Recomendations for best Greek island (from Dublin)

amdublin

Hi, Anyone got suggestions which Greek island to go to on holidays.

Looking for a fairly decent hotel (4 or 5 star) but located near some good sight seeing spots.

Santorini is brilliant. As is Naxos.

Manic Moran

Why settle for one? Go island-hopping. The ferry and hydroil network is excellent, and you can get a couple done.

I also would recommend the Cyclades, the island group which includes Santorini.

NTM

Gordon

First you have to decide what kind of island do you want - party island or quiet island. Party island favourites are Ios and Mykonos, quiet beautiful ones are Naxos and Milos I think. But best to do a good island hop. I prefer Paros as it is nice for both partying and quiet times.

kraggy

What's Greece like expense-wise?

bills

well i have done the package holiday to zakynthos & kos - liked both but the island hopping - that sounds ideal. Always wanted to do that. Oh & i found greece very reasonable price wise but it has been 4 years or so since i have been there.

Fratton Fred

Skopelos and Skiathos are both lovely islands for walking and site seeing, very quiet though (Are they in the Cyclades as well, I think so) Skiathos is the livliest of the two and has some great boat trips.

Kos has a Volcano and lots of nightlife, Corfu is beautiful up in the north, but mad as anything in the south, Crete has lots going on, Samaria Gorge and the War Cemetries for a start.

It depends what you want, looking at buildings, scenic views, walking or laughing at drunks beating the crap out of each other

Cyprus, although not strictly Greek has lots to do and some great site seeing if you get off the beaten track.

black & white

If you're looking for sightseeing then the old town in RHODES is well worth a couple of days, it's a world heritage site. Plenty to see around the island though where we stayed ( Ixia ) the beaches aren't great. I heard that the beaches on the other side of the island are better.

Can't personally recommend a top class hotel as we were on a freebie ( thanks to Budget Travel and Today FM ) and the place we got was a 2 star. No complaints though, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Has anyone who posted in this thread ever even been to Santorini?

Manic Moran

Yes, why?


If you have any flexibility in the dates, go before tourist season really kicks off. When I went island-hopping it was late May/Early June. The difference in price is night and day, since there isn't enough demand to fill all the beds. When the ferry/hydrofoil docked at the pier, we were swamped by B&B landlords trying to get us to stay with them, to the level of there being about 30-40 landlords fighting over the ten of us who got off the boat. I don't think I would like have seen the situation a month later.

NTM

joseph brand

Santorini is breathtaking, and I don't use that word lightly. U have to get the view over the crater, (island is like the rim of a volcano crater if I'm correct). Loo for pics and see what I mean. Good for couples, but maybe stay 1 or 2 days and Island hop.

Beaches are black stone, from what I saw on day trip from Ios.

I loved Ios, full of Irish, Germans and Swedes. The place looks great at night. Whole hillside lit up, with all the buildings i.e pubs n clubs
Ios has some quiet beaches, you need to travel on bike to reach. Once there, you can drop the tweeds and run around like a mad Irish ejit on holiday.

Santorini has gold beaches, black beaches and red beaches i.e. all the different characteristics of a volcano. I would personally spend about 5 days there. It's that good!

EVGR

I am looking into going to a relaxing Greek island this summer, but the only direct flights with travel agencies seems to be to Zakynthos, Crete and Corfu (the latter only with Budget travel). Have I missed something?

I would prefer not to spend precious holidays changing flights.

dory

EVGR, where did you find those direct flights to Crete? I can only get via Athens but would love to get there directly.

Shzm

Why not just fly in to Athens and get a ferry? The ferry rides to the islands are actually really enjoyable.

Simon201

Going tomorrow to Rhodes. Quite hard to decide on the flights. Eventually decided to go Ryanair (€320 for 3) to Gatwick and from there to Rhodes via Easyjet (£647). Looked into direct flights from Belfast but there were none this year when I enquired (they said there was last year - recession bla bla) Only other option was Aer Lingus - Dublin to Athens but the arrival in to Athens was going to miss the last Aegean Air flight out from Athens to Rhodes (until the next morning)
(on a side note, I notice my Ryanair flights would cost nearly €900 if I booked them today. Why is this? Would they not want to really fill any spare seats at this stage?)

indiana jones

santorini is definatly one of the best greek islands and is often is in lists of the top 10 island destinations in the world.. but i depends what you want. you would not go there for the nightlife or clubbing. its more of a laid back, beauiful, chilling holiday island.it is the perfect couples holiday. i think it is one of the most beautiful places in the world. also been to naxos, pharos,zakynthos and mykonos and all are equally beautiful but santorini is that bit more special. its better to go off peak in may or september when its not so crowed. because it is so popular it is expensive compared to the other islands but still cheap compared to ireland. some of the less popular islands like naxos you can still get accomodation (which you get when you leave the ferry) for 15euro a night.kefelonia is also supposed to be beautiful but i havent been yet. it is the island where the "captain corelles mandolin" was filmed. overall you cant go wrong with a holiday on any greek island i think.