Greece

The ferry network radiates from Athens’ port of Piraeus as separate spokes. The Cyclades (Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos, Paros, Milos), the Dodecanese (Rhodes, Kos, Patmos) and Crete all hub on Piraeus — but hopping from, say, the Cyclades to the Dodecanese usually means routing back through Athens. The practical rule is one group per trip.

The Ionian (Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos) is the exception that proves it: it sits on the opposite, western coast and is reached from the mainland ports of Igoumenitsa, Patras and Kyllini — not from Athens at all — so it rarely combines with an Aegean trip in the same week.

The island-hopping trap to plan around: the ferry network radiates from Athens’ port of Piraeus as separate spokes, so you can hop within a group (around the Cyclades, say) but crossing from one group to another (Cyclades to Dodecanese) usually means routing all the way back through Athens. Pick one island group per trip and hop within it — a chain across groups burns days on connections and backtracking.

When the meltemi is up, locals don’t cancel the day — they change coast and change boat:

• Meltemi, central CycladesSkipthe exposed north-coast beaches and the high-speed catamarans (cancelled first)Gosouth- and west-facing bays, and a conventional car ferry that still sails
• A meltemi weekSkipa tight island-hop with a ferry booked for your fly-home dayGoone base with day trips — or the calmer Ionian (Corfu, Kefalonia) on the west coast
• July–August heat and crushSkipSantorini and Mykonos at middayGoNaxos, Paros, Milos or the Dodecanese — the same Cycladic look for a fraction of the cost

On the smaller islands the tourist economy runs roughly April to late October. Outside that, hotels and tavernas close and ferry frequencies drop to a few sailings a week on the smaller Cyclades — the shoulder months are warm, but book before you travel, because much of the island may simply be shut.

The heat has its own calendar. Recent extreme summers have pushed temperatures past 40°C, and in both 2024 and 2025 the authorities closed the Acropolis and other Athens sites for the hottest midday hours during red-alert heatwaves — one more reason the shoulder season wins.

Conventional car ferries are cheaper, slower and far more weather-tolerant; high-speed catamarans are roughly twice as fast, noticeably pricier, and the first off the board when the meltemi blows. Fares below are indicative one-way, foot passenger, economy — they move with season and operator.

Keep ferry days flexible — strikes are a recurring feature, not a freak event. Nationwide seamen’s strikes tie up every ferry periodically; the annual May Day general strike on 1 May 2026 halted all island sailings along with the Athens metro and rail. Build slack into the itinerary and never schedule a ferry on the day you fly home.

The April 2025 reform also abolished the old combined Athens multi-site ticket (the ~€30 package covering seven sites). The seven are now bought individually — well over €100 in total if you did them all — so plan the two or three you actually want. Greece kept unified site tickets only for Olympia, Delphi, Mycenae and Aigai.

The same flat-pricing reform reset the big sites outside Athens: Knossos on Crete and Delphi are each €20 year-round now, so ignore blogs still quoting the old winter discounts. And if money is truly no object, the ministry’s private “Acropolis Experience” runs small groups through the site outside public hours for €5,000 — a real, bookable product, not a rumour.

Both are worth seeing, but if crowds and cost are what you’re avoiding, the quieter Cyclades — Naxos, Paros, Milos — and the Dodecanese deliver the whitewashed-village-and-blue-sea Greece for far less money and far fewer people. On Santorini itself the Fira cable car (€10 one-way, €5 for a child or bag) is the sane way up from the old port, but it backs up to a one-to-two-hour queue when several cruise ships are in; the donkey route is weight-limited to riders under 100 kg and best skipped.

And Greece isn’t only islands. The mainland carries the heavyweight sights — Delphi, the clifftop monasteries of Meteora, Nafplio and the Peloponnese (Epidaurus, Mycenae, ancient Olympia) — and they absorb crowds far better than the Cyclades. At Meteora the dress code is enforced: covered shoulders for all, long trousers for men, and a below-the-knee skirt for women, with wrap skirts lent free at the gate.

The Climate Crisis Resilience Fee replaced the old overnight tax in 2024 and is charged per night, scaled by accommodation class and season (high season runs April–October):

Greece is Schengen and eurozone; English is widely spoken in tourism, less so inland. The rhythm is late — dinner from about 9pm — with quiet afternoon hours, and tipping is a round-up rather than a rule (a couple of euros at a taverna, 5–10% at the higher end). The indoor-smoking ban has been law for over a decade but is loosely enforced, so expect smoke in some bars.

On borders: the EU’s biometric Entry/Exit System has been fully operational since 10 April 2026, so non-EU arrivals get a fingerprint-and-photo check in place of a passport stamp. The separate ETIAS travel authorisation is not yet required — it’s expected in 2027 (€20, with under-18s and over-70s exempt from the fee). No COVID-era entry form applies; Greece dropped its Passenger Locator Form back in 2022.

Athens itself needs no car — the airport metro (Line 3) runs into the centre for €9 one-way, and a 90-minute city ticket covering metro, bus, tram and trolley is €1.20. Short domestic flights do the heavy lifting between Athens and the far islands: Athens–Mykonos is about 35–45 minutes, Athens–Santorini 45–55, on Aegean, Sky Express and Olympic Air. Weighing Greece against its obvious rival? See Greece vs Italy, measured.