One of the best things about island hopping in the Aegean is how varied every location here is. You might start by spending a few days among the whitewashed villages of the Cyclades, move on to a few quieter beaches, and then finish somewhere with a wildly different landscape to where you first started.
And even though the distances can look surprisingly small on a map, you still have to fly to get from island to island. But commercial flight schedules don’t always connect neighbouring destinations directly, so thinking about how you’ll move between islands before you book can give you much more time to enjoy them.
Look Beyond the Flight Time
The flight time itself might be 45 minutes long, but the full journey can be much longer when you take transit and connections into account. For instance, some commercial routes might require a connection through Athens, which means you’d have to travel back towards the mainland before heading out again. And once airport transfers and connection times are included, that short flight can become a five-to-eight-hour journey.
So when you’re comparing destinations, it’s going to be worth looking beyond the advertised flight time and working out how long it will actually take to get from one hotel to the next. If you do that before booking, you can avoid automatically setting aside most of a day every time you change islands. And when you find a route where the connection takes far longer than the distance suggests, that’s when it makes sense to consider whether going direct would work better.
When a Direct Connection Makes More Sense
Athens is well worth having on a Greek itinerary when you’re planning to explore the city. But if it’s simply your connecting point between two islands, travelling back through the mainland can take up a large part of the day, which can be difficult when you only have so many days to work with. For an awkward island-to-island leg, a private jet or private boat can offer a direct connection, so you can plan that part of your journey around your itinerary rather than an airline timetable.
A direct connection definitely won’t make sense for every island move, though, nor does it need to. The benefit you gain is when a direct journey replaces a lengthy Athens connection because, in that situation, you can get a substantial part of the day back. That might mean arriving in time for a late lunch or simply having another afternoon to explore. Of course, choosing how you travel is only part of it. You can avoid some awkward connections altogether by looking at the Aegean as a route before deciding on every stop.
Plan Your Islands As a Route
It’s easy to start planning by picking all the islands you want to visit and working out the transport afterwards… but looking at where they are in relation to one another first can make the whole trip easier. If the Cyclades are calling to you, for example, then you could work Mykonos, Paros and nearby islands into part of the same wider route. If you try to fit distant parts of the Aegean into a single week, on the other hand, you might end up spending more of that week moving between them.
One way you can do this is, before booking a hotel, check where you’d like to go afterwards and how you can get there (sometimes, changing the order of two stops is enough to cut down on time without giving up anywhere you really want to visit). And while it can be tempting to fit in as many islands as possible, having fewer stops gives you more time in each place. Once you’ve figured out which islands you most want to visit, you can then choose the best way to travel between each one.
Use The Transport That Best Suits Each Leg
There’s no reason every part of an island-hopping holiday needs to use the same type of transport, especially because a transport mode that works well between one pair of islands may make very little sense for the next pair. For example, a direct commercial flight may be the easiest option for one journey, whereas a ferry could take you straight to your next stop without an airport connection. But if a scheduled flight involves going back through Athens and waiting hours for another departure, flying directly may save considerably more time.
So rather than looking only at the flight times, compare the trips from door to door. Once you’ve done that, it becomes much easier to see which option actually gives you more time at your destination. But even with the route and transport sorted, though, it’s worth leaving a little room for plans to change.
Leave Some Space in The Itinerary
Summer winds can occasionally affect transport around Greece, so you definitely don’t want every part of the holiday to depend on one journey arriving at exactly the right time (something that’s especially important towards the end of your trip). Spending your final night in Athens or another convenient gateway before an international flight can take a load off your mind, because then you can enjoy your last island without worrying about whether separate connections will line up.
Remember that you don’t need to add another island simply because there’s “technically still time” left for it; sometimes an extra day where you already are will give you more from the trip than another checkout and journey.
Make More of Your Time in the Aegean
A multi-island itinerary can feel overwhelming in theory, but if you plan it right, you’ll have a relatively easy trip once you’re there. Make sure you check the available connections before committing to any accommodation and choose your transport according to what works for each part of the route. If you get the logistics right from the start, moving between islands can become a smaller part of the holiday… which means you can spend more of it enjoying the places you came to Greece to see.