Day-by-day programme of this 12-day itinerary across Athens and the Cyclades islands.
Day 1 — Arrival in Athens
You land in Athens and ease in with an evening in the old town, among the lanes of Plaka and the tables of Monastiraki, the floodlit Parthenon as a backdrop. Tomorrow morning the Acropolis at opening, then the first ferry to the Cyclades.
- ✈️ Athens — Aeroporto di Atene Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH)
- 📍 Plaka — Athens' oldest quarter, at the foot of the Acropolis, is the gentle way into the trip: narrow alleys, open-air tavernas, Byzantine chapels among the shops and bougainvillea on neoclassical balconies. You wander without a plan until, at the end of a lane, the floodlit Parthenon appears. In the evening the air cools and the city lights up; Plaka to Monastiraki is a short walk, and right there, among the tables on the square, your first Greek dinner awaits.
- 🍽️ O Thanasis — A Monastiraki institution since 1964: chargrilled lamb kebab on warm pita with tomato and onion, served at a brisk pace at tables spilling onto the square. A light bill, no frills and the bustle of Athens as the show: the perfect baptism of Greek cooking, finished with yogurt and honey. Then a short stroll to the hotel and early to bed: tomorrow you climb the Acropolis at first light, before sailing for Mykonos.
- 🏨 Plaka Hotel — Plaka / Monastiraki, Atene
Day 2 — The Acropolis and the ferry to Mykonos
The Acropolis at opening to beat the heat and crowds, then down to Piraeus and onto the fast ferry to Mykonos. By afternoon you reach the island of the windmills: check in and a first stroll through Chora at sunset.
- 📍 Acropolis of Athens — You climb through the olive trees, pass the Propylaea and the Parthenon appears all at once, golden and immense, completed in 438 BC and still able to silence the crowd. Beside it, the Erechtheion with its porch of the Caryatids stands where — myth says — Poseidon struck his trident and Athena raised the olive tree. Arrive at opening, tickets bought online: three million visitors a year show no mercy. From the terrace, all of Athens down to the sea — and from that sea, in a few hours, you will sail. You head down, grab your bags and the metro takes you straight to Piraeus port.
- ✈️ Piraeus Port → Mykonos — Porto Nuovo di Mykonos (Tourlos)
- 📍 Mykonos Town (Chora) — Mykonos' Chora is a white labyrinth designed to lose pirates — and today, tourists: forking lanes, doors and railings painted blue and red, purple bougainvillea and cats everywhere. You slip in without a map along Matogianni, the street of shops and cafés, emerge onto an unexpected little square, double back. As the light turns golden, everyone drifts towards the water's edge: the windmills and the Little Venice quarter await the sunset. Go too, it is just steps away.
- 📍 Windmills of Mykonos (Kato Mili) — Seven white windmills in a row on the rise above the harbour: in the 1500s they ground grain using the meltemi, the north wind, and today they are the postcard of Mykonos. Below, Little Venice: a row of Venetian houses built flush with the water, wooden balconies the waves almost reach and bars setting tables on the rocks. You sit with a glass in hand as the sun sinks into the Aegean and the mills turn black against the light. Then dinner in a Chora lane and to bed: early start tomorrow, you sail to the sacred island of Delos.
- 🏨 Mykonos Chora Apartments — Chora, Mykonos
Day 3 — Delos, the sacred island
In the morning the boat trip to Delos, the archaeological island-site where myth says Apollo and Artemis were born, deserted and dazzling. An afternoon by the sea on one of Mykonos' beaches and a last evening among the white lanes.
- 🎯 Delos — A small boat leaves Mykonos' old port and in half an hour lands on an island inhabited by no one but the lizards: Delos, where myth places the birth of Apollo and Artemis and where for centuries the whole Mediterranean did business. You walk among the remains of a ghost city — the Terrace of the Lions, the mosaics of the merchants' houses, the theatre, the Hellenistic quarter — sea all around and not a tree for shade (hat and water essential). A UNESCO site, it is the most evocative spot in the Cyclades. The boat returns to Mykonos for lunch; the afternoon is for the sea.
- 📍 Paraga Beach — Mykonos has a beach for every temperament, and Paraga is the right compromise: a crescent of sand with clear water, a couple of laid-back beach bars and side rocks for those after a quieter corner. From here the nearby Platis Gialos and Ornos are an easy bus or scooter away if you fancy a change. An afternoon of swims and idleness, after the morning among the stones of Delos, is exactly the right Cycladic rhythm. At sunset you head back to Chora for Mykonos' last dinner.
- 🍽️ Kiki's Tavern Mykonos — The island's most loved and most anti-Mykonos taverna: no sign, no electricity, no reservations — just a charcoal grill above Agios Sostis beach, a shady pergola and a patient queue. Grilled meat and fish, garden salads, house wine: the real Mykonos, the one that holds out beside the glossy version. If the queue is long (it is), a cold beer eases the wait with a sea view. Tomorrow you bid the windmill island farewell: a ferry to Naxos, the largest and greenest of the Cyclades.
Day 4 — Ferry to Naxos
A short ferry to Naxos, the largest and most self-sufficient of the Cyclades. An afternoon in Chora, between the Venetian castle and the port, and sunset at the Portara, the giant doorway of Apollo's unfinished temple.
- ✈️ Mykonos New Port → Naxos — Porto di Naxos (Chora)
- 📍 Naxos Castle (Kastro) — Naxos' Chora spirals up from the port to the Kastro, the Venetian citadel built in the 1200s by Marco Sanudo: arches vaulting the lanes, noble coats of arms over doorways, the tower and a country-town calm that makes it feel more 'lived-in' than its neighbours. You lose yourself in the covered passages, emerge onto tiny squares, drop towards the port following the scent of tavernas. Towards evening you set off along the causeway to the islet of Palatia: there at the end, against the sky, stands the Portara.
- 📍 Portara of Naxos — A single marble doorway, six metres high and twenty tonnes heavy, planted on an islet before the harbour: it is all that was built of a colossal 6th-century BC temple of Apollo, abandoned half-done and never finished. You walk out along the causeway, sit on the rocks and wait for the sun to set exactly within the frame of the door, the white houses of Chora glowing gold behind you. It is Naxos' evening ritual, free and unforgettable. Then down to the waterfront for a seafood dinner.
- 🏨 Elite Suites Naxos — Chora, Naxos
Day 5 — The mountain villages of Naxos
A loop through the mountainous interior of Naxos, the greenest of the Cyclades: stone villages, kitron distilleries, Venetian towers and the Temple of Demeter among the fields. Naxos satisfies anyone after more than just the beach.
- 📍 Halki — The old capital of Naxos, in the green heart of the Tragea valley — a sea of ancient olive trees and Venetian towers — Halki is a village of neoclassical houses faded by time, artisan workshops and deep calm. A must is the Vallindras distillery, founded 1896, where they make kitron, the island's citron liqueur: a free tasting of the three colours (green, yellow, clear). You stroll it in an hour, between a Byzantine chapel and a shaded café. Then the car climbs further, towards the perched village of Filoti.
- 📍 Apiranthos — Naxos' most beautiful village, at 600 metres on the flank of Mount Fanari: lanes entirely paved in local marble (here marble is so common they floor the streets with it), stone houses, stairways and arches, and a dialect said to still carry Cretan traces from the refugees who founded it. The café terraces look out over the valley to the sea. You stroll slowly, buy thyme honey, lunch in a family-run taverna. Heading back to Chora you turn off across the fields of Sangri, where a solitary temple awaits.
- 📍 Temple of Demeter (Sangri) — In the middle of a cultivated plateau, far from everything, stands a small white marble temple of the 6th century BC dedicated to Demeter, goddess of the harvest: a fitting choice, since all around is wheat and olives. It has been partly rebuilt from its original pieces, and the solitude of the place — only wind and cicadas — makes it far more moving than many crowded sites. Few visitors, a token entry fee, half an hour of absolute peace. Then back towards the sea for an evening swim before dinner in Chora.
Day 6 — Naxos beaches and Koufonisia
A beach day: the long pale-sand beaches of Naxos' west coast — among the few sandy ones in the Cyclades — or the boat trip to tiny Koufonisia, with its coves of clear water. Slow pace, as it should be.
- 📍 Plaka Beach (Naxos) — Naxos' west coast offers what many Greek islands lack: kilometres of true golden sand and shallow water. Plaka is the loveliest of the row — four kilometres of broad beach, tamarisk-fringed dunes, turquoise water and a healthy mix of organised stretches and wide free spaces to lay your towel far from everyone. To the north, livelier Agia Anna and Agios Prokopios, a quarter-hour away; to the south, the wild coves of Aliko among the cedars. A day of swims, tamarisk shade and lunch at a beach bar: Cycladic summer at its best.
- 🍽️ Banana Beach Bar Naxos — Lunch barefoot on the sand of Plaka: Greek salad with Naxos feta (the island makes cheeses famous across Greece), grilled octopus, island potatoes, a carafe of cool white wine and your feet nearly in the water. The beach bars of this coast all share the same winning recipe — simplicity, shade and the sea right there — at honest prices. Afterwards, another hour of swims as the sun moves round, then a slow return to Chora. Tomorrow you leave Naxos: a very short ferry to Paros, the island of white harbours.
Day 7 — Ferry to Paros
A short ferry to Paros. An afternoon in the capital Parikia, around the Byzantine 'church of a hundred doors', and evening in enchanting Naoussa, the fishing village turned the Cyclades' living room.
- ✈️ Naxos Port → Paros — Porto di Parikia, Paros
- 📍 Panagia Ekatontapiliani — The 'church of a hundred doors' is one of the best-preserved early-Christian complexes in Greece: founded in the 4th century, tradition holds it has 99 doors and that the hundredth will appear when Constantinople is Greek again. Inside, cool dimness, silver icons, the 4th-century immersion baptistery and a stone courtyard that invites a pause. It is the spiritual heart of Parikia, steps from the port. A short, quiet visit, then you wander the white maze of the centre and head north: ten kilometres and you reach Naoussa for sunset.
- 📍 Naoussa — The postcard image of the Cyclades: a fishing harbour with colourful boats, the remains of a half-sunken Venetian fort you reach by hopping across the rocks, and a maze of white lanes behind that fills in the evening with tables, boutiques and workshops. Naoussa is chic yet still authentic: fishermen sell their catch on the quay in the morning, the restaurants cook it metres away at night. You sit at the harbour with an ouzo as the sun drops behind the boats. Minutes away, the beaches of Kolymbithres with their wind-sculpted rocks.
- 🏨 Naoussa Hotel Paros by Booking Kottas — Naoussa / Parikia, Paros
Day 8 — Lefkes, Antiparos and the beaches
A morning in the mountain village of Lefkes, then a few-minute ferry to nearby Antiparos, a quiet smaller island with its Venetian castle and beaches. An afternoon by the sea and a last evening in Naoussa.
- 📍 Lefkes — Perched on Paros' inland hills, Lefkes was the island's capital when pirates made the coast dangerous: a cluster of white houses, marble bell towers and stepped lanes so tangled they were meant to confuse attackers. Today it is a silent jewel of bougainvillea, fountains and cats, with a couple of shady cafés overlooking the valley that runs down to the sea. From here starts the 'Byzantine Road', the ancient marble-paved path linking Lefkes to Prodromos. A stroll, an iced coffee and then down to the port: Antiparos is a six-minute ferry away.
- 📍 Antiparos — The name means 'opposite Paros', and a short ferry is all it takes to change pace: Antiparos is the small, slow, barefoot version of its neighbour. The Chora is a single white street with a 16th-century Venetian castle hidden at its centre, the houses built around the walls like a shell. You lunch at the port on the day's catch, swim in one of the quiet coves minutes away, and those with time descend into the great stalactite cave inland. It is the island many travellers end up loving more than Paros. In late afternoon you head back to Naoussa for the last evening.
- 🍽️ Taverna Glafkos Naoussa — A last seafood dinner at the harbour of Naoussa, tables almost on the water and the fishing boats bobbing a metre away: local prawns, grilled octopus, the day's catch landed right there and a bottle of iced assyrtiko. It is the Cycladic evening ritual in its purest form — warm light, black sea, ouzo to finish. Tomorrow you leave Paros for the final and most spectacular stop: the ferry to Santorini and its caldera.
Day 9 — Ferry to Santorini
A ferry south to Santorini: arriving at the port beneath the volcanic cliff is a thrill in itself. Check in at Fira, the capital clinging to the rim of the caldera, and a first evening with the panoramic walk up to Firostefani.
- ✈️ Parikia Port → Santorini — Porto di Athinios, Santorini
- 📍 Fira — Santorini isn't an island, it's the rim of a volcano that exploded 3,600 years ago: the caldera is the submerged crater, and Fira is the capital hung 300 metres on its edge. You walk the panoramic path among blue domes, hotels carved into the rock and terraces sheer above the blue, the cliff plunging into the darkest sea with the volcanic islets at the centre. The walk from Fira to Firostefani and Imerovigli is one of the loveliest in Greece: every bend opens a new view. At sunset the whole caldera turns pink: you stop on a terrace and watch.
- 🏨 Kavalari Hotel — Fira, Santorini
Day 10 — Oia and the caldera cruise
A boat cruise inside the caldera: the smoking volcano of Nea Kameni, the thermal springs and the islets. In late afternoon you climb to Oia, the village of blue domes, for the most photographed sunset in the Mediterranean.
- 🎯 Nea Kameni — The best way to understand Santorini is to go inside it: a sailing boat or caique leaves the old port and crosses the caldera to the black islet of Nea Kameni, the heart of the still-active volcano. You climb on foot up the smoking crater among the lava rocks, smell the sulphur and look at the caldera from within, the white cliffs of the villages all around. Nearby, the thermal springs of Palea Kameni, where you swim in rust-coloured water warmed by the volcano. Afternoon cruises end out at sea for the sunset: but today you get off earlier, to experience Oia from land.
- 📍 Oia — At the island's northern tip, Oia is the Santorini of the postcards: white houses and blue domes carved into the cliff, windmills, marble lanes and a light that turns unreal at sunset. It is beautiful and it knows it: in the evening the coaches arrive and everyone crowds towards the old Byzantine castle for 'the' sunset. The trick is to come early, lose yourself in the side lanes — where the views are just as lovely but deserted — and perhaps descend the 300 steps to the little harbour of Amoudi Bay. When the sun sinks into the Aegean, crowds and all, it is one of those things you remember forever.
- 🍽️ Amoudi Bay — Three hundred steps below Oia, at the water's edge, the little port of Amoudi is the secret flip side of the splendour above: a handful of fish tavernas built on the red rock, tables nearly in the waves and the catch laid out on ice to choose by eye. Octopus drying in the sun, prawns, lobster with pasta: you dine with your feet almost in the water as the sky finishes fading behind Thirassia. You can walk down or scooter; to climb back, legs or a taxi. Tomorrow the last full day: the ruins of Akrotiri and the volcanic wine.
Day 11 — Akrotiri, Ancient Thera and the wine
A last full day of history and flavour: the Bronze Age city of Akrotiri, buried and preserved by the eruption, the red and black volcanic beaches, and a winery to taste Assyrtiko, the wine that grows coiled on the ash. A farewell evening on the caldera.
- 📍 Akrotiri — The 'Pompeii of the Aegean': a Bronze Age Minoan city, thriving 3,600 years ago, buried in an instant by the very eruption that created the caldera — and so prodigiously preserved under the ash. You walk on covered walkways among three-storey houses with intact windows, streets, remarkably advanced drainage and great storage jars still in place. No skeletons were found: the inhabitants had time to flee. The finest frescoes are in the Fira museum. An hour that leaves you stunned. On the way out, the volcanic beaches are minutes away.
- 📍 Red Beach — Minutes from Akrotiri, a cliff of rust-red lava plunges onto a crescent of red sand and pebbles, lapped by water so intensely blue it looks fake: Red Beach is one of Santorini's most surreal sights. The contrast of red and sea is worth the short walk along the path (watch for landslides: stop where it's safe). For those who just want to swim, the nearby black beaches of Perissa and Perivolos, on the other side, have fine volcanic sand and full facilities. A swim, a light lunch and then up among the vineyards.
- 🎯 Santo Wines — Santorini makes a wine unlike anywhere else: the vine grows coiled on the ground in baskets of shoots, the 'kouloura', to shield the grapes from the wind and catch the night's moisture, on soil that is pure ash and pumice. From it comes Assyrtiko, a sharp, mineral white, and sweet Vinsanto from sun-dried grapes. The Santo Wines cooperative has the island's most scenic terrace, sheer above the caldera: you taste five or six glasses at sunset, with Santorini cherry-tomato crostini and the cliff turning gold. The perfect farewell aperitif. Tonight, dinner is wherever your heart takes you.
Day 12 — Home from Santorini
An unhurried morning, breakfast with a caldera view and a last wander among the white lanes before the flight home. In summer there are direct flights from Santorini to Italy, otherwise a quick connection in Athens.
- ✈️ Santorini — Aeroporto di Milano Malpensa (MXP)
