Venice-Greece-Turkey: looking for serious free travel planning help...
 

DW and I will be in Cappadocia and Istanbul in early April (4/8-4/16 2012). WE actually are all set with our arrangements and transportation - simple stuff (IAD to IST, round-trip SWA-ASR on Pegasus, then IST back home to IAD).

NOW, a very dear friend has said he would love to join us - only as part of a larger trip for him.

His rough plan is to fly into Venice (maybe 4/1/2012 ish) stay a night or two (he's been to Venice before) , ferry his way to Greece, ferry around Greece (needs ideas of what is most doable), and then make his way by ferry/budget flight to meet us in Cappadocia for the duration of OUR trip. We would all fly home together from Istanbul.

We would LOVE to have him join us but need some serious help in the logistics area. I am a much better planner than him but this is starting to seem beyond me.

Any help is appreciated: Itineraries, budget flights/routes/airlines (specific flights would be GREAT!), ferry routes/lines/timetables, or overall plans (for those that might enjoy such a challenge).

Here's a website for ferries that travel from Italy into Greece: http://www.greekferries.gr, but not all offer service from Venice.

It might be a waste of his time to ferry from Venice to Greece, depending on where he wants to go, because of the long duration of that particular route. Aegean Airlines will be offering discounted 'saver' fares for int'l. flights including Venice to Athens. Sign up for their email newsletter and you'll be notified when those tickets for April will be released. It shouldn't be too long now.

From Athens it's a lot easier to ferry to some Greek islands on the way to Turkey but he can't fly from any island into Turkey. For that he'll have to return to Athens. But he CAN ferry into Turkey. Where his last Greek island should be for this will depend on where in Turkey he wants to go before meeting up with you. This website will show you the options for the Greece>Turkey ferries: http://www.feribot.net/feribot/?lang=en

Inter-island Greek Ferries, timetables and routes can be found here: http://www.gtp.gr

This is the best ferry route map I know of although it's not 100% current. Be advised that there is a ferry from Athens/Piraeus to Rhodes that stops at Santorini and Kos as well as other islands. http://www.greeceathensaegeaninfo.co...erry-chart.htm

Matt Barrett's online guide is very helpful www.greecetravel.com

Here are the list of Greek cruise lines that leave from Venice: http://www.travelforrookies.com/port...cruise-liners/

A time-saving option could be to fly to Athens and dock out of Pireus. Check out the Travel Resources page which shows the cheapest airfare and water travel options on the site above.

After going through all the options, we collectively decided that with only 12 nights, it made much more sense for our friend to stay in Turkey and save Greece for a separate 12 day trip.

Everyone's advice was helpful in that it showed the exact costs and time spent traveling vs. actually sightseeing. Our friend will be staying by himself in Izmir and then Selçuk (as a base for Ephesus, Pamukkale and Aphrodisias) before joining us for our portion (Cappadocia and Istanbul). We'll all return to the USA together.

Thanks again, your advice was not wasted.