When do we Island Stroll ?

The time of travel is very much linked to what you want to see and experience. If you wish to meet other tourists and get the feeling of being in the centre of the world, August is the right time to travel.

To find peace and not to many tourists you choose May/June or September/October. The tourists season is basically from the middle of May until 1^st of October. It is of course possible to go before or after this time but then the numbers of choices you have as a tourist limited. In May the Greek Islands are a quite place with just a limited number of tourists and with a very mild temperature. According to the Greek themselves the sea is to cold but others might have an other opinion.

Prices are in general low both with regard to sleeping accommodations and with regard to renting motor vehicles. The nature is still colourful especially if there are mountains on the island. If you go a little bit up in the hillsides or mountains you will find beautiful wildflowers. This can be done well into the late dates of June. Down by the seaside the flowers are more or less gone at that time of the year. The corn is harvested in late May, early June. From June on, the number of tourists are steadily increasing, especially the number of Scandinavians. At this time the sun is getting real hot, so remember sunscreen. At this time of the year the sea has a perfect temperature with regard to half frozen Scandinavians. You still get cooled down a little bit and the children are shaking their teeth after half an hour in the sea.

In July the main season begins and the prices begin to change in an upward spiral. The noise level also changes profoundly. In August all these factors reach their maximum because at this time of the year most of the southern Europeans have their vacation. Especially large numbers of Italians can be seen along with many Greeks from the mainland. Many of these bring their own cars so you should expect delays. Also consider some extra time when you go back to the airport in Athens. Due to the number of car and all the tourists renting their own vehicles the traffic gets quite crazy. So be careful, especially with regards to the children. Also, southern Europeans have never considered stopping for crossing pedestrians……

It also take some extra time to find a place to sleep, but you will manage. At the end of August it all gets a little bit more quite. At this time the sea is at its warmest so early September is a very nice time of the year to go to the Greek Islands. The weather can be a little bit unstable and this gets worse when autumn arrives. The prices are on their way downs and you even find sales. You will also experience that the service personnel is getting worn out. Many of these people have been working every day from the beginning of the season to the end. This is indeed true for the people having their own room, apartment or hotel. Al they look forward to is their own vacation.

If you travel without children and you wish is a quite and inexpensive vacation, go in May or September. If children belongs to the group then you should start their summer vacation about the 12^th-15^th of June. Then the charter trip fares are at their lowest (this especially applies to the Scandinavian countries) and its still nice and quite at the islands.

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Thanks to Kjell Inge Gjesdal, Oslo, Norway for his translation into English!
© Jan Bergtun, 3. January 1999	Updated, 02.07.2007
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