Building the Itinerary
Full disclosure: I’m writing this 5 years after the trip, so it’s more of a retrospective. And I really think Rhodes is a good island to visit on a first trip to Greece if you only have a week.
We bookended this trip with Rhodes, an island I’d been to before, and Santorini, where our favorite beach town — Perissa — is located.
If you only have time to visit one Greek island, I’d recommend Rhodes. It has all of the quintessential Greek sights: charming villages (Lindos), ancient sites (the acropolis of Lindos), and more “recent” historic sights (Rhodes old town and the Palace of the Grandmaster), and beaches. The first time I visited we stayed in Rhodes new town, which was convenient to the beach but lacked old town charm. (That was a package holiday from Europe, so it was simple to do.) I rented a scooter and visited Lindos, and on another day we rented a dune buggy type vehicle and drove around the island. We rented a car for a couple of days on this trip too. It’s worth driving around and seeing some of the island. I wanted to experience Lindos without the hordes of daytrippers, so we spent a couple of nights there. Then we sent a few nights in Rhodes old town too.
The other thing we wanted to do on this trip was visit some of the smaller, less visited Cyclades Islands, particularly where there were walking opportunities. We spent at least 4 nights on each so we had leeway for the weather and didn’t feel rushed. We ended up choosing Amorgos because of easy access from Rhodes (more on that under Transportation), then Milos — we flew over Milos on our first trip to Greece and it looked interesting from the air — and Folegandros, for its chora. Milos sounded like there was enough to see that it deserved another couple of nights, and it did.
- Athens (1 night on a ferry)
- Lindos (3 nights)
- Rhodes Old Town (4 nights)
- Amorgos (4 nights)
- Milos (6 nights)
- Folegandros (4 nights)
- Santorini (7 nights)
- Athens (1 night in Rafina before flying home)
The itinerary worked out well. We never felt rushed; I think inserting the longer Milos stay helped with that. Four nights gave us enough time to experience the smaller islands without getting bored. You could easily spend a whole week in Rhodes Town rather than splitting it between Lindos and Rhodes Town. It felt good to end the trip on a week of pure relaxation.
Accommodations
Greece has loads of options for places to stay, including lots of the smaller, locally-owned places we like. We found great places everywhere we stayed. Other than our last night in Athens, the cost per night was surprisingly consistent even though I didn’t plan it that way. The prices shown here are 2026 prices, excluding taxes and fees.
- Our “accommodations” our first night were on the Blue Star ferry to Rhodes. Useful, not exciting. It was our first time on an overnight ferry.
- In Lindos we stayed at Electra (€66) which was in the village, charmingly traditional, with a lovely shared terrace, and inexpensive. The tradeoff was it was very bare bones. No shampoo, only a single outlet.
- In Rhodes Old Town we stayed in a quiet part near the walls at Mango Rooms (€78). We wanted to be in the Old Town for atmosphere, but not too noisy.
- On Amorgos we stayed at Studios Akrogiali (€57), a modern studio with a terrace and water view, up a steep hill from the village of Aegiali.
- On Milos we stayed in a one bedroom flat at Vira Vivere Houses (€69), in a quiet residential area a short walk from Plaka.
- On Folegandros we stayed in a twin room at Meltemi (€73), right on the edge of the charming village.
- On Santorini we stayed at Stelios Place (€57), one of our favorite hotels.
- Our last night in Athens (Rafina, near the airport) we stayed at Hotel Avra (€168).
Transportation
On our first trip we flew into Athens and spent a couple of nights to see the sights. This trip we wanted to get straight to the islands. I considered flying to Rhodes, but we thought taking an overnight ferry would be a novelty and it was cheaper than a hotel night plus a flight, and we’d get to Rhodes sooner. We had plenty of time between when our plane landed and the ferry left. We could have stashed our bags somewhere and explored Athens but we were tired and jetlagged and headed straight for the port at Piraeus via the express bus from the airport.
The overnight ferry was interesting, and I’m glad we did it, but I don’t know that I’d do it again. The food available wasn’t anything special (we weren’t expecting it to be), the cabin (we had an ensuite) was fine, but we’re a bit old for bunk beds. We didn’t sleep well because the ferry made overnight stops and we woke up for every single one.
A great tool for exploring Greek ferries is Greek Ferry schedules. You can fill in a starting or ending port and it will tell you where you can get ferries to or from there. For example, I entered Chania as the end point and it tells me I can get a ferry there from Milos or Piraeus (Athens). Once I selected a starting point, I can search actual ferries. It will list any schedules including days of the week, times, company, and ship type, and when the schedule is good for. (Which is important, because ferries are seasonal. Ask me how I know. [link to Amorgos trip]) It’s great for exploring options since you don’t have to enter exact dates or even both ends of the route.
Once you’ve found a ferry, FerryHopper is a great place to book your tickets.
We scheduled our trip around a weekly ferry from Rhodes to Amorgos. Unfortunately I did not pay attention to when the ferry ran: that route ended in early September, before we wanted to take it. So, instead we ended up flying from Rhodes to Naxos (via Athens) and taking the Small Cyclades Line ferry from there to Amorgos. That ferry stops at smaller Cyclades Islands (Heraklia, Schinoussa, Koufonissi, Donoussa). We’d heard it was interesting and we wanted to see those smaller islands.
Don’t do what we did! Check ferry schedules carefully. Many are seasonal.
And while it might be more complicated or expensive — or both — there’s probably another way to get where you want to go.
After that it was smooth sailing (pun intended). We took boring but efficient high-speed ferries between Amorgos, Milos, Folegandros, and Santorini. We could have avoided backtracking by going to Folegandros before Milos but we wanted a longer stay between two shorter ones.
To save time, we flew from Santorini to Athens at the end of the trip and spent the night in Rafina, near the airport. The hotel has a free shuttle to and from the airport so it was easy to get there and back. We might have been able to fly from Santorini to Athens and then home on the same day, but if we missed that flight to Athens we would have been stuck.
We used the bus and shuttle to get to Lindos and back. We rented a car for a couple of days on Rhodes, Amorgos, and Milos since they had scenic drives we wanted to do, and sights scattered around each island. Folegandros was smaller and our hotel did pick ups and drop offs for the ferry so we used buses when needed. We would have taken the bus on Santorini but we didn’t leave Perissa and we could walk everywhere while there. In fact every place we stayed was walkable only.
Our costs of $890 per person (at time of trip) included two domestic flights, five ferries, rental cars on three islands, and the odd bus or taxi fare. We could have adjusted our schedule and saved some money here.
Sights & Activities
This trip was more nature-focused: walking, beaches, and scenic drives. Cultural sights were limited to Rhodes, where we visited the Lindos Acropolis, the Palace of the Grand Master, and other sights in Rhodes Town. There were small fees for those sights. We drove by other castles around the island too.
We also did two scenic boat trips, on Milos and Santorini. Both allow you to see things you just can’t see from land and I highly recommend either one. Santorini is famous for its cliffs. Milos’ are just as varied, if perhaps not as dramatic. Those were the biggest chunk of our $204 per person (at time of trip) costs.
We chose Amorgos, Milos, and Folegandros for their walking options. Rhodes, Amorgos, and Milos also had scenic driving opportunities. Beyond that there were the beaches. Which are free, thought the sun loungers and umbrellas are not.
Food & Drink
We actually hit our estimate for once! (Usually we’re under $50 per person per day.) We both really like Greek food, so that’s what we ate most days. We did have Indian food a couple of times, and the odd pizza or burger. Most days we ate pastries for breakfast and lunch and dinner out.
See our destination posts for details on what and where we ate.
Resources
- We used Lonely Planet Greece (Kindle format) as our main resource
- Matt Barrett’s Greece Guides has been around forever and is an encyclopedic resource to travel in Greece.
- This website has very detailed information about hiking in the Cyclades and a few other regions in Greece. We used it to research hiking opportunities and choose islands to visit.