Many thanks for all of your helpful advice. We have managed to find a website with a listing of many hotels on Santorini that are open in the winter (http://www.santorini.gr-santorini.co...ls/allyear.htm) so we're good there. Now we are looking at going from Santorini to Crete, Mykonos or Rhodes (Crete is first choice) but can't find ferries that make the journey in the winter and all flights at that time go through Athens. My thought is that we can probably find a way from Santorini to Crete or the other options locally when we get there if we're flexible but would very much prefer to have the arrangements made before leaving, as it's a little more complicated in a group of 9 including 5 children. I am starting to think that this trip is more of a headache than anything!