Greece 5/6 days
HiMy husband and I will be traveling to Greece end of Jan 2013. We will be in Anthens for 4 days for site seeing and conference. Then we have 6 days to see rest of Greece. We would like to take a car and go explore a bit. We defnitely would like to visit a bath place, will that be in Anthens or smaller town?
We want to visit 1 island per ferry, and stay for 2 days and explore. We are not interested in party scene or commercial side of Greece. We would like to see the historical and nature side.
where would you recommend we drive to see a bit of Greece, and where should we take a ferry to island... and what island?
thank you
1
"Bath place"/spa: check Loutraki, less than 1 hr by car from Athenshttp://www.loutraki-agioitheodoroi.gr/en/content/page/loutraki-thermal-spa
In 6 days, you can drive around Peloponnese: Athens - Loutraki - Korinthos - Argos/Mykenae/Nauplia/Epidauros - Sparta/Mistras - Koroni - Methoni - Olympia - Patras - Nafpaktos - Delphi - Ossios Loukas - Athens (google for all these places).
Island for a 2 days stay: in January, Rhodos would probably be the best (entirely walled medieval city of Rhodos with castle and museums, stunning ancient temple at Lindos, other archeological places at Kamiros and Yalissos, small churches with fine frescoes all over the Island, mild climate). Rhodos ferries leave Piraeus, port of Athens, daily except Sunday between 3 and 7 pm, and arrive at Rhodos the following morning between 9am and noon. There are planes too.
http://www.bluestarferries.com/site/content.asp?sel=624&loc=2
http://www.airtickets.gr/
3
Not sure why you want to visit a "bath place", in January the water temperature will be 15 degrees C or less, and the beaches totally deserted. Many of the islands will be quite deserted too.You have 5/6 days to see Greece after your 4 days in Athens, if I understand you correctly, and it is of course impossible to see Greece in that time, so pick the best places for January, and places that are close to Athens so you don't waste a lot of time traveling.
I agree with the post above, rent a car and go to Peloponnese. This is in many ways the "cradle of Greece", with even more sights than you can fit in your five- six days. It's a great place to visit, and a perfect "Introduction to Greece".
You should use Nafplio as a base, at least for some of the days, and see the town itself (the most beautiful in Greece), and than visit all the sights nearby. Read all about that here: http://www.visitnafplio.com
I wouldn't waste my days in Greece, few as they are, on travelling to an island, because, like I said, many of them will be practically deserted, and visiting Crete or Rhodes takes too much time. If you absolutely want to tick "Greek island" off your list, when in Nafplio/Peloponnes, drive to Galatas - it's a nice drive anyway - and take the 5 minutes or so ferry to Poros, or maybe drive to Ermioni and ferry over to Hydra. Not sure about the ferry connections in January, though.
