Dream Retirement Trip help please...

Soon both my husband and I will be retired. Our dream trip has always been the Greek Islands! I would love some suggestions on cruise ship, itinerary and what ever may be of use in helping find the right one. Would appreciate all input!

I would recommend looking at Fodors Greek Islands and cruises book. Or a similar book about cruises. It will set out the various lines, sizes of ships, ship experience, culture, dress codes, etc. and also describe what is in each port. This way you can decide for yourself what type of experience you want and you will know which ports are important to you.

People on this site are happy to give advice, but you are likely to get as many opinions of "the best" as there are people on this site.

We have our first HAL cruise on deposit, for next year, on the upcoming Nieuw Statandam.

This had two things that were pluses for us.

1. New ship!

2. Santorini!

If you have long desired to cruise the Greek Islands, then you probably have a good idea on your top priorities.

We chose an itinerary that included Both Athens, Santorini, and Italy as well. Along with a couple of other really neat ports.

I believe that you can do some pretty good searches for cruises, here on CC, where you can put in the port(s) you most want to visit, and other variables, and it will pull up all the options.

Happy Planning!

We just returned from a cruise that started in Salerno and ended in Athens. It included Corfu, Mykonos and Crete. While we enjoyed the cruise, we found it VERY HOT. We normally do a lot of walking and try to see as much as possible in the port time available, but it was just too hot to do that.

We did a Med cruise in May a few years ago that ended in Athens (no Greek Islands though) and found the temperatures much more pleasant.

So....I would advise matching what you want to do with timing of the year in order to make the most of your trip.

You might consider combining a cruise with a land trip. Do some independent island hopping (pack light and use the ferry system). There are so many beautiful, small islands that the larger cruise ships pass by. Our favourite trips to Greece have been done this way.

When to go. We would recommend spring, right after Greek Easter, or late Sept-October. Crete is one island where you could easily spend a week or more just driving around. Lots of little villages to stay in.

Thank you iancal, about the weather info! Our cruise departs at the very end of Sept.

Perfect timing! We are hoping to get there in early/mid October.

Star Clippers - three back-to-backs. Go to their site.

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We booked the Oct 17,18 Celebrity Eclipse sailing from Barcelona. Ports are Mallorca, Messina Scilly, Mykonos, Athens, Santorini, Rhodes and, Malta.

The large European cities need more than one day to see the sights. You could spend weeks in Rome seeing all of its treasures. Land tours are a must to see the large cities. We picked this itinerary because most of the islands on this cruise are small which imho is more conducive to a cruise.