Greece Tours with Flights from €1,220

The mainland tour is the trip most first-timers underrate. A 7-10 day classical itinerary starts with two nights in Athens for the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and a Plaka evening, then heads west into the Peloponnese for Corinth, Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplion. From there you climb north to Olympia, cross to Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassos, and finish at Meteora where six working monasteries sit on top of sandstone pillars.

Destination Services Greece runs a solid 5-day Classical Tour (Nafplion, Olympia, Delphi, Meteora) at around €1,020 per person, and Fez Travel's 7-day Greece Classic Tour lands near €1,560. Click Tours' 8-day Highlights of Greece sits around €2,350 with better hotels and smaller groups. What you actually get: a licensed Greek guide at each archaeological site (mandatory by law inside Meteora and most major ruins), coach transfers, breakfasts daily, and 3-star or 4-star hotels.

What you don't get: lunches, dinners, and the €30-€50 in site entry fees on free days. Budget €200-€300 extra for a week of self-paid meals. If you only have one shot at Greece, do mainland plus two islands in 10 days — pure mainland loops are richer than pure island runs, but they cost you the beach afternoons most travellers also want.

The default island combo is Santorini plus Mykonos, usually with 3 nights on each. Add Crete and you need a week. Add Naxos or Paros and you need 10 days. Dot Travel's self-guided 7-day Athens plus Mykonos plus Santorini lands around €1,070, their 15-day Best of Greece with four islands sits near €1,940, and Travel Zone's 10-day semi-private Athens, Santorini and Mykonos with three guided tours is €3,160.

Ferries versus flights is the main logistics decision. Blue Star and Hellenic Seaways run slow open-deck ferries (5-8 hours, €40-€60) and Seajets run high-speed catamarans (2-4 hours, €60-€100). Piraeus to Santorini direct is 5 hours on Seajets, 8 hours on the slow boat. Santorini to Mykonos is 2-3 hours high-speed. Flying Athens to Santorini (JTR) or Mykonos (JMK) on Aegean or Sky Express takes 45 minutes and costs €60-€120 if you book a few weeks out.

Rule of thumb: take a ferry at least once (the Cyclades look different from sea level), but fly the longest leg if your schedule is tight. Crete connects to Santorini by catamaran in 2 hours — a proper three-island loop is Athens, Santorini, Crete, then fly home from Heraklion (HER) on Ryanair or easyJet.

Coach tours are the cheapest way to see Greece in a line. Expat Explore runs 14-16 day Balkan Explorer routes that include Greece for around €3,100, with 40-50 people on the bus, 3-star hotels and a full schedule. Trafalgar and Insight Vacations sit at the polished end of the same format at €2,500-€4,000 for a 10-day Greece tour.

Small-group tours (12-16 people) are the sweet spot for most travellers. G Adventures runs a well-reviewed 8-day Sailing Greece trip through the Cyclades on a crewed yacht for roughly €1,200-€1,500 before flights, plus their 8-day Greece Island Hopper for around €1,300. Intrepid's Best of Greece and Real Greece runs cover mainland and islands at €1,400-€2,100, and Exodus has a 9-day Classical Greece walking trip if you want some hiking in Delphi and the Peloponnese.

Food-focused trips are a small but solid niche — Intrepid's Real Food Adventure Greece (8 days, €1,800) builds every day around a cooking class, market visit or long lunch. Contiki and Topdeck cover the 18-35 sailing scene on flotilla-style trips through the Saronic Gulf and Ionian islands at €1,200-€1,700 for a week. Private and luxury sailing charters start at €4,000 per cabin per week and climb fast.

Greek peak is July and August and it is genuinely overheated — 35-40°C on the islands, cruise ships dumping thousands into Santorini's caldera paths at 11am, and ferry prices up 30-40%. Avoid unless your schedule locks you in.

May, June, September and early October are the sweet spot. Daytime highs 24-28°C, sea warm enough to swim (22-24°C from mid-June, warmest in September), and ferry and hotel prices 20-30% below August. Late September is arguably the best single week of the year: beaches quieter, water still warm, and mainland archaeological sites like Delphi and Olympia at perfect walking temperature.

April and early May are cool (16-22°C) and some beach clubs aren't open yet, but it's the cheapest shoulder and the mainland looks green. Olive groves are in bloom, spring wildflowers cover the Peloponnese, and Easter (Greek Orthodox Easter, 12 April 2026) is a genuine cultural event worth planning around.

November to March is off-season and mostly not worth it for islands — ferry schedules die back to two or three sailings a week, half the Santorini and Mykonos hotels close, and the weather swings from 12°C and rain to occasional snow on the higher peaks. Athens and Meteora stay open year-round and are lovely in January if you only want mainland culture.

Athens (ATH) is the main gateway and has the most competitive fares. From Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam and Rome expect €90-€180 return in shoulder season on Ryanair, Aegean, Wizz or easyJet, and €200-€350 in July-August. Aegean runs a reliable network across Europe with free checked bags on most fares and is usually €30-€50 more than the LCCs for materially better service.

Thessaloniki (SKG) is the smart move if your tour starts in the north — Meteora-first itineraries, Halkidiki beach trips, or a Balkan-combined run. Ryanair and Wizz fly SKG from most Central European cities at €80-€140 return shoulder season, and you save the 4-hour coach transfer from Athens.

Flying direct to Santorini (JTR) or Mykonos (JMK) is usually only worth it May-October when European LCCs run seasonal routes. Expect €120-€220 return from London, Milan, Paris or Vienna. Heraklion (HER) on Crete has year-round Ryanair and easyJet and is often the cheapest single fare in the country.

The common money-saver is an open-jaw: fly into Athens, ferry through the islands, fly home from Santorini, Mykonos or Heraklion. Kiwi.com handles multi-city routing on our bundles, and you see the full trip price per person before you commit to either the tour or the flight.