Greece in November

Can anyone tell me what the weather and crowds are like in November? Our 25th anniversary is Nov. 2019 and we would love to do a Europe vacation to celebrate. We are willing to do it in Sept or Oct. if that works better, but ideally would like to do it during our actual anniversary. We are planning 3 weeks in total (with some of it in Switzerland visiting family), which could be before or after the cruise. Doing my research now so I know what to book when those dates open up.

Crowds will definitely be far less.

As to weather, a quick Google search for "Athens November weather" or similar, will get you historical facts on weather.

I suspect the weather will be a little risky. We have spent a number of very pleasant Octobers in Greece. Depends on where you are going. Seas can be high. Many of the island businesses close up by mid to end October.

If it were me, I would go earlier. Cruise is very nice and we have done several. But our favourite is simply to do the islands on our own. Spend a few days on each and then ferry to another. We did this last year. This year we are planning the same again as well as hopefully score a last minute Med cruise.

I've been in Greece (both the mainland and islands) in November -- ranging from early to late. I have not found that any significant percentage of businesses close up on the frequently visited islands, even by the end of the month due to the fact that many cruise ships remain in the Med until November now. And of course other tourists come for pleasant weather...

I have been lucky to hit very good weather in most places in November, especially in Crete. Mykonos can be a little windy. In Athens, you can have very pleasant weather or it could be rainy. Still, overall Greece is one of the more pleasant Med countries to visit in November.

But our favourite is simply to do the islands on our own. Spend a few days on each and then ferry to another. We did this last year. This year we are planning the same again as well as hopefully score a last minute Med cruise.

That sounds very interesting too. Good thing I have a long time to plan...looks like I want to do a lot of research.

We have done several Med cruises through the islands. We always prefer ones that include stops in Turkey.

Our favourite is to do it on our own. Last Sept we could not get a late booking cruise that suited us. So we simply packed up our carry ons and did 10 days on the mainland by car and another few weeks island hopping down to Crete.

We enjoyed this more than our previous trips. We flew into Athens from Toronto and home to Calgary from Paris. Crete to Paris on a low cost Aegean Airlines flight. What we saved by cherry picking the Transat flights more than paid for our long weekend in Paris.

The Greek Islands are wonderful but we find some of the popular cruise stops not so wonderful when there are multiple ships in port. The atmosphere on these islands change after 4/5 PM when the cruisers return to their ships.

We plan to do something similar again since we have yet another wedding to attend this August in the Toronto

We have done several Med cruises through the islands. We always prefer ones that include stops in Turkey.

 

Our favourite is to do it on our own. Last Sept we could not get a late booking cruise that suited us. So we simply packed up our carry ons and did 10 days on the mainland by car and another few weeks island hopping down to Crete.

We enjoyed this more than our previous trips. We flew into Athens from Toronto and home to Calgary from Paris. Crete to Paris on a low cost Aegean Airlines flight. What we saved by cherry picking the Transat flights more than paid for our long weekend in Paris.

 

The Greek Islands are wonderful but we find some of the popular cruise stops not so wonderful when there are multiple ships in port. The atmosphere on these islands change after 4/5 PM when the cruisers return to their ships.

 

We plan to do something similar again since we have yet another wedding to attend this August in the Toronto

apologies for going off topic, how did you find Crete for a land trip? WE loved it on our cruise the other week and want to return to spend more time

We very much liked Crete...it is one of our favourites. We have been there twice on a cruise. But we have been there three times on independent travel for a week at a time. We have stayed in Rethymnon and Chania as a base. This past October we arrived in Heraklion and did a tour of the eastern part of the island- a day or two here and there vs a base. I expect we may be back again this fall.

You do not really get a good sense of the island on a cruise ship day stop. There is so much more to Crete than the cruise ship excursions. It is a very diverse island and it is good to get away from the crowds.

Although we like the cruise stop islands of Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, etc there are many other wonderful islands to visit. Two of our favourites are Sifnos and Naxos. If you do an independent trip it is best to get a good understanding of the ferry system since the ferry routes are clustered between groups of islands.