of season. Flights may be more limited as well. The ground crew was celebrating my flight from Athens to Atlanta because it was the last flight of the season. Photo ops. Celebration. I watched it unfold because I accepted to be bounced from that flight. We did a mix of Athens and Santorini. Loved the trip. Defniitely want to return. I got in a day earlier than my friend so arranged for a private driver (recommended by Challiman) to pick me up at the airport, take me to Corinth and back by 3 - which is when my hotel room would be ready anyway. Highly recommend that 1/2 day trip. Highly recommend the Hilton rooms with an Acropolis view. I think you need at least one day in Athens to get out and about if only one day. We then flew to Santorini and it was paradise. We stayed in Oia, which I loved. It was at the end of the season and quieter than summer - which I loved. We took the ferry back to Athens (long day but quick views of other islands), and then a taxi back to Athens. 2 more nights in Athens, mainly for just a base for the next day trip and the night before the flight. We took a private driver (again) to Delphi - with a stop at a monastery along the way. LOVED it! I wish we had one more day so we could have done the overnight to Meteora. It was a great trip. I want to return to visit more islands - in season - but we both REALLY enjoyed getting out to see the mainland.

I'm sure you could experience some wonderful things in just a few days, but Greece is a very large, very diverse country. The idea that you could visit an island or two in just a few days and decide whether GREECE, as a country, holds interest for you is, to my way of thinking, rather absurd -- sort of like saying you could decide whether Spain is worth visiting after a couple of days in Madrid, or Sicily after a few days in Florence, or the U.S. after a few days on Miami Beach, etc.

You've gotten some great suggestions about islands you could visit conveniently given your other constraints, but that's a very different issue than whether you could learn about Greece from any such visit.

FWIW, you might find some useful information in my trip report:
https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...reece-1460735/

Good luck!

May is a good time for Greece. It’s rare that ferries don’t run, but if you pick an island with an airport you can fly back to Athens. I would recommend one island with a night or two in Athens at the end of the trip.

kja,
I rather like absurd.
I realize different parts of a country are different. But you still get an idea. Like I wrote above. We spent several days in Lisbon with a day trip to Cascais. We saw enough to feel we'd like to go back and see more.
We are repeaters. We often go back to the same areas we've been to before (New York (then upstate), Paris (then chateaux area), Italy (many places), etc) and add a few that we haven't.