Hi Middles,
Whether we like to admit it or not, the price of fuel soaks up a lot of our flying budgets.
I've been down to Greece a couple of times in the last few years.
My aircraft has the range to comfortably make it in one hop, What I know about the bits in between has been gained from many flights to Italy, Germany and France during that time.
Avgas is expensive everywhere. The UK isn't too bad if you shop around.
The best pump price I know at present in the mainland UK is £1.15 + Vat (at
Gloucester).
My rule is to fill to the brim at
Jersey/Guernsey where if you are an AOPA member you get it tax free at £0.87/L.
I rarely fill on the mainland if I can help it. Obviously safety considerations must be borne in mind and I would never attempt the hop (40mins from Plymouth where I am based) without adequate fuel to come all the way back home plus reserve). If the weather is pants in the CI then I just fill up VAT free in Plymouth and launch into the airways system from there (via BHD).
I do the CI trip whenever I need to top up. It is great for maintaining currency too and £10 or £12 landing fee (GSY/JSY respectively) is fantastic value for landing at a proper airport.
If I was going to Cannes, I would stop at Jersey on the way there and again on the way back. I would not need fuel in Cannes and would have the satisfaction of knowing I was cruising on half price avgas. I would still have 2 hrs endurance landing back at Jersey!
In recent years I have fuelled in
Toussus, Caen, Dinard, Rennes, Persan-Beaumont, Pontoise, Le Touquet, Troyes, Nevers, Calais, Toulouse, Rodez, Cannes and
Avignon and it has always been more expensive than in the UK.
Switzerland (
Lausanne) wasn't too bad - comparable to UK mainland prices if VAT free.
Sweden (
Linkoping-SAAB) was cheaper til the law changed and they added VAT on 1/7/08! (I was there the month before)
Germany
Munich, Monchengladbach, Berlin Schonhagen were pricey.
Finding avgas in Italy is expensive and haphazard.
Padova has avgas, as does
Milano Linate, Perugia and Genoa.
Verona (in common with many other Italian airports) does not.
Corfu wasn't too horrendous price wise,
Preveza has no avgas, only Jet A1.
Athens Eleftherios Venizelos has avgas but big landing/handling fees.
Santorini I think (?) had avgas and
Skiathos did not.
There is also a nice private airfield North West of Athens near to where King Leonidas of Sparta held the Persian army of Xerxes with 300 men at Thermopylae. It is called
Ikaros and has avgas on tap. Kyprianos Biris is the man to contact there. Kyprianos can give you all the numbers to call for Greek island airport parking and fuelling requests. We had no problems last summer but space can get tight.
IO540 was recommending
Losinj in Croatia as a cheap refuelling stop and I was planning to drop in there on my way to/from Greece but when I called them last summer they had become more expensive (no benefit compared with UK mainland prices). Word had clearly gotten out.
Enjoy yourself!
SB