We just return from almost 3 weeks in Greece. The first 13 days were a tour and 15 people were with us. Everyone clicked and we had a great time. The second part was on our own and we spent a week in Crete close to the beach. The town was called Agia Marina. The beach there is volcanic sand, but it was a swimable beach. Our 13 day tour included Athens, Santorini, Mykonos, (1 day boat cruise with stops at 3 islands Hydra, Andros and Aegenia). We also had a 3 night cruise from Mykonos on the Aquamarine Cruise Ship. It took us to Rhodes, Patmos and Ancient City of Epheaus and Kudashi Turkey. This cruise ship need to be upgraded. In Santorini, we stayed at a beautiful hotel in Fira (Thera). I would have rather stayed in Oia.(which is higher end) In Mykonos, we were walking distance from a nice beach and it was convenient to take the bus to the town. In Crete, we based our stay for one week in Chania. I would have liked to split it up and stay in Irakalion or Rythmomn for half of the time.I would like to recommend a very helpful web site to use in planning your own trip www.greecetravel.com and www.athensguide.com. Matt Barrett is so great and helpful for anyone planning to go to Greece. Our last night in Athens, we splurged and stayed at the Hotel Grande Bretagne. It is a palace turned hotel. It is very expensive and you can get a better deal on a web site. I used Otel.com. I got a better price that way, but Matt Barrett probably knows other ways to get the price down.

Recent vacation of Athens and Greek Islands of Santorini and Crete

Recently returned from a fabulous trip to Greece which I had arranged by Fantasy Travel which I found on the internet and was highly recommended by Trip Advisor. Basically I decided which Islands I wanted to go to after reading various travel books and comments on the internet told Fantasy Travel and they did all the bookings.
Many people go to the Greek Islands by cruise ship and only see a small amount of what to experience. Its great to interact with the locals , eat a local restaurants and just experience the flavor of each area at your own pace.
I decided with my wife that over a 10 day span we would see the island of Crete and Santorini. I picked the citiies I thought would interest me and Fantasy Travel booked the hotels the transportation from each connection I made and gave me local contacts if I ran into any trouble.
First I arrived in Athens which I found to be a beautiful and interesting city. Was booked at the Hotel Royal Olympic a Four Star hotel with a swimming pool centrally located about 4 blocks from the Acropolis, Parthenon and the old Plaka shopping district. The Acropolis is a beautiful sight to behold and is about 30 minute uphill hike to the top. The Parthenon at the top is being reconditioned yet is still a magnificent sight. The Plaka Shopping district near the Acropolois is an old shopping district with magnificent old buildings. You can really see the whole Athens in about 6 hours.
Next flew to the island of Crete. This is a 50 minute plane ride. You can also go by ferry but the trip is around 8 hours and the ferries usually leave late and night and arrive early in the morning. Landed the next afternoon at Chania which is very picturerisque town on the Northwest part of the island. Stayed a the Porto Veneziano Hotel located on the Old Venetial Harbour. The location of this hotel is fabulous. There are about 50 rooms in this hotel with most of them having a private balcony giving a beautiful view of the harbour. The rooms are very small yet very clean, the location is a quiet part of town of which you can walk to virutally anything. A small beach is a ten minute walk. Although not the cleanest it was still nice. Within a mile range of this hotel there are probably about 80 different restaurants. The only negative thing about Chania is that as you walk by each restaurant and look at various menus there is always some soliciter pleading for you to eat at his restaurant. Besides that Chania is a beautiful port with nice shops, a few museums and just an interesting place to be. One thing the only real way to travel around Crete is by car. Buses are sparse and trains don't exist. The local streets can be very confusing and the streets are very narrow- making if tough to manuver. Driving on the two lane hightway can be scary at times with drivers ignoring speed limits and double lines when passing. The roads can be very curvy at time. I did not venture south for I was told the roads were not only narrow and twisty but you had to contend with tour buses.
From Hania which was at for 3 nights traveled east to the town of Rethymno another port town with an inner harbour and beach. This was more commercialized than Chania not as quant, had a Frotezza fort which was interesting is a good three hour stop over. From Rethymno went to Heraklion for one night saw the Archaelogical Museum which is currently being renovated but the top 10 attractions are in a large hall which can be seen in about an hour. Great artifacts from the Minoan ruins. When to Ancient Knosos which is an unearthed Minoan palace built over 4,000 years ago. Stayed at Hotel Lato a clean modern hotel with a great location overlooking the harbour and near restaurants and shopping.
Next took a high speed ferry to Santorini. The ferry which was supposed to leave a 10 left four hours late with all passengers getting quite irate. Arrived at Santorini after a two hour ride.
Santorini is the jewel of the islands. Stayed at a hotel called On the Rocks. The views from your terrace were breathtaking, the staff was great, the rooms build into a cave spacious and breakfast was delivered to you on your terrace every morning.
The capital of Santorin , Fira was a 20 minute walk down a path with beautiful views. From Fira you can take a mule of cable car or walk to the harbour. I you walk to the harbour its about 30 minutes and the walkway has plenty of mule poop on it so be careful. At the harbour took a boat to volcano island and hiked about 40 minutes to the top which is a physical challenge. Great view!! After this boat took you too hot springs on a corner of the island to swim. A great experience!
In the evening took a taxi to the city Oja a very clean small city with a great restaurant called the 1800.
From Santorni flew back to Athens stayed at the Hotel Softel right across from the airport and took the subway into Athens for dinner which is about a 50 minute ride.
As a whole loved Greece, the sites, weather , food and thought Fantasy Travel did a fabulous job with all arrangements

We took our ten year old and our 5 month old to Greece this past August, 2008 and it was one of our best trips. We started planning our trip with Matt Barrett's website www.greecetravel.com. The site if full of first person recommendations and amazing photos. We then used his recommendation for a travel agency, Fantasy Travel in Athens. They were amazing. We picked the cities and the length of time we waned to be there, and they provided the hotels and the transfers. If you're considering a trip to Greece, don't miss the website! It will make all the difference.
The country of Greece is just the best if you're traveling with kids. You hear all the time that people in a certain country love kids, but nowhere is it more true than in Greece. Our baby was held by everyone in the country, I think!

We were in in Greece (Crete, Santorini, Paros, Antiparos, & 1 day in Athens) from October 5 - 14th, 2004. Crete was somewhat of a disappointment, in that, it rained 2 of the 3 days and the scenery was rather barren, but the breathtaking grandeur of Santorini more than made up for it. The all day excursion around the islands of the Santorini Caldera is well worth taking. Paros and Antiparos were more relaxing and also enjoyable. Athens has changed quite a bit since my first visit 29 years ago. The modernization of the approach to the Parthenon took away from the historic character of the site. Union strikes at both the Palace of Knossos and historic sights in Athens resulted in wasted time and lost opportunities to see sites including the National Archeological Museum. However, I did manage to take over 1100 digital pictures so there was plenty worth seeing.

Greek food was exceptionally good, reasonably priced, and one of the highlights of the trip. Inter-island ferry service was very good (but note reduced schedules off season) as were the flights to Athens and from Athens to Crete.