Greek Islands Day trips

[Novak]

What day trips are recommended in Santorini, Mykonos and Crete- for cruise departing November 6th 2023. There are many on offer but which ones provide value for money as well as showing sights and beautiful landscapes ( don’t want to spend hours sitting on a bus). Also is there enough time to do a half day ( morning or afternoon) tour and then independently add Akrotiri Archeological Museum audio tour in Santorini, half day trip and Heraklion Museum in Crete ( how long does it take to get from port to museum, are taxis accessible?).

[Peter D]

We just got off Odyssey in May and we opted to do the 'Best of...' versions of Santorini and Mykonos, and the 'taste of Crete'.  I think of them all, the Santorini one was the best value and the Mykonos was not worth it at all.  Crete was unremarkable, but it was fine.  

Santorini tour included visit to Oia and Akrotiri tour with a pretty good luncheon with Greek Wedding vibe.  The biggest benefit I saw with the best of Santorini was that the tender took us farther away from the usual port to catch the buses and used it to return to ship.  In hindsight, this was very valuable to me.  We were able to completely avoid the cable car with its 12 euro cost and wait times (excess of 1.5 hours) and the 'donkey trail, which sounded very treacherous from all the stories I heard on board.

Mykonos tour was not good and very expensive.  The tour takes you to Delos for a guided tour of the ruins which was good, but I think there are plenty of trips and options to do that off the ship, in town.  Our tour did not offer any time in the town of Mykonos which was very disappointing.  I would not recommend the best of tour at all.  If I go back to Mykonos, I will just go to a beach and probably the town itself.