Yes, Greece is one of the easiest countries in Europe to backpack on your own, with frequent buses and ferries, plenty of hostels and English spoken almost everywhere travelers go.
Ferries between
Piraeus and the Cyclades can be booked online, and KTEL buses link nearly every mainland town. Hostel dorms in
Athens run about €20 to 35 a night in summer, €25 to 50 on islands like
Naxos or
Santorini. July and August bring the highest prices and fullest boats, so May, June, September and early October are the easiest months for walk-in flexibility. A simple gyros costs €4 to 5.
Ten days is the right length for a first trip to Greece, long enough for Athens, two Cycladic islands and a taste of Crete without rushing.
With 5 days, stick to
Athens and the nearby Peloponnese:
Nafplio and
Epidaurus are 2 to 2.5 hours away by bus. With 10 days, add
Naxos (3.5 to 6 hours by ferry from Piraeus),
Santorini and
Chania. Fifteen days lets you go overland to
Delphi,
Meteora, the
Zagori villages and
Thessaloniki before flying to Crete. Plan two or three nights per stop, since ferry and bus days eat into sightseeing.
Yes, you can see nearly all the major sights of Greece without a car, using KTEL buses, ferries, trains and cheap domestic flights.
Athens to
Thessaloniki takes about 4 to 4.5 hours by train or 6 to 7 by bus, usually €30 to 60. Ferries from Piraeus reach
Naxos in 3.5 to 6 hours for €40 to 85, and domestic flights between the mainland and
Crete often cost €40 to 120. A car or taxi helps in the
Zagori villages, where local buses are rare (a taxi from Ioannina is about €40 to 60), and on Crete’s remote south coast.
The essential stops in Greece are the Acropolis in Athens, the monasteries of Meteora and western Crete, with at least one Cycladic island added.
In
Athens, pair the
Parthenon with the
Acropolis Museum.
Delphi and
Meteora make a natural mainland loop of 3 to 4 days by bus. In the Cyclades,
Santorini delivers the caldera views and
Naxos the better value and beaches. On
Crete, base in
Chania for the 16-kilometer
Samaria Gorge (open roughly May to October, €10 entry) and visit the
Palace of Knossos, a 20 to 30 minute bus ride from Heraklion.
If time is tight in Greece, skip Mykonos, Patras and the far-flung Dodecanese, and spend those days on fewer, better-connected stops.
Mykonos is pricey, with summer rooms often above €150 a night, while
Naxos and
Paros offer similar villages and beaches for less.
Patras is mainly a ferry port for Italy.
Rhodes and
Kos sit 10 hours or more by ferry from Piraeus, so leave them for a second trip unless you fly. Don’t overnight in
Oia on Santorini either; stay in Fira and walk or bus over for sunset, about 30 minutes by bus.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for Greece in seconds. Try it out!
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