Trip with the Teenager - think we've decided - now we really need help!
 

Thanks to all of your advice, I think we've narrowed down the high school graduation trip with our soon to be 18 year old to: Flying into Munich, spending two days visiting friends in Basel, then travelling to Italy and spending the rest of the two weeks in Italy and Greece. Now comes the hard part. How best to travel between Basel and the Italian coast? Train? How best to get from Italy to Greece? What are the best "beachy" spots in both places? Are there any don't miss places? And for the soon to be 18 year old, are there places with great music and nightlife that are don't miss spots? Any help with the "nitty gritty" parts of this trip would be so very much appreciated. Even though we've narrowed it down, I'm still a bit overwhelmed!

Where are you flying home from? What month is this trip? How many full days between your arrival and departure days?

Also, how are you dividing the days? People could be working on all kinds of scenarios, then find out you had in mind 8 days to cover 2 countries. Nobody can help with "nitty gritty" minus most of the facts. do share.

<<Are there any don't miss places?>>

There are hundreds of "don't miss" places in Italy and Greece. We would need to know more about your interests before giving a list.

<<How best to travel between Basel and the Italian coast?>>

Which Italian coast? The Mediterranean or the Adriatic? What towns?

How many days do you plan to be at beaches and how many days sightseeing.

Ok, good and obvious questions! We are not married to flying out of anywhere, we'll make that decision once we get our trip more planned out. The trip will be in July, 2010, towards the beginning of the month. We will have 2 weeks total, including travel days. I'm pretty sure we want to see the Mediterranean coast. As there isn't anywhere in Italy that we wouldn't want to see, I'm not how to answer the what cities question. We'll have 11 days days to split between Italy and Greece. As far as Greece is concerned, we'd like to see Athens, and then one of the islands maybe Naxos. As far as what we'd like to do, we'd like to do some ocean activities, jet-skiing, snorkeling, etc., but the majority of the time we'd like to spend sightseeing. I know that's not incredibly precise, but I'd really love your ideas on how to pare this down, what we should do to keep the 18 year old entertained, but still really see the area.