The Perfect 10-Day Greece Itinerary (Route, Day by Day)

The backbone of a 10-day Greece itinerary is a mainland loop out of Athens followed by an island run through the Cyclades, and nearly every operator from Fez Travel to G Adventures builds a version of it. The two halves do completely different jobs, which is exactly why ten days wants both: the mainland is ancient stone and big landscapes, the islands are ferries, whitewashed villages and caldera sunsets.

The shape that works best is roughly five days on the mainland and five out in the islands. The mainland half opens with two nights in Athens for the Acropolis and the Plaka, then loops west and north — Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassos, Meteora where six working monasteries perch on sandstone pillars, and, if your tour includes it, the Peloponnese for Corinth, Mycenae and Nafplion. The island half is almost always Santorini plus one more, three nights and two, with the boat between them doing half the sightseeing for you.

The order matters more here than it does almost anywhere. Do the mainland first and the islands second, because it means you finish in the Cyclades and fly home from Santorini, Mykonos or Crete rather than backtracking to Athens to catch a plane. That single decision saves a full travel day, and an open-jaw flight — into Athens, out of an island — usually costs much the same as a round trip. The island you add is the part you make your own: Mykonos for the nightlife and the windmills, Crete for the length and the food, or quieter Naxos and Paros if you would rather swim than queue.

Here is how the ten days actually fall, taking the most-booked version — Athens, Delphi, Meteora, then Santorini and Mykonos.

• Day 1 — Land at Athens (ATH), settle in, an evening in the Plaka with your first plate of grilled fish below a lit Acropolis. Fly in the day before your tour starts if you can; the jet-lagged first evening is better spent wandering than touring.
• Day 2 — Ancient Athens in full: the Acropolis and the Parthenon early before the heat, then the superb Acropolis Museum, the Ancient Agora and a slow lunch in Monastiraki.
• Day 3 — West to Delphi (about three hours by coach). The afternoon for the Sanctuary of Apollo and the museum, with the valley of olive groves running down to the sea below you.
• Day 4 — North to Meteora. The monasteries on their pillars at golden hour are the day's payoff; bring shoulder-and-knee cover, because the monks will turn you away without it.
• Day 5 — Back towards Athens and down to the port. This is a transfer day on most tours; if yours has a free afternoon, spend it on the coast at Cape Sounion rather than back in the city.
• Day 6 — Ferry or fly to Santorini. The high-speed catamaran from Piraeus is about five hours, the flight forty-five minutes; either way you arrive to the caldera. Evening in Oia for the sunset everyone warns you is overrated and almost everyone loves anyway.
• Day 7 — Santorini at your own pace: the black-sand beaches at Perissa, a winery tasting of Assyrtiko, the clifftop walk from Fira to Oia if the day is kind.
• Day 8 — Ferry to Mykonos (two to three hours high-speed). Afternoon getting deliberately lost in the old town's lanes, an evening drink in Little Venice as the water turns the windmills pink.
• Day 9 — A loose island day: a boat to Delos, the ancient sacred island half an hour offshore, or simply a beach and a long lunch.
• Day 10 — Fly home from Mykonos (JMK), or ferry back to Santorini and fly from there. Either way you leave from the islands, not from Athens.

Seven days is doable, but the honest answer is that you pick a side. Keep the mainland loop — two nights in Athens, Delphi, Meteora — and you get the archaeology and the landscapes but skip the beaches, which is the right call if you came for the history. Or do islands-only: fly straight into Santorini, three nights there and three on Mykonos or Crete, and skip the mainland entirely. Destination Services Greece runs a compact five-day Classical Tour through Nafplion, Olympia, Delphi and Meteora from around €1,020 per person tour-only if your time is genuinely tight, though it moves fast and the islands will have to wait for another trip.

Fourteen days is where Greece opens right up, and it changes the maths. With four extra days you can keep the full mainland-plus-two-islands spine and add a proper third island or a slower base: a week-long Cyclades arc that takes in Naxos and Paros between Santorini and Mykonos, or a Crete coda — Heraklion, Knossos, the Samaria Gorge and the old-town tavernas of Chania — that justifies its own flights home from HER. Dot Travel's 15-day Best of Greece with four islands runs near €1,940 tour-only and slots neatly onto a mainland start.

The other use for two weeks is to slow down rather than add ground: three nights in each island instead of two, a real rest day on a beach, and the meltemi-wind afternoons left blank. If you have island-hopped before and came for the food and the light rather than the checklist, that second version is the better two weeks. For where each month lands on weather, ferries and crowds, our guide to the best time to visit Greece has the detail.

Aim for the shoulder months and the whole itinerary improves at once. May, June, September and early October give you Athens at a walkable 25-30°C, a sea warm enough to swim in (22-24°C, warmest in September), the full ferry grid running daily, and tour-and-ferry prices 20-35% below the July-August peak. September is the single strongest month: the water is at its warmest, the meltemi wind has faded, and the European school-holiday crowds thin out from the first week. May is the best value, with wildflowers still on the mainland and the Acropolis cool enough to enjoy.

July and August are the ones to dodge for this specific route. Athens runs 34-40°C and the Acropolis has been forced to close midday on extreme-heat days; Meteora is a sweat-through climb; and Santorini's caldera paths fill with cruise-ship day-trippers by late morning while ferry prices jump 30-40%. The 15 August holiday books out the entire country. If summer is your only window, tilt towards an island-heavy itinerary where the meltemi keeps the evenings civil, and save the mainland sites for a kinder month.

Winter is the contrarian half-pick. Athens, Delphi and Meteora stay open and are a quiet pleasure at 13-16°C — but from November to March the island ferries thin to two or three sailings a week and half the Santorini and Mykonos hotels close, so a winter trip really has to be mainland-only. For the full month-by-month breakdown, including Orthodox Easter on 12 April 2026 and the ferry-schedule reality, see our best time to visit Greece guide.

The single best move on a 10-day Greece itinerary is to fly open-jaw: into Athens (ATH) and home from an island — Santorini (JTR), Mykonos (JMK) or Heraklion (HER) on Crete. Because the route finishes in the Cyclades, backtracking to Athens for the flight home wastes the better part of a day, and an open-jaw ticket usually lands within €30 to €50 of a round trip. Just remember the direct island flights to JTR and JMK only run roughly 1 May to 15 October; outside that window you connect home through Athens on Aegean or Olympic, which is the off-season catch on this plan.

For the operators, the route splits by style. The big coach tours — Fez Travel, Expat Explore, Trafalgar and Insight Vacations — run mainland-and-island itineraries at €1,560 up to €4,000 for 8 to 14 days tour-only, with 30 to 50 people and everything handled. Small-group operators are the sweet spot for most: G Adventures' 8-day Greece Island Hopper sits around €1,300 and its crewed-yacht Sailing Greece near €1,200-€1,500, while Intrepid's Best of Greece covers both halves at €1,400-€2,100 for 10 to 16 people in smaller hotels and local kitchens. Click Tours' 8-day Highlights of Greece runs around €2,350 with smarter rooms and tighter groups.

Whichever you pick, the flight is the line the operator can't quote, and it swings the all-in total most: €90-€180 return to Athens from a European hub in shoulder season, €200-€350 at the summer peak, and US$700-US$1,600 from North America or A$1,800-A$3,400 from Australia depending on season. For how every line — tour tier, ferries, flights and the meals you cover yourself — adds up, see our companion guide on how much a Greece tour costs. When you run a search on Multiday.tours, you see the live flight price from your own airport, in your own currency, sitting right beside the tour, so the true all-in cost of the route is in front of you before you commit to either booking.