Four Corners of Greece: A Private Two-Week Itinerary Through Athens, Mykonos, Santorini & Crete

One day, the two things Athens does better than anywhere: the building and the cooking.

You start up the sacred rock, on ancient pathways with the weight of centuries under your feet, with the modern city spread out below you the whole way up. At the top your guide takes you through what Athens achieved in its Golden Age, and how much of the rest of the world it went on to shape.

Then three hours of food, which is the part nobody expects to enjoy as much as they do. You walk the streets Athenians shop in themselves and meet artisans who have spent decades on one recipe. There are specialist stores bringing in the best of everything from across Greece, and then the central food market, loud and alive and smelling like the real thing. Bring an appetite; the tasting is enough to replace lunch.

Inclusions

• 5-hour private guided tour
• 2-hour guided tour to the Acropolis
• 3-hour flavors of Athens food tour
• Hotel pick-up (walking)
• Private service of an expert Guide
• Sampling of sweet and savory local delicacies-enough to replace lunch
• Entrance fees

Five hours out of the city to Sounio, Poseidon’s own stretch of coast, at the south-eastern tip of Attica where Attica runs out and the Aegean starts.

The drive is half the reason to go. The road follows the coast round one small cove after another, all of them clear to the bottom, through the kind of landscape the ancients decided must belong to the god of the sea.

At the end of it stands the marble Temple of Poseidon, built in the fifth century BCE and still standing on its rock above the water. Sounion turns up all over Greek mythology, and Homer calls it the sacred cape of the Athenians in the Odyssey.

Come in the daytime if you like. Most people take the evening slot instead, when the sun drops over the Aegean behind the columns, and it is as good as sunsets get in Greece.

Inclusions

• 5-hour private excursion
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Transport by luxury private vehicle
• Private services of an English-speaking driver

Exclusions

• Entrance Fees
• Guided tour to Temple of Poseidon
• Downtime for lunch/dinner

Legend has it there is an island made from the petrified remains of giants Hercules killed, named after Apollo’s grandson. That island is Mykonos.

Cosmopolitan, and somehow still an island. It gathers college students, families and celebrities who all want the same thing, which is a Greek summer here, on an island where beauty and simplicity turn out to be the same thing. There is plenty here for the visitors who came for a good time and the entertainment, and just as much on the island’s history and traditions for the ones who did not.

A day that covers the several different islands Mykonos manages to be at once.

You start in Chora, the capital, where the white houses, the twisting alleys and the windmills are the Mykonos everybody pictures. Then the coast: Elia, with its long sandy beach and clear water, or Agrari if you would rather have fewer people around you.

Inland to Ano Mera, a working village where island life carries on regardless of what is happening down at the beach clubs. You walk the streets and visit the Panagia Tourliani Monastery, and then head to Faros.

You finish at the lighthouse, with the Aegean open in every direction, which is the right place to end the day.

Inclusions

• 4-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of a local assistant

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

A day for the Mykonos that has nothing to do with the beaches or the nightlife.

Head inland to villages like Ano Mera: plain houses, local tavernas, old churches, and a pace that has not changed much. Walk the streets, go back into the Panagia Tourliani Monastery with more time than the tour allowed, then sit down for a long lunch somewhere family-run where the menu is short because everything on it is good.

It is the quiet opposite of the island’s cosmopolitan half, and you will be glad of both.

Santorini is famous the world over: for its looks, for the pull it has on people, and for how you get treated when you arrive.

Thira in ancient times, and part of the southernmost group in the Cyclades. Its volcano is among the few still active anywhere in Greece or Europe. The islands that make up Santorini were built by that volcano: enormous eruptions collapsed the centre of it and left the crater behind, which is the caldera you have come to see.

Sitting in front of it with a plate of local food, a drink or a coffee, looking at a live volcano across the water, is the thing everyone tells you about afterwards. Do it at least once.

The caldera from the water, with the whole catamaran to yourselves and nobody else’s schedule to keep.

You are taken to Ammoudi port, where the captain and crew meet you on board. First stop is the hot springs for a swim, then past Aspronisi, the Lighthouse, Akrotiri and the Indian Face Rock. At the Red Beach you can dive straight in and take the snorkelling gear down to see what is under you. At White Beach there is more swimming and a BBQ of Greek dishes, cooked and served on board.

Coming back into Ammoudi, you get the sunset: the sun going down into the sea, gold and orange all the way across the sky. Your transfer is waiting when you dock.

*Please note that the above is a suggested itinerary, and since this is a private cruise, it can be fully customized to your preferences. 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 English-speaking captain & crew
• BBQ meal and drinks on board (white wine, beers, soft drinks, water and one cocktail)
• Snorkeling equipment, floating devices (ask the crew)
• Towels & blankets (to be returned to the crew)
• Map with extensive info on the landmarks and destinations
• WC & facilities for washing seawater off (ask the crew)

Two islands, and the wine that only grows in this soil.

You cross to Thirasia, which is what was left on the other side of the caldera. The villages of Manolas and Agrilia are white houses, quiet lanes and the caldera laid out in front of you, and this is island life without an audience. At the Mikra Thira Winery you taste Santorini’s volcanic wines properly, with a meal built to go with them.

Back on Santorini, the day ends at a family-owned winery in Pyrgos, a small room, exceptional bottles, nobody hurrying you out.

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

Inclusions

• 6-hour private experience
• Meet and greet at the lobby of the hotel by a local assistant
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off at a meeting point in close proximity to your accommodation
• Private services of a local assistant
• Tickets
• Meal
• Wine tasting

Fira is where the island is busiest, and a day here is worth having.

The streets are full of shops, restaurants and bars, and the caldera is there behind all of it. Whether you want to look at things, buy things or just have a long lunch with that view, Fira gives you Santorini at its liveliest without you having to go anywhere.

A short helicopter ride takes you to Crete.

Elounda sits on the eastern side of the island, north of Agios Nikolaos and south of Plaka, on Mirabello Bay. It used to be a fishing village living off farming, fishing and salt. It is now one of the best places to stay in Crete, and it never lost the first part.

It suits people who want the coast rather than the nightlife, and a bit of comfort over the empty beaches down in southern Crete. What you get is a long coastline, calm beaches with natural shade, clean water and more archaeology than you would expect.

Around Elounda there are small beaches, the island of Spinalonga, and the Kolokitha peninsula, whose name translates as “pumpkin”. Inland are Mavrikiano, Plaka, Skisma and Epano Elounda, villages that give you a look at times long past.

You cross to Spinalonga by caique and walk where the Venetians walked. The island was a fortress and then, for decades, a leper colony, and both are still written all over it. Nobody lives here now. You have time to go round at your own pace, through the abandoned stone buildings and along the ramparts, with the sea an extraordinary blue on every side and the light doing what Cretan light does.

Then Agios Nikolaos, which people call the Saint-Tropez of Crete and which is the best town in the east of the island. The harbour is lined with old painted houses, there are small shops worth going into, and you can sit with a drink beside Lake Voulismeni, where Aphrodite is supposed to have swum.

Inclusions

• Approx. 4-hour private experience
• Hotel pick-up and drop-off (vehicle)
• Private services of an English speaking guide
• Entrance fees to Spinalonga
• Tour on Spinalonga (1 hour & 15 min)
• 1 ½ hour swimming
• Snacks, wine, water & refreshments

What to bring with you

• Comfortable clothing and shoes
• Sunscreen and hat
• Swimsuit & towel
• Camera

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.