Assume one night in Athens and five on another island. For those who have experience would you go Santorini or Milos and why? Thanks!

Following for the same idea for a future trip. Want to hit Athens for the historical stuff and maybe Santorini just to see it. But after that the majority of the trip on a smaller less crowded island.

Santorini is quite expensive and crowded (but great views). I highly recommend Naxos! Smaller, lower crowds due to no big cruise line coming in - still have the Greek vibes and great food!

Agree on Naxos. Very chill island with good beaches and restaurants. Go to Mykonos if you want to party.

I would steer clear of Santorini. It is VERY crowded, especially when cruise ships are in port.

I've heard Milos over Naxos. Have you guys been to both?

We paid up to stay cliffside in Oia, Santorini so we were able to escape crowds at our resort. But town wasn't too crowded when we there in late May ('22). We had a nice hike there as well. I think it's worth seeing. We only stayed two nights to kick off our trip and really enjoyed it.

If you have to pick between the two though, I'd choose Milos. Although I'm not sure you'd need all five nights on Milos unless you are really looking to wind down. In Milos we took a charter with Oscar Private Sailing. We did that our first full day so we could get all their good tips on things to do and restaurants on the island. Another day we rented an ATV and drove around the island visiting different beaches. Make sure to see if cliff jumping at Sarakiniko is still open to the public. That was a highlight but I may have read they closed it.

It's too bad TexAgs makes you pay to upload pictures.

Paros and Naxos are both better. If you want good nightlife I'd recommend Naousa, Paros.

Don't want nightlife at all. Want to feel like I'm alone in an epic place. More Kauai than Maui.

When you you being going OP?

End of September

Quote:

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End of September

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Crowds will be thin everywhere.
I would say that 5 nights on a single small island is a lot (for me anyway)
A bigger island like Crete or Rhodes might suit you better as there is more to explore, a mix of good beaches and historical sites. Crete has some forested areas & an awesome gorge for hiking if you're into that.

aggiefan2002 said:

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Don't want nightlife at all. Want to feel like I'm alone in an epic place. More Kauai than Maui.

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Knowing this, if you do end up going to Milos, consider the Psaravolada Milos Resort. This is where my wife and I stayed. It's got a full service restaurant and the staff (family) will help you with transfers. It is secluded, but it's easy enough to get to with an ATV, SXS, or other rental. Nikos from Oscar Private Sailing dropped us off right at the base of the resort to end our day of sailing.

Regarding pictures: you can post the links ending with .jpg or .png or .gif and they will show up as long as you aren't a Rookie. Even non paying posters can do this.

With Imgur on the app:

Hold down on the picture until the pop up comes up that says "message, mail, etc"
click "copy link"
paste into texags. You will have to manually enter the IMG code, so the link will look like this: [ IMG ] your link [/ IMG ] (no space between brackets and letters

Going to Paxos next year to avoid the crowds

https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/island-vacations/paxos-greece-beach-vacation

Santorini. Stay in Oia. Enjoy.

We spent the first 2 weeks of June this year in Greece. My 3rd time going, the 1st time for my wife and kids. We did 4 nights in Athens, 4 nights in Paros, 5 nights in Mykonos and 1 night in Athens before flying home. Go to Paros or Naxos. Rent a car. Super easy to get around. Mykonos and Santorini are way too crowded. Much more relaxed beaches on different islands than Santorini. The crowds from the cruise ships are killers on the more popular islands.

Thinking about this - any tips on the high speed ferries going island to island? I hear they can be 3rd world experiences - delays, smoke, overcrowding.

We took high speed ferries from Santorini to Milos and then again from Milos to Athens. I enjoyed the experience and was glad we didn't fly between islands.

-The people queue to get on the ferry at Santorini sucked. It felt unsafe, was overcrowded, and pretty much a miserable experience. I'm not sure what you could do here to make it a better experience. I'd be interested if there are ways to pay up for a VIP entrance or similar.

-We paid up for assigned first class seats on the high speed ferries. This was money well spent. It wasn't an expensive upgrade. We had assigned seats in an upper level, limited seating room with it's own bar. After being uncomfortable in the Santorini queue as mentioned above, the first class seating made for a net positive experience.

-The Milos ferry station and queue was fine. Much less crowded. There are nice restaurants right across the street where you can sit outside and watch the ferry come in.