Athens, Santorini, Ios & Lots More Greece - June 2007! (Journal too!!)

hello, thanks for sharing your trip. I am planning a similar trip for my family of four this Christmas 07. We plan to rent a car and drive similar road like your from Athen to Delphi, then on to Trikala in one day, stay one night here, then to Thessalonki the next day. Do you think if this schedule ok? or Do I need to do one night at Delphi? Can you let me know where do you rent a car from ? do they charge one way rental. I check a few, but it is so pricy with one way car rental. Would you think driving in the winter on those road do able?

I rented a car through Autoeurope, but I got them to drop the one-way fee because I scoured the internet and found Europcar offered a deal with no one-way fee. I then went back to Autoeurope and they matched the deal from Europcar. The reason I went with Autoeurope is because I have rented from them before and find them to be dependable and trustworthy. I just don't know anyone who's used Europcar, but they may be fine also. It took about a weeks worth of back and forth e-mails to negotiate the deal, but it was worth it. I think the rental only cost me us$430 for 12 days picking up in Thessaloniki and dropping off in Athens.

Winter driving I think will be tougher on the Athens to Delphi stretch, but should still be doable. There is a large ski resort town not far from Delphi that is hugely popular, so people must go there all winter from Athens. Just be aware that the roads are steep and narrow.

About the driving from Athens to Dephi to Trikala. You should be able to do it if you don't want more than 2-3 hours at Delphi. The site is fairly large and has a lot of artifacts. Also it is extremely steep. We drove from Grevena, stopping at Meteora, Delphi on the way to Athens. We only spent 1 hour at Meteora and about 3 hours in Delphi, we left Grevena at 9:30am and arrived Athens around 9pm. It was a long and exhausting day. (But it was also about 105 degrees Fahrenheit!)

Honestly the driving takes alot out of you as the roads are really twisty, steep and narrow. I don't care for heights and the lack of guardrails had me a bit nervous. From Delphi to the flat plain that takes you to Trikala is only 80km, but took a couple of hours to drive due to the road. Average speed was probably 35-40kms/hour. I drove for the 3 weeks we were in Greece, but I still found that I need to pay extreme attention to the road, as the signage doesn't always indicate how sharp the next turn is. This is a secondary road for the most part (single lane).

I think Trikala to Thessaloniki should be a fairly easy drive on more modern roads. The new highways are awesome.

I personally wouldn't stay overnight in Delphi, but would push on to Trikala!

I loved Greece and am having serious separation anxiety from leaving there still!!

Good luck with all your plans and I'll be glad to answer any questions you have. Take care Michelle

hi Michelle, you got good deal on your car rental. Is it economy size? I am looking for three days, and they quote me $200. I will search around some more. btw, did you see they have hotel along the way to Meteora? there is a town under Meteora, probably Kalalamba? did you see they have logging there? we probably will stop at Delphi for about 3 hours, then on to Meteora. We will travel in the Winter, so day light is also shorter. Can you tell me approximate time driving for you from Delphi to Athen? and also driving time from the bottom town underneath Meteora to Delphi? is there a motor road for this path ? or only small town road. If we don't speak any of Greek, will there be any problem for us driving thru these path? did you book your hotel ahead of time on any of these road? also, at Thessalonki, do you think this town is worth to stay one day? we are planning to take overnight train to Instanbul from here. thanks again for your answers.

The car was a Toyota Yaris hatchback, which is the same class as a Volkswagen Polo. Not sure of the class, but it was comfortable for 4 adults and about 4 pieces of luggage. There were several hotels near Meteora in Kalambaka. I think it took about 3-4 hours to drive Delphi to Athens. Driving from Meteora to Delphi took about 3-4 hours also. Driving from Delphi to Meteora, the road will start out throught the mountains, narrow and twisty for the most part a single lane road. Then you will come to the base of the mountains (after about 80kms) and the road will be straigt and flat across the plain. Almost everyone speaks some English at the major tourist sites. We only booked our hotels ahead in Athens and on the islands of Santorini and Ios. After that we stayed with my boyfriends family. Thessaloniki has lots to see, there are a couple of awesome museums and also a bunch of archaeological sites and churches right in the city. We spent an entire day there and didn't see half the things we wanted to see. I wrote about our day in my trip journal.

hi again, I read your journal that on one road you were stop by the Greece Police.. and your friend speak Greece, so it help. Do you think that they harrass tourist when they see a car driven by foreigner? seem like they are not very friendly.

No, The reason he pulled me over was because he didn't like that I was driving near the edge of the road to let him pass and he thought I was driving like that because he thought I had been drinking (I had not been).

But I have to admit that a lot of the problem was caused by myself because I didn't have my passport with me. I think if I had been able to hand him my passport with my international permit, he would have let us go as soon as he confirmed I had not been drinking. He was extremely angry that I couldn't produce my passport.

Lesson learned here is to always, always carry your passport or at least a copy of your passport on your person!!!!

Oh, and don't forget this was the border police and not the regular police, so the passport was a critical document to him.

Hi, Would like to know how much this 25 day tripto Greece cost you? m planning on going next yr june/july. Never been to any part of Europe and have been dying to go to Greece.I need to start working on a budget and wondered if you had any input.

- The airfare was a great deal at US$570 r/t on Iberia.
- Cost per person (3 people total) for hotels in Athens (4 nights), hotel in Mylopotas Beach, Ios (4 nights), hotel in Fira, Santorini (4 nights), ferries to Ios and Santorini, airfare from Santorini to Thessaloniki (in northern Greece) all transfers to and from hotels, airports and ferries was US$1,500 (approx)
- We stayed with relatives for 10 nights $free!! just gifts to hosts
- 3 nights hotel in Pefkochori in Chalkidiki (beach resort on mainland) per person was US$110
- Rental cars 3 days on Ios, 4 days on Santorini and 12 days on the mainland were US$900(approx)
- Meals (most hotels include breakfast) vary widely depending on what you like - a casual taverna to fancy restaurant. Alcoholic drinks are pricey on the islands figure 10 Euros for a mixed drink.

So in total per person would be about US$2,180 for hotels, airfares, ferries and transfers. Plus rental car (if you get one) and food/beverages.

Hope this helps! I really shopped long and hard to get the best deals and found that the price paid for the islands and Athens through the travel agent in Athens was well worth the money. They ran helped out any time there was even a small problem and just having someone coordinate all the transfers and ferries was the best! We didn't have to worry about making any connections or arrangements while we were there, they took care of all the little details for us.