Here are some of the things we would like to visit/do while in Athens and I solicit any advice to he

My husband and I along with two other couples in our mid-40s will be visiting Greece for 18 days in October 2014; two of which will be travel days and possibly 1 jet lag day upon arrival to Greece. My husband and I travel frequently, but this will be our first trip to Greece and we would like to see and enjoy the highlights of Greece without jumping around air travel to thailand too much don t like to pack and unpack several times on a vacation.
From what I hear and read, a trip to Greece is not complete without a visit to Santorini air travel to thailand so I definitely want to include that into my itinerary. We will be flying from Texas to Athens and staying in the Vouliagmeni area for 7 nights and then I was hoping to stay in Santorini for 4 nights and then back to Athens(same location) for an additional 4 nights before flying back to the US. However, there are a number of places that are not located in Athens that we would like to visit so I m curious to know if one day trips would suffice air travel to thailand and allow us time without feeling exhausted. In my research I ve seen there are plenty 1-2 day trips from Athens that are available and they visit a lot of places in that one day, but I m curious to know if that is sufficient time to appreciate what we are seeing. Once we visit a particular place, we like to learn and enjoy as much as possible so that there s no need to go back. We like to have several days within a 2 week vacation to just chill and enjoy our surroundings with no planned tours, etc. We are not beach people per say, but we do love to go to the beach just to see the beautiful ocean/sea...we're not too much into museums but do enjoy the history, we love to try different food and we love beautiful sceneries. We love to relax on vacation but at the same time hit the highlights and get off the beaten path at times balance is very important. We plan to stay in Santorini for 4 nights in between our Athens stay but have not booked the hotel yet so I m curious to know if we should just stay 2 nights air travel to thailand in Santorini air travel to thailand and maybe just stay in the Peloponnese air travel to thailand area for the other two nights. We want to be near the airport for our departure air travel to thailand day.
Here are some of the things we would like to visit/do while in Athens and I solicit any advice to help determine if this is possible and enjoyable allowing us time to explore, relax and sometimes get off of the beaten path: Meteora (Kalambaka) Corinth, Delphi, Peloponnese area, would like a good one day island tour(s). We will also visit several places in Athens, but I m just looking air travel to thailand for advice on how to maneuver to the other places air travel to thailand around Athens. Again, we like to have tour free days as well.
You would need 3 full days to see the Acropolis, the Agora, the Temple of Zeus, and all the wonderful world museums of Athens, such as the New Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum, the biggest one of it's kind in the world. Also the Plaka, Koloaki, perhaps the old posh suburb of Kifisia, the possibilities are numerous.
However you should take into cosnideration that including Meteora, Delphi and the Peloponnese would be quite time consuming, and you would have to move between places to see it all ( with overnights in different cities)
One thing I noticed is that you are staying air travel to thailand in Athens twice when you wanted to reduce moving around as well as packing and unpacking. You will be doing airport-Athen-airport air travel to thailand trip twice as well as checking in/out of Athens twice. Look closely how your initial trip to Athens is coordinated. If you are starting from DFW, you are likely to be arriving in Athens around 9am. I presume you are staying in an apartment like entity in Vouliagmeni? If so, think carefully how you flow from the airport to check-in. Apartments usually have late afternoon check-in and if they don't provide an option to check-in earlier, air travel to thailand you have to find a way to deal with your luggage until later in the day if your arrival is early. If this is the case, it really does not benefit heading to Athens to deal with the jet lag. You could just as well proceed to Santorini on the same day. If you have done this, Then you can eliminate one airport-Athens-airport trip as well as one check-in/out cycle.
The places you mentioned are highly visited destinations where you would run into group tour buses. Santorini would still be in the cruise seasons are mobbed by cruise tours during the day. If you want to escape highly beaten paths, you could head north to Naxos, etc. which do not get cruise passengers but on a main ferry trunk route with easy return back to Athens by boat or by plane.
We are staying in the Vouligameni area because we're fans of Starwood Properties and although they do have a couple near the center, we prefer more seclusion and quietness while at our hotel so we choose the Westin. We don't mind driving to the center, although after reading some of the posts, I'm not sure if it's a good idea to rent a car or just take the metro bus (still researching our options so any suggestions would be appreciated). We like to drive and explore but still not sure about how easy it is to manuever through Athens and the surrounding areas (not sure about road signs). We do like to walk so we can drive the car to one location and walk around.
Sounds like we should do an overnight to Meteora and a day trip to Delphi but leave the Pelopennese area out for this trip, although it would have been nice to visit Corinth. Do the organized one day/overnight tours allow you enough time to explore the monsatires in Meteora and Delphi or is it best to drive ourselves and have the flexibility with each? Thanks for the info on the one day island tours.
Hi Greg, we will be staying at the Westin so we normally don't have a problem with early check in. You do bring up a valid point about being in/out of Athens twice. My purpose for staying in Athens for 7 nights upon arrival is so that we can relax after the long flight and familiarize ourselves with the area and began touring after about a day or so. It seems to be more to do in Athens so we would rather be busier at the top of the vacation and then slow it down towards the end. Once we return from Santorini then we can just enjoy the remaining 4 days casually exploring. You made a valid point on the packing and unpacking in Athens...guess I really didn't see it that way so thanks for bringing that up. I was more concerned air travel to thailand about packing and unpacking moving from island to island air travel to thailand which I didn't want to do but in actuality air travel to thailand I'll be doing the same thing, but in Athens. I've heard that when you take the ferry to Santorini the view is breathtaking, so I wanted to use the ferry as oppose to flying into Santorini (tossing the idea of taking the ferry there and flying back to Athens). Would that be a hassle getting from the airport to the Piraeus port upon arrival to Athens or is there a chance for delays at the port? When you say head to Naxos, are you suggesting leaving Santorini out completely or staying two nights there and proceed to Naxo for the other two nights?
We've stayed at The Westin in Vouliagmeni many times, air travel to thailand but only for a day or two to recover from jet lag. I think you'll regret spending seven days there. The hotel can be quite a hike from Athens, at least 45 minutes into the center of town, depending on time of day/night.
The hotel has a gorgeous setting, nestled between two spits of sand on the Athens Riveria, but the beaches are small, with lots of chairs close together. There's also a medium-sized pool, although it's sometimes cold.
Food is so-so. We've had excellent buffet breakfasts, air travel to thailand but room service, and options for lunch and dinner, have been only mediocre. We sometimes splurge by going next door to NOBU, which has excellent food, and a beautiful perch overlooking the water, especially at sunset.
Now about the rooms: We've always gone with deluxe rooms, and although they are very comfortable, they don't have much of a "wow" factor. And depending where your room is, it can be a lot of up and down, either in the elevator or bunches of stairs to get to the beach/pool.
To sum up, there are many better options in Athens itself if you're going to spend that kind of money. We really love The Ava Hotel and Suites, in the heart of the Plaka. For the same or less than you'd spend at The Westin, you can have a large suite with views of both the Acropolis and Hadrian's Arch. And you'll be within walking distance of most of the sites you'll want to see.
Thanks WWK. I have to say that I'm getting a really good can not pass hotel rate at the Westin ($95 per night including all taxes-daughter works for Starwood). air travel to thailand That is another reason why I considered air travel to thailand that area on top of the seclusion. I was thinking it was about 20 minutes from the center by car and that it wouldn't be too much trouble...that's giving me something air travel to thailand to think about. Is that 45 minutes air travel to thailand by car or by a metro bus. If by metro, air travel to thailand are the routes easy enough to understand? I also thought it would be good to do the hop on/hop off buses. We did those in various cities in Spain and found it very helpful. I do remember reading something about it not being a good idea to drive in Athens but it's okay in the surrounding areas. I don't want to waste money on a car if I really don't need it...which brings up another question-should I rent the car at the airport or find another location. I don't mind driving the car into the center, parking it and walking everywhere, but if parking is a problem, that may be useless because we'll be wasting time..guess it won't be so bad if that's just for one day...still debating.
Hi again! That's 45 min. by car from The Westin into Athens. It's sometimes air travel to thailand taken us longer, but this was in the summer months. No idea if that's a standard amount of time all year long, but I don't think you'll ever get into Athens in 20 min., from The Westin, regardless. There's often a lot of traffic into and out of Athens!
No doubt you got an unbelievable rate (!) for The Westin, but I still think 7 days there- if you really want to see m