(7N/8D) – Greece – Athens , Mykonos and Santorin

Athens

Acropolis Views

The magnificent Acropolis, visible from almost every part of the city, is the hub around which Athens still revolves. This temple city, built in the 5th century BC, serves as a daily reminder to Greeks of their heritage and the city’s many transformations. All over the urban basin, rooftops and balconies angle toward the landmark, a block of milky marble atop a steep-sided hill. Pull up your own chair, settle in and allow time to appreciate the Acropolis’ many moods, as the light shifts and the clouds cast their shifting shadows.

Layers of History

The cultural and social life of Athens plays out amid, around and in landmarks that are centuries old, if not millennia. The remnants of Ancient Greece get the most attention, of course, thanks to a little thing called democracy. Oh, and mythology, and drama, and philosophy. But don’t overlook the ‘later’ years: thousand-year-old Byzantine churches, for instance, which squat, unruffled in the middle of streets and attached to hillsides. Ottoman traces can be seen in architecture and in food. And the neoclassical style of the 19th century adds elegance all over the centre.

Mykonos

Mykonos is the great glamour island of Greece and flaunts its sizzling St-Tropez-meets-Ibiza style and party-hard reputation. The high-season mix of hedonistic holidaymakers, cruise-ship crowds and posturing fashionistas throngs Mykonos Town (aka Hora), a gorgeous whitewashed Cycladic maze, delighting in its cubist charms and its chichi cafe-bar-boutique scene.The island is maxed out with cashed-up (or spendthrift) visitors, hip hotels, beach bars and restaurants. There are a few provisos about visiting here. Come only if you are prepared to pay. And are intent on jostling with street crowds. And sitting bum cheek to cheek with oiled-up loungers at the packed main beaches. Oh, and partying relentlessly.

Santorini

If you approach Santorini from the water, it’s hard not to be awed by the sheer cliffs that soar above a turquoise sea, by the fact that you’re sailing in an immense crater of a drowned volcano and that before you lies an island shaped by an ancient eruption cataclysmic beyond imagining.

Day 01 : Arrival At Athens