I wish I could take more credit for this itinerary but I planned very little of this 10 day Greece trip. I didn’t think I’d actually get to go because I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease at the end of last year and I’ve been undergoing treatments. So I didn’t want to plan a trip and then have major disappointment. One of my 14 year old guys who loves to search flights and routes took it upon himself to create our trip-he would do all the research as long as we provided the financials and everything we booked was through Expedia and cancellable right up until close to the day we left.
How did we choose our dates?
We used our school spring break for this trip and when my son looked the flights up on Kayak and Expedia, he found that coming back two days after Spring break ended meant we could get flights for $700 per person vs $1200 on Delta airlines. This kind of savings felt like a good reason to extend our trip a little as well as the fact we would need a few more days to fit in everything we wanted to see.
We bought a copy of the Greece Lonely Planet and I know my kids must have used some blogs to figure out more about Greece. The only Greece I know about is Ancient greece from when I learned about it and taught it in school. I did not realize how big of a country Greece is and that in 10 days we would be seeing very little of it. Next time we visit I would love to head north of Athens to Thessaloniki and explore that area a bit.
How many nights in Athens?
“Don’t go to Athens!” people told us. It’s too touristy. Just pop there and go other places. But we were told this about Rome and Paris too and we absolutely love those cities. We also wanted to travel as slowly as we could, so we stayed for a couple nights in a neighborhood full of restaurants that was walkable to everything we wanted to see. We also booked one night in Athens for the end of our trip just in case we had trouble with our ferry or planes during the island portion of our trip. We ended up loving Athens so much. I would go there again in an instant.
Oia or Fira on Santorini?
We had a lot of back and forth discussions about where we were going to stay on Santorini. Did we need to rent a car? Did we want to spend all our nights in Oia? Originally we had three nights in Oia booked. We ended up changing our time in Oia to one night and booked two nights in Fira because we thought it might be quieter. This ended up working out perfectly for us. We used car services and did not rent a car.
In Fira we stayed at a place just tucked away from the main area and it felt like our own little oasis. We had a jacuzzi tub on our deck but it was pretty private so we felt comfortable just lounging around in our space and enjoying the views.
In Oia we found a beautiful cave house and it was entertaining to watch people photograph themselves as we drank sodas and ate oregano chips on the balcony.
We took an airplane to Santorini because my son said it was faster and would end up being around the same price as taking a ferry. We have Amex Platinum and that gave us access to a beautiful lounge in Athens where we waited for our flight. This was a really comfortable way to travel to Santorini. After taking the ferry from Santorini to Crete I would definitely opt for airplane travel wherever possible-the water was a little rough and the crew passed around bags to people who needed them. Thankfully we did not need them but this was not appealing to me.
Crete
We booked three nights in Crete and we had enough time but also wish we had more time. We were lucky because in April it is not too busy so we were able to get around without too much traffic but I wish it was warmer-I would love to come back and swim here one day. We took a ferry from Santorini and had a car booked for when we arrived. The car was at the airport so we needed to take a taxi from the ferry port to get to the car rental place. We worried that we might need an international driver’s license that we had forgotten to think about but thankfully since the pandemic, this requirement was dropped. (Just check for yourself now on an official Greek site if you are thinking of driving in Crete-requirements change all the time.). Driving here was apparently not as challenging for my husband as Ireland but he said it was definitely different than driving in Seattle.
On Crete we stayed two nights at the Marriott Domes Zeen Chania in a tropical pavilion with its own pool. We booked a rate that included half board and access to a lounge that had snacks and drinks almost all day long. This made our stay feel pretty luxurious. I wish the pool was warmer or the day was warm enough to use the pool. This was about a two hour drive from the airport but cut down the distance to Elafonissi Beach, a place I thought might be overrated (it was not) that my son who planned the trip insisted we visit. Because he spent so much time planning we indulged this request and it ended up being one of our favorite places of the whole trip. I really can’t believe that the sand was actually pink.
We also ate what might have been my favorite meal of the trip on Crete coming back from Elafonissi Beach at Neratzoula, a place covered with orange trees that I spotted on our way to the beach. This was part of such a great day on Crete, I would go back again if we could have another trip like this.
We wanted to visit Knossos and our flight was really early on our last day of Crete so we stayed in Heraklion and my son found a really inexpensive and beautiful apartment in the center of everything.
Ultimately our 10 day Greece Itinerary looked like this:
2 nights Athens at the Athenian Residences
2 nights Fira at Pantelia Suites
1 night Oia at the Canvas Suites
2 nights Chania at the Domes Zeen Chania
1 night Heraklion at the City Lion
1 night Athens at the Fresh Hotel
April in Greece
We booked our trip based on the guys’ school schedules and we ended up being in Greece during Orthodox Easter. If you are visiting in April you might want to check for this before you go because it will affect your trip-some things were closed or changed their hours but we also got to witness some really beautiful ceremonies for the holiday. April Is not very warm-we brought light jackets at night and we couldn’t really swim. The cruise ships were just starting to arrive in Santorini-we spotted maybe one or two a day. We were told by one of our hotels that there would be at least 9 cruise ships in the harbor by the end up of summer. We were able to get away from the crowds in so many places by being here this time of year but some things weren’t open because we were too early for tourist season. If we had a choice when we could come back next time I would try to pick May or early June.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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