Don’t you suppose we’re a bit younger for a cruise?” my boyfriend stated once I floated the concept a couple of months in the past. Cruising is a bit Marmite: you’re both a mega fan or the considered it makes your toes curl. However to me it appeared the proper approach to discover Greece — a rustic with virtually 10,000 miles of shoreline the place vacationers are likely to congregate across the regular spots, reminiscent of Santorini and Corfu.
And there are much more vacationers than regular. Greece has bounced again after Covid, leapfrogging Italy to turn into the second hottest vacation vacation spot after Spain, with virtually 4 million Brits visiting every year. Excellent news for the Greek economic system, however dangerous for the remainder of us. Venturing additional afield for one thing a bit extra “genuine” usually requires MI6-levels of planning and navigation of hit-and-miss ferries.
Nevertheless it’s doable when you have another person to care for the planning, which is the place the cruise is available in. Particularly as as a substitute of selecting a 3,000-passenger ship we’re choosing a boutique cruise from the brand new firm Elixir, which — with a most of 48 passengers — guarantees to really feel extra like a non-public yacht constitution, with out the five-digit price ticket.
My reservations about cruising are pushed to the again of my thoughts as I board Elixir’s plucky blue and white Elysium on the Athens port of Lavrio. We study that — like Odysseus — our voyage has been blown off beam, by the seasonal meltemi winds that hit the Aegean in summer time. Which means as a substitute of a week-long journey across the Cyclades Islands, we’re heading west to circumnavigate the Peloponnese.
The deck has loads of room for eating and lounging
The 25 passengers on our cruise assemble within the Elysium’s cream lounge for an introduction from the ship’s head steward, Marco, who tells these dissatisfied by the change of itinerary that: “If we went to the Cyclades you’d all be throwing up in your cabins” — which appears to do the trick. Earlier than the ice has melted in our welcome cocktail we’re slicing via waves en path to Hydra, an island adored by Leonard Cohen, Henry Miller and Patrick Leigh Fermor.
The Elysium is the primary ship within the Elixir fleet, which was based by the trade veteran Ioannis Terdimos and his former spouse, Manya Louvari; it accomplished its first summer time sailings this yr. Terdimos purchased the ship on the peak of the Covid pandemic, when the trade’s repute was on stormy seas and cruise ships had been being likened to floating petri dishes.
“Our mates thought we had been completely loopy, however for me the timing was excellent,” Terdimos tells me from his common seat on the Elysium’s sundeck. As a result of the trade was at a standstill he was capable of negotiate an amazingly good value for the ship, beforehand utilized by Superstar Cruises to sail the Galapagos Islands. He and Louvari then shelled out a six-figure sum to improve it.
Elafonisi seaside, Elafonisos
GETTY IMAGES
“I’ve spent a few years within the cruise trade, observing all of the errors that totally different corporations had been making,” Terdimos says. “Issues like waking up within the morning and having an early breakfast till 9am and having to eat it within the ship’s eating room. Right here you’ll be able to seize a plate and eat wherever — once I’m on my holidays I don’t need stress.”
There’s not one of the tackiness or glitz you would possibly affiliate with cruising. The vibe is younger and relaxed — workers put on T-shirts, Birkenstock sandals and billowing harem pants; some have tattoos and piercings. The workers captain, Marianthi Kasdagli, was already a little bit of a celeb in her personal proper, and now shares images and movies of life on the Elysium together with her 100,000 Instagram followers.
Nightfall falls and Hydra comes into view, its pastel-coloured homes cascading all the way down to the harbour. Forkfuls of moussaka are dropped within the eating room as all of us run to look at the solar set behind the superyachts. We disembark simply in time for an ice cream and a potter across the arty previous city, the place I come throughout an open-air cinema tucked between homes — I make a promise to return and catch a movie there in the future.
I take to the cruising life-style like a duck to water. There’s yoga on deck at 8.30am (balancing within the tree pose is quite a bit trickier on a transferring vessel), adopted by breakfast then a day by day swim cease. There’s even a spa. Sooner or later I arrive again on the ship to be served some charred octopus and a shot of ouzo. Lunch is salad and grilled meats, eaten within the shade on deck. It actually seems like a non-public yacht, with primarily {couples} and a bunch of mates on board — we’re not even the youngest.
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We drop anchor in small bays that huge cruise ships can’t entry, dwelling to solitary bars with younger waiters eager to practise their English. Some days we lunch ashore in a café: salad topped with a pavement slab of feta, accompanied by a chilly Mythos lager.
Pilates is at 5pm, then there’s simply sufficient time for a cocktail earlier than we pull into port for dinner. One other plus: it’s not full board, which means you may be versatile with the place you eat. Some friends plump for sensible locations, however we’re happiest with a plate of fried fish and a carafe of native wine at a pleasant harbourside taverna that’ll provide you with change from €50.
Cabins are spacious, with wooden panelling and the breezy blue and white interiors ubiquitous in Greece. My boyfriend and I’ve nice enjoyable rolling up the blind every morning to see surf fizzing previous our window, questioning the place we’ve woken up. We play some sea shanties on our telephones and bounce up and down — even huge youngsters love being on the water.
The view from the highest of Monemvasia with the Elysium on the fitting
KATIE GATENS
Seeing the medieval walled city of Monemvasia in Laconia slide into view one night seems like stumbling upon a Hollywood blockbuster movie set. Based within the sixth century, adopted by a interval ping-ponging between the Venetians and Ottomans, it’s certainly one of Europe’s oldest repeatedly inhabited cities, on an island, accessed by way of a small bridge from the mainland. The decrease city is a labyrinth of streets full of Byzantine church buildings and medieval ruins, and a path results in the higher previous city. We hike previous foundations of historical homes, the air heavy with the scent of sap and pine cones rattling throughout our path, then head to the acropolis for a sweeping view of the bay and scrub-covered mountains of the Peloponnese.
Different highlights embody seeing dolphins play alongside the ship within the Bay of Corinth and a cease on the sandy buttercream-coloured dunes of Elafonisos to splash within the shallows. We might not in any other case have visited Pylos and Gytheio, the place we take a taxi to the ghostly Dimitrios shipwreck alongside the coast — the rust-red hull pockmarked with cavities, dissolving into the ocean. There’s additionally an tour to Delphi, an historical web site within the shade of Mount Parnassus, the place the legendary oracle as soon as instructed the fates of 1000’s of historical Greeks within the basement of the Temple of Apollo.
The Temple of Apollo, Delphi
KATIE GATENS
In the direction of the top of our ten-day journey the island of Ithaca comes into view, twisting within the Ionian Sea like a query mark. It’s a dramatic sight: forested mountains plunge vertically into an inky ocean that has impressed numerous tales of sea monsters and sirens. I’m reminded of Odysseus and his ten-year quest to succeed in this fabled land.
My very own journey won’t have gone precisely in line with plan both, nevertheless it seems that I fairly favored with the ability to waft.
Katie Gatens was a visitor of British Airways (ba.com) and Elixir Cruises, which has seven nights’ half-board on an Historic Paths voyage from £2,178pp (elixir.cruises). Fly to Athens
