Greek Island Explorer - Small Group - From £2,092

Arriving in Athens, you can follow your curiosity through the city of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, where ancient columns are scattered throughout the streets of the modern capital. With free time to choose your own route, you might follow pedestrian streets past archaeological sites, pause over chipped inscriptions, carved faces and fluted columns worn smooth in places by centuries. Later, meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers.

At the Acropolis, you'll climb with your Local Specialist through temples and ancient theatre terraces towards the Parthenon, with Athens spreading far below. Continue past the Panathinaiko Olympic Stadium, Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch before reaching Syntagma Square and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here, you may catch the Evzones changing guard, their pleated foustanella fanning with each sweeping movement as their metal-studded tsarouchia click against the ground. The afternoon is yours to choose: travel to Sounion on an Optional Experience and stand beside the 5th-century BC Temple of Poseidon on its rocky headland above the Aegean, visit a turtle sanctuary on a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Optional Experience. Back in Athens, the sizzle of street food follows you through Psiri, where you can join your fellow travellers for an Optional Experience and a traditional dinner.

The high-speed ferry leaves Athens behind and carries you across the Aegean to Mykonos. After transferring to your hotel, join a short walking orientation before choosing your own route through the island. In Chora, cobalt shutters cut through the white of the houses, wooden balconies lean above narrow stone-paved lanes and small chapels sit between them. Follow whichever turn tempts you, perhaps towards the waterfront, perhaps further into the tangle of streets. Or choose an Optional Experience with a Local Specialist and explore Chora through its food, tasting local favourites from stop to stop as you hear the stories behind what’s on your plate. The rest of Mykonos is yours, with time for another turning, another sip and as much of the Aegean as you care to seek out.

Leave Chora behind and cross Mykonos’s dry interior on an Optional Island Tour, where low stone walls and pale hills lead you towards Ano Mera. You'll step inside the 16th-century monastery of Panagia Tourliani and take in its richly carved wooden icon screen, crowded with gilded detail and painted saints. From the village, you'll continue towards the coast and some of Mykonos’s Blue Flag beaches. Walk down to the sand, wade into the Aegean and swim with the white curve of the beach behind you. Afterwards, the island is yours again, whether you stay by the water or head back towards town.

A final morning in Mykonos is yours before you board the ferry for Naxos, with the Aegean stretching between one island and the next. Once ashore, you'll join an orientation through Naxos Town, moving from the harbour into the old quarter where Venetian stonework, arched passages and the Kastro sit above the waterfront. With the rest of the day free, you might stay near the harbour, listening to the water lap against the quay as you follow the waterfront, or turn inland towards the old quarter and follow the arched stone passages beneath the Kastro. This evening, perhaps choose an Optional Experience and join a Naxian cooking lesson. Roll up your sleeves and cook alongside your hosts.

Today, Naxos is yours to explore at your own pace, from the streets of town to the Aegean beyond the shore. Perhaps begin in town, browsing the small shops before heading for the shore and wading into the Aegean, where the beach falls quiet behind you as you swim beyond the shallows. Maybe you'll choose a seaside taverna and share lunch as boats drift across the bay. Or choose an Optional Experience and travel deeper into Naxos, leaving the seafront for mountain country where olive trees, vines and fruit groves fill fertile valleys between traditional villages. Watch the landscape change around you as the road climbs inland, then return with the rest of the day still yours.

Across the Aegean, you’ll hear the low thrum of the ferry as Santorini’s dark volcanic cliffs fill the horizon, crowned by white villages high above the water. After checking in, follow the edge of the caldera and look down into its immense blue basin, with cave houses cut into the rock and church domes punctuating the cliffs. This evening, perhaps choose an Optional Experience and taste Santorini wines grown in volcanic soil, crisp and mineral on the palate. Then continue to Oia, where narrow passages weave between cave houses and old Captains’ mansions, blue domes sit above the caldera and the last light softens the white façades around you.

Today, you can trace Santorini’s Bronze Age past beyond the caldera. Choose the Santorini Island Tour Optional Experience and walk into Akrotiri, following Bronze Age streets between houses, stairways and enormous storage jars preserved beneath volcanic ash for thousands of years. Continue to Megalochori, where cobbled paths slip between old houses, elaborate church towers and vineyards beyond the village. Or spend the day on the water aboard a catamaran, sailing through the caldera before diving in for a swim and slipping on a snorkel while shafts of light break across the water above you. This evening, return to Oia and make your way through its marble-paved streets as the sun descends behind the Aegean.

Your Greek journey ends in Santorini today as you say goodbye to your Travel Director and fellow travellers. After nine days of ancient sites, island crossings and shared experiences, it’s time to head home with plenty of memories to take with you.