Hi Laurie,

Thank you! I’m glad that my 2-week itinerary in Greece is helping you plan your trip.
For mainland Greece, in March, the main sites will be open in Athens and the Peloponnese, no problem.

However, things are different for the Greek islands. Most hotels and restaurants do not reopen until late April/early May.

It’s also complicated to get there because there are very few ferries departing from Athens or running between the islands. And the few that are running can be cancelled as there are higher chances of stormy weather during winter than on the summer months.

At this time of year, you also can’t enjoy the watersports, as it’s too cold.

To be honest, from November to the end of March, the Greek islands aren’t really suited for tourism. Personnally, I would rather focus on mainland Greece.

Have a great day and enjoy your trip to Greece!

We are hoping to go to Greece for 2 weeks in March (March school break). I know this isn’t high tourist season but are things still open?

Also, do you have any good resources for hiking in Greece? Sailing? Kayaking?

Thanks again.

Hello Aman,

Thank you.
Glad my 2-week itinerary in Greece is helping you plan your trip.

You can go to Mykonos after Santorini, it’s the most convenient.

Enjoy your stay in Greece and the Cyclades!

Thanks!

Thank you, Stephanie.
You can add Crete to the beginning or end of this itinerary.
The easiest way would be to fly from Athens to Chania or Heraklion.
Depending on the season, there may also be flights to Crete from Santorini.

Crete is a beautiful island, and I loved my time there. However, I would advise you to spend at least a week there, as it’s a big place. And even then, you won’t have time to do everything.
You can find my articles on the island here if you want more information: Destination Crete.

Enjoy your trip to Greece!

Thank you so much Amy! It was very kind of you to take the time to write a comment.

I’m really glad you had a great holiday in Greece following my itinerary.
(And yes, Google maps didn’t take me along the best roads sometimes either, but as you say, that’s part of the journey).

Thanks again and maybe we’ll see you soon for another destination!

I used this itinerary to plan our 2 week vacation for our family of three to celebrate our son’s 21st birthday. We followed this exactly up until we left Kastriki. We decided to drive back to Athens and fly to Crete. I did all the driving and we didn’t mind the long drive back to Athens We stayed at hotels you recommended and saw most of the sites you mentioned.

All three of us agree, this was the best vacation EVER. We can honestly saw we saw Greece, not just Athens. We told a waiter in Athens what we were visiting and he said “Now, that’s how you see Greece” and said it was one of the best itineraries he has ever heard. Your advice was spot on and we loved every moment of it. We had some interresting drives since Waze and Google Maps liked to take us off the beaten path but we have wonderful memories from those drives too.

For anyone that is concerned about the amount of driving and moving hotels every night, we didn’t find it too much. There was never a day when we felt like we were always driving. There were some nights we didn’t want to bring our suitcase into the hotel so we just packed a change of clothes in our backpacks.

Thank you for taking the time to write in detail about this itinerary.

Hello Johann,

It’s not allowed to take the ferry with a rental car.
You will have to rent a car on each island.

Enjoy your trip in Greece!

Also I’m flipping your itinerary doing Naxos and Santorini first and not going all the way to Thessaloniki.

The car rental is what I can’t quite figure out. I don’t want one on Athens. Is it possible to wait to rent the car in Santorini and take it from there back to Athens airport ? Or rent different ones each island. Do the ferries go to the Pellopennese?