Hi all, I am currently planning my first trip to Greece and in particular, the islands, for September of this year. Am hoping to have 15 nights there, probably from around the 8th/9th. From what I've read so far the weather looks pretty decent around that time, and hopefully peak season should just about be over which suits me fine. I'm looking for spectacular scenery, a bit of history and some nice beaches. I'm also quite keen to find more authentic Greek culture and ideally to avoid the larger international resort kind of places as much as possible. I'm also a qualified PADI diver and would be interested in doing a few dives if possible.
The following islands seem quite interesting go me, but I'm grateful for any more suggestions based on what I've written so far: Karpathos, Milos, Naxos, (Anti)Paros.
I had a few specific questions as well:
1) what's the quickest way to get from Karpathos to the Cyclades? It seems there are two routes, one via Crete and one via Rhodes. Looking at a map I'd say Crete would be the fastest but actually on the ferry sites I've searched via Rhodes to Santorini looks the quickest. It's certainly still a long journey though, about 12 hours. If it's unworkable I may ditch Karpathos, but it reads like being an interesting place. All search engines I found seemed to be for ferries as well, where do I look for Catamaran timetables? I'd probably start my trip with a flight into Karpathos if I went there so at least getting there would be easy enough.
2) What's the maximum number of islands you would consider enjoyable in 10 days? I'm thinking absolute maximum of 4, but I'd like to fit in at least 2.
3) of the above, which offers the best diving? Have read the diving here isn't the best in the world but if there are interesting underwater caves and such like that'll keep me entertained.
Thanks for your time
