Planning a trip to Greece, Athens-Crete-Paros-Santorini. Decided to do the number of nights in order-3-5-4-4. Would have liked one or maybe two more on Crete but 3 seemed too short on Santorini and Paros, the latter because we are planning a day trip to Mykonos to check it out, maybe a future longer stay.

Flying to Crete from Athens and our last island Santorini have a flight direct from there to LGW. And then ferries between Crete and Paros and Santorini. Seem reasonable? With the ferries torn between Seajets and more speed vs. larger ferries being more stable(less likely to be affected by weather)? Comments?

We are going the first two weeks in October, we aren't really beach people and wanted to miss the crowds, but wondering about weather.

For Crete, as I said 6 days would probably have been better and we originally were thinking 3 days in Chania and 3 on other side, probably the Elounda area. Of all the towns to stay in I've found Chania the most interesting. With only 5 nights I think staying in one place is best, too much packing and unpacking, there will be enough of that. So I think we've decided on Chania all 5 nights. Using Heriklion as the middle of the island, it does seem most sites we have interest are on the Chania side, with a few further away. Does that seem correct? Looking at the map and distances seems about 3.5 hours drive from one side to other. I'm of course looking during our daytime so middle of night there, is traffic a big issue that significantly affects driving time?

Also considered Heriklion too but just doesn't look as interesting. Could do a resort near there but we are more into being in a larger town with lots to see and being able to walk everywhere, not have to drive to go to dinner.

Any recommendations or thoughts much appreciated!