Going to Greece....what to do, what to do?

[Scorpiorose]

Corfu, Katakolon, Mykonos, Santorini

 

Which p ort is best to do on your own?

 

Which one is the best one to go to the beach?

 

Which one should we do a tour on?

 

AND/OR what would you do in each port?

[LilTink13]

My husband and I both did Mykonos and Santorini on our own. We rented a quad at one of the local shops right up the road from disembarkation (Mykonos) /tendering (Santorini).

 

In Mykonos we got a local map from the quad operator and specifically asked him what becaused to go to that were super secluded. They were all VERY easy to access/find. We went to three different beaches: Panaramos, Sostis, and then Paradise. I recommend going to SUPER Paradise instead of just the regular Paradise although we had a GREAT lunch at the Paradise beach. I just heard that Super Paradise was more secluded. The first two we were the only people on them for quite some time. Be ready for lots of nudity ;) It was incredible, our favorite day. We drove all around, saw the picturesque windmills of Mykonos and the famed seagull after walking around the village before picking up our quad. Our favorite day.

 

In Santorini we did the same thing, rented quads and went all over the island. We started off going to Oia took amazing pictures... then we headed over to a Black Sand beach. We hung out there for a while, ate lunch, and went to a winery. We did a winery tour, drank some wine, and headed to the Red Sand Beach. Be warned: it is a TREK to get down to the Red Sand beach! And a trek just to get up to the viewing area but it's beautiful and something that can't be missed! We then went into Fira had some baklava and Greek beer and shopped in the quaint shopping area. I bought some gorgeous scarves handmade that I received tons of compliments on! We then headed back to the ship. When we tendered to Santorini we took the cable car up. We decided to walk the way down and it was SO DANGEROUS. I fell multiple times. The donkeys were also slipping and sliding everywhere going down. It was an adventure but just something of note for people who aren't in hiking boots (we had tennis shoes and flip flops).

 

All in all, both days were incredible! Hope this helps!

[chipmaster]

http://www.cruisereviews.com/port/150/Greece/

 

Hopefully you picked the ports because they are what you want above other options like Rome, Florence, Istanbul etc. etc. :D

 

Corfu, Katakolon, Mykonos, Santorini

 

Which p ort is best to do on your own?

 

Which one is the best one to go to the beach?

 

Which one should we do a tour on?

 

AND/OR what would you do in each port?

[tahitiluvr]

My husband and I both did Mykonos and Santorini on our own. We rented a quad at one of the local shops right up the road from disembarkation (Mykonos) /tendering (Santorini).

 

In Mykonos we got a local map from the quad operator and specifically asked him what becaused to go to that were super secluded. They were all VERY easy to access/find. We went to three different beaches: Panaramos, Sostis, and then Paradise. I recommend going to SUPER Paradise instead of just the regular Paradise although we had a GREAT lunch at the Paradise beach. I just heard that Super Paradise was more secluded. The first two we were the only people on them for quite some time. Be ready for lots of nudity ;) It was incredible, our favorite day. We drove all around, saw the picturesque windmills of Mykonos and the famed seagull after walking around the village before picking up our quad. Our favorite day.

 

In Santorini we did the same thing, rented quads and went all over the island. We started off going to Oia took amazing pictures... then we headed over to a Black Sand beach. We hung out there for a while, ate lunch, and went to a winery. We did a winery tour, drank some wine, and headed to the Red Sand Beach. Be warned: it is a TREK to get down to the Red Sand beach! And a trek just to get up to the viewing area but it's beautiful and something that can't be missed! We then went into Fira had some baklava and Greek beer and shopped in the quaint shopping area. I bought some gorgeous scarves handmade that I received tons of compliments on! We then headed back to the ship. When we tendered to Santorini we took the cable car up. We decided to walk the way down and it was SO DANGEROUS. I fell multiple times. The donkeys were also slipping and sliding everywhere going down. It was an adventure but just something of note for people who aren't in hiking boots (we had tennis shoes and flip flops).

 

All in all, both days were incredible! Hope this helps!

The quads sound really fun. We are planning on going to Mykonos and Santorini in August. Do you remember how much it costs to rent the quads? And is it one person per quad or two people per quad?

[4774Papa]

Corfu, Katakolon, Mykonos, Santorini

 

Which p ort is best to do on your own?

 

Which one is the best one to go to the beach?

 

Which one should we do a tour on?

 

AND/OR what would you do in each port?

 

 

We visited three of these ports on our July cruise on the Gem.

 

Corfu- recommend an excursion that goes to the monastery on the NW side of the island. The Corfu port is ok, but the island is to be savored. Our excursion took us over much of the northern end of the island.

 

Santorini- my favorite port (Corfu was second). You want to see as much of the island as possible. Many people go there and plan to take busses, etc., but we took an NCL tour that included a visit to a winery. We tendered at the port south of were the cable cars and donkeys go up. Something like Akoriloi (sp). The tour took us to the winery that overlooked both sides of the island, then we took the bus up to the north end (via the east side of the island) to Oia. After visting Oia, we traveled down the west side of the island to Fira (were the cable car is located-don't take the donkeys). You may be able to do that on your own with some planning, but we had people in our group and others on the ship that tried to do Santorini on their own, and most just stayed in Fira the entire time. Santorini is special make the most of it.

 

Mykonos, if you are a beach person (we live on an island in GA and don't go to the beach on a cruise) this could be your place. You can do Mykonos on your own, beach or not. Also, if you wnat to go by ferry to the island of Delos (very important in classical Greek history), you can do that as well. You can't do all that in one day and go to the beach. Taxis are available in Mykonos, also busses, unlike Santorini where taxis are hard to come by.

[Scorpiorose]

Fantastic information, thank you thank you all!

 

I chose these port because I have always wasn'ted to see Greece, I'm doing Europe one bit at a time, so those other ports will be later down the list....Rome, Istanbul....etc...

 

I love the quad idea for Santorini.....your itinerary sounds perfect for that.....

 

Mykonos sounds like the best place for a beach day? Shopping?

 

Keep your island stories of what you did coming, I love it!

[Cornishpastyman1]

 

Keep your island stories of what you did coming, I love it!

 

I did this on my days in

 

SANTORINI

which shows caldera views, a bit of Perissa Beach and the Volcano and Hot (warm) Springs trip

 

CORFU

which is a look around the Old Town. A sudden illness scuppered our plans of going further afield but we still had a good time.

 

OLYMPIA

which features the famous site and the Archaeological Museum.

 

All the best, Tony

[UKBayern]

I would suggest Corfu for shopping. Great shopping streets: in the old town, you will find little shops with touristy nick-nacks, in the modern part of town, lots of modern clothes stores, beautiful leather bags, sunglasses, etc. Just remember the siesta: do your shopping in the morning, because everything closes for a looong lunch (sometimes even 12-4!) in Greece. They even do it in the winter, we were there in November and thought it would be different.

[Misswissa]

to LilTink - Do you remember how much you paid for the scarves in Santorini? Also any other shopping suggestions for the places you stopped? Thanks.

[Scorpiorose]

Thanks Tony and Cornishpastyman1......so much to think about, love all the suggestions...

[TLCOhio]

Thanks Tony and Cornishpastyman1......so much to think about, love all the suggestions...

 

Corfu, Katakolon, Mykonos, Santorini. Which port is best to do on your own? Which one is the best one to go to the beach?

Which one should we do a tour on? AND/OR what would you do in each port?

 

Here are some added ideas and suggestions to consider. For Mykonos, we did walking around in the am in the main town on our own, saw many interesting sights and sites in this charming village. Then, in the afternoon, we rented a car (fairly cheap) and explored some of the many different beach areas. Below are some visuals on what we saw and loved. Fortunately on our day in Mykonos, our ship was one of only two small boats in port. That lessens the "crunch" that could happen if this small (good news) island get over-run by too many people from the large, large ships. Sorry, haven't been to the other three locations.

 

Lots to share and learn from previous travels to these great areas of Greece. You might grab, maybe from your public libraries or ask for them to do a book transfer they can process for you, such super excellent visual books such as Eyewitness, Insight, etc. Rick Steves, Fodors, Frommers, etc., can work well, too. In my opinion, no one travel book has it "ALL", perfectly and completely for all of your needs. These resources, especially the visual ones, can you help better figure out your priorities, in advance, for what you want to do and see. That early research is very important. Don't wait until you get on the ship to "GUESS" what might be of interest. I always build a "file" on my laptop computer for each port stop with highlights from that reading and then pulling up stories/articles from the travels sections of the New York Times, Telegraph of London, Wikipedia, etc. All of those help to consider your many great options. Amazon can be very good in providing such books at reduced prices, plus some used books websites. Lots of great options!!! Especially in these days of the Internet, it makes things easier to research and plan ahead. You can use Google.com for great access to various text items, plus a wide variety of visuals and maps. One option for some private tour and other local options is to contract the tourism office in each of your ports. You can use Google.com and put in the search term such as "city/port name tourism office". Then follow-up to each of those office by e-mail, ask your questions, get their suggestions, options to consider, etc.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For lots of interesting details, great visuals, etc., from our July 1-16 Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. Don’t be shy and feel free to ask any questions of interest. This posting is now at nearly 32,300 views. Appreciate those who have “tuned in”.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

 

On the opposite side of the Mykonos village on the island, here's a sampling of the beachside activities. This includes Agrari, Elia and the long sweeping Kalafatis beach that has become famous to wind surfers:

 

 

 

 

 

Ladies departing a church service in main Mykonos on a Sunday:

 

 

 

At the fish docks in Mykonos:

 

 

 

Narrow flowered street in Mykonos with its many shops:

 

 

 

Housing up the hillside near Mykonos:

 

[Scorpiorose]

looks like there is a gate around the beach, are they public?

[mapleleaves]

While it's interesting and fun to read about other traveller's experiences, it doesn't take the place of doing your own research. You're only hearing about a few experiences from a few people; all very random. What about all the other options that you aren't hearing about? Wouldn't it make more sense to pick up a few travel books from the library and learn about ALL the sights and activities available to you so that you can make informed choices? Planning is half the fun !

[LilTink13]

We bargained the scarves down to around 10-15 euro for two of them. They are incredible and I get so many compliments on them!

 

The quads were SO CHEAP, around 40-50 euro and they were two seater. It included helmets and a storage bin or some other arrangement to be able to store the helmets when we were hanging out at the beach. Granted, they didn't give you a ton of fuel and because we literally drove around the whole island of Mykonos we ended up having to get a bit more, but we returned it with plenty of gas so I think it was overkill really.

 

As far as going to Delos: that was my ENTIRE plan prior to making it to the dock... they had such limited transportation over there it made it really unworth it for us. I'd still love to see it, but with one day in Mykonos we were really glad we did what we ended up doing. It was my favorite day the entire month of our Europe vacation.

 

We rented quads again in Santorini and were able to explore and do so much. Way better than any cruise excursion IMHO! ;)

[FTLcruisers]

No one mentioned Katakalon which is just charming. The "downtown" was only about 3 blocks by 3 blocks but had some nice little seaside restaurants. The people were fantastic. Nice place to spend a leisurely afternoon. I think their main claim to fame is the site of the first Olympics which we were not interested in.

[TLCOhio]

looks like there is a gate around the beach, are they public?

 

I visited three or four different beaches and they all seemed very open and free to me. At some beaches there are charges/costs for certain chairs, umbrellas, etc. Below are a few more beach shots to get folks excited about visiting these wonderful areas on Mykonos.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For lots of interesting details, great visuals, etc., from our July 1-16 Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. Don’t be shy and feel free to ask any questions of interest. This posting is now at over 32,400 views. Appreciate those who have “tuned in”.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

 

On the opposite side of the Mykonos village on the island, here's a longer shot of the overall beachside settings:

 

 

 

 

Here are some additional visual samples on the opposite side from the Mykonos village for various beachside activities:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scorpiorose]

Ok, so this is Mykonos???? I want to go to this beach....is it best to do a beach day in Mykonos? How did you get there? How much for chairs/food? The beach access is free I take it?