Todd's entry is simply proof that CHATGPT is simply a mash-up of random advice sucked up from the internet, with no sorting based on which suggestions are from knowledgeable travel veterans and which are from wackos who plan on the basis of mobile-phone Eye Candy. I have a life, so cannot take hours to point out the misinformation and lack of knowledge -- of factors lilke WHEN (v different based on seasons) HOW (transport difficulties or non existent or hugely time-consuming), SEQUENCE (V,. different in Oct from July), THINGS to AVOID (cruise crowds "package holiday" hives, bad day-tours). Much better to learn from MFNYC, KJA, Karen Woo & others who planned excellent trips -- they all did a lot of research and are generous in sharing... if you don'tthave their reports you can probably access by clicking on their names.

You present us with big challenges, with a wish list like Corfu, Meteora and Rhodes (almost the MOST widely separated destinations possible) without renting car or hiring pvt driver ( trains almost nonexistent). "I'm someone who only can do car rental when with others & must do public transit when solo -- so I have always had to "group" destinations, and save some for another Greece Trip (due to budget, it's almost my only overseas destination in 25 years). Good luck planning & remember -- the only 2 instances of magically quick & easy transport in the Mediterranean-Aegean involved a magic carpet or Walking on Water... both said to have occurred thousands of years ago.

Yo travelerjan I think ChatGPT produced a great starting point considering the prompt I gave it was nothing more than the original authors post. With extra prompting you might be surprised how helpful it is. Just to point something out. The original post had 4 requirements....

-like old architecture (e.g., roman ruins, spanish forts, gothic cathedrals), medieval town centers, walled cities, mosaics, etc.
-like walks along a scenic waterfront (fresh or salt) for a few miles at a time
-UNESCO world heritage sites
-we like to avoid renting cars and prefer public transit. For longer trips we like trains, including because they have bathrooms, a consideration which has become more important in recent years...
-we like to spend at least several nights in each of our accommodations, as opposed to having to pack and unpack frequently. At each location we see the local sites, and may take one or two daytrips

If you look at the output CHAT Delivered on All 4 Requests! Its a Tool to help that's all. I planned my trip this sept with is and I'm very excited!

Thank you, travelerjan!

Sure, take a grandiose but unworkable wish list and get stupid results. You accomplished zero.

I would not have even known Nafplio existed if it wasn't for TravlerJan and others in this forum, when I was researching a trip to Crete in combination with somewhere else. So much excellent info can be found right here.

One thing I do in general when planing any trip where we'll be moving around, I print out a map of the general area and note all the possible places I'd like to go, then logistically, based on distances and transportation options, pick and choose what makes sense given my time frame. I know I can never do everything I'd like to, so I have to zero in on a plan that makes sense, then take it from there.

I would humbly suggest Cephalonia (Kefalonia) for good food, great beaches (i.e. - Skala, Atheras, Petani , Assos, Poros, etc.) horseback riding (Bavarian Stables near Sami), exploring grottos (i,e, - Melissani Cave Lake OR Drogareti Cave, also near Sami), sea turtle habitat along the south shore, and use Terra Mare Resort (which boasts an Olympic size swimming pool, and is a 125 bed resort set in an orange/grapefruit grove, near Lixouri) as your base of operations, for about $50/night Canadian.

I would rent a car (from Kosmos) and drive from Athens, getting the ferry at Kyllini to Poros. Go in late May (or early June) to avoid the tourists and to get the best weather.

We are seniors as well (age 72/73) and found our trip, which started in Athens, starting off with a stay at the Royal Olympic Hotel (coming and going), which has the best rooftop buffet breakfast on offer.

Enjoy.

I share kja’s lack of enthusiasm for Santorini. We couldn’t wait to leave the crowds and were very sorry we had booked four days there. We liked Rhodes and Crete a lot and Paros too.
But we much preferred Nafplion on the mainland over all the islands. It is surrounded by so many antiquities! And it’s historic town center is lovely.
We took a ferry over to the island of Skiafos too, a real bonus!

The visits of day 2 and 3 could be done in 1 single day (unless you plan to stay almost a full day in the National Museum).
I doesn't make sense to backtrack from both, Delphi and Meteora to Athens if the next destinantion ist Corfu.
The correct itinerary would be Athens - Ossios Lucas - Delphi - Lamia - Trikkala - Meteora - Metsovo - Ioannina - Ioumenitsa - Corfu.
There don't exist any direct flights from Corfu to Rhodos or from Rhodos to Santorini.

Keep an eye on the fire situation in Athens. Thousands being evacuated as we speak. Hopefully all will be extinguished by the time of your trip. Just a head's up.

I had no idea that this thread had remained active while I had gone offline to do a little more research. I appreciate that so many people are being helpful! I have used many resources including an endless quantity of web pages (some with burdensome amounts of ads that cause my computer to stagger under the weight...), ChatGPT, and of course the experiences shared in this forum. I am behind on planning since we want to head over there for approximately 3 weeks, starting in mid to late September and thus obviously ending in early to mid October.. My exploration of flight options has shown little cost difference between a roundtrip to Athens vs an open jaw arriving in Athens and departing from Thessaloniki (or vice versa). A cursory exploration also suggests that there are not big price differences between fast ferries and short internal flights.

Here's our preliminary itinerary. Comments are encouraged:
-Fly US to Thessaloniki, stay 4 days
-Train to Athens, stay 6 days
-Fly or ferry to Santorini, stay 3 days (pick days with lesser cruise ship traffic--there are some ships on all but one or two days in Sept/Oct)
-Fly or ferry to Athens then bus to Nafplio for 5 days
-Bus to Athens for 1 night, with flight home the next day

An alternative would be to have the same durations but a different order:
US->Athens->Nafplio->Santorini->Thessaloniki->US
For this option we would fly from Santorini to Thessaloniki

I am wondering if we should trim duration in some locations (or increase trip duration a bit) in order to add in another Greek island that is convenient to access from Santorini, since islands seem to be an important part of a Greek experience (although perhaps primarily for beach lovers?) and Santorini is probably not representative of most of the islands. Several people on this forum suggested Naxos, and I had even considered staying in Naxos instead and doing a daytrip to Santorini, but ultimately decided to spend a few days on Santorini. I am also going to relent a bit on the "don't care about beaches" statement. If it is warm enough, spending half a day at a beach where we can take a nice long walk in the sand (or pebbles), and jump into the water for a bit, that could also be good.

I am also open to hearing about other places that we should try to squeeze into our first visit, even if they aren't island locales. Among our excessively long list of preferences, we like to spend at least 2 nights in any accommodation with a a preference for a3 or 4 night minimum. It puts us at odds with the suggested itineraries of some of the well known travel writers.

A random comment (please don't think less of me) is that I also look at some of the top sites (e.g., Delphi), which seem to have very limited structures remaining, and wondering why they attract so much attention. Maybe there is a majesty that is not conveyed by the photos.

If you start with Thessaloniki, consider putting all your time in Athens at the end of the trip. Doing so would avoid a one-night stay. (Most travelers prefer at least two, if not three or more nights in a location. I'm definitely an outlier in that regard, but even I wouldn't opt for a one-night stay that can be avoided.)

There is at least one beach in Nafplio.

Re: Delphi. IMO, it is magestic ... stunningly so! But as you say, not su much for its extant structures. To me, it's the magnificence of the setting and its theater and the details on some of the structures that do survive. Not to mention that the museum holds some exceptional pieces. I've had the great privilege of seeing a number of Greek ruins, and to me, Delphi is one of the most evocative. JMO.

BUT you can't see everything!

ObscureName, all the places you've chosen to visit are great and your plan sounds fine (I like that it's not rushed too). May I ask whether when you say '6 days' do you mean 6 whole days (7 nights) or 6 nights? It sounds irrelevant but it obviously changes how long you propose to have in each place. Travelling by ferry is a quintessential part of visiting Greece and arriving in Santorini by ferry is special. One comment I would make is that your itinerary is very city heavy and although I absolutely love Greece's cities, I don't think it's the very best of Greece. I would be tempted to reduce your time in some places (or eliminate one city) in order to include somewhere which offers time in nature, beaches, mountains, etc. That might be an island such as Naxos or somewhere on the mainland. There are many choices if you wanted to do that.

Don't stay in Athens twice if you have a direct flilght from your homeland to SKG.
I suppose you will visit Vergina.
From there (Verria) you could reach Athens (or Lamia) by direct bus.
If you visit Philippi too, you may fly to ATH from Kavala.
There are also ferries from Kavala to Lavrio (port close to Cape Sounion).

I agree with Dreamon that you should plan in NIGHTS, not days. 4 nights gives you 3 full days and part of arrival day or departure day; 5 nights gives you 4 full days and part of arrival day or departure day. So that helps you know exactly how much time you have at your destination, and helps us help you plan.

And I agree with everyone who suggests putting all of Athens at the end of your trip to avoid that last one night stay in Athens. Our itinerary was as follows:

We flew from Boston directly to Santorini on Swissair with a layover in Zurich.
Santorini - 3 nights
Ferry to Naxos
Naxos - 4 nights
Flew to Athens
Picked up rental car at the airport
Nafplio - 5 nights
Returned rental car to airport and took taxi to our Athens hotel
Athens - 4 nights
Flew home from Athens

I know your itinerary is different because you are going to Thessaloniki but I think it helps to see the order of my itinerary. (and others) A lot of people recommend visiting an island first because it's a lovely place to get over jet lag. And I am very happy that is what we did. I felt the order of our itinerary was very sensible and easy.

Even though I like Athens, I would not spend 6 days (or 6 nights if that is what it is) in Athens. I don't know enough about Thessaloniki to know if 4 days is enough or too much.

A nice itinerary might be to spend 4 nights in Athens and maybe 3 nights in Thessaloniki. This gives you an additional 3 nights and use those 3 nights to visit Naxos. Can you add an extra night to your trip? So that you can spend 4 nights in Naxos. I think visiting 2 very different islands, Santorini and Naxos, and then your mainland itinerary would make for a very interesting and diversified experience.

Here is my trip report, with photos, if you wish to read it.

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...dyssey-1708211

For guidebooks, I used Fodors, Lonely Planet, and Michelin Green Guide. I also highly recommend Rough Guides. And so many people on this forum were very, very helpful. Travelerjan, kja, and Progol, and others.

I would not think 6 days too much for Athens, nor would I think 4 days too much for Thessaloniki -- but of course it depends on what one wants to see and experience and at what pace.

@kja: good point. Will see if I can rejigger to eliminate the 1 night in Athens before the flight. Some would probably spend last night in nafplio and take bus (or taxi?) to airport. But it is a long enough drive, and a big enough downside if we miss our flight, that I am being cautious. Thanks for Delphi perpsective. Will decide based on TBD travel time f do it as a day trip

@dreamon: funny you should ask. As I composed the email I pondered whether the convention was to count days or nights. Ultimately I counted 1 for each whole day/night and then added 0.5 for arrival day and 0.5 for departure day. Is “not rushed” a nice way of saying we are spending too much time in some of those places with risk of running out of fun stuff at that location and/or to the detriment of squeezing in another prime spot? If you have thought on where to trim in order to add something that would be interesting to hear.

@neckervd: Will revisit the single pre-flight night in Athens. Vergina was on our day trip list. I will have to do some research to learn more about the other places you mentioned and the transport options they offer. As kja said (sort of…), too many good options for his first trip!

@TravellerSince1970: will look at kefalonia, alhough some constraints since we are trying to avoid renting a car.

One really shouldn't count the travel days -- too much is normally "lost" to checking in, out, relocating, etc. That's why several people have suggested reporting itineraries in terms of nights. If you have extra time on your travel days, bonus!

To be clear, I was NOT suggesting that you depart for Athen from Nafplion on the day of your flight home -- you SHOULD plan on being in Athens the night before! What some of us are suggesting is that you put all of your time in Athens at the end of your trip. Go "straight" from Santorini to Nafplion (assuming the timing works) ... or reorder to start in Athens ... or otherwise re-order your trip. It's not a big deal, but why have a one-night stay if you can avoid it?

ObscureName, it is much more exact and helpful to count nights. For example, 2 nights gives you one full day for sightseeing and possibly a half day on arrival day or departure day, depending on what time you arrive and what time you depart. Three nights gives you 2 full days; 4 nights gives you 3 full days, and so on and so forth. Hope this makes sense and hope this helps.

Counting nights also tells you at a quick glance how many hotel nights you need!

I don’t think you have too long anywhere and there is plenty to do in each of the places you’ve chosen.

I would want to be in Athens (or close to) the night before a significant flight. Sometimes it’s necessary to stop in Athens more than once and I don’t see that as a big issue, especially if it allows for a more relaxing journey from Thessaloniki.

My comment was really that you are spending the bulk of your visit in cities. If that’s your preference that’s great but if you’re after the Greece of blue seas, tawny islands, and green countryside, then you won’t experience as much of that. If you want the latter, as much as I enjoyed Thessaloniki, that’s the place I would omit from your plans in order to allow for somewhere more in nature. It’s just a personal choice.