Day 1: Welcome to Athens!
After being picked up from your flight and brought to the
Hotel, a new, 5-star venue in the heart of Syntagma with one of the most
amazing rooftop views of the Parthenon imaginable, you’ll have time to settle
in before dinner. The hotel is in the center of the city and an easy walk to
great shopping, cafes, bars, restaurants and the mains ites.
The heart of Athens is where ancient and modern culture
blend seamlessly. Right outside your hotel, for example, is a thousand-year-old
church, and up the street some of the most modern cafes and fashionable shops
selling everything from Greek gold to designer shoes!
Athens is always stunning, colorful, fascinating, and
welcoming! In the evening we will have a welcome dinner with a view and food
worth a thousand words!
Day 2: City Vibes and Culture Tour
Breakfast with a View! The hotel has one of the best
breakfast buffets in Athens, chock full of traditional Greek treats and
international favorites, too.
After breakfast, around mid-morning, you’ll be able to enjoy
a private (optional) guided walking tour to the city’s most famous landmarks,
including, of course, The Acropolis and Parthenon, and the Acropolis Museum.
It’s a great introduction to the city. There are numerous small museums you
might be interested in as well. One of my personal favorites is the
nearby Lalaounis Museum, devoted to the art of jewelry in Greece and one of
three of its kind in the world.
For lunch, I will take you to one of my favorite spots
– a hidden gem off the beaten track in the heart of the city.
In the late afternoon, we will head out for a fun cooking
demo and dinner with one of the city’s most renowned chefs.
Day 3: An Ancient City with a Modern Soul
Breakfast!
Today is our Food & Culture Walk morning and it’s a tour
that will stay with you forever! We will walk all over the center of Athens,
visiting famous landmarks, taking a look at the fascinating layers of
architecture that are part of Athens urban history, and also stopping in for
tastes of everything from pastries to cheeses, olive oils and more, as we
meander through the market area. You’ll understand the spirit of Athens through
its food, and get a taste of the city’s fascinating urban history between
each bite!
We will lunch together at another little hidden gem of a
place, one of my favorites, the kind of place that’s hard to stumble upon on
your own, giving you a real sense of local culture, Athens style.
After lunch you’ll have plenty of free time to rest or
wander, and we will provide plenty of pointers for where to go! Just a few
blocks, for example, you can stroll through Kolonaki, an upscale part of the
city, with lots of nice shops, boutiques, and prestigious haute couture from
Greek and international designers along with nice cafés, cute little
restaurants, and pastry shops. Kolonaki is the Upper East Sideof Athens, and
you’ll enjoy sauntering past its prewar and modernist architecture and enjoying
coffee and cocktail culture at its sidewalk eateries and cafes. We can arrange
a private shopping tour tailored to your tastes and desires, if you’d like! My
shopping maven knows where to find the best deals on just about everything, and
you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how sophisticated and cutting edge are so
many Greek designers.
Dinner! A taste of Modern Athens is on the menu, downtown at
a great local restaurant.
Day 4: Day Trip – Food, Wine & Antiquities Around Nemea
Early Breakfast.
After breakfast, we will take off for a day trip to the
Peloponnese, just an hour and a half from Athens. We’ll take you to one of Greece’s
most exquisite ancient theaters, Epidavros, where theater and wellness came
together in the ancient world. It I one of the most perfect and perfectly
preserved structures in all of Greece and to learn about how the ancients
connected art (drama and comedy) to healing is fascinating. The lush
greenery and surrounding coastal area and picturesque port are part of the
whole Epidavros experience.
From Epidavros, we will head to Nemea and to one of my
favorite wineries, for a wine tasting of some of the best Greek wines produced
today. Nemea is one of the most important wine regions in Greece, home to the
famed Agiogrhitiko noble red grape varietal. This region has Protected
Designation of Origin statues, and although we will have sipped plenty of great
wine before arriving here, this will be your first real dip into the
illustrious and unique world of Greek wines.
From the winery, we will head to lunch in the first capital
city of Greece, gorgeous Nafplion. You’ll have time to explore and shop, as
well as to enjoy a great meal of local specialties. I promise you’ll be
enchanted by Nafplion’s narrow winding streets, ancient walls, medieval
castles, monuments, fountains and wonderful location right on the water. You’ll
be able to take an optional food and culture tour of the city as well, before
we return to Athens in the later part of the day. Dinner is on your own this
evening.
Days 5 - Departure for Ikaria
We will fly to Ikaria in the early afternoon and settle into
our hotel. This is an easy, relaxing day and in the evening we will head to a
local taverna for a delicious, simple local meal as the sun sets on the
horizon. Around dinner, I’ll give you a brief introduction to the island and
its unique lifestyle, food and culture.
Day 6 – All About Ikarian Longevity
This day is devoted to giving you a taste of Ikarian
longevity and hospitality, of the island’s folkways and lifestyle! And,
of course, we’ll cook!
Together we will prepare a great, healthy meal based on
local, seasonal ingredients, some of them wild and foraged.
We’ll have time to relax in the afternoon before setting out
on a nature walk and visit to a small local monastery, where the tranquility of
the island is immediately apparent.
The evening will take us to a local taverna!
Day 7: Goats & Cheese, Curds & Whey
We’ll meet in the morning and head to the hills, so to
speak! Today is devoted to some of the things that have made the local diet so
unique, namely the prevalence of goat’s milk and cheese as one of the longevity
secrets of Ikarians! We’ll milk a few goats together with Diane’s friend and
local goatherd, then head back to the kitchen to make cheese and cook lunch.
The afternoon is free to relax.
That evening, we will have dinner on the water.
Day 8: Honey Time on Ikaria
I like to call this day Honey Time! We will visit a local
beekeeper and enjoy a fascinating and in-depth look at the amazing, intriguing,
complex community that are bees. We will also, of course, have a tasting of
delicious local honey and then head off for a pastry demo of Ikarian sweets
that call for local honey.
We will have lunch locally, then enjoy an afternoon to relax
before our last dinner on the island together, as the sun sets over the Aegean.
Day 9: Ikarian Hot Springs…then MYKONOS!
For anyone who is interested, we’ll visit the hot
springs early in the day for a dip in the famous “cave,” whichisone of the main
springs on the island. We will lunch locally in Therma, a charming throwback to
another era, before taking the ferry from Ikaria to Mykonos. We will arrive on
Mykonos in the late afternoon. It’s about 1 2-hour boat ride.
Leaving rural Ikaria behind, we’ll settle into seductive,
cosmopolitan Mykonos, and have some free time to wander in Mykonos town after
settling in and before dinner. We will take you to a favorite spot on Mykonos,
for a light snack and drinks…and an unforgettable sunset view.
We can easily end the night in “Chora” and wander around the
vibrant capital town. Stroll around the cobbled streets, enjoy breathtaking
views, and the magnificent windmills, the landmark of the island.
The pedestrian shopping streets of Chora and Matoyanni
Street, lined with brand name stores, small shops selling local products, chic
cafes, and stylish restaurants, beckon you to explore them. Mykonos is always
stunning, colorful, and welcoming!
Dinner arrangements TBA for our welcome dinner! No trip in
Mykonos would be complete without sampling the island’s sophisticated culinary
delights available!
Day 10: A Day Sailing to Delos, the Sacred Island, Rhenia
and, conditions permitting, Tinos
A boat tour of some of the most exquisite sites in the
Aegean is on the agenda for today!
Our first stop will be the sacred island of Delos,
mythological birthplace of Apollo, which was a major religious center and port
during the 1st millennium B.C. The island's ruins encompass Doric temples,
markets, an amphitheater, houses with mosaics and the iconic Terrace of the
Lions statues. Delos is truly one of the most mystical places in the whole
Aegean.
Next, we will sail to breathtaking Rhenia, which was
inhabited 7,000 years ago. Rhenia is our stop for an amazing swim at one of its
four gorgeous sand beaches. You’ve never seen a sea with the startling
blue-greens of Rhenia. We’ll have a snack and refreshments waiting for you on
board and then arrange a great lunch. Conditions permitting, we will sail to
Tinos, one of the most delicious islands in Greece, for that meal.
Our sail ends on the water at sunset, as we return to
Mykonos taking in the full pallet of blues, pinks, purples and oranges on the
horizon at sea!
The evening is a dip into Gourmet Mykonos, with a meal at
one of the island’s most famous haute cuisine eateries, and a true taste of
cosmopolitan Mykonos!
Day 11: Discover the Secrets of Seductive, Traditional
Mykonos
Today, it’s your choice --- relax and enjoy cosmopolitan
Mykonos or take a food and culture tour and savor a taste of Mykonos as it once
was, agrarian and traditional.
If you choose to taste the ageless local foods of the
island, we will take you to a local artisanal cheesemaker, then onto a great
cooking lesson with a well-known local home cook and teacher, who will share
the island’s most traditional recipes. We will have lunch there. You’ll
get a glimpse -- and taste -- of Mykonos as it once was, pre Jackie O!
In the evening we’ll wander around Little Venice, where you
can stroll in the narrow lanes, stop at one of its seaside bars for a cocktail
and savor an unforgettable sunset. Our final dinner on Mykonos will be a
delicious surprise, TBD.
Day 12: Free morning in Mykonos. Afternoon Travel Back to
Athens
Morning free!
Have a laid-back morning at the old port before checking out
and heading back to Athens. You'll stay near the airport to make the morning's
return easy!
Day 13 – Depart for Home
Itinerary at a
Glance:
- 4 Nights in Athens
& Environs - 4 Nights in Ikaria
- 3 Nights in Mykonos
- 1 Night in Athens
*If you cancel when your spot is confirmed and outside of 60 days until departure, you can receive a trip credit for your down payment minus the $100 cancellation fee.
