Put a few dozen singles alone together in a hotel in Crete and watch what happens - sounds like it could be a very interesting week, and it's repeated from April through October. The base price of $2975 includes accommodations, some meals, a few enhancements such as "Thursday, The Famous Fish Day!" and airfare to and from New York.

Singles Week in Crete

November 17th carries a lot of baggage in Greece - it commemorates a tragic day in 1973 when protesting students were killed by the government then in power. And it's the name of a Greek anarchist group which arose after that incident.

Most years, it's a good idea to avoid Syntagma Square and its hotels around this date and to stay away from Embassy Row in Athens, as protestors tend to congregate at those spots in large numbers.

Otherwise, this difficult date should have little effect on your Greek travel plans.

If airline route assignments in Greece were a sporting event, this would be the major upset by the underdogs. In the assignment of subsidized air routes serving smaller airports primarily in the Greek islands, both Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines have come up losers. The "winners" for these historically unprofitable short-hop lifeline routes? Athens Airways and Sky Express, two names which may not mean much - yet - to most travelers in Greece.

Kasthimerini reports that sources suggest that Aegean Airlines lost out on a technicality and that Olympic Air's offer simply wasn't good enough. But could the newly-empowered PASOK government also be announcing that there is a new sheriff in town?

What does this mean to your travel plans? I've had direct experience only with Crete-based Sky Express when trying to book a last-minute flight. I can attest that they were cordial and reasonably-priced for what I needed, but so far, they are a very small airline with planes to match, though that may change with these new routes if they become permanent. Athens Airways, sometimes mis-called Athens Airlines, boasts some bigger planes and reminds me of Aegean Airlines a few years back. But there's one possible problem affecting both - not every major booking engine may include Athens Air or Sky Express, making some travel options to the affected islands this winter and early spring invisible to the ordinary traveler.

And even on these newly-assigned temporary routes, I'm just not sure we've heard the last from Olympic and Aegean.

But however it goes, it won't stay this way for long. The rights to the routes are only good for the period from December 1st, 2009 to April 1st, 2010.

More: Sky Express

Athens Airways
Olympic Air

Aegean Airlines

Princess Cruises is offering some very tempting rates on a 26-day repositioning cruise which includes a nice array of Greek port stops. Of course, they don't label it as a respositioning cruise, calling it the "Mediterranean and Greek Isle Grand Aventure" instead, but this across-the-Atlantic spring cruise certainly qualifies, and has the low pricing to match. It disembarks from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on May 1st, 2010.

What I like about this one is that it offers a full week in the Greek Islands at the end of the cruise.
While its final port is Venice, you can choose to disembark in Athens by special arrangement, which may even shave a bit off the already-low price. Interior cabins start at US $2535, excluding taxes of about $150 US. However, on a cruise of this length, I'd opt for a window view or mini-suite which runs about $4300-5500 per person, double occupancy. But, remember, repositioning cruises are in a sense trips the ship itself wants and needs to take. These prices may tumble even more.

The down side? If you're not a cruiser at heart, the 8-day trans-atlantic passage may be a bit hard to take, even on the Crown Princess, a ship with a full range of luxurious amenities.