Beautiful beaches, white stoned buildings and blue domed churches, and oh boy food and wine! Today Mike Reed is back and we’re discussing our recent trip cruising the Greek Isles.
Overview of how we did our trip (one day in each port, excursion and free exploration)
- Nafplion (Palamidi Castle, touring city)
- Patmos (Windmills, Grotto of St. John)
- Mykonos
- Santorini
- Crete
Highlights of visiting Geek Islands
Tips for anyone visiting Greek Islands
Highlight story from our time in the Greek Islands (other than baptism at Patmos
Question: Which Greek Island sounds the best to you?
Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!
Contact Mike Reed:
Creating Magic Vacations With Mike and Lea
Start Making Your Magical Memories!
Ryan and Shayne are both Travel Advisers with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney Vacation Planner. Feel free to reach out to us for a free quote and to start making magical memories.
- Contact Ryan at DisneyTravelDad.Com.
- Contact Shayne at Shayne.fun.
Where in the World is All Things Travel?
- Vancouver, British Columbia
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
Check out the complete list of where in the world you’re located.
Never Miss a Thing!
Subscribe to All Things Travel Show on your favorite app so you never miss anything:
Please share it with some friends while you’re here.
Check out the complete list of episodes.
Ryan: Yassas and welcome to All Things Travel. Beautiful beaches, white stone buildings and blue dome churches, and oh boy, food and wine today, Mike Reed is back and we’re discussing our recent trip. Exploring the Greek Isles. You’re listening to All Things Travel episode, 71 original air date September 22nd, 2021.
Welcome back again, Mike!
Mike: For having me back.
Shayne: Glad to have you on again, Mike.
Mike: Yeah, this is great. Thank you so much.
Ryan: So on our last episode, we, we just talked about our time in Athens. And today we’re going to talk about our trip through the Greek Isles. And man, there were some highlights weren’t there.
Mike: Oh, absolutely. Uh, memorable experiences that I will never forget in my lifetime.
Ryan: Absolutely. So before we get to that, we’ve got a little bit of housekeeping. The first is, Hey, if you have not left a review for the podcast ( like Mike Reed hasn’t ) make sure that you get on and leave us a review. We would love to hear from you. It helps people find All Things Travel, and it also helps us know we’re doing what you want us to do.
So leave a review for.
Shayne: Chumps.
Ryan: That was an internal memo.
Shayne: Oh, oops. My bad.
Ryan: So Shayne, where are some of our listeners from?
Shayne: Where in the world is All Things Travel? Vancouver, British Columbia.
Ryan: oh, what a gorgeous city.
Shayne: Invite us down. We’ll go hang out with Ryan Reynolds and Oliver Queen.
Ryan: I think that’s up, but, but you know, whatever up and over, you said, “invite us down.”
Shayne: Oh, right, right, right. Okay. I was thinking was “Up” film there too. Wait, it was animated.
Ryan: You know, many films are filmed in Vancouver, including Pixar’s “Up.”
Shayne: Was Arrow went “Up?” I don’t, I just don’t remember that. I’m going to leave in all that dead air to what I’m trying to figure out. What does he mean by that? Nope. Nope. Very good. You might be familiar with this neck of the woods. Ryan, a little place called Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Ryan: Oh, I’m very familiar with Fort Wayne, Indiana. Yeah. That’s probably that that’s the second largest city in Indiana. And we’re about. 30 minute drive from there. So that’s when we want to do major shopping or even, uh, flying out sometimes major sports teams. That’s where we go. So I I’m well aware of Fort Wayne.
I’m glad we have folks over there that listen.
Shayne: Absolutely. Thank you for listening. Welcome to All Things Travel, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Ryan: So Mike, we’ve alluded a little bit to our cruise that we took, but the the major portion of our cruise stops were in Greece and,Greece and, and the differents. And so today, I just want to hit some of those, because my guess is for anybody, that’s going to Greece. I. It should include stops to one or several of these places.
Mike: Absolutely. I couldn’t imagine taking a trip over to Greece and not hitting at least one of the islands or one of the other cities outside of Athens. Great cities, all different in their own rights and, so much fun to explore it.
Ryan: Yep. So basically what we did was, you know, in. Ocean voyage cruise ship fashion. We had one day in each port and on each of these ports, we had an excursion that was included with our cruise. Most of the time, it was kind of like a, a walking tour highlights, highlights of the, of the city of the island.
And then we would often have free time to explore. Some places we explored for a little bit. Other places we explored, quite a bit throughout that day. The first place we went was not an island, but a seaside city of Napoli on Napoli on Napoli. Oh, depending on who says it, how you see it. And that is in the Southern part of the Peloponnese, peninsula.
And it is actually Greece’s first capital.
So the highlight for this tour. Was Palamidi Castle, right? Mike?
Mike: Oh, Yeah. Very unique place to visit, especially with, after having come from Athens and seeing, the ancient sites, they’re now seeing a, an even more intact I think it was even Like a double-walled
Ryan: Yeah. Like a fortress. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike: built and They expanded on the top, on the side, up and down the mountain with a very long set of stairs.
Ryan: They say 999 stairs, but I think it was 800 and some, if I, if I believe now we did not do that on this trip. I did that on my, I did that on my last one and it’s a.
Shayne: Oh, yeah, the view is not worth it.
Ryan: It was not worth it, but, taking the bus up was much better. No, no. The, the stairs had beautiful views. I’m not saying that, but I was much, I was happy to take the bus up.
Mike: I don’t, it was very hot still on, on our trip. I think the, the walk of even 200 of those stairs would have done me in at that point. Coming down the stairs would have been a lot easier, but once we got off the bus at the top, the views were amazing where
Ryan: breathtaking.
Mike: Yeah.
Ryan: Yeah. You’re overlooking the ocean. You’re overlooking the mountains. You’re overlooking this beautiful seaside town of Nafplion. I remember Nafplion, oh, being a highlight of my first trip degrees, just because it was such a contrast to Athens. And I think Mike, you even said that, that you felt that too, after being in a city center for a few days, it was nice to get in kind of a smaller, quieter sleepy town.
If you will, even though it’s not a sleepy town, it just had that feeling.
Mike: Even though in Athens, we were still able to take our time with everything. It still felt like a big city when you definitely felt. Life take a big deep breath. When you got into Napa Leo, it was definitely much more relaxed even to the point. I think we even joked about it sometimes of, oh, we must be on Greek time because everything just. tour was supposed to start at nine o’clock. Whoa. Time is relative at this point to be two hours. Well, it was two hours and 45 minutes like that. Oh, everything is definitely more relative. When you get, get into cities like Nafplion. Oh, the island.
Ryan: Yep. So after we went to the castle, we pretty much, we had a, we had a short walking tour of the city center and then we really just had some time to explore. I think Mike and I, we went to a couple of shops. We sat with some friends and had a beer, and just kind of relaxed. And then I think we pretty much left and went back to the ship, partly because that was.
Our first, full day on the ship. So we wanted to explore the ship a little bit more. But I’m glad we stopped at Napoli. I think it was a good first stop along the way.
Mike: Yeah, I agree that there definitely was more of the city we could have, explored. The city is very coastal, so it’s long and stretched out around the bay. With the castle overlooking it. There were definitely some cool sites to see when we’re in the castle, looking down upon this. That would have been fun to get to.
We tried to find a historic distillery that had since moved,
Ryan: I knew where I was going, but the still the distillery wasn’t there anymore.
Mike: we got Right. to Britt and we asked the local and they said, oh no, it moved out of town during COVID I’m still in existence. So that was kind of. Not a let down just a little bit of a bummer. Like we were, we’re looking forward to it. But yeah, it was our first taste into the smaller city life, coastal town. we got, it was our first time to kind of feel out what it was like to be a tourist during COVID and let’s see where we can go, how we can go, what regulations they’re going to enact because. Every time we took port there, the Greek authorities would tell us the regulations and we quickly came to find, you know, travel with our passport and our vaccination card just to make sure.
And once we had those with us, we were, we were good to go. it seemed to be at that point. Yeah, we, we got to see, you know, historical sites. Everyone has a statue around there. Every historical figure provided a statue throughout the city, too many to name, but it was definitely a cool spot to be.
And, and Yeah. I do think we, would probably create ourselves back onto the ship a little bit because we knew that. Everything on the ship was included for us. So we will have, you know, have a lunch and beverages and explore the ship some more
Ryan: Absolutely. For me with one exception, the, the stops built. I think the stops when an order of my favorites until the very end the next,
Shayne: in reverse order
Ryan: no, it, I, I think, I think they kept getting better and better.
Shayne: Okay.
Ryan: the next day we went to Patmos and Patmos was a gorgeous island. It was just, it was a stunning island. It was very sparse.
There were lots of little villages, but there, there wasn’t the, even the port town, wasn’t huge, which I like, I’m not, that’s not a negative to me.
Shayne: Oh, yeah, it sounds great to me.
Ryan: Everything was spread out. So we took a bus tour around the island. They showed us, they showed us different villages. They showed us these beautiful windmills, which I’m sure you’ve seen Shayne and pictures of Greece overlooking the water, the large, historical windmills.
Absolutely. Absolutely love those. I mean, there you’re like, oh my God, like, I’m really here. I’m seeing this, I’m taking pictures of this. And, and by the way, you know, on the week that this episode comes out, don’t worry folks. I’m gonna, I’m going to flood our, our Facebook group with pictures, of different things that we’ve seen.
And so you can experience that too. After our tour, then Mike and I wanted to do something very special that this island is known for. And I’m so glad we.
Shayne: What does that tell us, Mike?
Mike: we got to go to. A very historic area, known by many different names. The name that I had come to know it by was the cave of the apocalypse. It’s also called the grotto of St. John it’s, a very famous site in which it is believed, where St. John was exiled. In, in his biblical times and where the cave in which, John received the revelation from God and wrote the book of revelations.
A chapel and, buildings around it to preserve it. And we got to, we took a cab up to the top, to the monastery and went into the cave itself, happened upon, a very special moment. I hate to jump ahead to this. It’s kind of a highlights, a highlight story for me, in the chapel, which is right adjacent to the cave.
We were watching, a young girl be baptized. So her whole family was there, in celebration. And so we got to see part of it, as, as everything was interconnected right there. So It, was a very special moment of the trip, kind of very humbling and
Ryan: it was, it was awkward, uncomfortable, amazing, and gratifying all in the same. Because you, you are literally there with this family as this thing is happening for them. And you’re Joe blow tourist
Shayne: And so the family would have been members of this, of the church. And this is part of that. They weren’t, they probably weren’t tourists. And this was part of the
Ryan: I mean the chapel, this was not a regular church. I mean, this was a small chapel, so it’s not like this was, I mean, this was not a normal Greek Orthodox church that you would see on your walking tour. My guess is they were from the island of Patmos. And so they chose that at that place because of that significance.
But you are literally as you’re walking to the cave porch and you’re funneling through this. Through this, this, experience, you know, that this family’s having. And now that was, that was really important to me to show respect. And, and I do take that pretty seriously. As far as, you know, when you get into the cave, it says no pictures.
Well, the people in front of us are sitting there taking pictures, taking video and all that kind of stuff. And I just, I feel like. I’m going to respect the fact that I’m not supposed to do that. I’m certainly going to respect the fact that this is going on around me and, and it was an amazing experience.
It was really, it was a really neat thing. And then, and then on top of that, you know, you, you see this area that has this, this mythology, this religious tradition based around it. Yeah, I’m really glad we did that. That, that was a neat, a neat.
Mike: Yeah. it was part of. An additional excursion on the ship that we weren’t part of. So we decided to go on our own. and I’m, I’m extremely glad that we did, right afterwards was awesome because I think that’s when we, I think that’s kind of the first moment of the trip where we really decided to, to kind of control our own adventure.
Ryan: Yeah.
Mike: We told them. We told the cab driver. Oh no, just leave us at the top. We’ll figure out how to get back down. And so.
Ryan: Because they were trying to, I mean, they were trying to give us a day tour, essentially. They’re like, oh, for this amount of money and they weren’t, they weren’t trying to scam us in any way. They were trying to show us the highlights. And we’re like, no, no, we’ve seen that. We’ve seen the highlights. We just want to go here.
And so, I mean, it was, it was nominal. I mean, seriously, it was like five Euro to, to go up to this grotto a couple year old to get in. We have this experience in, then we’re like, okay, so how do we get back?
Mike: Yeah. So we started walking down. I mean, the road is a bunch of switchbacks to get down and then, and then we got to an area. They don’t have front gates. They have front doors that are. In place of a gate that surrounded, they would have a fence around there. So they’d have a full front door, you could bring the doorbell, open that door and walk, walk, and then go to their house.
But we got to the area
Ryan: Kind of the edge of the neighborhood.
Mike: The end of neighborhood. And then, then all of a sudden between different yards, there’s different sets of stairs that are going down. So some of them are public stairs. Some of them are stairs that probably were built from one neighbor’s house to another. And we happened upon some of those and randomly showed up in someone’s backyard at one point and said, oh no.
And then found the stairs that were 20 feet away.
Shayne: So they weren’t marked as you, it wasn’t. Okay.
Ryan: And there was never a problem. It was just, I mean, we were basically meandering wandering our way back down to the city center. You know, we were at the top of the hill and we were working our way down and it was a cool way to do it. Cause I mean, you just kind of felt like, Hey, I’m just walking through the neighborhood.
Shayne: Very cool.
Ryan: And as you got closer to the seaside, you know, there were the, the, the houses were replaced by restaurants and replaced by stores and, you know, a 15 minute walk through, through all of that. And you’re in the, you’re at the seaside you’re at your poor. So that was just a fun way to, to do it. Patmos was, was, from Nafplion.
Cause I felt like, again, you just kinda got that much more immersed in that specific area.
Mike: Oh, Yeah. absolutely. And it was. A very rural area that had, more like, Yeah, like we said before, villages where we could walk through and see, see how, see really how people live. The port in and of itself would be the touristy area, but where we were walking was right next to people’s homes. And it was, it was a great experience.
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Shayne: Most entertaining parts of travel is getting to visit those locals and see how other people live.
Ryan: Absolutely. So the next port was not small. The next port was Mykonos. And if you don’t know anything else about the Greek Isles, I bet, you know, Mykonos, Mykonos is, is known for crazy partying beach life, you know, see and be seen. And let me tell you. The pictures and the sights and the sounds of Mykonos do not disappoint everything that you’ve seen about Mika knows with the whitewash stone and the, and the cobblestones and the pink flowers up against the white, the white paint.
It looks exactly like that. That is not, that is not photo-shopped at all.
Shayne: But it still doesn’t do it. Justice.
Ryan: Oh, it’s every place we turned in Mykonos and we did not do a true tour in Mykonos. We were doing some other stuff on the ship, so we actually decided to go a bit later on our own. And so that was just a wandering day for us. Mike and I, and Rob and Kerri, we found, you know, we just kind of wandered around.
We found some lunch, happened to be a gyro and a beer. You’re sensing a theme here. And then we, we just kind of checked off some of the highlights. We went to the little Venice area. We went up to the windmills and we took so many pictures that were just absolutely gorgeous.
Mike: this was truly an area where, where it was great to get lost. All of a sudden we found an area and we’re looking down and. Behind us was the port on the other side is the windy side of the ocean and we’re climbing on some rocks and we’re looking around and then we happened upon little Venice and we’re Ryan lost his hat in the ocean.
Ryan: true. Yes, that was, that was the day that my hat died.
Shayne: when you lost your Trilby.
Ryan: Yup.
Mike: So, recall, we, we, we took anchor in the new port area. And then, old port would be kind of like the downtown meeting area.
Ryan: we had to take a bus into the city center, which I was provided by our, by our cruise ship.
Mike: Yeah. And then we were able, from there, we were able to walk throughout the city and, and, and really explore a wonderful area. Yeah. Shame the pictures. Don’t do it. Justice. It’s. It’s amazing. Just walking through and the, the ocean is a blue that I’ve never seen and to walk through the beach right at the port and see people playing right there and having a blast and, and, going through little shops, another Jiro another beer. It’s just absolutely breathtaking that area. We did not partake in the, in the nightlife, even though our, our ship had planned to be there until two in the morning.
So people could partake in the.
Ryan: people could do that. Yeah.
Mike: What we were told for many of the locals is, is if it was any other summer before COVID, that some of the streets would just be impassable with people. And we were just, I think, in the face of adversity of COVID, we were just provided a wonderful time
Ryan: Yeah, absolutely.
Mike: really.
Ryan: Yeah. I mean, there were definitely people there, but it did not feel congested in any sense. I don’t think there was there for me. Not nothing on this trip felt. I mean, there were definitely places they had more tourists than others, but there was nothing where I just felt like I was in a slog of people.
Mike: Yeah. not at all. There’s always somewhere to be. Always overturn, another thing to explore there. It, it was so beautiful. It was kind of that first, you know, Mykonos is kind of that, that postcard Greek island. And it was, you know, those first, images that we got to see being there, were just breathtaking.
Ryan: absolutely. Absolutely. The next day was by far my favorite stop of the entire trip. We woke up that next day and we were heading into Santorini and Santorini looks so different than any of the other places we went on this trip because it’s a volcano. The island is volcanic rock. And so you literally feel like you’re on another planet.
When you’re at Santorini and we had to take a Tinder in, so you’re getting off of your boat onto a smaller boat, the smaller boats taking you into a port. looked like nothing was there. I mean, literally looked like a petroleum stop for ships and I’m like, what is this? Where in the world are we going?
And we boarded, buses, tour buses, and we started going up switchbacks and up switchbacks. So we went up and we went up and we went up to the very top of the island and we visited two towns there. That we’re just both were just breathtaking. I mean, these two days with Mykonos and Santorini just everywhere you looked, your jaw was just slack.
I mean, you were just, you were in awe of what you were seeing. So the first place we went was we went to Oia and Oia is. Is known for the blue roof, dome churches overlooking the water, you know, the, white, the white buildings with the domes. And again, you’re just wandering around saying this is one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever seen in my life.
Mike: And realistically an engineering Marvel.
Ryan: absolutely.
Mike: these buildings are built into the sides of, of very steep cliffs and, and stacked on top of each other in ways that, that I don’t think we could imagine. And just so many cool vistas, so many cool overlooks outcroppings of rocks, and then church and then, and everything. But the light is so bright. They must repaint monthly
Ryan: yeah, absolutely.
Mike: They don’t let any weathering happen. It’s amazing. All of a sudden you work your way up to the top and you’re looking down and you can see hotels and resorts built into the side at restaurants with big terraces and then a church right next to it.
So there’s, you know, it’s not like other places where the church is the big thing. And everybody goes there. It’s more like, Yeah.
10 families. Here’s your church, 20 families. Here’s your church. They’re much smaller, much more intimate. And just so cool when we, I remember. Waking up that morning on the ship, opening up the blinds and our side of the ship happened to look right at the active volcanoes side of things with the black sand and the hot, the hot Springs beaches.
And then, and then FaceTiming my kids back at home and saying, this is the volcano side of it. And then showing them the other side and they were just amazing. At do that close to a volcano Right. now, my oldest son still asks me, where are you? Where are you really at a volcano? We were very close to one.
I didn’t go. You could take a little trip a little day trip over to the hot Springs beaches. And those boats were, those boats were jam packed we’re taking them over and back, from the, the port in and of itself, that was a whole separate, I think it was a whole separate company that ran that, that situation.
But it was, it was just amazing. I think, you know, we probably saw less than 1% of what we could see even in going into oil or FIRA or, you know, those areas, you know, it’s amazing just how city areas are. Those towns are. Compared to like, like, Nafplion or a Patmos where things are spread out a bit more. Are these are very close together. It’s.
Ryan: So then, so then, like Mike said that the next city we went to was the capital of Santorini, Fira and, and beautiful in its own right. We did some wandering around, we did some shopping. We had some lunch. Shayne, what do you think we had for lunch?
Shayne: Let’s see, uh, do you have a gyro?
Ryan: We did. We had a gyro
Shayne: maybe you wash it down with a nice cold beer?
Ryan: We we might’ve, we might’ve, um, Santorini is known for, wine because of the volcanic soil. It produces a really different type of, of grape. And so we sampled some of that. There are also, Santorini is also known for donkeys because Santorini used to have lots of quarries.
And so the donkeys were used as part of that. So one of the things that you can do is you can actually do donkey rides up and down those, high cliffs. However, to get back to the ship, we did something very different. We did a cable car. All the way down. And I actually put on our Facebook page.
This was quite a harrowing, cable car. It was a lot of fun.
Mike: was really cool. It, it, it starts in a building
Ryan: Yeah.
Mike: and. seems pretty steep when you’re in the building. They’re stacked probably at, at least a 45 degree angle. And these are cable cars that kind of look like, like a ski lift in Europe. So you could go in and sit down and then all of a sudden we take off and we’re out of the building and. We’re at like a 75 degree angle, almost heading what seems like straight down the side of a cliff and the ride is a good couple minutes long, with just amazing views the entire time. Just crazy to think about how that weight just goes down. They have six of them in a row. They go down,
Shayne: Oh, wow.
Mike: they unload people, they load them back up.
They bring them back up the mountain.
Ryan: Okay. Because again, you’re going back down so that you can get in, in the boat. Oddly enough, we, we left Santorini from a different port than we arrived to Santorini. That that was kind of, kind of odd. This was by far my favorite day. It was just, this was an amazing port stop.
Mike: Yeah. It was probably the most beautiful that we’ve seen. It definitely have built to this point. Again, our are, getting lost, worked in our advantage and we found some, you know, just breathtaking views and got to really experience, experience what just a little bit of Santorini, we hopped up, we, we happened upon a little shop and started tasting wines.
Um, the shopkeeper, let us taste, I don’t know, six or eight wines and then started and then brought us over and we tasted four or five different
Ryan: Olive oils and balsamic vinegars…
Mike: Right there. Yeah. So it was, I mean, it was, it was really fun to be able to really see what that area is like.
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah. So our last Greek port was Crete and I was disappointed with this, partly because. We didn’t get to experience much of anything in Crete. I don’t know if there was miscommunication with the type of tour that we had. I’m not sure what happened, but I have done some researching of Crete actually, since I’ve been back. And there is so much that we could have seen and we could have done.
And it was just to be honest, cause it’s one of the largest islands in, in Greece. It’s the most Southern island. Um, it has a lot to offer. We just didn’t experience it on our time in, in Crete. So to be honest, I don’t have much to say.
Shayne: And this is more the logistics of the trip, the line versus…
Ryan: I, I, yeah, and I feel like most people on the trip and unless they paid to do a premiere tour that took them to the palace of Knossos, which would have been amazing. The most people felt the same way we did. I just, we did not get that experience that we did in other islands. Not that Creek doesn’t have it.
We just, on our particular trip, I don’t think we got it.
Mike: Yeah. Creek was my least favorite stop, but I do think I’ll even watching, when we’re in the airport in Crete, after we, had to then take a, a flight from Crete to Cairo and watching some of the, just the tourism videos that they had there, we missed out on a lot.
Ryan: We’ve been joked for, like, we didn’t see any of that.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah. Creep has a lot of history that we didn’t get to see. We had a Panorama tour that took us to a high point and back down, and that was about it. I wish we got to see a little bit more of it. It’s too bad, that we didn’t get it too, but it was, it, it was definitely a change from, from Mykonos and Santa rainy.
The area we were in was a very large. A lot more industrial and the cities around that area was a lot more industrial as well.
Ryan: Yep. Yep.
Shayne: So would you say that to visit the Greek islands? The way to go is a smaller cruise line. That’s going to take you from island to island.
Mike: I think that is a, I think a smaller ship would be a great way for a family or two guys who met in Chicago. A good overview of it. I think with more and more careful planning, you could do more individualized stuff on each island, but it was. Small ship was a great way to get a taste of each area, is what it offered. And then still be able to come back to the luxuries of our small cruise ship and our, you know, our floating hotel with five star meals and, copious amounts of drinks.
Shayne: And I guess now you have an island or two that where you would like to go back and spend more time there.
Ryan: Yeah. And I talking to other people on the ship who have cruised more than Mike and I, it felt it, they, they said it felt very river. In a good way that, that the ship felt a lot like a river cruise ship size wise, intimacy wise, as far as the other passengers, as far as the spaces and kind of the every day was a focus on a different port.
We did a lot of our sailing at night so that we could have more time in the port, which is very different than other cruise lines. So, you know, you ha you would have an entire day, if you wanted at most there, there was not a port stop. I don’t think. That left before 7:00 PM. So you were really most of the time by the time you were done with breakfast, you were at port and you could leave the ship and, and most of the time, so you could be gone for breakfast til dinner, without any fear of missing the boat.
Mike: Yeah, absolutely. I think it was that part of it was great because, the, the travel between the islands, I think, on being a smaller ship, we probably took our time. It doesn’t, it didn’t seem to take that
Ryan: Sure sure.
Mike: individual islands. So you could, really, really, we could really experience. For as long as possible while still needing to be on another island the next day.
Shayne: Very nice. So what tips would you have for anyone visiting the Greek islands?
Ryan: I think for me, choose two. Like if I were to go back, if I were designing a Greek trip for my family, based on my experience that I’ve had in Greece. I would say I would split my time between Athens and Mykonos and Santorini. I think it is. And the reason I say choose two is don’t feel, I mean, Mike and I had a very special experience with hitting each of these islands.
I think if you were not cruising and you were just exploring them, I think having a few days at several would feel better than one day at.
Shayne: Makes sense to a couple, two, three of your favorites and spend a little more time there.
Mike: pick a couple, figure out a way to stay local, find the, find the local boutique Mon pot hotel that really puts you in the heart of everything, especially on because there were, there were small boutique hotels built into the sides of the cliffs in which, bell services would come and carry.
Your luggage up and down flights of stairs into your hotel room. It seems like they didn’t have many interior hallways, there were stairs.
Ryan: Yeah.
Mike: And then all of a sudden you’re at your room. Your balcony was an infinity pool, in some of these places. So I think stay local as much as possible when you’re going to do that, try to, if you’re not going to do the, if you’re not going to do a cruise ship and you’re going to do a plan, you know, spend, at least a night or two in each spot.
So you can. Spend more time, more meaningful time exploring,
Ryan: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Shayne: Mike. So other than the baptism at the Grotto of St. John, what would have been, what would be a highlight of this trip for you?
Mike: wow. baptism was, was a huge highlight.
Shayne: Yeah, but you spoiled that one earlier on the show. So now you’re going to have another one.
Ryan: one.
Mike: I think. Wandering and happening upon, um, the little Venice area in Mykonos was great because we didn’t know that that’s where we were going. We were just wandering and getting lost and it was literally. We walked through a path, we kind of cut through a little bit of a patio of a restaurant and boom, we’re looking at this area that looks like it should be in Venice, hence its name.
And it’s just another side of the island. So I think those that happy, lost experience getting there and seeing this area, there was a, on. Santorini. There was also a cafe Ryan, if you know the name of it, where we, where our tour brought us to, and this cafe was at the top of Santorini and had a patio with a view.
Ryan: that was Patmos.
Mike: That was in Patmos?
Ryan: Yeah. So for me, when I was doing research on each of these islands, there, there was a place in Patmos called Jimmy’s. That touted its its views overlooking the water, overlooking the entire island and lo and behold on our walking tour. And they actually said, well, we’re going to stop and have a refreshment.
And they gave everybody a refreshment ticket and we wandered into this place and lo and behold it was Jenny’s. And so we got to sit there and I had a, I had a Greek coffee and overlooking the island. It was. The highlight, the reason it was a highlight for me was it was one of those places just like with, with stumbling onto a little Venice, it was a place that I read about and thought about, Hey, if we have time, you know, let’s, let’s do that.
And lo and behold, it happened upon us.
Shayne: Very cool.
Ryan: So, Mike, I know you shared with us in the last episode, but both you and your wife, Lea are travel advisors with creating magic vacations. If they want to reach out to you and talk to you about your trip, or if they want to follow along with your families, many travels to, upstate Minnesota or Disney World, how can they do that?
Mike: Yeah, excellent. Two easy ways to get ahold of us. One is through email Reed, R E E D at creatingmagicvacations.com. Otherwise you can follow us on Facebook with Creating Magic Vacations with Mike and Lea.
Ryan: Well, over these last couple episodes. I, I hope that Mike and I have inspired you with our trip to Greece. Greece is an amazing country. There is so much to see and do. We would love to talk to you about how to have your own adventure in Greece. So reach out to Shayne and I, as you know that we are both travel advisors with Creating Magic Vacations, you can reach out to us at Ryan at Creating Magic Vacations.com that’s R Y A N or shayne AT creatingmagicvacations.com. That’s S H A Y N E. And remember, it’s our job to make you the Greek vacation planning superhero.