Greek islands cruises carry guests on a circuit of Aegean islands, with a night at sea and a stop by day at each port. Anyone who wants land days beside a sailing can add tours in Greece to the trip.
This page covers what Greek islands cruises are, the port of Piraeus, how long they last, the Saronic Gulf, Santorini, Mykonos and Delos, Crete and Rhodes, Patmos, Kos and Samos, Kusadasi and Ephesus, the longer Mediterranean sailings, the sailing season and the land tours that go with them.
What are Greek islands cruises?
Greek islands cruises are round trips on a cruise ship that stops at islands of the Aegean Sea. Wikipedia calls a cruise ship a large passenger ship used mainly for vacations, with port stops for shore excursions.
The Aegean branches off the Mediterranean Sea, with the Balkans on one side and Anatolia on the other. Wikipedia puts its size at 215,000 square kilometres. Its islands helped link Europe and Asia in the past. The cruise lines in our sources list stops in two groups of these islands, the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.
On Greek islands cruises the ship is also the hotel. Wikipedia says cruise ships are run much like floating hotels, with a complete hospitality staff. One cruise line says its guests explore all day, dine on land, then sail through the night. A day boat is a one-day trip without that night aboard.
Cruising to Athens is an old idea. Wikipedia says the world’s oldest cruise line began its passenger cruises in the eighteen-forties. Its sea tours went to Gibraltar, Malta and Athens. The boat trips on this site sit in our tours and cruises section.
Greek islands cruises call at the Cyclades, which lie southeast of the Greek mainland. Wikipedia counts about 220 islands there, among them Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Milos and Santorini. The word Cyclades points to a circle, because the islands ring Delos. Naxos is the largest island, and Syros, with the chief town Ermoupoli, has the largest population.
Greek islands cruises also reach the Dodecanese, a group of 15 larger islands in the southeastern Aegean. The name means twelve islands. Wikipedia says Turkey lies east of the group, the Cyclades west of it and Crete southwest. Rhodes is the leading island in the group, with Kos and Patmos ranking after it in history.
Which port do Greek islands cruises leave from?
Greek islands cruises from Athens leave from Piraeus. Wikipedia calls it the chief seaport for Athens and says no other Greek port is bigger. The port lies on the Saronic Gulf, along the western side of the Aegean.
Piraeus has served as the port of Athens since ancient times. Until the third millennium B.C. it was a rocky island, and silting later joined it to the mainland. In the fifth century B.C., Themistocles began to fortify it, and the Athenian fleet moved there. Wikipedia says the port is now one of the largest in Europe.
Greek islands cruises use the cruise port inside Piraeus. Wikipedia says the cruise port has 11 berths for ships and three terminals, labelled A, B and C. Terminal A is the main hall and stays open day and night. About a third of cruise sailings are home ported at Piraeus, so those trips start and end there.
The capital and biggest city of Greece is Athens, and Piraeus serves as its port. Wikipedia gives the Athens urban area over 3.6 million people. One travel blog puts the port about 25 minutes from the centre of Athens. One cruise line says guests can add time in Athens before or after the sailing.
Other ports start Greek islands cruises too. One travel blog lists Lavrion for a three-day and a four-day cruise. It lists Piraeus or Thessaloniki for a seven-day one. Wikipedia places Lavrion, also spelled Lavrio, about 60 km southeast of the centre of Athens. The same blog says the trip by road takes about an hour.
Wikipedia ranks Piraeus among the top 10 cruise destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean. When Athens hosted the Olympic Games, 13 cruise ships tied up at Piraeus to work as floating hotels. For a night in the capital before a sailing, see our page on Athens hotels.
How long do Greek islands cruises last?
Greek islands cruises last from three days to a week or more. One Greek travel site lists three-day, four-day and seven-day trips, and two cruise lines list longer ones.
That site’s three-day and four-day trips leave from Lavrion, a port about an hour or more by road from Athens. The three-day trip lists Mykonos, Santorini, Kusadasi in Turkey, Patmos and Heraklion on Crete. The four-day trip adds Rhodes to that list.
The seven-day trip leaves from Piraeus or from Thessaloniki and returns to Piraeus. It lists Kusadasi, Rhodes, Agios Nikolaos on Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Milos. The site calls Greek islands cruises of seven nights or more less rushed, with longer stays at the islands. Eight cruise pages on this site are listed below.
- This site gives the Greek islands and Turkey classic three-day cruise a page of its own.
- Anyone comparing trip names can also look at the Greek islands discovery cruise.
- Alongside it, a second page covers the Greek islands and Turkey alternative three-day cruise.
- Travellers who prefer a plain title can open the three-day Greek islands cruise.
- The Aegean classic four-day cruise adds one more day to the three-day trips above.
- Next comes the classic Greek islands cruise, named here without a day count.
- Moving to a full week, the Aegean splendours seven-day cruise has a page on the site.
- The list closes with the seven-day Aegean cruise page, one more title for readers who plan a week.
One cruise line lists Greece itineraries of seven to twelve nights that leave from Rome, Athens or Barcelona. Another cruise line lists trips of ten, fourteen, twenty-one and thirty-one days under its Greece and Greek Isles heading.
Large ships stay in port for about six to ten hours, the site says, and smaller ships can stay overnight. Its four seven-day Greek islands cruises on smaller ships leave from Piraeus, return there and call at lesser-known islands. The site calls these itineraries indicative and subject to change.
What do one-day Greek islands cruises visit in the Saronic Gulf?
One-day Greek islands cruises visit Aegina, Poros and Hydra, all of them Saronic Islands. The Saronic Gulf takes its shape from the Attica and Argolis peninsulas and belongs to the Aegean Sea.
Athens stands along the northern shore of the gulf. Wikipedia says the Greek fleet beat the much larger Persian force at Salamis, in the gulf, in 480 B.C. One-day Greek islands cruises sail these waters. For the day trip itself, see the one-day cruise to the Saronic Gulf islands.
Wikipedia says Athenians choose Poros for weekend trips. It adds that Athenians make up a sizable part of Hydra’s visitors, and Aegina is a popular summer place. The Hydra, Poros and Aegina day cruise puts all three islands in one trip.
Greek islands cruises of one day reach Aegina, which Wikipedia puts 27 kilometres from Athens. In classical times the island was a powerful city-state that once rivalled Athens. Wikipedia calls its Temple of Aphaia one of the gulf’s two particularly notable archaeological sites.
Poros is a small island pair about 58 kilometres south of Piraeus, according to Wikipedia. Its two parts, Sphaeria in the south and Kalaureia in the north, are joined by a bridge. A channel only 200 metres across separates the island from the Peloponnese.
Hydra completes the trio that one-day Greek islands cruises visit. Wikipedia puts it 69 kilometres from Piraeus and says its main town is built around a crescent-shaped harbour. For more on the island, see Hydra tours.
What do Greek islands cruises show in Santorini?
Greek islands cruises show Santorini as the broken rim of a volcano that the sea now fills. Roughly 3,600 years ago, one of the biggest eruptions on record hollowed out its centre. Big cruise ships stop between Fira and Nea Kameni, where they anchor in a small harbour.
Around the caldera sits a small ring of islands, and Santorini is the biggest of them. It covers about 73 square kilometres. Seen from Fira, the caldera is 18 kilometres long. Cape Akrotiri marks its south end and Cape Agios Nikolaos its north end. Volcanic Nea Kameni rises in the middle, and Therasia is the other inhabited island.
Fira, the modern capital, is a town of white houses along the caldera edge. When Greek islands cruises anchor off the town, three routes lead up. You can walk the zigzag footpath, ride a donkey, or take the steep cable car from the port. The entrance to the cable car is 30 metres west of the Archaeological Museum of Thera.
Oia lies at the north end of the caldera rim, 11 kilometres from Fira. Limewash turns the house walls white, and the rain that runs off them is collected. Crowds clog its narrow lanes in the tourist season. A stairway of 300 steps links Oia with its port. Caldera boat trips start from Oia or Fira.
Akrotiri was a Bronze Age town that the eruption sealed under ash. Its walls rise up to eight metres, and the wall paintings kept their colour. Diggers have found only the southern tip. One cruise line lists a Nea Kameni tour on its Greek islands cruises. A short boat ride comes first, then a climb of just over an hour.
What do Greek islands cruises show in Mykonos and Delos?
Greek islands cruises show Mykonos as a Cycladic island with its main town, Chora, on the west coast. They also show Delos, a small sacred island just 2 kilometres away. UNESCO put Delos on the World Heritage List for its archaeology and its holy role in Ancient Greece.
Strong winds gave Mykonos its nickname, Island of the Winds. Above the sea in Chora, a row of windmills called Kato Mili faces the strong north wind. Venetian builders raised the mills in the 16th century. They ground flour until early in the 20th century. Camel Rock, shaped like a sitting camel, lies offshore in shallow water near the windmills.
Little Venice is a strip of old fishermen’s houses with balconies over the sea. The oldest was built about halfway through the 18th century, and rich merchants or captains owned them. Basement doors opened onto the sea, so people believed the owners were secret pirates. Greek islands cruises that call at Mykonos reach Little Venice, where people gather at sunset.
Delos is a speck of 3.43 square kilometres, but it ranks high in Greek myth, history and archaeology. Tour boats sail to it from Mykonos. Myth says Apollo and Artemis, twin gods, were born there. Because the island was so sacred, a decree banned burials and births there. The sacred lake is kept dry to stop mosquitoes that carry malaria.
On Delos, one cruise line that runs Greek islands cruises points to the Terrace of the Lions. Naxos dedicated the terrace to Apollo shortly before 600 B.C. Between nine and twelve marble lions once guarded the Sacred Way, and seven are left. The House of Dionysus gets its name from a floor mosaic where the god rides a panther.
What do Greek islands cruises show in Crete and Rhodes?
Greek islands cruises show Knossos, a Minoan palace close to Heraklion on Crete, and the walled medieval city of Rhodes. One site dates from the Bronze Age, the other from the rule of the Knights Hospitaller in the Middle Ages. Wikipedia lists both under UNESCO World Heritage.
Crete ranks first among Greek islands by size and by number of residents. Heraklion, its capital, lies on the north shore and ranks fourth among Greek cities. Wikipedia calls Heraklion an important shipping port and says the Venetian Koules Fortress dominates the port area. One cruise line lists Heraklion and Chania among the featured ports of its Greek islands cruises.
Greek islands cruises that call at Heraklion stop near Knossos. The palace site lies about 5 kilometres south of the historic centre. Wikipedia names Knossos the biggest Minoan centre. The first palace rose on a hill early in the second millennium B.C. Finds such as fresco fragments and Linear B tablets are kept in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum.
No island of the Dodecanese is bigger than Rhodes, which lies northeast of Crete. On Rhodes, Greek islands cruises meet an Old Town with UNESCO World Heritage status. A wall 4 kilometres long encloses the Medieval City. The Knights Hospitaller rebuilt it from the early fourteenth century. Wikipedia says the Palace of the Grand Master dates from their rule.
Lindos, a fishing village, lies around 40 kilometres from Rhodes city, on the eastern shore. Above it rises a natural citadel. Its Temple of Athena Lindia dates to about 300 B.C. The Colossus of Rhodes honoured Helios, the island’s sun god, and ranked among the seven wonders of antiquity. Wikipedia dates its fall to an earthquake in 226 B.C.
What do Greek islands cruises show in Patmos, Kos and Samos?
Greek islands cruises that list Patmos, Kos or Samos reach three different sights. Patmos has the monastery and cave of Saint John, Kos the Asklepieion and Samos the temple of Hera. Each links to a name from the past: John, Hippocrates and Hera.
Patmos is one of the northernmost Dodecanese islands and covers 34 square kilometres. UNESCO lists three sites there: old Chora, the Cave of the Apocalypse, and a monastery named for Saint John. In the eleventh century the monk Christodoulos built the monastery, with strong outer walls against pirates and Seljuk Turks. Chora was built around those fortifications.
Greek islands cruises that list Patmos meet a pilgrimage island. The Cave of the Apocalypse lies about halfway up the mountain, on the road between Chora and Skala. Christian tradition says John received his visions there and wrote the Book of Revelation. The monastery library holds at least 330 manuscripts, including 82 of the New Testament.
Only Rhodes and Karpathos are bigger than Kos in the Dodecanese, and Kos lies south of Kalymnos. Hippocrates, the physician of the ancient world, is believed to be a native of Kos. Herodicus taught him at the Asklepieion, whose ruins stand near the Hippocratic institute. The Knights Hospitaller built a fortress at the harbour entrance in the fourteenth century.
Greek islands cruises that list Samos reach an island 43 kilometres long, across a 1.6-kilometre strait from Turkey. Wikipedia names Pythagoras, of the Pythagorean theorem, as a native of Samos. The ancient town of Pythagoreion and the Heraion, a sanctuary of Hera, are World Heritage Sites. Herodotus called the Heraion temple the largest of all the temples he knew.
How do Greek islands cruises reach Kusadasi and Ephesus in Turkey?
Greek islands cruises reach Ephesus through Kusadasi, a holiday town where Turkey meets the Aegean. Wikipedia says Kusadasi has a port for cruise ship passengers who head to Ephesus. Ephesus was a Greek city in ancient Ionia.
Kusadasi is a district of Aydin Province, 95 km south of Izmir, and tourism is its main industry. Its Turkish name means “bird island”. A small island by the shore resembles the head of a bird. A castle stands on that island. In the Byzantine era the town was known as Ephesus Neopolis.
The Ephesus that Greek islands cruises visit began as a Greek city. Greek colonists built it in the tenth century B.C. The Temple of Artemis, finished around 550 B.C., was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Its buildings included the Library of Celsus and a theatre for 24,000 spectators.
The harbour of Ephesus silted up, and the city lost its role as a port. Wikipedia says Kusadasi stayed in the shadow of Ephesus until that happened. Today UNESCO lists the ruins as a World Heritage Site, and visitors reach them from Kusadasi. The Book of Revelation also addresses Ephesus as one of seven churches in Asia.
Greek islands cruises list Turkey beside Greece because the Aegean has two shores. Wikipedia places the sea between the Balkans and Anatolia, with Turkish provinces on the east. Samos, a Greek island, is about 16 km offshore from Kusadasi. One cruise line says its itineraries from Athens island hop around Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes, then continue into Turkey.
What do longer Greek islands cruises add beyond the Aegean?
Longer Greek islands cruises add ports beyond the Aegean. Corfu and Katakolo lie on the Ionian side, and Venice and Dubrovnik on the Adriatic. Cruise lines and Wikipedia describe each of these stops.
Greek islands cruises that go west meet the Ionian Sea first. Corfu is an island in western Greece, and Wikipedia calls it a favourite stopping place for cruise liners. Katakolo is a seaside village whose port is a cruise ship stop. Passengers can visit ancient Olympia, where the Olympic Games of ancient Greece took place every four years.
One cruise line says a longer cruise can add Venice, Croatia and Corfu, and lists Venice as a departure port. Venice stands on 126 islands and has 472 bridges. Dubrovnik is a Croatian port on the Adriatic, and UNESCO lists its medieval old city. The Grand Mediterranean seven-day cruise is one such trip.
Istanbul marks the end of the route east. From the Aegean, the way north runs through the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara to the Bosphorus. Istanbul straddles that strait and lies on two continents. Its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wikipedia says no other strait used for international navigation is narrower.
One cruise line says its Greek islands cruises can extend to stops in Italy, Turkey and Croatia. The Mediterranean Splendor seven-day cruise is a trip in these waters. Four western ports show the range.
- Genoa is the busiest port in Italy, and it led a maritime republic for over seven centuries.
- Civitavecchia is a major sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, 60 km west-northwest of Rome, with a harbour formed by two piers and a breakwater.
- Messina is the third largest city in Sicily, a harbour city on the Strait of Messina.
- Villefranche-sur-Mer lies just east of Nice, and its deep bay gives large ships safe anchorage from easterly winds.
When do Greek islands cruises sail through the year?
Cruise lines name different windows for Greek islands cruises. One names April to October as the time to cruise the islands. It says the weather is good all year. Another lists its Greek itineraries as available year round.
A travel writer who has taken these cruises picks late spring to early October as the ideal stretch. For fewer crowds and weather that is not as hot, the same writer picks early June and September.
In summer, Greek islands cruises share the Aegean with the meltemi. This northerly wind is strong and dry. Wikipedia says its season starts in late spring and ends around mid-September. Afternoons bring its peak, and nights calm it.
It arrives in fine weather with no notice, says Wikipedia. Its peak strength is Beaufort force 7 to 8. Sometimes it keeps going for days at a time. The climate article on Greece puts the season between late spring and October. Records show July and August as the peak of the wind’s frequency.
Its direction shifts with the position in the sea. Wikipedia has north-easterly to northerly winds in the northern Aegean. Across the central Aegean they are northerly, and in the south they are north-westerlies.
Wikipedia calls summer on the Greek coast frequently sunny and dry. Windy days stand out in the Cyclades, it adds. At the shore, the sea breeze and the cooler water take the edge off the heat. Winters are wet.
For Greek islands cruises, the meltemi has one more effect. Compared with the Ionian Sea and the mainland, Wikipedia says, the Aegean stays cooler because of these winds. The word etesian, another name for them, comes from the Greek word etos, which means year.
What do land tours add to Greek islands cruises?
Land tours add days on the mainland to Greek islands cruises. One cruise line sells a ship-and-shore package that adds a tour of Athens or Venice before or after the cruise. It lists hotel stays and land tours in the package.
A day in Athens before or after Greek islands cruises can start at the Acropolis. Wikipedia describes a citadel from ancient times that stands on a rocky height over the city. It gives the height above the sea as 150 metres.
In the fifth century B.C., Wikipedia says, Pericles led the building work on the Acropolis. The Propylaea gateway, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and a small temple to Athena Nike belong to that work. Wikipedia also lists the site as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Quarries on Mount Pentelicus, north-east of Athens, supplied the marble, Wikipedia says. The Acropolis Museum sits on the rock’s south side, 280 metres from the Parthenon. For the mainland sights, see the classical tours of Greece.
One cruise line also lists Delphi, the Meteora monasteries and the ancient theatre of Epidaurus as landmarks of Greece. It calls Delphi once considered the centre of the world and home to the Oracle. It says the Meteora monasteries are perched atop cliffs, and that the theatre at Epidaurus is known for its acoustics.
One travel writer says a three- or four-night cruise leaves time to stay in Athens. It also leaves time for day trips to Meteora and Delphi. On Greek islands cruises, the writer adds, large ships stay about six to ten hours at an island.
Island hopping by ferry is the other way to see what Greek islands cruises visit. The same writer says a cruise shows more islands in one go and avoids the ferry hassle. Wikipedia adds that the majority of the ferries that link the islands cannot make the crossing at that strength. More trip planning is in our Greece travel information.
What else do travellers ask about Greek islands cruises?
Do Greek islands cruises pass through the Corinth Canal?
Large ships cannot use the Corinth Canal, because it is narrow and shallow, Wikipedia says. Its width at sea level is 24.6 metres. It is 6.4 kilometres long. One end opens on the Saronic Gulf, the other on the Gulf of Corinth. So the canal joins the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea.
The emperor Nero swung a pickaxe to start the digging, and today’s canal follows his course. Traffic moves one way at a time, in convoys. The Braemar, a 900-passenger cruise ship of 195 metres, set the length record for a passage. One cruise line lists a Corinth Canal cruise as a shore excursion from Athens.
Do Greek islands cruises stop at Milos?
Smaller ships on Greek islands cruises call at Milos, one travel writer says. Wikipedia describes Milos as a volcanic island in the far southwest of the Cyclades. The Venus de Milo, a statue from the island, is kept in the Louvre.
Sarakiniko, a coastal area, is known for white rock formations shaped by wind and water. Milos supplied traders with obsidian, a volcanic rock that looks like glass, 15,000 years ago. Above the harbour town, Adamantas, a plateau holds Plaka, the chief town.
Do Greek islands cruises stop at Paros?
One travel site lists Paros on a seven-day cruise from Piraeus on a smaller ship. The same itinerary names Antiparos, the smaller island west of Paros. At its narrowest, Wikipedia says, the strait between Paros and Antiparos is under 2 kilometres across.
Naxos sits 8 kilometres east of Paros. From the sixth century B.C. on, the island exported white Parian marble, which sculptors such as Praxiteles used. The highest peak of the Cyclades, Mount Zeus, stands on Naxos and measures 1,001 metres.
Do Greek islands cruises sail to the Ionian Islands?
Greek islands cruises can sail west as well. One travel site lists a seven-day cruise from Piraeus to Kefalonia, Paxi, Corfu, Ithaca, Messolonghi, Agistri and Aegina.
Wikipedia places the Ionian Islands off the western coast of mainland Greece. Traditionally they are the Heptanese, which means Seven Islands. Under Venice they stayed outside the Ottoman Empire, and they joined modern Greece in the eighteen-sixties. Ithaca is the island home of Odysseus in the Odyssey.
What can travellers see at ancient Olympia on these cruises?
At Olympia, one cruise line lists three stops: the ancient stadium, the Zeus temple ruins and the Archaeological Museum. Wikipedia gives the span of the ancient Olympic Games as the eighth century B.C. through the fourth century A.D.
Pheidias made a gigantic statue of Zeus for the temple. Antipater of Sidon named it one of the Seven Wonders. Olympia lies on the Peloponnese, far from Mount Olympus in northern Greece. Wikipedia counts over 760 significant buildings on the ancient site.