Dream Greece Trip

Today Josh is dealing with Fiji stuff, so I'm stuck in the apartment :( I was reading one of my books and the characters move to Greece. As one of the characters talk about the view he sees from his new Greecian home, I imagine what he sees. It made me really want to visit Greece.

I started looking up places I'd like to go but had no idea where I would start. I started with the itinerary of efcollegebreak.com's trip to Greece. On there's, they go to Athens, Ios, Mykonos, and Santorini. The islands are very beautiful and I started doing some research. The other islands I would like to go to are Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, and Zakynthos. My trip would look something like this.

Corfu->Zakynthos->Athens->Mykonos->Ios->Santorini->Crete->Corfu
Corfu
Zakynthos
Athens
Mykonos
Ios
Santorini
Crete
(I want to go to Rhodes, but it just wouldn't be practicle because it's really out of the way).
(http://www.vidiani.com/maps/maps_of_europe/maps_of_greece/large_detailed_road_map_of_greece_with_all_cities_and_airports_for_free.jpg) This is the map I used to find everything. it took me forever to find a decent map and one that was in English.

The peak seasons for Greece is the beginning of July and end of August but it gets really hot. Plane tickets are roughly $1500 during that time although in August it shoots up to $1700. If I were to go in May or June it'd be close to $1100-$1300 (That's if I were to go from Charlotte to Athens). If I start in Corfu, which would make the most sense, in May, the price would still be about $1100.  I'd rather go then because the temperatures are about 80 degress in Athens and about 10-15 degress cooler on the islands. It'd be worth it if I didn't have to deal with all the tourists. The beaches would be nice but I don't know if I'd be able to get into the water. It would probably still be cold. I don't mind to much about that as long as I get to see the beach, you know?

I don't know about the ferry system over in Greece. I tried seeing about the average ticket prices but it would just take me to a site to book a ferry and everytime I put a date in, it'd say there is no intinerary available. I looked up flights though, and they aren't to bad. From Corfu to Zakynthos is $200, from Z to Athens is $84, Athens to Mykonos is $76. I'd have no choice but to take a ferry to Ios because there isn't an airport on the island. From Santorini (Thira) to Crete would be about $100. And then from Crete to Corfu would be about $160. After searching all the flight prices, I found a site that talked about the average price of ferries. Depending on how far apart the islands are the ferries could be 10 euros to 30 euros which is cheaper than the flights but if I have to I could take a flight. http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/greece-travel-tips/ This website gave some good tips as to how to save money and the average cost of things.

I also wanted to know what I would do while I was there. Of course, I found plenty of things to do in Athens (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189400-Activities-Athens_Attica.html).

I stayed on the same website the other islands.
Zakynthos-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189462-Activities-Zakynthos_Ionian_Islands.html
Mykonos-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189430-Activities-Mykonos_Cyclades.html
Santorini-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189433-Activities-Santorini_Cyclades.html
Crete-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189413-Activities-Crete.html
Corfu-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189458-Activities-Corfu_Ionian_Islands.html
Ios-http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g196481-Activities-Ios_Cyclades.html

I used kayak.com to help me look for hotels and they aren't expensive at all. In Zakynthos, there was a 5 star rated hotel for only $96!!! For the other islands in May, I could get 3-4 star hotels for about $40-$60 a night.

I would just need to determine how long I would be there. EF had an 11 day trip and 2 or 3 of those days are travel days. So I'd have to factor in about 4 days total for all the flights and ferry's. I would do 3 days in Athens. Then 2 days a piece for each island, maybe 3 for Crete. So 20 days. I would probably get everything I would want to in.

The currency in Greece is Euros. 1 euro right now is about $1.27. The average meal price in Greece for a cheaper meal is 8-10 euros and for a nicer meal it's 15-20 euros. Mykonos is said to be a very expensive island as far as food, drinks, and entertainment goes.