Cultural Journey to the Cyclades and Athens

The group gathers at Barcelona airport to take the direct Vueling flight to Santorini, with scheduled departure at 12:15 and arrival at 16:30 local time. At the airport Elena Soulioti, our guide for the entire journey, and the private coach that will take us to the El Greco Resort, our accommodation on the island, already await us.

After check-in and a brief time to settle in, at around 19:00 we transfer to Santo Wines, one of Santorini’s most beautiful and emblematic wineries. Located at the very edge of the caldera, with spectacular views over the Aegean and the volcanic landscape, it is the perfect setting for the welcome dinner of the trip. We will taste local wines, among them the celebrated Assyrtiko, born of the volcanic soil and the island’s unique cultivation techniques, as the golden light of sunset pours over the caldera.

A perfect way to begin this cultural trip to Santorini.

Return to the hotel. Goodnight and rest.

After breakfast we set off by private coach towards Oia, considered one of the most beautiful villages in the Mediterranean. Accompanied by Elena, we stroll through its narrow stepped alleyways, discover old houses carved into the volcanic rock, small churches (such as the Orthodox Panagia Platsani), terraces overhanging the sea and viewpoints from which one understands why Oia has become a universal icon. Lunch at a reserved restaurant in the village itself, with the caldera landscape as a backdrop.

In the afternoon, from 15:30, the central experience of the day: a private boat cruise around Santorini’s volcanic caldera. We contemplate the island from the sea, with its vertiginous cliffs and volcanic strata that recount the island’s geological history. The cruise includes a stop at the volcano and another at the thermal springs, where those who wish may bathe in its warm mineral waters. We continue to the peaceful island of Thirasia, where an aperitif and dinner at a local restaurant in an authentic and relaxed atmosphere await us.

At around 19:30, coinciding with sunset, we return to Fira harbour. If conditions allow, we ascend by cable car with panoramic views over the island and the Aegean at dusk. Return to the hotel and free time.

In the morning we visit the Prehistoric Museum of Thera in Fira, which houses some of the most significant finds from the Aegean, mostly from the Akrotiri site. Its Minoan frescoes, exceptionally well preserved, allow us to glimpse the daily life and beliefs of a flourishing civilisation before the great volcanic eruption of the 17th century BC.

We then travel to the archaeological site of Akrotiri, often compared to Pompeii. This advanced Bronze Age city, buried beneath volcanic ash, preserves multi-storey buildings, paved streets and a sophisticated drainage system that speak of the high degree of urban and cultural development of this society.

At midday, free time at the Perissa beach, with its characteristic dark volcanic sand and clear waters: a relaxed counterpoint after the historical intensity of the morning.

In the evening, a truly unique experience: the Greek Wedding Show, an immersive event combining dinner and theatrical performance. Guests are symbolically invited to participate in a traditional Greek wedding, with live music, folk dances, songs and festive rituals. A collective, joyful and participatory celebration that allows us to experience from the inside one of the most emblematic traditions of Hellenic culture. Return to the hotel.

Free morning in Fira to stroll, shop or enjoy the hotel’s facilities before check-out. At around 12:00 we head by coach to Athinios harbour, where we board the ferry departing at 13:15 for Naxos. Estimated arrival at 14:50.

A coach awaits us at the harbour to take us to the Naxos Resort, where the rest of the afternoon is free to begin discovering the island at our own pace. A transitional day that marks the shift from Santorini’s volcanic landscape to the breadth and cultural richness of Naxos.

A full excursion day to discover the most authentic Naxos on a cultural trip through inland Naxos. We depart by coach for Sangri, an agricultural and fertile area where we visit the Temple of Demeter, one of the most important archaic sanctuaries in the Cyclades. Built in local marble in the 6th century BC, it stands out for the purity of its lines and its architectural harmony. Nearby, the Byzantine Church of Drossiani, one of the oldest Christian temples in Greece, preserves early Christian frescoes of great value in its interior.

We continue to Halki or Apiranthos, depending on the group’s pace, where we have lunch at a reserved restaurant. Halki is a traditional village surrounded by olive groves, known for its local citrus liqueur. Apiranthos surprises with its marble-paved streets, strong cultural identity and mountain atmosphere.

In the afternoon, the ancient marble quarries of Naxos: a mineral landscape of great symbolic power from which the celebrated Naxian marble was extracted, a fundamental material for archaic Greek sculpture. Here it is worth noting that from these same quarries emery was also extracted — the second hardest material in the world after diamond, with which Greek sculptors polished marble. In this mineral landscape we visit an unfinished kouros, a monumental male figure abandoned in the quarry, a direct testimony of the sculptural process in Antiquity. Not far from here stands Mount Zas, which in ancient Greek means Zeus — the highest mountain in all the Cyclades, whose silhouette presides over the island’s interior landscape with the majesty that its name evokes.

Return to the hotel at around 18:00.

We begin with a walk from the hotel to the historic heart of the island: Chora, the old town, a network of narrow whitewashed streets where Venetian balconies, arched doorways and small squares that open unexpectedly between the houses coexist.

We visit the Archaeological Museum of Naxos, located in the former Jesuit school, where we trace the island’s history from prehistory to the Roman period: archaic sculptures, ceramics and finds from ancient sanctuaries that allow us to understand the importance of Naxos in the Cycladic world. We then ascend to the Venetian Castle, the Kastro — the medieval acropolis that crowns the city, with its palaces and manor houses and magnificent views over the harbour and the island’s silhouette.

Lunch at a local restaurant with a tasting of Naxos cheeses, some of which have won important international awards. Free afternoon to get lost in the old town, head to a beach or simply let the calm of the Aegean wash over us.

One of the most intense and unforgettable days of the trip. First thing we head to the harbour, where the private boat that will take us to Delos, the spiritual centre of the ancient Greek world, awaits.

Delos is not merely an archaeological site: it is a place suspended between myth and history. According to tradition, Apollo and Artemis were born here, and that sacred status made the island a Panhellenic sanctuary for centuries. With Elena we undertake an in-depth cultural visit to Delos: the Terrace of the Lions, marble guardians that have watched over the horizon for over two thousand years; the ancient streets of the residential quarter with mosaics of dolphins, masks and geometric motifs; and the Sanctuary of Apollo, the spiritual heart of an island where, according to myth, neither birth nor death could occur. The silence, intense light and bareness of the landscape lend the visit an almost ritual quality.

We return to the private boat to set sail for Mykonos. The cultural visit to Mykonos receives us with its dazzling light, white architecture and vibrant energy. We stroll through its old town, with labyrinthine streets designed to disorient ancient pirates; we discover Little Venice, where the houses lean directly over the sea; and we contemplate the iconic windmills, symbol of the island and a magnificent vantage point over the Aegean. Free time to enjoy its boutiques, cafés, galleries or beaches.

Late in the afternoon, return by boat to Naxos. Overnight at the Naxos Resort.

After breakfast and check-out, transfer to Naxos airport to take the Aegean Airlines flight (approximately 50 minutes) to Athens. Closing the trip in the Greek capital is not coincidental: Athens acts as a grand space of synthesis, where everything experienced on the islands — forms, myths, symbols, materials — finds a broader and deeper framework.

The central visit of the day is the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. Here the celebrated Cycladic marble figurines — pure lines, crossed arms, barely sketched faces — reveal their extraordinary modernity and seem to anticipate 20th-century art. With Elena we undertake a cultural visit to Athens that contextualises these pieces within daily life, funerary beliefs and the symbolic relationship with the body, the sea and the light. The circle begun in the territory itself closes here.

In the afternoon, free time to stroll through Plaka or Monastiraki, or for those who wish, the possibility of a visit to the Acropolis of Athens: the Parthenon, the Propylaea and the Erechtheion with its Caryatids, from whose hill Athens extends to the sea in an image where past and present coexist naturally. Participation in this visit must be specified at the time of booking.

Overnight at the Hotel Esperia****, the last night of the trip.

Transfer to Athens airport to take the return Vueling flight, departing at 11:20 and scheduled to arrive in Barcelona at 13:45. The end of an organised trip to the Cyclades that has been intense and profoundly coherent, in which landscape, archaeology, myth and art have entered into continuous dialogue over nine days at the heart of the Aegean.