Travel Plan for Crete, Greece and Naples, Italy
 

Dear All,

My wife and I will have a trip to Crete, Greece and Naples, Italy from June 14 - June 26. We will stay at Crete and then travel to Naples. I have the following questions since this is our first time to be there:
1. Do I need to rent a Car in Crete? We probably will stay 4 or 5 days.
2. We want to rent a car at Naples and drive to Room, Florence, Venice and drive back to Naples. Do you think it i a good idea?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Bei Gou
Fargo, ND

If the intent is to visit Rome, Florence and Venice, it is better to take the train. Driving in Rome and Florence is a nightmare and Venice is surrounded by water. I would stay in the Naples area and visit the Roman sites (Pompeii etc.). You might want to take a look at my trip report; click on my name to find it.

Or you might want to split your time between Naples and Rome and fly out of Rome. Between the two cities you'll more than enough to see for the 4 or 5 days that are allocated to Italy.

do you have from June 14-26 in total, or is that 'on the ground' and your real dates are June 13-27?

If it is just the 13 days June 14-26, then you really only have 10.5 or 11 days for Crete and Italy. W/ five days on Crete, you are down about 5 days for Italy. Naples is a long way from Venice and Florence, so you really don't have enough time. (How do you plan on traveling from Crete to Naples?)

You are saying that you will visit Crete AND Greece..
Well since Crete belongs to Greece... are you going to visit some other places in Greece as well?
Where in Crete will you be landing? Heraklion or Chania ?
Personally i find Western Crete more beautiful than the eastern part..
Chania and Rethymnon are beautiful cities with lots to see and do. The best way to explore the island if without any doubts with a car, this way you can go to places that cannot be reached easily with the public transportation
With a car you can visit all the places that you want to see and stay as long as you wish. The public transportation in Crete is excellent between the main cities, and from each city you can reach many beaches and smaller villages with the KTEL busses. The only problem is that they are not running so often, this is why i think a rental car would be ideal.

4 or 5 days are really a short time for an island of the size of Crete ( east-west is about 350 km).


The distance from Naples to Italy is 750 km, in my opinion driving back all the way to naples isn't a good idea...
Are you flying from Naples back to the US? Why not flying out of Venice? This would save you from backtracking, and add probably some extra time to your stay in Venice.

Thank you all for your quick responses and suggestions. It is great!

My actual itinerary is:
1. June 9: arrive Istanbul, Turkey, for a professional conference.
2. June 14: fly to Athens, Greece.
3. June 27: fly back to USA.

The reason we need to stay in Crete is because of a conference starting from June 18 to 20. To Naples is also because of a conference from June 25 to 27. We want to take advantage of those conferences to have a good visit to that area.

I do not know if Italian can speak in English. If we take train, we may need to ask for the directions.

Do you have any good suggestions for us?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Bgou

Sorry for unclear message. Here is our clear and complete itinerary:
1. June 9: arrive Istanbul, Turkey, for a professional conference.
2. June 14: fly from Istanbul to Athens, Greece.
3. June 27: fly back from Naples, Italy to USA.

Do you have any goo suggestions for our plan?

Thanks,
Bgou

Fly from Greece to Rome, train to Naples and fly home from there.

Or put another way?

June 9: Arrive Istanbul
June 10: Istanbul
June 11: Istanbul
June 12: Istanbul
June 13: Istanbul
June 14: Fly Istanbul to Athens (and onward to Crete?)
June 15: Crete
June 16: Crete
June 17: Crete
June 18: Crete [conference]
June 19: Crete [conference]
June 20: Crete [conference]
June 21: Crete to somewhere in Italy
June 22: Somewhere in Italy
June 23: Somewhere in Italy
June 24: Somewhere in Italy to Naples by train
June 25: Naples [conference]
June 26: Naples [conference]
June 27: Fly Naples to USA

Is the above correct? If so, I don't see the time you assume you have to travel to Venice, Florence and Rome, and I would go only to Rome for the little time you have and then train to Naples.

From what I can make out, June 14th and 27th are travel days. Between June 15th and 26th you have 6 conference days, and at least one more travel day from Greece to Italy. That leaves, what, five days for sightseeing in Crete and Italy? ((?))

As I often like to suggest, look up internal flights in Italy, using Ryan Air or Easyjet, it might save you lots of time since there are quite long distances for the places you mentioned, which would entail whole days of travelling by hired car. Fuel in Italy, like in most other countries, has gone up, so with that expensive and cost of car rental, flying might prove to be more cost-effective and well as less time consuming as land travel.

Fly to Rome, visit the city and then take a train to Naples. You could then visit Pompei an the Vesuvius, eat a lot of Pizza and drink a lot of wine...