I was in Greece all summer and tried to hit Lefkada, but because my family was spending the entire summer, we found it a bit too expensive. Believe it or not, Santorini was less expensive than Lefkada, so we rented a house there for July. We spent 3 weeks in June on Milos (an island I had never been to, it was full of Greeks and Italians, the most beautiful beaches I'd ever seen in Greece), and it was cheaper than both Santorini and Lefkada. Finally, we had planned on spending the first 2 weeks in Athens, and had even prepaid our hotel (I won't get into why) but left after the first day (I am a big fan of Athens, and loved staying there in the past, but found it hard this time) and instead drove around the mainland to the central countryside and mountains.