Women-only Greek Islands: Athens, Naxos and Santorini

1. Day 1: Arrive in Athens, a slow first evening

   Athens International Airport to your hotel in central Athens

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Dinner
   • Stay in Athens
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Athens International Airport (ATH), about 35 km east of the city centre, where a driver meets you in arrivals, whatever time you land, for the drive to your hotel within walking distance of Plaka and the Acropolis. Nothing is planned until about 6:30 pm, so arrive by mid-afternoon if you can, rest and shower first. Your See Sight Tours guide then meets the group over a drink at the hotel. She introduces everyone and gives an honest briefing: how the ferries and luggage work, what to wear in churches and monasteries, taxis and getting back after dark, tipping, and why tomorrow starts at the first Acropolis slot. At about 7:30 pm we walk together for a few minutes past the Zappeion, the 19th-century exhibition hall at the edge of the National Garden, and Hadrian's Arch into Plaka, the old quarter under the north slope of the Acropolis, for a welcome dinner at a neighbourhood taverna: mezze, grilled fish or meat, and a first glass of something Greek. Anyone tired can head back early with the guide's directions.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Athens International Airport (ATH), whatever your arrival time
   • Welcome drink and briefing with your guide at the hotel
   • Short walk past the Zappeion and Hadrian's Arch into Plaka
   • Welcome dinner in Plaka

   Free time: Free until 6:30 pm

   Activity: A gentle start: about 15 minutes on foot to dinner, on paved streets.

   

2. Day 2: The Acropolis at opening

   Athens: the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum, Plaka and Anafiotika

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Athens
   Day 2 details

   We walk to the Acropolis for the first timed entry at 8 am, ahead of the heat and of the big tour groups that come up mid-morning. Tickets are booked in advance for the time slot. A licensed Athens guide, required for guiding inside Greek archaeological sites and a woman where we can book one, leads the visit with your See Sight Tours guide: the Propylaia gateway, the Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BC for the city's goddess Athena, the Erechtheion with its porch of Caryatids, and the small Temple of Athena Nike. We come down past the Theatre of Dionysus to the Acropolis Museum, where five of the original Caryatids stand indoors and the top-floor gallery shows the Parthenon frieze, with the young women of the Panathenaic procession who carried the new robe for Athena. Your guide talks about what life was like for women in classical Athens, priestesses included. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Plaka, then the afternoon is free for a rest out of the heat. Late in the day anyone who wants walks up through Anafiotika, a tiny quarter of whitewashed houses built by island stonemasons, to the Areopagus rock for sunset.

   Included

   • The Acropolis on the 8 am timed entry with a licensed guide (a woman where available): the Propylaia, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike
   • The Acropolis Museum, with the Caryatids and the Parthenon frieze
   • Sit-down lunch in Plaka
   • Late-afternoon walk through Anafiotika to the Areopagus for sunset

   Easier option: Skip the sunset walk and rest at the hotel; the Areopagus has a short climb on slippery rock.

   More active option: Before sunset, add the climb up Filopappou Hill with your guide for the view of the Parthenon from the west.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot on the Acropolis on uneven, polished marble with a steady climb to the top; wear shoes with grip.

3. Day 3: Ferry to Naxos, sunset at the Portara

   Athens to Piraeus, ferry to Naxos, then Naxos Chora on foot

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Naxos
   Day 3 details

   After breakfast we drive about half an hour to the port of Piraeus for a morning ferry to Naxos, chosen so that nobody needs a pre-dawn pickup. Depending on the boat, the crossing takes about four to six hours, usually with a stop at Paros on the way; we book the seats and handle the luggage, and you can sit out on deck as the Cyclades come up out of the sea. Lunch is your own, on board or at the harbour. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades, greener and quieter than Mykonos or Santorini, and we stay three nights in Chora, the main town, close to the harbour. After time to settle in, your guide leads a walk up through the lanes of the Kastro, the hilltop quarter the Venetians built in the 13th century, and back down to the Portara, a monumental marble gateway, all that stands of a temple to Apollo left unfinished around 530 BC. It stands on an islet joined to the harbour by a causeway, and it is where the town watches the sun go down. Dinner is together tonight at a harbour taverna, so the first island evening is easy.

   Included

   • Transfer to Piraeus and ferry tickets to Naxos, with luggage handled
   • Walk through the Kastro, the Venetian old town of Naxos Chora
   • The Portara at sunset
   • Group dinner in Chora

   Free time: Free time after dinner

   Activity: The Kastro is a climb on stepped lanes; the Portara walk is flat along the harbour.

4. Day 4: Naxos: olive groves, mountain villages and cooking with island women

   Naxos Chora to the Tragea valley, Halki and Apiranthos, then a hill-village kitchen for lunch

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Naxos
   Day 4 details

   Today goes inland, where most Naxos visitors never get. We drive about 25 minutes into the Tragea, a high valley of old olive groves and Byzantine chapels in the middle of the island, and walk an easy path of about 3 km under the trees to Halki, once the island's main inland town. In Halki we taste kitron, the island's citron-leaf liqueur, at the Vallindras distillery. Next is Apiranthos, a mountain village built and paved in marble, with narrow lanes and views down to the east coast. Lunch is the main event: in a hill-village kitchen, women who cook for their families and their village feasts show us how they make a few island dishes from what they grow, everyone lends a hand, and then we sit down to eat it with local cheese and wine. We use a women-run kitchen or cooperative where ops confirm a host for your dates, otherwise the women of a farming family. Anything they sell is yours to buy or not. We are back in Chora by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day free for a swim at Agios Georgios, the town beach.

   Included

   • Guided walk of about 3 km through the Tragea olive groves to Halki
   • Kitron tasting at the Vallindras distillery in Halki
   • Apiranthos, the marble village
   • Cooking lesson and lunch with village women in a hill-village kitchen

   Easier option: Skip the walk and ride with the van straight to Halki.

   More active option: A longer walk of about 6 km through the valley via the Byzantine church of Panagia Drosiani, joining the group in Halki.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The Tragea path is mostly flat, on stone tracks between walls.

   

5. Day 5: Naxos: the Temple of Demeter and a beach day

   Naxos Chora to the Temple of Demeter near Sangri, then the west-coast beaches

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Naxos
   Day 5 details

   A slower day. In the cool of the morning we drive about 20 minutes to the Temple of Demeter near Sangri, a marble temple of the 6th century BC set on a low hill among fields, partly rebuilt from its original pieces, with a small site museum beside it. Demeter was the goddess of grain and the harvest, worshipped here with her daughter Persephone, and in ancient Greece some of her festivals, in Athens and elsewhere, were for women only; your guide tells their story and explains how the island's marble, quarried a few kilometres away, built temples here before the Parthenon. Then it is beach time on the west coast. Agios Prokopios and Plaka are long sandy beaches with clear, shallow water and tavernas behind the sand; we drop you where you choose and arrange a lift back to Chora in the afternoon. If you would rather walk, ask about the Mount Zas hike instead. The evening is free; your guide will point you to a taverna for Naxos potatoes and graviera cheese.

   Included

   • The Temple of Demeter near Sangri with your guide
   • Transfers to and from the west-coast beaches (Agios Prokopios or Plaka)

   Easier option: Stay in Chora: the Archaeological Museum in the Kastro and a swim at Agios Georgios beach.

   More active option: Hike Mount Zas with your guide from the Aria spring above Filoti, about 6 to 7 km return with about 600 m of climb and almost no shade to the summit at about 1,000 m, in place of the temple and the beach morning. Start early and carry plenty of water.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The Temple of Demeter is closed on Tuesdays and on May 1; on those days your guide swaps it for the Archaeological Museum in the Kastro or the mountain village of Filoti. Sunbeds and umbrellas on the beaches are run by the tavernas and paid locally.

6. Day 6: Into the caldera: ferry to Santorini and Akrotiri

   Naxos to Santorini by ferry, Athinios port to Akrotiri, then Fira

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santorini (Fira)
   Day 6 details

   A mid-morning ferry south, about two hours depending on the boat, brings us into the Santorini caldera, and the arrival is one of the sights of the trip: the boat sails in under cliffs about 300 m high, banded red, black and white by old eruptions, with white villages strung along the rim. As on day 3, we choose a sailing that does not need an early pickup. We land at Athinios port, where our van climbs the switchbacks; we stay three nights in or near Fira. Santorini is busy from May to October, so we plan around the crowds. After a sit-down lunch in the south of the island we visit Akrotiri, a Bronze Age town buried under ash by the great eruption about 3,600 years ago and kept under a modern roof: houses of two and three storeys, paved streets and storage jars still in place. A licensed site guide, a woman where available, explains what the digs found, and your guide talks about the town's wall paintings of women gathering saffron, now in Athens. The evening is free: walk the rim path from Fira to Firostefani with the group for a quieter sunset than Oia's.

   Included

   • Ferry tickets from Naxos to Santorini, with luggage handled
   • Transfer from Athinios port
   • Sit-down lunch in the south of Santorini
   • Akrotiri with a licensed site guide (a woman where available)

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: Akrotiri is covered and level, on walkways; allow about 1.5 hours.

7. Day 7: The caldera walk from Fira to Oia

   Fira to Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia on foot, then back by van

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santorini (Fira)
   Day 7 details

   We set off from Fira at about 7:30 am, while the air is cool and before the day's visitors come up the cliff. The path follows the caldera rim for about 10 km to Oia: through Firostefani and Imerovigli, the highest village on the rim, past Skaros rock, where a Venetian castle once stood, then out along open, unpaved hillside with the whole caldera below, small chapels beside the path and Thirasia across the water. Allow three to four hours with stops; it is path, paving and steps, with one climb out of Imerovigli. We reach Oia in the late morning, while its lanes are still walkable, and sit down to lunch at a taverna off the main street. The van brings us back to Fira for a free afternoon by the pool or at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, where finds from Akrotiri are shown. We skip Oia at sunset on purpose: on summer evenings its lanes are packed. Your guide will show you a quieter place on the rim instead.

   Included

   • Guided caldera walk from Fira to Oia, about 10 km
   • Sit-down lunch in Oia
   • Van back to Fira

   Easier option: Walk only from Fira to Imerovigli, about 3 km and mostly paved, then ride with the van to Oia for lunch.

   More active option: From Oia, walk down the steps to Ammoudi Bay for a swim off the rocks before lunch, and ride back up.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The second long day: about 10 km and 3 to 4 hours, with little shade on the open section beyond Imerovigli. Bring water, a hat and shoes with grip.

8. Day 8: A day on the water in the caldera

   Santorini: Nea Kameni, the hot springs at Palea Kameni and Thirasia by boat

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Santorini (Fira)
   Day 8 details

   Today is spent on a small boat in the caldera, a group charter for our women-only group where one can be booked, otherwise a small shared boat, confirmed at booking. First stop is Nea Kameni, the black volcanic island at the centre of the caldera, last active in 1950: a walk of about 30 to 45 minutes on lava paths to the crater, with steam vents underfoot and the white villages strung along the cliffs above. Then we swim off the boat into the warmer, rust-coloured water of the springs by Palea Kameni. We sail on to Thirasia, the quiet island on the far side of the caldera, a piece of the old island rim where a few villages still farm the dry terraces, for lunch at a harbour taverna and a climb up the steps to the village of Manolas for anyone who wants it. Back on board, the afternoon has swimming stops under the cliffs, and we are ashore by late afternoon. Tonight is the farewell dinner, just the group, at a taverna away from the main crowds, with Santorini's own white Assyrtiko wine.

   Included

   • Day boat in the caldera with your guide
   • Nea Kameni crater walk, entry included
   • Swim at the hot springs by Palea Kameni
   • Lunch on Thirasia
   • Farewell dinner

   Easier option: Stay on the boat at Nea Kameni; the crater path is loose lava with no shade.

   More active option: Climb the steps from the harbour on Thirasia to Manolas village before lunch.

   Free time: Free time before the farewell dinner

   Activity: Bring a swimsuit, a towel and shoes you can walk on lava in; the swim to the springs is a short one from the boat.

   

9. Day 9: Fly to Athens and home

   Santorini airport (JTR) to Athens International Airport (ATH)

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   A last breakfast above the caldera, then a short drive to Santorini airport (JTR) for the flight to Athens, about 45 minutes in the air and included in the price with a checked bag. Flying saves a ferry of five hours or more back to Piraeus and means the last full day on the island is a real one. We book a morning flight that lands at Athens International Airport (ATH) by about midday, with the hotel pickup about two hours before take-off and never before first light, so you can connect to a flight home that leaves after about 3 pm. Your guide checks the group in on Santorini and makes sure everyone is through before saying goodbye. On request we can match women flying on to the same city so nobody connects alone. If you would like more time, we can add nights on Santorini or in Athens before your flight, and if you are taking a direct summer flight home from Santorini, tell us and we take you to the airport for that instead. Your final itinerary has the flight times, which are set when we confirm the group.

   Included

   • Transfer to Santorini airport (JTR)
   • Flight from Santorini to Athens (ATH) with a checked bag

   Activity: Book a flight home leaving Athens after about 3 pm.

Wildlife and weather: May, June and September are warm and the best months to walk; the sea is warm enough to swim from June to early October. July and August are hot (Athens can reach about 40°C) and the meltemi wind blows hard in the Cyclades, which can make crossings rough, so we start early and keep the middle of the day slow.

• Athens2 nights
• Naxos3 nights
• Santorini (Fira)3 nights