Greek Island Hopping
Everything You Need To Know!
Sailing through the Greek Islands and spending your days floating on the blue waters of Aegean is one of the most amazing holidays you can take. You will eat amazing food, experience ancient culture and party your butt off! Basically, if you’re like me you’ll be living your best Mamma Mia fantasy!
HOW YOU WANT TO TRAVEL:
There are lots of ways to see the Greek Islands! There are 168 inhabited islands and they are divided up into groups; Cyclades, Sporades, Dodecanese, Saronic, Ionian and North Aegean, so really its dealers choice! You can plan your own adventure, go on a group tour, do Greek Week, see it by boat, by plane, run away with a local Greek man! The options are endless. I chose to do 12 days on Contiki’s Greek Island Hopping tour which I highly recommend. Its actually their highest rated tour!
GETTING TO THE ISLANDS:
Its not always so simple getting to your desired island! No matter if you are sailing or flying, you’ll need to pick a point of departure. For me it was Athens, its a huge international airport, easy meet up point and it has two main ports with Piraeus servicing most of the popular Greek islands. We ferried from island to island but stayed on the mainland as opposed to a boat which I loved.
Flying
Now flying can require more finessing as some islands only have domestic airports and some don’t have any at all! I’ve made a list so you can see.
International Airports:
Crete
Corfu
Kos
Lemnos
Samos
Rhodes
Astypalea
Domestic Airports:
Chios
Okaria
Kalymnos
Karpathos
Kythira
Mykonos
Milos
Naxos
Paros
Santorini
Skiathos
Skyros
Syros
Flying in can make sense if you transfer in from your flight in Athens and use it as a starting point, but if you want to get the best experience of what its like to island hop, I suggest doing it by boat!
Boats:
I was expecting little tiny boats to bring us from island to island, but they were huge! We had assigned seats that looked like the ones on airplanes, there were activities, restaurants, areas to sun bathe and you could choose to sit inside the closed deck or up on top! Because they are so big I found you didn’t feel the motion quite so much, but its always good to have a sea sickness tablet on you.
Perhaps the most jarring thing for me was that you will get separated from your luggage. When you step on the ferry, they get you to put your luggage with your groups off to the side of the first level. Then you just leave it. So make sure to have everything of value in your backpack or on you. That being said, nobody had any problem, they just have a more relaxed approach to luggage!
You can check out routes and get your Greek island ferry pass here.
Most tours like Contiki, Busabout and Med Experience you will stay in hotels on the islands, but some others you do it yacht week style and stay on the boats in the harbor! You can also sail about this way if you want to just rent a boat with your friends and make up your own schedule as you go.
ISLAND LIFE:
Life on the Greek Islands is very different than what you are probably used to. Its even different than what you will find on the mainland in Athens!
Time:
There’s a saying in Greece, “sigá-sigá,” which means take it easy, and the Greeks take this very seriously! People live at a slower pace. Similar to the Spanish siesta, the Greeks take a mesimeri, however the time of the year dictates at what time of day the mesimeri will happen! My tour manager kept joking with us that it didn’t matter if we showed up on time, we were running on ‘Greek Island Time.’ There’s no rush or sense of urgency, the world moves at a slower pace on the islands. Sometimes the boat shows up on time, sometimes its half an hour later. Same with tour companies and restaurants, you might find yourself waiting around sometimes. Practice some patience and you’ll get used to it in no time!
Bathrooms:
Being small islands with not the most up to date plumbing, you have to follow strict rules when it comes to the bathrooms. Chief among them being you can’t flush toilet paper. At all. Every hotel, restaurant and bar will have a little waste basket next to the toilet for you to dispose of you toilet paper. Its weird and takes some getting used to. For those worried about the…ahem…smell, the baskets get changed out at least once a day, usually more so you should be just fine.
Taxis + Buses:
What you need to remember is that these are small islands, most people walk to get from place to place, so you will find taxis few and far between. For example on Mykonos there are only 30 taxis, only 25 on Santorini and only 5 on Paxos. During the height of tourist season it can be a bit of a wait. You wont end up waiting too long but don’t expect the quick service you are used to other places.
I ended up taking the buses on most islands! They were efficient and fast and came at regular times. On all of the islands I visited there was a stop close to, or at my hotel which was handy and they are cost effective.
ROUTES:
There are so many routes and options you can make when coming up with your itinerary for which islands to hop to! My best advice is to do some research, look at a map and come up with what you’d like to see. My trip went to the most famous islands in the Cyclades! I wanted to share a rundown of my itinerary and what I did for inspiration!
ATHENS:
Yes, I know this isn’t an island, but it is the starting point for my trip! Its easier for everyone to meet up in the capitol, and theres a lot to see! I was there a day early and did a hop on-hop off tour of the city myself, then the next day as a group we did a huge walking tour and saw the Acropolis, which is the must see of Athens, checked out the markets in Omonia and walked around the Plaka at night!
MYKONOS:
This is where the adventure really begins! We got up at the crack of dawn and headed down to the docks of Athens where we boarded our ferry to take us to the island of Mykonos. This was the island I was most excited for. Made famous by Jackie O and known for its sugar cube houses, pelicans and spectacular beach clubs! We arrived in late afternoon and headed straight for the Paradise Beach Club where we were staying. I didn’t expect the island to be so rocky! My experience has mostly been with lush, tropical islands, but really there wasn’t much green at all. It was a really cool, earthy landscape.
The days were spent exploring local islands and swimming spots, enjoying the hot, Greek sun, and the evenings were for toga parties, exploring the local bar scene and watching the sunset.
You can’t go to Mykonos without exploring the town! Checking out the iconic windmills, white washed churches and indulging in a little fried haloumi, tzatziki and souvlaki!
I decided to take a little day trip to the island of Delos, which is the birthplace of the gods Artemis and Apollo. It feels like you are stepping back into the past. The island was still and quiet and covered with ruins, it was incredibly cool and worth it. The boat ride back, in a storm, over choppy Mediterranean waters however, I could have done without. The nightlife on the island was great there are so many cool bars and beach clubs to experience! Looking back this was definitely my favourite island, it had something for every type of traveller.
SANTORINI:
Probably the most famous island in the Cyclades, known for its blue domed buildings and one of the most epic sunsets in the world! We started in the city of Fira walking through the markets and eating gyros while looking out on to the caldera. I separated from my group for most of the time on the island. Instead of hiking the local volcano I went and explored the rend sand beaches of Akrotiri and sampled at the local wineries. I ate fresh octopus in Ammoudi Bay and rode a donkey all the way up to the top of Oia. I definitely had my own plan for the island and wanted to just enjoy it the way I needed to. I met back up with my group in Oia to watch the sunset. Its generally considered one of the nicest ones in the world. I completely got lost because I stopped to take a photo with some bougainvillea, and Santorini streets are like a maze. Eventually I found the group, grabbed a glass of greek wine and watched one of the most vibrant orange’s ever burst across the sky! You can read more about why Santorini is amazing here.
IOS:
Our last island of the trip was Ios, the party island. Its name means island of violets because of the purple flowers that grow across it, and its thought to be the burial place of the poet Homer. Aside from that people flock there to enjoy the golden beaches, aegean sea and to party, party, party! The terrain was really cool! I didn’t expect to see pine trees! There weren’t bright coloured flowers and white washed houses with blue domes. It had more of a rustic vibe for sure. The nightlife is a world of its own there! We went to silent discos, gay bars, bars that specialize in espresso martinis, but its the shot challenges that grabs everyones attention. Most of the bars on the island provide you with a challenge, if you complete it you get a t-shirt. Some you need to down a bunch of shots and get slapped by a local lady, or take a bunch of shots and put a helmet on and get whacked by a skateboard. Totally bizarre. All I can say is it was a slap I’ll never forget. The coolest thing we did was sail to a little island that we had to ourselves and set up a picnic on the beach. Just spending so much time sailing is so relaxing. This one one of the main times both groups were together and it was so nice to explore the island and play in the water together. It was a great island to end our tour on because we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company during the day and celebrated at night!
WHAT TO BRING:
Aside from your regular packing list just make sure you have the following:
Bathing suits
Sandals you can walk in - remember the islands can be rocky
Sunglasses
Sunscreen
Lighter coloured clothing - There’s a reason all the buildings are white, its to repel heat - and it gets HOT
Sea sickness pills + any first aid you’ll want. Greek pharmacies are confusing!
A beach bag
A shawl or sweater - it gets surprisingly windy, even at the height of summer and seeing as you’ll be on the water you’ll want this at night. It also gets cold on the ferries they are very air conditioned.
Portable charger - this will come in handy on long ferry rides
Camera! Trust me!
Money Money Money
The currency in Greece is the Euro which is easy to order or exchange from your local bank! One of the biggest tips I got before travelling on the Greek islands is that when taking money out at ATM’s only use official bank branded ones. You will see lots of unbranded ATM’s all over and often the machine will ‘eat’ the cards or process it and then no money comes out. This actually happened to someone I was travelling with, so just to be safe use official machines or wait until you are in town and exchange at a bank. In terms of tipping, it is definitely expected in some cases but you shouldn’t feel obligated. First and foremost always check your bill, especially when you are with a group some restaurants will round up to include gratuity, if this is the case don’t leave any more. Sometimes in Greece you’ll see a ‘cover charge’ on the bill, this means the water and bread, not gratuity. At cafe’s or bars I would round up to the nearest €1 and at restaurants if 5-10%.
In terms of budgeting, if you go on a tour like Contiki or Med Experience a lot will be included for you. I got by on about €50 a day give or take.
Whether you want to party, sunbathe, explore, eat or rest, you will be able to have the vacation of your dreams hopping from one Greek island to another. From Mykonos to Crete, Santorini to Corfu and all the islands in between you will have the most picture perfect time that’ll have you saying Opa!
