20 nights, Piraeus (Athens) to Piraeus (Athens)

The itinerary, port by port

13 calls over 20 nights, round-trip from Piraeus (Athens). Open any port for my full day-ashore guide, what to see, when to go, and how the day actually runs.

Getting there: Flights to Piraeus (Athens) (ATH) are already bookable for these dates. I watch the fare for booked clients so you book at the right moment. When to book your flights →

1. Embark
   Piraeus (Athens)

   Piraeus is the port of Athens, and the day belongs to the ancient city about 10 km inland. Port guide →

2. 2
   Syros

   Syros is the administrative capital of the Cyclades, and its main town Ermoupoli is a working neoclassical city rather than a whitewashed resort village. Port guide →

3. 3
   Paros

   Paros sits in the heart of the Cyclades, and ships call at Parikia, its main town. Port guide →

4. 4
   Argostoli (Kefalonia)

   Argostoli is the capital of Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian islands, rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake and set on a long sheltered lagoon. Port guide →

5. 5
   Kotor

   Kotor is a fortified medieval town wedged at the head of the Bay of Kotor, with stone lanes, Venetian churches, and a mountain wall climbing the cliff behind it. Port guide →

6. 6
   Bari

   Bari is the capital of Puglia, the heel of Italy, and its old town is a tight medieval maze pressed against the Adriatic. Port guide →

7. 7
   Sarandë

   Sarandë is a seaside town on the Albanian Riviera, set on a horseshoe bay across a narrow strait from the Greek island of Corfu. Port guide →

8. 8
   Santorini

   Santorini is the rim of a flooded volcanic caldera, and ships anchor inside that drowned crater with the whitewashed towns of Fira and Oia stacked along the cliff edge above. Port guide →

9. 9
   Mykonos

   Mykonos is a Cycladic island whose main town, Chora, is a whitewashed labyrinth of cube houses, blue domes, and bougainvillea pressed against the Aegean. Port guide →

10. 10
    Dubrovnik

    Dubrovnik is a walled stone city on the Adriatic whose intact medieval ramparts and marble main street make it one of the most complete fortified ports in Europe. Port guide →

11. 11
    Brindisi

    Brindisi sits at the heel of Italy on the Adriatic, and for over two thousand years it was the port where the Via Appia met the sea, the jumping-off point for Greece and the Holy Land. Port guide →

12. 12
    Corfu

    Corfu is the greenest of the Ionian islands, and its UNESCO-listed Old Town carries four centuries of Venetian, French, and British rule in its arcaded streets and twin sea fortresses. Port guide →

13. Disembark
    Volos

    Volos is a working Thessalian port city at the foot of Mount Pelion, the mythological home of the centaurs and the launch point of Jason and the Argonauts. Port guide →