Spring · Summer · Autumn
Antiquity & Aegean
Athens after hours, then a Cycladic island held at arm's length from the crowds.
The idea
Two nights of marble, four of salt
Most first trips to Greece do Athens badly and the islands generically. This one does the opposite: the city compressed into two well-guided days, then a Cycladic island held long enough to stop being a postcard.
Everything is private. Your own vehicle and driver, your own archaeologist, your own caïque for a day. Hotels are small, owner-run and chosen because we have slept in them — twelve to twenty rooms, never a chain.
It works from April to late October, and best either side of high summer, when the light is long and the sites are yours before nine.
Day by day
Seven days
Day 1
Arrive Athens
Met airside, private transfer to a small house in Plaka or Kolonaki. Nothing scheduled but a late table in a neighbourhood the guidebooks skip.
Day 2
The Acropolis, privately — and Cape Sounion
A licensed archaeologist on the rock before the gates open to the public, the new Acropolis Museum after, then a drive down the Apollo coast to the Temple of Poseidon for sunset.
Day 3
To the Cyclades
A morning ferry or short flight to Naxos or Santorini, met at the port and settled into your boutique hotel by lunch. The afternoon is yours.
Day 4
A private caïque day
A traditional wooden caïque and skipper for the day: empty coves, a swim off the stern, lunch cooked aboard or at a taverna reachable only by sea.
Day 5
The island inland
Marble villages, a Venetian tower, an olive press and a lunch table set under a plane tree. Kitchen time with a local cook if that appeals.
Day 6
One island hop
A day across the water — Delos and its sanctuary, or the lunar shore of Milos — returning by early evening for dinner held for you.
Day 7
Slow morning, return
Breakfast unhurried, a last swim, private transfer and assisted check-in for the flight home via Athens.
Where you stay
The properties
Boutique only. Named properties are confirmed at the point of enquiry, according to your dates and party — these are the standards we work to.
A townhouse in Athens
Eighteen rooms behind a neoclassical facade, five minutes' walk from the rock. Roof terrace, no lobby noise.
A Cycladic hideaway
A dozen suites cut into the hillside, plunge pools, an owner who cooks breakfast. Adults quiet by design.
A village guesthouse
Optional inland night in a restored stone house — the version of the island residents keep for themselves.
Included
What is handled for you
If it is not on this list and you want it, it can usually be arranged. That is rather the point.
- Private van and driver on demand, airport to island and back
- Licensed archaeological guides at the Acropolis, Sounion and Delos
- Boutique accommodation throughout — roughly €800 a night for a family, or €400 per double room for two couples
- A full private caïque day with skipper, fuel and lunch
- Curated dining: tables held, kitchens briefed, dietary needs handled quietly
- Ferry or flight logistics, port meet-and-greet, luggage handled
- One direct number in Greece, answered, for the length of your trip
Indicative price
From €5,000 per person
From €20,000 for a family of four
Based on boutique accommodation at roughly €800 a night for a family, or €400 per double room for two couples, with private transfers, guiding and the caïque day included. Flights excluded.