Greek Islands: Athens, Naxos and Santorini for three generations

1. Day 1: Arrive in Athens, an early welcome dinner

   Athens International Airport to your hotel in central Athens

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Athens
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Athens International Airport (ATH), about 35 km east of the centre, where a driver meets the whole family in arrivals and takes you to your hotel within walking distance of Plaka and the Acropolis, about 45 minutes. There is no metro or taxi queue to manage with tired children and heavy cases. The afternoon is for settling in, a nap or the hotel pool where there is one; to join the evening, plan to land by about 3 pm. Your See Sight Tours guide meets everyone at 18:00 for a short briefing on how the ferries and bags work and why tomorrow starts early. Then we take a gentle, flat walk past the Zappeion, a 19th-century hall with a round courtyard of columns at the edge of the National Garden, and on under Hadrian's Arch into Plaka for an early welcome dinner at a taverna, with mezze, grilled meat or fish and children's portions, so the youngest are in bed at a sensible hour.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Athens International Airport (ATH)
   • Welcome briefing with your guide
   • Short evening walk past the Zappeion and Hadrian's Arch into Plaka
   • Early welcome dinner in Plaka

   Easier option: Take a taxi with your guide from the hotel to the taverna instead of the evening walk; it is about 10 minutes.

   Free time: Free until the 18:00 briefing

   Activity: The evening walk is about 20 minutes on flat pavements.

   

2. Day 2: The Acropolis at opening, an afternoon by the pool

   Athens: the Acropolis, the Acropolis Museum and Plaka, on foot

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Athens
   Day 2 details

   We walk to the Acropolis for the first timed entry at 8 am, while the marble is cool and before the big groups come up mid-morning; tickets are booked in advance by time slot. A licensed Athens guide, required inside Greek archaeological sites, leads the visit with your See Sight Tours guide and tells the rock as stories children follow: Athena and Poseidon's contest for the city, the Parthenon built between 447 and 432 BC, and the six stone maidens holding up the porch of the Erechtheion. The route is about an hour and a half with plenty of stops. We come down to the Acropolis Museum, air-conditioned and step-free, where the original maidens stand and the top floor looks straight back at the Parthenon. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Plaka. The afternoon is free for a rest out of the heat or the pool. Late in the day, anyone who wants can walk with the guide to Syntagma Square to watch the Evzones, the presidential guard, change in their kilts and pom-pom shoes.

   Included

   • The Acropolis on the 8 am timed entry with a licensed guide
   • The Acropolis Museum
   • Sit-down lunch in Plaka
   • Evening walk to Syntagma Square for the changing of the guard

   Easier option: Skip the climb and start at the Acropolis Museum with a coffee on its terrace; the group joins you there. Ask us about the site lift for visitors with limited mobility.

   More active option: Before dinner, climb Filopappou Hill with your guide for the view of the Parthenon from the west, about 40 minutes up and down on paths.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The Acropolis is uneven, polished marble with a steady climb and little shade. Bring hats, water and shoes with grip.

3. Day 3: Fast ferry to Naxos, sunset at the Portara

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

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

   After a relaxed breakfast our van takes the family about half an hour to the port of Piraeus for a late-morning fast ferry to Naxos, about three and a half to four hours, usually calling at Paros on the way. We book the seats, our team takes the cases on and off, and there is a café on board; children like watching the islands come up from the deck. We choose a sailing that needs no early pickup. Lunch is your own, on board or at the harbour. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades and gentler than its famous neighbours, and we stay three nights in Chora, the main town, near the harbour and a short walk from Agios Georgios beach, with a pool if the hotel has one. In the early evening your guide walks the group along the flat harbour front and over the causeway to the Portara, a huge marble doorway, all that stands of a temple to Apollo left unfinished around 530 BC. It is where the town gathers to watch the sun go down.

   Included

   • Transfer to Piraeus and fast-ferry tickets to Naxos, with luggage handled
   • Transfer to your hotel in Naxos Chora
   • Sunset walk to the Portara

   Easier option: Watch the sunset from a harbour-front café instead of walking out to the Portara.

   More active option: Climb with your guide through the stepped lanes of the Kastro, the Venetian hilltop quarter, before the sunset walk.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: The causeway to the Portara is flat; the islet itself has a short slope on rock.

4. Day 4: Naxos: a giant statue and the marble villages

   Naxos Chora to Flerio, Halki and Apiranthos, then back to Chora

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Naxos
   Day 4 details

   Today goes inland by van, in short hops of 15 to 30 minutes. First Flerio, near Melanes, where a kouros, a marble statue of a young man about 5 m long, has lain in a farmer's garden since the 6th century BC, abandoned in the quarry when it cracked. A short, level path leads to it, and children can stand beside his feet. We drive on through the Tragea, a high valley of old olive groves, to Halki, once the island's main inland town, where the Vallindras distillery has made kitron, a liqueur from citron leaves, for well over a century. The adults taste; the children see the copper stills. Then Apiranthos, a mountain village built and paved in marble, with lanes too narrow for cars. Lunch is at a village taverna: Naxos potatoes, local graviera cheese and grilled meat. We are back in Chora by about 3 pm, with the rest of the afternoon free for the pool or a swim at Agios Georgios.

   Included

   • The kouros of Flerio
   • Van through the Tragea olive groves to Halki
   • Kitron tasting at the Vallindras distillery in Halki
   • Apiranthos, the marble village
   • Lunch at a village taverna

   Easier option: Stay on the main lane in Apiranthos, which is the flattest, and wait at a café on the square while the others explore the side lanes.

   More active option: Walk about 3 km through the Tragea olive groves to Halki with your guide while the van carries the rest of the family.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Village lanes are marble and stone with some steps; the Flerio path is short and level.

   

5. Day 5: Naxos: a whole day on the beach

   Naxos Chora to Agios Prokopios or Plaka beach and back

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Naxos
   Day 5 details

   The middle of the trip is a day off from sightseeing, and the one most children remember. After a late breakfast the van takes us about 15 minutes down the west coast to Agios Prokopios or Plaka, long sandy beaches with clear, shallow water near the shore, chosen on the day for the calmer sea. Sunbeds and umbrellas are booked for the whole family, so grandparents have shade and a proper seat from the start. Swim, build sandcastles, read or snorkel along the rocks at the end of the beach; your guide is on the sand all day and knows where the water is shallowest for the youngest. Lunch is at a taverna behind the beach, with fish, salads and plates children like. The van makes two runs back to Chora, one after lunch for anyone who wants a nap or the hotel pool, and one in the late afternoon. The evening is free; your guide will point you to an early taverna in the old town.

   Included

   • Transfers to and from Agios Prokopios or Plaka beach
   • Sunbeds and umbrellas booked for the day
   • Lunch at a beach taverna

   Easier option: Take the early van back after lunch for a rest or the hotel pool.

   More active option: For teenagers and parents only, and only if enough want it: hike Mount Zas, at about 1,000 m the highest point in the Cyclades, with your guide from the Aria spring above Filoti, about 7 km return on a rocky path with a steady climb and little shade, starting at 8 am and rejoining the beach for a late lunch.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Beach shoes help on the rocks at either end. If the wind is strong on the west coast, we choose the more sheltered beach.

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 and sometimes calling at Ios, brings us into the Santorini caldera. Make sure the children are on deck for the arrival: the boat sails in under cliffs about 300 m high, striped red, black and white by old eruptions, with white villages along the rim. We land at Athinios, where our van climbs the zigzag road while our team brings the bags. After a sit-down lunch in the south of the island we visit Akrotiri, a Bronze Age town buried under volcanic ash about 3,600 years ago and now kept under a huge roof: houses of two and three storeys, paved streets and storage jars in place. It is shaded and level, easy for grandparents, with a licensed site guide. If the ferry runs late, Akrotiri moves to the afternoon of day 7. We stay three nights in Fira on the town side, away from the cliff steps. The evening is free; sunset from the rim path towards Firostefani is a short walk and far calmer 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

   Easier option: Go straight to the hotel after lunch with the bags and rest by the pool; the van comes back for the others after Akrotiri.

   More active option: After Akrotiri, walk down to the viewpoint over Red Beach with your guide, about 15 minutes each way on a rough path.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Akrotiri is covered and level on walkways; allow about an hour and a quarter.

7. Day 7: Oia before the crowds, lunch at Ammoudi

   Fira to Oia by van, down to Ammoudi Bay, then back to Fira

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Santorini (Fira)
   Day 7 details

   On cruise-ship days Oia's narrow lanes are packed from late morning, and at sunset they are a crush, so we go at breakfast time instead. The van leaves Fira at about 7:45 and takes half an hour along the top of the island. From about 8 am the marble main lane is quiet: blue domes, windmills, cave houses cut into the cliff, and the ruined castle at the tip with the whole caldera below. Your guide keeps the walk to about an hour on the flattest route. By late morning the van takes us down the road to Ammoudi Bay, a little fishing harbour at the foot of the red cliffs, for lunch at a taverna by the water and a look at the fish in the shallows. We are back in Fira by early afternoon. The rest of the day is free: the hotel pool, a nap, or the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, where pots, finds and some wall paintings from Akrotiri are shown.

   Included

   • Early morning walk in Oia with your guide
   • Van down to Ammoudi Bay
   • Lunch at Ammoudi
   • Van back to Fira

   Easier option: Stay on the main lane in Oia, which is paved and mostly level, and sit at a café near the castle viewpoint while others climb to it.

   More active option: Parents and teenagers can walk the caldera rim from Fira to Oia with your guide instead, about 10 km and 3 to 4 hours from about 7 am, meeting the rest of the family in Oia.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Oia has steps off the main lane; the van drives all the way to Ammoudi, so nobody needs the 300 steps down.

8. Day 8: A boat day in the caldera, then the farewell dinner

   Santorini: Nea Kameni, the warm 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 or a small shared boat confirmed at booking, with life jackets for the children. We go in the morning, before the wind builds. First stop is Nea Kameni, the black volcanic island in the middle of the caldera, last active in 1950: a walk of 30 to 45 minutes on lava paths up to the crater, where children can feel warm ground and smell the sulphur. Then we anchor by Palea Kameni and swim from the boat into the warm, rust-coloured water of the springs. We sail on to Thirasia, the quiet island across the caldera where a few villages still farm dry terraces, for lunch at a harbour taverna. The afternoon has a swim stop under the cliffs and we are back ashore by mid-afternoon, in time for a rest. The farewell dinner starts at about 19:00 at a taverna looking west, so even the youngest see the sunset before bed.

   Included

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

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

   More active option: Climb the steps from the harbour on Thirasia to the village of Manolas before lunch, about 15 minutes up.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: Bring swimwear, a towel and closed shoes for the lava. The swim to the springs is short; non-swimmers can stay on board.

   

9. Day 9: Fly to Athens and home

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

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   A last breakfast on Santorini, then a short drive of about 15 minutes to Santorini airport (JTR) for the flight to Athens, about 45 minutes in the air and included in the price with a checked bag for everyone. Flying saves a ferry of five hours or more back to Piraeus, which is a long day with children and grandparents. 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. Your guide checks the families in and makes sure everyone is through before saying goodbye. Book flights home leaving Athens after about 3 pm. If you are taking a direct summer flight home from Santorini, tell us and we take you to the airport for that instead, and if you would like more time, we can add nights on Santorini or in Athens and hold the same family rooms if they are free.

   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 without the strongest heat, and the sea is warm enough to swim from June to early October. July and August are the hottest and busiest months, and the meltemi wind can make crossings rough, so those departures keep sightseeing to the mornings. Boats and many island hotels cut back from late October.

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