Istanbul/Greece/Venice Trip - Planes Trains or Ferries!

[bizaro86]

This may be a bit of a long post, so I apologize in advance.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe for this August. Provisionally, we intend to go to Istanbul/Turkey, Athens and the Greek Islands and Venice. We went to most of the rest of Italy last summer on a cruise, so Venice is our priority in Italy, but otherwise we're still pretty wide open.

It seems that flights from our home airport of Calgary (YYC) will run us about 4000 for the two of us in August, which seems a bit high but not unreasonable. Unfortunately we have to travel in August as my wife is a high school teacher. That is as an open jaw YYC-IST, VCE-YYC so if anyone has any hints or tricks on getting reasonably priced open jaws I'd appreciate it!

Where we really seem to be getting lost though is on our transportation between points. I'm not sure whether we should take a plane, trane or ferry between Turkey and Greece, and then from Greece to Venice, and also within Greece and the Greek Islands.

So I guess I'm looking for advice on transportation, and what places to visit while in Greece. We're not really looking for a beach scene, more great food and "authentic" Greek experiences and architecture. In terms of accomodations, we'd probably like to keep it under $200-250 USD/night although I know we're going in the high season, so the best resorts may be out of reach, but I'd still like something nice!

Any help or advice on all 3 places is greatly appreciated!

Michael

 

[Carolinian]

In Greece, the perched monasteries at Meteora are magnificent. I also greatly enjoyed the island of Rhodes.

Unless you are heavy on the luggage side (something I always avoid in European travel), I would check out LCC flights on www.whichbudget.com , www.skyscanner.com , and www.wegolo.com

I have done the hydrofoil north from Istanbul to Constanta, Romania, which I enjoyed If you can get a fast vessel like a hydorfoil, taking that to Greece or Venice might be fun. I have also done the train north from Istanbul to Bulgaria once and Romania once, and they were fine. My Cooks Timetable is at the office, so I can't look it up at the moment, but from my recollection there is a train route between Istanbul and Athens via Thesalonika.

I have used LCC Aegean Airlines, and would recommend them. It was refreshing to find an LCC with cheap prices that served meals and gave free beer.

 

[Jimster]

turkey-greek isles

I know there are some hydrafoils to and from some of the greek isles to Turkey. You can find the schedules on line. Just do a google search. People often take them to do day trips or shopping trips and from what I understand- they are fine. There is also a ferry between Greece and Italy but I agree with Carolinian I think flying is better on this one.

 

[Carolinian]

Looking at Cooks, if you took a train from Athens to Istanbul, you would have to change in Thesalonika, which is a neat city to spend some time in on the way. From Thesalonika to Istanbul, there are two trains, one daytime and one a convenient overnight schedule to sleep on the train. There are several trains to choose from between Athens and Thesalonika.

 

[bizaro86]

Thanks for the info all.

Looks like we're going to go with flights between countries, and maybe use ferries with greece/to go to the islands. The train and ferry are awfully long, and the ferries don't seem to leave from Istanbul, so that would add another dimension that I'm not really up for!

The websites for LCCs were extremely helpful, right now its looking like Olympic Air and Aegean Air are the likely choices for our trip.

Now I just have to find a cheap open jaw YYC-IST-VCE-YYC!

Michael