Sample Itinerary · Greece
Three Stops, No Ferries: A Greece Honeymoon
Athens · Santorini · Elounda, Crete
What's Included
- Five-star & boutique hotels
- Private transfers throughout
- Private Acropolis guide at opening
- Daily breakfast at all hotels
- Private catamaran day on the caldera
Not Included
- International flights
- Domestic flights within Greece
- Travel insurance
- Most lunches & dinners
- Tips & gratuities
Who This Trip Is For
Couples on a honeymoon or an anniversary who want the Greece they have been picturing without spending the week in transit. It is paced for first-time visitors who would rather have long mornings than a checklist, and it works just as well for a milestone birthday as it does for a wedding trip.
When To Go
Late May, June and September. Warm water, long evenings, and a fraction of the crowds. July and August are hot in a way that ruins the walking, and everything costs more for the privilege. If your dates are fixed around a wedding, tell me early and I will work backward from them.
Athens
Land, and do almost nothing
A driver is waiting at arrivals, because the one thing nobody needs after ten hours in the air is a taxi negotiation. The afternoon is a late lunch and a slow walk through Plaka, then dinner with the Acropolis lit up behind you. People want to attack day one. Do not. There is no prize.
Where to stay
The Acropolis
The Acropolis before anyone else gets there
When is the best time to visit the Acropolis?
Private guide, first entry at opening. This is the difference between photos you frame and photos with forty strangers in them, and it costs almost nothing to do it this way. The afternoon is yours. Most couples land in Pangrati, which is where Athenians actually eat. I book that dinner in advance, because the good tables in September are gone by July.
Athens to Santorini
Fly to Santorini, then stop moving
Forty five minutes in the air, a driver on the other end, and you are on a terrace with a glass of Assyrtiko before you have unpacked. The caldera handles the entertainment on arrival day. I do not schedule anything against it.
Where to stay
Santorini
Catamaran across the caldera
Is a catamaran day worth it in Santorini?
Past the Red Beach and the White Beach, a swim at the hot springs, lunch cooked on board. Private charters go out late so you get the sunset from the water instead of the Oia castle ruins, where roughly four thousand people are all holding a phone above their head. If you do not love boats, we swap this for a private dinner on a caldera terrace and you lose nothing.
Santorini Wine Country
Wine, then Ammoudi for dinner
Santorini vines grow curled into baskets on the ground so the wind does not destroy them, and the wine that comes out of that volcanic soil tastes like nowhere else on earth. Two estates, private tasting, no bus. Dinner is down in Ammoudi Bay at a table close enough to the water that you can hear it. Book the sunset seating or do not bother.
Santorini to Crete
Short flight to Crete, then the drive everyone remembers
Forty minutes to Heraklion, about an hour by car along the north coast. The road opens over Mirabello Bay right before the descent into Elounda and it is genuinely worth putting your phone down for, which is the only time I will tell you that. Late lunch on arrival, then nothing.
Where to stay
Elounda & Spinalonga
Plaka, Spinalonga, and a lunch that gets away from you
Can you visit Spinalonga from Elounda?
Plaka is ten minutes up the coast, looking straight across at Spinalonga, the Venetian fortress island that served as a leprosy colony until 1957. Fifteen minutes on a small boat if you want to walk the ruins, easy to skip if you do not. Either way lunch is at a taverna on the water and either way it runs two hours longer than planned. That is the point of Crete.
Crete at Leisure
Into the hills, or absolutely nowhere
Crete is where Greek food stops being a good time and starts being the reason you came. A private day behind Elounda covers an olive mill, a family winery and a home kitchen where you cook what you just picked. The alternative is the spa and the sea and no shoes. Most couples do one of each and nobody has ever regretted the order.
Home
Out through Heraklion
Private transfer to the airport, and in summer Heraklion connects onward without sending you back through Athens. If you have the days, this is an easy trip to stretch. Three or four more nights around Chania in western Crete, or a city ending in Rome or Istanbul, both work cleanly from here.
Where You Stay
Three options at every stop. I hold perks at all nine, so the choice is about what you want rather than about which one I can get you something at.
All three are on or beside Syntagma Square, a few minutes from each other and about fifteen from the Acropolis.
Hotel Grande Bretagne
On the square since 1874 and still the address in Athens. Ask for an Acropolis facing room and get to the roof at least once. It makes the first two days feel like the honeymoon has already started rather than like the part before it.
King George
Same location, smaller and quieter, with one of the best terrace restaurants in the city. If you like the address but not the lobby traffic that comes with a landmark, this is the one.
Athens Capital Center Hotel, MGallery Collection
The modern option, rooftop pool, younger crowd, usually the best value of the three. The walk to Plaka is identical, which is the only thing that really matters in Athens.
All three face the caldera on the Oia and Imerovigli side, within about fifteen minutes of each other.
Canaves Epitome
Every room sees the water, the rooftop pool is the largest on the island, and a shuttle runs into Oia whenever you want it. Family run, which you feel in the service. This is usually where I start people.
Mystique
Cut into the cliff in the middle of Oia, cave suites, and a pool terrace that does not look real in photographs or in person. Choose it if you want to walk out the door and already be standing in the sunset.
Grace Hotel Santorini
Small, adult leaning and sitting on the highest point of the caldera rim. Same view as Oia, none of the evening foot traffic. The infinity pool is the one you have already seen and assumed was edited.
All three sit on Mirabello Bay within minutes of each other, about an hour from Heraklion airport.
Domes of Elounda
Built like a village, all suites and villas, many with private pools pointed straight at the fortress island. The most polished of the three and the hardest one to make yourself leave.
Elounda Mare
Relais & Châteaux, built like a Cretan manor, with bungalows in gardens that have had forty years to fill in. Old school in the way that means the staff remember you, rather than the way that means the bathroom is tired.
Elounda Beach Hotel & Villas
A member of the Leading Hotels of the World, with its own stretch of sand and villas with pools and, at the top end, a private pier. Best of the three if you want space and an actual beach rather than a resort laid out around one.
What booking through me adds
Daily breakfast for two, a room upgrade when one is there to give, a hotel credit for dinner or the spa, and early check in or late checkout. Same rate you would find yourself. The perks are the part you cannot book on your own, which is the entire reason to send me the email instead of opening twelve tabs.
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Frequently Asked
Why are there no ferries in this itinerary?
Greek ferries are lovely when the sea is flat and genuinely miserable when it is not, and you do not find out which one you are getting until you are already on board. Every island hop here is a short flight instead. On a honeymoon I would rather give you the afternoon back.
How far ahead should I book a Greece honeymoon?
Eight to ten months out for summer travel. The caldera view suites in Santorini and the Elounda villas with private pools go first and nothing replaces them. Waiting does not get you a better rate here. It gets you the room facing the parking.
Is this itinerary customizable?
Always. This is a starting point rather than a package. Add Milos or Paros for a third island, stretch to twelve nights with Chania on the end, or build the whole thing around your wedding date. Tell me what you actually want and I will shape it around that.