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September 1999

Greece (Nafplio), Crete (Matala and Rethymnon), Italy (Tuscany and the Cinque Terre), Monaco and the South of France.

Jvi
2004-09-14 11:44:18

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should reserve in advance as they do fill up. It cost $305 US each to fly Athens to Iraklion and Iraklion to Athens to Rome.

Using British Airways in what they call "open jaws" allowed us to fly into Athens, Greece and out of Nice, France. I highly recommend this method of travel as it avoids having to backtrack to fly out of from the arrival city. Of course if you want to do a circular tour you would want to leave from the same city. We have found it very convenient to land in one city and depart from another and it doesn’t cost any extra, even in Economy, flying on an APEX fare. An example would be flying into Milan and touring around Italy, then flying out of Pisa or Rome. Now, obviously, there are no direct flights from Pisa to Chicago so you will have to connect in one of the major hubs. Just remember that all the major countries have hubs and you can fly from the USA to one of the hubs and then connect to Milan, Venice, Pisa, Florence, etc. and then return to the hub from another city and on to the USA. The direct flight to the hub will be on a US carrier or the carrier of the country where the hub is located. Doing the Italian trip mentioned above you could fly via KLM stopping at Amsterdam, British Airways, stopping in London, Alitalia, stopping in Milan or Rome. You will find that the prices of all these itineraries are very similar even though some involve longer flights.

We left Chicago on September 15, 1999. We flew Chicago-London-Athens with our friends Jerry and Kathryn. We had a 2 hour layover in London, not bad. Arriving in Athens around 5:30 PM we picked up a rental car and drove to Nafplio in the Peloponnese. We drove into the city and then back out. Athens is the worst city in Europe to drive in and the signs are unbelievable. Some signs are in English and others in Greek and no two Greek signs are spelled alike. Additionally, you will see a sign to your destination, follow it and never see another. Finally, we were on ...