Best time of year to visit Greece and recommended Cruise line?

[missingyou]

Hello

 

My wife has been throwing some subtle hints about wanting to do Greek cruise.   Thought I may try to surprise her with one.   I do have a few questions as we have never cruised anywhere except for Bermuda and the Caribbean.

 

1.  What is the best time of year to do a Greek cruise

2.  What cruise lines offer the best itineraries? ( We primarily cruise Royal and Celebrity ) 

3.  What is the best length for Greek cruise? We most likely will only do this once.

4. Should we try and combine Italy with Greece or do each separately?

 

Some background we are in our early 60's.   I would consider us to be fairly laid back.   We primarily like to see the local sights and relax.  Onboard ship  we prefer to lounge with a good book or 2 or 3 and see some shows. Dining we tend to stick to the main dining room.

 

Thank you in advance for your time and recommendations to get me started in looking for the right cruise for us.

 

[CruiserBruce]

"Best" is a tremendously subjective and vague term. What does "best" mean to you?

 

If you look around the board, you will see many discussions on weather and crowds issues...much more prevalent in the summer months. May, September and October may be improvements.

 

As to cruise lines, there is absolutely no one "best" for everyone. If you are happy with RCI and Celebrity, they will cover Greece quite well. You will likely not find a "Greece Only" cruise unless you pick one of the smaller, regional cruise lines. You will be almost required to visit Italy or possibly Turkey, or even both, in the vast majority of cruise options out there.

[EtaC]

For more off the beaten path ports such as Volos, Thessaloniki, Samos go with a smaller line such as Celystial  or Marella (although Celebrity also stops at these ports, just not as frequently). The ships are older, often hand-me-downs from HAL or RCI, but from what I've heard they are reasonably well maintained. These are among the many under-visited Greek ports and you'll avoid the mobs at Santorini and Mykonos. You'll get sights such as Meteora, Vergina, Mount Olympus (look them up) that are as spectacular as the more touristed locations.

[chuckncole]

Pick October for less crowds and ideal weather in the mid to high 70's. Choose a small ship like my favorite Seabourn or even the new Explora Journeys for an all inclusive journey without being nickel and dimes to death.... 

[CruiserBruce]

8 hours ago, chuckncole said:

Pick October for less crowds and ideal weather in the mid to high 70's. Choose a small ship like my favorite Seabourn or even the new Explora Journeys for an all inclusive journey without being nickel and dimes to death.... 

Family just cruised the Adriatic the last 10 days. Far from ideal weather...rain, windy every day. Flooding in Bosnia.

 

There is some risk sailing the area in October.

[2blueyam]

If you really want to avoid the crowds by going in the fall or spring, review the cruise port docking schedules carefully. There are still many days in October where there are 3 or more ships in Santorini and Mykonos.

[edinburgher]

On 10/9/2024 at 6:21 PM, missingyou said:

What is the best length for Greek cruise? We most likely will only do this once.

You could try googling something like "Greek Intensive cruise itineraries" as some of the smaller lines and ships offer more "intensive" country sailings than the big lines and big ships do.

 

Length of time depends on the amount of available time you have (including travel time and any add on land stay at the start and/or finish).and your budget.

Edited October 12 by edinburgher

[Chips401]

We just came back from an eleven day cruise with Holland America.  Started in Athens and ended in Athens.  Weather was awesome, even a bit too warm in Athens.  Crowds were still very heavy in my opinion.  Dubrovnik/ Split was horrible with crowds so you have to start your day early. I can’t imagine what crowds would look like in July/ August. Trieste, Italy was a port but it was also our only bad weather day so we did the port.

[Maria63]

We are currently in the northern part of the Adriatic, and the weather this week has so far been glorious. Last week was a bit windy and unstable though. Generally, I would definitely avoid the summer months in Greece, if you want to primarily see the sights and tour the cities. October-November and March-May would be my personal choice, but you have to be prepared for unpredictable weather.

 

As for the cruise line, I would look beyond the big names in the Caribbean, and also consider the lesser known (in the US) regional companies. Depending on your budget, you can of course go with Viking, Explora, Seabourn or similar. Then you will have a great onboard experience and also a smaller ship that is more likely to get to places where the bigger ships cannot go, and/or get the prime locations in the ports. On the other hand, if you cruise primarily for the itinerary and the schedule is very port intensive, you will perhaps not have neither the time nor the energy to enjoy everything that the ship has to offer, so it may make sense to chose a more budget-friendly option.

 

One important aspect is also the flight connections, and whether you want to combine your cruise with pre- or post cruise land travels. For instance, Italy is fairly easy to DIY if you rent a car, you get to see a lot on your own pace, when you drive around the countryside and explore the small historic towns.