Greece - late June 2008

[Grasshopper]

I'm looking for some suggestions!

Mrs. Grasshopper and I are planning a 2 week trip to Greece next summer. We know we'll spend a day or two in Athens and in Satorini. After that, I get bogged down in the planning.

We're not big beach people. We don't have to stay in the same place for 5 nights. We like to see and do... not much for laying around. We do like good food and good wine, too! We do like good outdoor activities (hiking, kayaking, etc) and some beautiful places to photograph (very important to me)(Oia, Fira?)...

Any recommendations about which islands to look at? We've even considered a trip over to Turkey for a day or two.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have.

Grasshopper

 

[LAktownhorn]

i'm curious too.

 

[Grasshopper]

I've done a lot of reading... Mykonos, Paros, Crete... different smaller islands. They are so spread out sometimes I want to be efficient. We often use Rick Steve's books as a guide on some things to see (though we haven't had good sucess with his suggestions for eateries or places to stay)... but he doesn't have a guidebook for Greece. I was in Barnes and Noble yesteday and all the guidebooks started looking the same.

I figure Hornfans always has the answers!

 

[soonerinatlanta]

In athens, go to the restaurant at the top of the hill named lykovitos(sp?). Dinner at sunset. Most beautiful cityscape I've ever seen.

In satorini, I stayed at astra. Great place. It's in Imerovigli, the highest point on the caldera. There's a trail that you can walk all the way to Fira town. It's great to do that one night. Along the trail there's a restaurant called Skiatho's (if memory serves). Great food and a great location near the hotel.

astra

I also went to Naxos. It's low key but it's great to drive around the island. Lots of mountains and views of the ocean.

An island I'll eventually visit is zakynthos.

zakynthos

I guess I'll say it first. Check out the following link. This guy gives a comprehensive review and pictures of each island.

greektravel

 

[NickDanger]

I am NOT a cruise person, but the best way to see Greece is on cruises with options to kick back on an island or two. We spent 2 days in Athens which was about enough for a guy who graduated UT with a degree in philosophy which concentrated on greek and roman ideas. We then took a boat to Mykonos. It was a 3 day cruise, but we didn't even get our bags off the deck, much less have a room. The first stop was Mykonos and we got off there and spent 3 days on the island. You can spend a day getting lost in the town (that was their plan to foil pirates) and a day on the beach watching lesbians having sex and a day on a moped just cruising around, drinking wine and eating cheese. Take a jaunt to Delphi or Delos.

Then, when the 3 day boat comes back around for the 4 day loop you go to Crete, Santorini, Patmos, Ephesus, Rhodes, etc. It was a nice balance for me. I like to SEE on vacation and my wife likes to RELAX. We were happy with the way it turned out.

 

[TenaciousTgarden]

Someone on here, I can't remember who, gave me outstanding advice for my trip to greece. Most importantly, this website:The Link Almost everything I did aside from my summer program was suggested by this website, and it was all fantastic. This is the website that has descriptions of the islands - helpful if you want to go island hopping! The Link

In Athens, I took a tour with George the famous taxi driver (he's recommended by that site). It was amazing, the best private tour you could possibly want. We went pretty much everywhere in Athens, and he gave an excellent history of each place. We also went to place just outside the city where Poseidon's temple is called Sounio - gorgeous. At the end of the day I had extra time, so George invited me over to his house to meet his family and have coffee - it was a truly authentic, awesome experience. I stayed at a really cheap hotel in Athens, but was right next to the Plaka - had a lot of fun just wandering the streets and enjoying the sights. The Acropolis is amazing, but extremely hot and crowded during the summer. You have to go, but be prepared.

I studied at a summer program in a small town on the Peloponnesse (sp?) called Xylokastro. It's a beautiful seaside town with wonderful little restaurants, very cheap hotels, and is pretty much all Greek. I hardly saw an American while there (aside from people in my program) - it's basically a vacation spot for those who live in Athens, as it's only about 2 hours away. I loved that aspect - it was really cool. The beaches are pebble, but it's quite a scene and fun to watch. It's about 30 minutes from Corinth.

I also got to go to Delphi, which was very cool, as well as Nafplio (a beautiful, fun town), and Epidavros (an awesome ancient stadium near Nafplio).

I did the one day three-island tour from Athens (Poros, Hydra, and Aegina). Hydra was really cool, but I could have done without the other two. I also went to Zakynthos, which is a nice island with nice beaches not too far from Athens.

All of my greek friends insist that Crete is far more fun and interesting than any of the greek islands!!

Feel free to PM for specific questions about places/hotels/etc. I was in Xylokastro for 5 weeks.

 

[CalHornGal]

We did Greece in 2005.. both Athens and the islands (Dodecanese). If you like outdoor activities and want to get around to several islands, I STRONGLY suggest hooking up with this company called SeaScape Sail www.seascape-sail.com. We chartered one of their "private charter" sail trips and it was one of the most incredible vacations I've ever had. Its a small company owed by a British born skipper (Diane) and her partner Ray. They have three boats, and several skippers - and sail chartered trips weekly in the spring and summer. Don't have enough people for a private charter?..they specialize in "shareboats" - booking the boat cabin by cabin with likeminded tourists. They only sail the Dodecanese Islands and Turkey, which didn't sound terribly exciting at first - but once we were there, we understood the beauty of the Greek Islands. You basically feel like a local, docking small fishing harbors near quaint towns instead of the big bustling tourist ferry harbours. The cost is all inclusive - including all food and drink, port fees, fuel charges, etc while on the boat. The only money you need is for dinners and shopping ashore. Be careful when looking at other companies, as SeaScape was one of the only ones I could find that honestly honored the "all inclusive" rates with no sticky red tape. They have an office manager in Seattle who handles all the money and booking - so its no hassle to book with dollars. I can't give a higher recommend to these people, their service, and the experience. We enjoyed the trip so much we met them again in Thailand in January 2007 for a private 12 day charter on their new 55' catamaran! (They do Thailand during the winter months) PM me if you want more info - I'd gladly hook you up with Diane via email so you can discuss trip options. There's no better way to see the islands than by private sailboat..an incredible experience to say the least.

 

[lostman]

In reply to:

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[Grasshopper]

Thanks for the replies.
We, too, are definitely not cruise people, but we'll look at that option.
T-Garden, that was an awesome website. I've bookmarked it and will be reading it a lot more.
Thanks!

 

[NickDanger]

I'm guessing you left a "not" out of your reply. The Aegean is too shallow for the big ships so any cruise would be on the smaller boats with no movie theaters, casinos the size of your apt, etc. It's basically a place to sleep and eat in between stops to get off and roam around and get a taste of an island. We had stops on Mykonos for 3 days and then stops on Crete, Rhodes, Patmos, Ephesus, Santorini, etc. We roamed Athens for 2 days before we got on the boat. The boat dropped us off a few hours later on Mykonos for a few days of chilling and driving out into the countrside with a loaf of bread, hunk of cheese and bottle of wine on our moped. The boat then picked us up 3 days later and we went island hopping.

 

[Grasshopper]

Yep, Nickdanger, I left out "not." Thanks... it has been edited.

That sort of cruise you describe sounds pretty good.

Do you sleep on the boat each night or on the island? Are these cruises way expensive? (We're on a budget, too)

Thanks again.