My wife recently got it into her head that she’d like to go to Greece sometime. A while back, she wanted to visit Tuscany in Italy. I was looking at the possibility of killing two birds with one stone, and maybe trying to visit Greece and Italy on one trip, maybe two years from now. (We already have vacation plans for next year.)
I don’t even know where to start. I’ve planned vacations before, but only to Walt Disney World. I generally prefer to plan vacations myself with online resources instead of a travel agent. (I’ve always found that travel agents tend to push whatever package they have available, even if it’s not the most desirable or cost-effective.)
Does anyone know any good resources to start looking at how to plan something like this?
Don’t forget that Greece has many “must see” islands, as well as the mainland. If you plan to visit those islands, then the logistics can get complicated when planning ferry journeys and transfers.
Well, the first place to start is right where you’re at, here at the Dope. I’ve yet to see a vacation advice thread that didn’t cover just about any location/activity you’re curious about. However a few details that we’d need to start giving you ideas.
How long is your planned vacation? There is a lot to see in both places, so trying to divvy up time is difficult. Plan on losing 3 days to travel. One to Italy, one from Italy to Greece, and one from Greece back here to the US.
Have you traveled outside the US before? To Europe?
While you probably don’t want to share the exact dollar amount you’re thinking about spending, a general range will help us give you options. If you’re looking to do this on a shoestring, staying in hostels or such, then that’s going to be different that if you only stay at 4-star or better hotels.
Are there any must-see sites that you really want to visit? You mention Tuscany, what prompts that desire? To see Florence? Enjoy the wine? See the countryside? Do you like architecture? Art? Music? Hiking? Biking? What kinds of activities you like will help us get an idea of what sorts of things you might like to see.
You mention 2 years from now, do you normally travel a certain time of year? Spring suggestions may be different from Summer suggestions.
Give us those details, and there are dozens of Dopers here that are very well traveled that would love to help you plan.
To get to your actual question about a site that you can go to to help you plan based upon answering questions like those I posed above, I don’t personally know of any. Like you, I tend to plan all of our vacations myself, and just make a file with all the options in it, and once it’s planned out, I make a folder with the itinerary.
Probably no more than 10-11 days, including travel time, say Thursday through the following Sunday.
I’ve been to Europe many times, as my stepfather was stationed in Germany twice. Besides Germany, I’ve traveled to the UK, France (briefly), the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, and northern Italy (only as far as Venice). Most of these trips were by car, so I’ve driven all over. However, I haven’t been to Europe in more than 15 years, so it’s been a while. (My old U.S. Army Europe driver’s license is long expired.) My wife has never been to Europe.
Probably somewhere in the middle. My wife would never stay at a hostel. We’d also be bringing our teenaged son along, incidentally, so we’d actually have three of us. As for budget, it’s hard to say. I know it’s going to be expensive regardless, but I’d like to try to keep things from getting completely out of control.
I like everything you mentioned. My wife likes everything but the hiking and biking, so we probably won’t do that.
We’re limited to school breaks because of my son. We could therefore travel anytime from late June to the end of August.
Thanks for the help so far. As you can probably tell, I’m very early in the planning stages for this.
I recommend checking out Rick Steves’ website—He tends to highlight travelling in the way I like to travel; staying in smaller, local hotels, eating in cafes and restaurants that locals frequent, encouraging visitors to get off the tourist track, while still enjoying the best sights, for example maybe at off peak times or at least away from the mega-tours that a lot of American tourists seem to gravitate towards.
Also, depending on exactly where/when you go, both Italy and especially Greece can be very budget friendly countries, at least by European standards.
I study the archaeology of Bronze Age Greece, and I lived in Greece for a while on an archaeological dig. I’d be happy to suggest archaeological sites to visit, and help with more general questions about traveling in Greece.
If you only have 10-11 days, I would suggest you fly to Northern Italy spend a few days in Tuscany and fly from Italy to Greece. There are a lot of cheap airlines in Europe and with this little time it doesn’t make sense doing a driving/ferry trip.
As your limited to school holidays, better would be to travel during the Easter holiday. Greece in high summer is to be avoided. Especially Athens. I visited at Easter many years ago and Greece was just fine.
But really, I think you’re trying to cram too much in. There is so much to see in Greece alone. Greece is small by American standards, but you have to drive everywhere and I recall that the roads were slow. I suggest you take a 2 week holiday in Spring to see Greece. That will give you time to sight-see, explore, and to relax. Then take another holiday to see Tuscany.
OTOH, if your son is a suitable age, maybe you could swing it with the school that this would be an educational trip and so he could go in term-time?
On thinking about it, this might be a better plan. The hardest part of trying to plan the trip was contemplating how to easily get from Greece to Italy or vice versa.
Planning a trip just in Greece doesn’t seem quite as overwhelming.
If I’m allowed to recommend another forum, you should try the forums on Fodors.com - very knowledgeable advice on there.
As for timings, be aware that August is crazy busy in beach holiday hotspots such as Greece as schools are out and many Europeans take the whole month off to hit the beaches.
So even though it’s still boiling hot, July should be marginally less busy.
Whatever you do, make sure your accommodation has air conditioning. Greece will be roasting in July and August.
We could also go during my son’s April vacation week. On the other hand, I’ve noticed that airfares here in the northeast tend to spike that week. I’d also want to be sure it would be warm enough to hit the beach if we went that week.
One of the big attractions for us with respect to Greece is relaxing on a beach. In any event, we generally like hot weather. Our favorite time to go to Florida is the last week of August. (Mainly because the crowds are lighter because many schools have already gone back by then.) On the other hand, there’s not a hotel at Disney that doesn’t have air conditioning.
I’ve heard that many Europeans take August off (especially Germans), so it might be a good idea to look at late June or July instead.
We don’t really like to pull our son out of school. A day or two might be OK, but definitely not for a week. If we did end up going during his April vacation, we might go that week, and pull him out of school a day or two before or after the vacation week, if the timing with airlines and such is more preferable.
Thank you. That’s exactly the type of resource I was looking for.
When I’ve planned our Disney vacations, I made great use of the many websites and online forums out there. When I started trying to find the same thing for this trip, all that was really coming up were ads and travel agencies.
If you’re looking for some beach time, be sure to research the islands carefully as not all Greek islands have lovely pale soft sand. Santorini, for instance, whilst stunning (and I do recommend it) has black volcanic sand which makes the sea dark and is rather hot on the feet.
By a “week,” I mean a work week, plus the weekends on each end, at a minimum. That’s 9 days.
But your point is well-taken. More likely, taking into account lost days due to travel and higher airfares on weekends, we’d leave on a Thursday or Friday and come back the following Sunday or Monday. That’s 10-12 days.
I’m not going if I can’t hit the beach, so I have to adjust the dates, I will.
Ouch–that’s really hot. Hard to imagine a place hotter than central Florida or Houston, Texas (where I’m originally from).
Consider a cruise that stops at ports in Greece & Italy. That way you’re not schlepping yourself all over. It’s a great way to cover a lot of ground, so to speak.
Eh, here in Southern Europe we call them and the Brits “summer shrimp”, for the coloring they quickly acquire.
If you can make it Easter, do, please, it will be a lot better for your health. For Italy I recommend staying in 3-star hotels: those are decent (I’ve seen 2-stars with crumbling walls) but not murderously expensive. Como is in my list of Most Gorgeous Places I’ve Ever Seen, it’s not as invaded by tourists as other locations, and it’s relatively cool; it’s also, due to its geography, a bad place to go on a day trip: better arrive in the afternoon and spend at least two nights.
In Spain it is customary for university students to go on a class trip together midway through our studies. My class went to Greece; most of us stayed 7 days, some people with more money added another week, taking a cruise which involved Santorini and Knossos. The 7 days were: arrival to Athens in the afternoon, 1 day in Athens “to do your thing” (we all ended going up to the Acropolis, all having acquired straw hats along the way), night in the ferry to Crete, three days there (most visited places: the Labyrinth, the beach on the Eastern end of Crete, the Canyons, Agios Nikolaos), ferry back, Saturday in Athens to shop, go back home Sunday afternoon. We didn’t roast despite it being the second week of July (which makes the end of August in Orlando feel like a warmish spring, and yes I’ve been there at that time), but it was mostly because, being from Spain, we knew how to deal with the combination of high heat and lack of A/C.
I generally prefer to plan vacations myself with online resources instead of a travel agent. (I’ve always found that travel agents tend to push whatever package they have available, even if it’s not the most desirable or cost-effective.)