Itinerary May 2007

[pointofnoreturn]

Hello there! I've been lurking around the boards for quite some time and I decided to join so I could have some input for my May 2007 trip to Europe. I'm graduating in Spring 2007 from university and I have about a month to take a trip before working for the summer. I will be travelling with a female friend (at the moment, she's in for the whole thing so hopefully it'll work out in the end!)

Notes before reading the itinerary:

• I have been to London before and I have visited many of the attractions. I have family and friends in London who I am staying with and it is important to me to see them as much as I can. However, my friend has not been to Europe AT ALL so we will partake in some activities (free museums, parks, and the standard tourist attractions for her)
  
• I really, really want to visit Greece and I won't consider cutting it out of my itinerary. If for some reason my friend cannot afford Greece (she's from Vancouver so costs are high there), we will consider going to both Amsterdam and Berlin instead.
  
• Another note about Greece: We are not party girls. We like scenic places and I've heard rave reviews about Santorini. Some of the other islands seem to be too "party cities", which is not for us. If you know of another island that would be great for us, please let me know and I will review my itinerary to add in a 2nd island and omit some stuff.
  
• I'm a huge art and archaelogy buff (in fact, I do work for the gov't concerning archaelogy and conservation). So if you have any ideas for day trips, please mention!
  
• Why flying into Paris and out of London? It will be good to see familiar faces at the end of our trip and the accomodations will be free and save us from spending the last dollar of our budget. We will be flying using Zoom Airlines Lastly, we can only fly out on Thursdays because I'm from Ottawa (the only day to fly from London to Ottawa). In terms of departing from Montreal, out of the two cities, only Montreal flies to Paris CDG!
  

Anyways, onto the itinerary. Notice that I am not using trains. I refuse to take a train. I'd just pretty much rather fly because the distances between cities are futher than what you would expect.

Itinerary:
May 3 - Depart Montreal for Paris CDG (depart 17:55, arrive 06:40 the next morning)
May 4 - Check into hostel in Paris, relaxing day
May 5 - Paris
May 6 - Paris
May 7 - Paris
May 8 - Paris
May 9 - Flight to Rome on easyJet (early AM), arrive in Rome late AM, check into hostel, relaxing day
May 10 - Rome
May 11 - Rome (Day trip to Pompeii?)
May 12 - Rome
May 13 - Rome (Possible day trip to another town/city or visit the Vatican and its museums/area for the day)
May 14 - Rome
May 15 - Flight to Athens (looking for airline at the moment), check into hostel, relaxing day
May 16 - Athens
May 17 - Day trip to Cape of Sounion from Athens
May 18 - Athens
May 19 - Possible daytrip to ? from Athens
May 20 - Ferry to Santorini (stay in Fira or Oia), relaxing day
May 21 - Santorini
May 22 - Santorini
May 23 - Ferry back to Athens
May 24 - Athens, relaxing day
May 25 - Flight from Athens to London (noon flight, arrive around 2:30), relaxing day
May 26 - London
May 27 - London
May 28 - London
May 29 - London
May 30 - London
May 31 - Flight from London to Ottawa (depart 14:15, arrive 16:40)

Comments, concerns and insights are greatly appreciated!

[Kim]

I think your intinary looks great, you've left good amounts of time for each thing and aren't trying to squish too much in.

I really enjoyed Greece, not really Athens but we hit Mykonos, Paros, Ios and Naxos. Had a great time in all but probably wouldn't return to Ios as like you, we aren't big party people. Have always kicked myself about missing Santorini.

My only suggestion would be to knock a couple days off London and add them to your Greece part. London is so expensive both for sightseeing and accommodation that you could fit it all into 3 full days if you wanted.

I think if it was me, I'd also knock a day off Athens - keep your daytrip, leave the 2 days as is and use 2 days off London and 1 off Athens to go to another island in Greece as well.

Kim

[pointofnoreturn]

My only suggestion would be to knock a couple days off London and add them to your Greece part. London is so expensive both for sightseeing and accommodation that you could fit it all into 3 full days if you wanted.

I was considering knocking off nights in Athens/London (and possible 1 night in Rome, depending on Greece). Only problem is that I haven't really found a 2nd island to hit. I don't want to travel long distances b/w islands. I'd like to visit an island close to Santorini that isn't really so full-on partying. I'm really into the whole temple, scenic and archaelogical stuff.

Out of the islands you listed, could you recommend a 2nd island close to Santorini that fits what I'm looking for?

Again, thanks so much for your comments. It was something I was considering anyways but since I couldn't decide on an island, I just made the itinerary like that. Nice to see a fellow Canadian around!

[pointofnoreturn]

Crap. I think I might have to reconsider my main flight. Someone told me about a bad experience with Zoom Airlines, in which they told him that the Toronto-Paris flight was cancelled and offered to have him rebook on another day or get a refund. Poor guy - he already booked his within Europe flights and he's forced to resort to going with Air Canada despite more money.

I did read some reviews about Zoom Airlines and for the most part, it was about 80-90% positive but the fact that they did that to someone makes me worrisome. I honestly don't want to have my mother shell out even more money to go with Air Canada. I like the idea of flying into Paris then leaving London. If I use that option with AC, it'd be sky-high in terms of fares. Crap. Crap. Crap. Might have to settle for a YOW (Ottawa) - LHR roundtrip flight and then when I get into London, I'll just fly to Paris via easyJet.

[me]

Howdy, Point!

one idea that comes to mind: look into flying, perhaps, Rome to Athens, then Athens to Santorini, then straight to London from Santorini. why go back to Athens for the flight to London?

you can look for the flights at www.WhichBudget.com

also, with the interests you give & the daytrips you plan, i'd suggest spending more time in Rome. Rome is simply the most important city in the history of Western civilization!

- d

[pointofnoreturn]

one idea that comes to mind: look into flying, perhaps, Rome to Athens, then Athens to Santorini, then straight to London from Santorini. why go back to Athens for the flight to London?

I was looking into that as well. I checked SkyScanner but nothing was available. At the moment, I'm having a hard time trying to pull a decent flight that goes from Rome to Athens. I don't want to trek up to Milan in order to use easyJet's services. I think Aegean Airlines does provide a route but I wasn't sure if they were reliable or not.

Few questions:

1. Do you know of any websites/airlines that does actually has the Santorini-Athens-London (stopover in Athens but hopefully not) option? We are hoping to book the majority of our flights in December/January or as soon as Spring 2007 bookings become available.

2. I've been looking into a 2nd Greek Island and I've heard some good things about Naxos. I'm planning to cut out a few things in my itineraries (while leaving some slack time as well) if I decide to hit a 2nd island. But I don't know if I will have time to do that. Honestly, I'm just interested in Santorini only and if it changes in the future, I'd take a second look at Naxos.

3. Is ferry the better option from Athens to Santorini? Or flight? Whichever is cheaper/more reliable works for me.

Merci!

[WillTravel]

I haven't taken Zoom, but have considered it. Have you looked also at Canadian Affair - www.canadian-affair.ca - and Air Transat - www.exit.ca ? I would telephone each of these and get their current policy very clear - what happens if they want to cancel a flight, under what circumstances do they cancel a flight, etc.? Can you get travel insurance to guard against this possibility, etc.?

I'm not sure exactly what Air Canada's policy is re cancelling flights - they can do it in unusual circumstances also. I was once rebooked onto an AC flight six hours earlier than I expected, and I found out only because they phoned a couple hours before that plane was to take off! Luckily I was all packed.

[pointofnoreturn]

willtravel said:

I haven't taken Zoom, but have considered it. Have you looked also at Canadian Affair - www.canadian-affair.ca - and Air Transat - www.exit.ca ? I would telephone each of these and get their current policy very clear - what happens if they want to cancel a flight, under what circumstances do they cancel a flight, etc.? Can you get travel insurance to guard against this possibility, etc.?

I'm not sure exactly what Air Canada's policy is re cancelling flights - they can do it in unusual circumstances also. I was once rebooked onto an AC flight six hours earlier than I expected, and I found out only because they phoned a couple hours before that plane was to take off! Luckily I was all packed.

My parents have flown Transat before and they've had a horrible encounter with them. They were going to the Dominician Republic (not sure if Transat still flies there) and they kept everyone in Montreal for 2 days and didn't pay for hotel accomodations. So basically everyone lost 2-3 days worth of their vacation with no compensation whatsoever. My parents have written to them as well as other places and to this day, they've still received no money.

I fly Air Canada regularly but it's just more expensive. Zoom on the other hand, charges the same amount of money for a Montreal-Paris flight to the London-Ottawa flight without any differences which is why I picked them. I'm just concerned that if I book with them, and for some reason the flight gets cancelled, I won't be able to fly out for a couple of days because the schedule is not "every day". Depends on the circumstances.

I think I will be talking about it with my travelling partner and see how she feels. It's basically like this: a) Go with Zoom and risk the cancellation although it's rare or b) Fly with A.C. as a safe bet but pay possibly double the amount.

This is the part of travel planning that stresses me out LOL! Thanks for the links your provided. I will check into the policies of the airlines for sure!

[herrbert]

A little later than the rest (but hey, I was travelling)

The cheapest direct flight that I can find on May 15th 2007 from Rome to Athens is a flight with Alitalia, These are the options that my dutch website (www.vliegtickets.nl) can find. Most likely you can find these flights on the Alitalia-site as well:

Alitalia flightnumber AZ 720
departure: 8.55 - landing: 11.55
(approx. 100 euro)
or

Alitalia flightnummer AZ718
departure: 14.00 - landing: 17.00
(approx. 140 euro)

edit: cheapiest -> cheapest

[pointofnoreturn]

herrbert said:

A little later than the rest (but hey, I was travelling)

The cheapiest direct flight that I can find on May 15th 2007 from Rome to Athens is a flight with Alitalia, These are the options that my dutch website (www.vliegtickets.nl) can find. Most likely you can find these flights on the Alitalia-site as well:

Alitalia flightnumber AZ 720
departure: 8.55 - landing: 11.55
(approx. 100 euro)
or

Alitalia flightnummer AZ718
departure: 14.00 - landing: 17.00
(approx. 140 euro)

Totally bookmarking site! Plus, I have written down the airline for future reference since nothing will be booked till Spring/Summer prices are up, which is probably later this fall (at least for easyJet). But overall, everything will most likely be booked in early December so hopefully I'll be able to snag a flight, including the one you mentioned! Merci!

[herrbert]

pointofnoreturn said:

Totally bookmarking site! Plus, I have written down the airline for future reference since nothing will be booked till Spring/Summer prices are up, which is probably later this fall (at least for easyJet). But overall, everything will most likely be booked in early December so hopefully I'll be able to snag a flight, including the one you mentioned! Merci!

If you run into problems with this dutch site, language-wise, then give me a pm.

[pointofnoreturn]

herrbert said:

pointofnoreturn said:

Totally bookmarking site! Plus, I have written down the airline for future reference since nothing will be booked till Spring/Summer prices are up, which is probably later this fall (at least for easyJet). But overall, everything will most likely be booked in early December so hopefully I'll be able to snag a flight, including the one you mentioned! Merci!

If you run into problems with this dutch site, language-wise, then give me a pm.

Will do so! ;D