Cruising the Cyclades

Cruising the Cyclades Overview

A unique opportunity to explore the islands of the Cyclades aboard a Greek gulet with a maximum of just 12 guests.

For most of us, islands are things you sail to, something distant and exotic, a place away from here that grows on the horizon. And, of course a lot of that’s true, especially on a trip like this where each day brings a new marvel, a new seascape filled with other islands, or one apparently far from everything. There’ll be hidden quiet coves where there’s no noise but the splash of swimming, or busy little havens where houses of all hues stand happily in polychrome tiers throwing themselves against a hillside and threaded with winding lanes that disappear into enchantingly mysterious nooks. There’ll be volcanic landscapes and the relics of prehistoric civilizations, masterpieces of ancient Greek art and architecture, landscapes unmoored from other planets, and the forbidding blank walls of fortified places of worship. So yes, this is a tour that more than answers the desire for a peaceful odyssey: some new memorable book to be written in the memory with every passing day. But in some ways its quite the wrong way to look at the Cyclades. Because for great swathes of history, they’re not at the fringe at all. Far from being the record’s edge, they’re the spindle around which everything revolves, around which the music is made. And that is the other strand that makes this such a fascinating tour. It might not be the story that’s usually told, but these pretty islands, famed now for their gleaming white villages and pretty windmills, have often been at the core of Greek history and culture, right back to its very beginnings. As a result, our tour will have a layer upon layer of history to tell, with experts to do it justice, and a rich seam of art and culture to explore. We’ll have the Bronze Age world of the Cycladic Culture, precocious seafarers and artists famed for inspiring those of more recent times with their magnificently distinctive sculpture; the venturesome Greek cities of the Archaic period whose ambition produced some of the most breath-taking experiments in her art and architecture, brilliant pulses that supercharged the Greek world long before Athens’ dominance; and, as Greece took its place in an ever more interconnected Mediterranean, we’ll encounter the staggering remains of the greatest trading centres of the ancient world just as Rome entered it. There’s more to tell – frescoed Byzantine churches, Venetian castles, prosperous neoclassical mansions, but that’s surely enough to tempt you to make the crossing. This is a tour that allows you to expansively sample the full breadth of the Cyclades’ history. You’ll discover historical powerhouses that few know exist as well as secluded villages where tradition marks every sinuous alley and which it takes a lifetime, or a passionate guide, to find; you’ll see sights renowned around the world like the awe-inspiring island of Santorini, and have the time to relax and think about them at a sublime islet that rarely sees a living soul and keeps its beauty to itself. An island is always a chapter in itself, and a destination in someone else’s tale. Here, you get to see both in a truly rich compendium.