Windmills and White Villages: A 10-Day Private Itinerary Through Mykonos & Paros

A wine tasting on a beach you would not find on your own, with cushions on the sand, the sun on your back and the sea doing the rest.

Your personal sommelier pours three to five rare Greek varieties and tells you where each one comes from, because the story is half of it. Most of these bottles never make it to the open market. You learn what to look for in them: the flavours, the aromas, the notes that make Greek wine unlike anything else you drink at home.

Greek cheeses, crackers and traditional spreads come alongside, chosen to go with what is in your glass.

Special Note: Please let us know of any dietary requirements or restrictions upon booking.

Inclusions:

• 2-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of a sommelier
• Wine Tasting

Real sailing, wind-powered, for people who would rather hear the water than an engine.

You sail past Ornos, Psarou, Platy Gialos, Paraga, Paradise, Super Paradise, Agrari and Elia, which is most of the coastline Mykonos is famous for, seen from the side nobody photographs it from. You anchor at Paradise and at Agrari, with time to swim, lie in the sun and get onto the soft gold sand.

Lunch is served on board: shrimp pasta, Greek salad and fresh fruit, with wine, beer and soft drinks.

*Please keep in mind that the itinerary may change last-minute, as this experience is highly dependent on weather conditions. Special Note: Please let us know of any dietary requirements or restrictions upon booking.

Inclusions

• 5-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of an experienced captain and crew member
• Snorkeling gear and SUP
• Lunch on board

Mykonos through the eyes, and the appetite, of someone who lives here.

You walk past the Windmills, along the seafront at Little Venice, and up into the Kastro district, where the white shape of Paraportiani church sits above the sea. The Three Wells, the small chapels in the quiet corners, each with its own story that a guidebook will not give you.

Between the stops it turns into a moving meal. Five of them, sweet and savoury: amygdaloto, pork or chicken skewers, crisp baklava, spanakopita and a generous meze plate, with mastiha liqueur and local wine in whichever colour you prefer. By the end you have not only seen Mykonos but tasted it, and for a few hours you stop feeling like a visitor.

Inclusions

• 3-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of a local escort
• 5 stops with snacks & beverages

Special Note: Please let us know of any dietary requirements or restrictions upon booking.

Welcome to Paros!

Paros is the balance the Cyclades are supposed to be about: traditional and modern at once, and no need to choose between them.

History lover or party animal, beach person or someone who would rather be up in a rural village, Paros has a version of the day for you. It is three hours from Piraeus port, and once you see the blonde-sand beaches, the green mountains and the villages on the cliffs, you will wonder how the Caribbean got into the Aegean. The Meltemi, the wind that blows here and does not let up, has a personality of its own, and it is why surfers of every kind keep coming back.

For the crowds, the elegance and the heritage, go to Parikia and Naoussa. For quiet, head to Lefkes and Marpissa and take your time over Parian tradition and culture.

Paros has several faces, and you are going to like all of them.

You start in Paroikia, the island’s capital, at the Castle: a medieval defensive structure built out of ancient marble taken from ten different original buildings, dating from the 8th to the 13th centuries. Then Panagia Ekatontapyliani, a 6th-century church and one of the most famous things on the island.

Next is Lefkes, 300 metres above the sea on a hill covered in olive and pine. The view from up there takes in Naxos, and this is where you stop for a Greek coffee and a pastry at a kafenio and stay a bit longer than you meant to.

The last stop is Naoussa, a fishing village that still works like one: whitewashed houses, flowers in the streets, tiny churches, narrow stone lanes. Then you ride back with Paros in your head.

Inclusions

• 4-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of an English speaking licensed guide
• Bottled water
• Greek coffee and pastry

What to bring with you

• Hat
• Sunglasses
• Sunscreen
• Comfortable walking shoes

The best hour of the day in the Aegean, and the best place to be for it is on the water.

You are out on the boat as the sun goes down into the sea and the sky changes colour behind it. The Blue Lagoon and Agios Nikolaos are where you watch it from, which is as good a view of a Paros sunset as there is. Swim, or don’t. There is wine, there is the deck, and there is whoever you came with.

Inclusions

• 2-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of an English speaking crew
• Snacks, fruits, a bottle of local Parian wine and water

Special Note: Please keep in mind that the itinerary may change last-minute, as this experience is highly dependent on weather conditions.

A long day of sailing and salt air, out into the Small Cyclades, where the pace is set by the islands rather than by you. You put in at bays that have no road to them, so it is you, the boat and the water. Swim, snorkel, or lie on the deck and listen to it.

First Iraklia, which is as wild as the Cyclades still get, with time at Alimia Beach to snorkel over a sunken WWII hydroplane resting just under the surface. Then Schinoussa, where the water is warm and nothing is in a hurry.

Lunch is served on board. The day finishes with a last swim off the south coast of Naxos and fruit on the way home to Piso Livadi.

Inclusions

• 9-hour private experience
• Private hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of an English speaking crew
• Lunch, snacks and beverages

Special Note: Please keep in mind that the itinerary may change last-minute, as this experience is highly dependent on weather conditions.

Antiparos is ten minutes away by ferry and feels like another decision entirely: white houses with blue on them, streets narrow enough to touch both sides, bougainvillea and eucalyptus, and a warmth to the place you notice within about a minute of arriving.

Your first stop is the Antiparos Cave, 160 metres underground. Around 400 steps take you down into a chamber 216 metres long and 160 metres deep, full of stalactites and stalagmites, with graffiti left on the walls by visitors from centuries of earlier arrivals.

Then Chora, the main town, for the market street and the Kastro: a Venetian castle built in 1440 to keep the residents safe from pirates, with two-storey houses joined together to make the walls. Then the ferry home.

Inclusions

• 4-hour private experience
• Hotel pick up and drop off (vehicle)
• Private services of an experienced guide
• Bottled water
• Ferry tickets from Pounta port to Antiparos (roundtrip)
• Entrance fees to Antiparos Cave

What to bring with you

• Hat
• Sunglasses
• Swimsuit
• Beach towel
• Change of clothes
• Sunscreen
• Comfortable walking shoes

The hard part. Your driver collects you from the hotel for the island airport and the domestic flight back to Athens, where you check in for your international flight and leave Greece behind.

Somewhere over the Aegean you will start going back through the photographs, working out which story to tell first and which souvenir is for who. Greece has a way of getting people back.