Aegean
Elegance

Land at Athens International and transfer to the Grande Bretagne, the grande dame of Athenian hospitality, facing the Parliament across Syntagma Square.

The evening walks the city gently: Syntagma, then Ermou Street, then into Plaka — the oldest quarter, all neoclassical facades, Byzantine churches and tavernas. Monastiraki follows, with its flea market and its noise.

Finally the steps up to Anafiotika, a pocket of Cycladic island architecture built into the rock under the Acropolis by homesick islanders. Dinner is classic: moussaka, souvlaki, Greek salad, tzatziki and local wine.

The sacred rock, 156 metres above the city, with a private guide: the Parthenon; the Erechtheion with its Porch of the Caryatids; the Propylaea gateway; the small Temple of Athena Nike; and the Theatre of Dionysus, where Greek tragedy began.

Then the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the hill, and this is the order that matters — the museum first would be a mistake, and the museum after is what makes the site legible. Glass floors run over the excavation beneath, and the top floor holds the Panathenaic frieze with the Parthenon itself framed through the windows.

The afternoon is the Ancient Agora, the civic heart where Socrates argued and democracy was worked out in public, and the Roman Agora beside it. Dinner is on a rooftop with the floodlit Acropolis in view.

A deliberately more experiential day. The Panathenaic Stadium first — the only major stadium in the world built entirely of white marble, and the site of the first modern Olympics in 1896 — then the Temple of Olympian Zeus, where fifteen of the original 104 columns still stand.

Through the National Garden past the Presidential Mansion, and up Lycabettus Hill by funicular for the whole city and the Aegean beyond it.

The afternoon is a food walk with a local guide: Greek coffee, bougatsa, souvlaki and gyros, spanakopita, feta and aged graviera, olives and oil, loukoumades and baklava. The evening is free in Plaka.

Piraeus and the high-speed ferry to Mykonos, two and a half to three hours across the Aegean. Your transfer takes you to Myconian Avaton, on the beachfront at Elia.

The afternoon is Mykonos Town — Chora — whitewashed and labyrinthine by design, since the maze was built to confuse pirates. Little Venice, where 18th-century houses stand directly over the sea; the Kato Mili windmills that have become the island’s symbol; Matogianni Street for the boutiques; and Paraportiani, a cluster of five churches fused into one whitewashed mass and among the most photographed buildings in Greece.

Sunset drinks over the Aegean from the old port.

Inland, where the real Mykonos lives. Ano Mera is the second-largest village, built around a square, and the 16th-century Panagia Tourliani monastery has an ornate marble fountain in its courtyard.

You drive through the interior past farmhouses, dry stone walls and windmills, and stop in villages where the pace has not changed much. Lunch is a taverna meal in a village setting.

The afternoon is the beaches — Elia is at the hotel’s door, and Paradise is the famous one. Dinner beachfront or in town.

A thirty-minute boat to Delos, one of the most important archaeological sites in the Aegean and, in Greek myth, the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The island was held so sacred that no one was permitted to be born or to die on it.

You walk the Sanctuary of Apollo and its three temples; the Terrace of the Lions, one of the defining images of the Aegean; the theatre that once seated thousands; and the House of Dionysus, with exceptional mosaics, standing marble columns and surviving wall painting. Entry to the site and museum is around twenty euros, it is walked entirely on foot, and there is no shade.

The afternoon returns to Mykonos for a private boat around the coastline — swimming and snorkelling in very clear water, with lunch aboard or on a quiet beach.

A ferry south, two and a half to three hours, from the cosmopolitan Cyclades to the volcanic ones. Your transfer climbs to Oia and Canaves Oia, built into the caldera cliff.

The afternoon explores Oia: the blue-domed churches, the Venetian castle ruins with their caldera view, and the galleries and artisan boutiques along the main street.

Then the sunset, which is genuinely one of the world’s great ones — the caldera turning gold and red as the sun goes into the Aegean. Dinner over the caldera afterwards.

A private boat around the caldera. Nea Kameni first, in the centre of the flooded crater: a walk across black lava to the smoking vents, with the caldera cliffs rising all around.

Then Palea Kameni and the hot springs — iron and sulphur, warm, therapeutic, and permanently unkind to pale swimwear. Thirassia follows, a fragment of the island from before the eruption, and a glimpse of Santorini as it was a century ago.

Lunch aboard or at a waterside restaurant reachable only by sea, and a relaxed afternoon back at the hotel.

Pyrgos in the morning, the former capital, and the climb to its Venetian Kasteli for the widest view on the island. Then Megalochori, quieter and more authentic, with its churches, bell towers and Venetian tower.

The afternoon is the vineyards. Volcanic soil and constant wind give Santorini some of the most distinctive wine in Greece, and the vines are woven into low baskets to shelter the fruit. A private tasting covers Assyrtiko, the sweet sun-dried Vinsanto, and the indigenous Athiri and Aidani, with a sommelier explaining the viticulture and a platter of Cycladic cheeses alongside.

A final sunset dinner closes the journey.

A final breakfast over the Aegean from Oia, then a private transfer to Santorini Airport.