Recently I was talking with a friend who, with her husband, takes their two kids under five to Italy every summer. As much as she’s wanted to add Greece to their itinerary, it has seemed logistically too difficult. While she was describing their plan to fly into Palermo, then make their way to Cefalù, then Taormina, and fly out of Catania to Rome—where they’d spend a couple of sweltering days in August—I just thought, there’s got to be a better way. Instead of schlepping across Sicily—or, fine, do that but skip the Rome part—why not fly to Greece? Then I had dinner with another friend who was driving from Rome to Matera and then up to almost Umbria over the course of four days with his wife and toddler. I mean, I do remember that cars are always easier than airports when traveling with young kids, but considering the lines at Italian rental car agencies and the other headaches and delays that come with that arrangement…. I was determined to find some appealing alternatives.
I’m also thinking about all of you who can only take longer vacations in summer, who want to spend time in Italy and end up returning year after year. You’d love to add in Greece, but imagine it’s a logistical nightmare, anticipating connections via Athens, potential lost luggage, and the expense of tickets. This might sound crazy, but it’s actually easier to go from Puglia to many Greek islands than Puglia to the Amalfi Coast! And I’m not talking Bari to Athens and then another flight. I’m talking no connections, no big airport to deal with. I’ve done the 4- to 5-hour drive from the Amalfi Coast to Puglia—there are no nonstop flights—and in summer, unless you’re breaking it up with an overnight in Matera, it’s stressful, hot, and you waste precious hours of your vacation.
Part of what spurred this post is my own research for a trip I’m taking later this summer—heading to Patmos from France and returning to Rome. When I was deep in my digging, I was shocked to discover that there is a nonstop from Naples to Karpathos. I mean, Karpathos is a small Dodecanese island that I haven’t been to since the early ‘90s, and while I know that some of the small islands have changed a lot, the fact that this nonstop exists on Volotea, the low-cost Spanish airline (albeit only on Fridays!), is incredible. I decided to take it upon myself to find routes that fly from places you’ll likely be on holiday in Italy into Greek islands directly (with no help from AI—I tested it to see if it could find what I did manually, and it COULDN’T!). Of course, it’s easy enough to fly into Athens and make a little Greece trip out of that, but the point of this post is to share the surprising nonstops that just might make you add on a trip to Greece from Italy, rather than doing something that you’re comfortable with, plus an add-on within the country, because you think it will be easier.
Because nobody makes this easy to figure out, I wound up spending an entire day looking at every single option. Below, I’m listing the destinations that offer nonstops between them. It’s important to note that most of these are probably only good for the summer months, many of the flights aren’t daily, and the flight times vary every day. Another piece of advice, if this inspires you to plan a trip: begin with the flights, then fill in the stay part. It requires a flexible approach—maybe you’re in Naples and you think you want to go to Rhodes, but you switch gears to Kos because the flights work better. There are some flights on established airlines like ITA, but for the most part, you have to be willing to fly on Wizz, Ryan, Vueling, EasyJet and Volotea (my favorite of the budget bunch). Also Neos, which I’ve never flown. While many travel agents don’t like working with these lower-cost airlines, trust me, I’ve been flying them for years, and besides the unmoveable seats and lack of services, they are fine. In the end, on the day we’re returning to Rome, there were no easy nonstops from Kos (which is a quick ferry from Patmos), but there was an afternoon flight from Kos to Naples. It will be the perfect way to end the trip—a morning swim in Patmos, and dinner and an overnight in Naples, followed by an easy 55-minute train to the center of Rome the next morning. La vita é bella!
I hope this is all useful to you! For help understanding the distinctions between certain islands or groups of them, use our Greece Travel Planner. If there are specific articles that we’ve written about any of the places we’re mentioning, I’m including those links below. And if you know of something I didn’t include, please share in the comments!
