A Greece itinerary is not a list of places you want to see. It is a sequence, and the ferries decide most of it. Get the order right and every boat carries you forward. Get it wrong and you spend a day of your holiday crossing water you have already crossed. The six routes below are all built the same way, from the boats outward, and each one names the sailings it depends on and says plainly where it breaks.
Start with your nights, because they rule out more than anything else. Seven nights is a three-stop trip and no more: 7 days in Greece runs Athens, then two islands, in one direction. Ten nights buys you a genuine fork, and 10 days in Greece is mostly about which side of it to take, because a fourth island costs a travel day that a slower third island does not.
Then decide the shape. A loop is the instinct and it is usually the wrong one. Flying into one airport and out of another turns the whole trip into one southbound line, which is what island hopping the Cyclades does through the middle of the chain, and what Athens, Santorini and Crete does at a bigger scale. If the idea is unfamiliar, the island hopping guide explains why the order of the islands matters more than the islands, and the ferries guide covers the ports, the boats and when to book.
Last, who is coming. Short ferry legs and gentle shores change the plan more than any preference does, which is the argument Greece with kids makes for ten nights. And if the appeal of an itinerary is not having one, one week in Rhodes stays on a single island and lets the boats be optional.
