On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:57:14 +0100, Alfred Molon wrote:
>In article , Martin says...
>
>> Some islands are some aren't. Some hire companies won't allow you take a hire
>> car on a ferry. If you have sufficient time for your holiday it is much cheaper
>> to take your own car all the way from Germany via Venice-Patras than to fly and
>> hire when you get there. We did it both ways and settled on driving the car to
>> Greece. The big islands in the Cyclades are connected to the mainland and each
>> other by car ferry.
>
>But Venice-Patras is quite expensive. I checked it last year and found
>prices around 900 Euro IIRC,
That's around what we paid in 1995 for two adults and two teenagers and a car -
so not bad. Say thanks for the EU for breaking the price fixing on the route.
The trip is pleasant almost a holiday in itself. It also gives you free parking
in Venice in a secure car park if you want to see Venice.
> although actually given that now we are
>four (wife, me, kid and baby) it's probably cheaper than flying and
>renting a car locally.
That's the trade off we made. When we did rent cars in Greece they were in a
disgusting unsafe condition even though we only rented from Hertz and Avis.
Hopefully in the last 20 years things have improved.
>
>Could you recommend an itinerary, doable by car + ferry, around the
>islands (perhaps the Cyclades?) with nice beaches, breathtaking
>sceneries and historic sites?
No :o)
We were satisfied with going to the Peloponnese and one island when our kids
were small. We island hopped without a car before we had kids. We went to Naxos
because it has a nice sandy beach, which is sheltered by Paros from big waves
and good for sailing. I wouldn't describe the scenery as breathtaking. IMO only
the views in Santorini could be described as breathtaking. The main motivation
for taking a car was that we carried a sailing dinghy on the roof, as well as
all the stuff you need for small kids in the boot. OTOH on the mainland I am
sure I took my dinghy to places where nobody had ever taken a boat before, not
that there was anywhere near the top of mountains to sail it. :o)
--
Martin
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