immersive greek island elegance & coastal charm

Named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world -- built around its namesake deity's temple, the Parthenon, which still stands today. But Athens feels far from an ancient city. While it has done an excellent job at preserving sites like the Acropolis (where the Parthenon is located) and Greek Orthodox churches, it has evolved into a hip and modern metropolis and homeport for ships sailing the Greek Islands. The city's recently overhauled Metro system also provides a cheap, safe and easy way to get around for sightseeing if you have extra time before or after your cruise. Aside from major landmarks, even once-dingy neighbourhoods like Plaka and Thissio have been restored, boasting fresh pastel-coloured painted facades and chic restaurants, bars and shops. Syntagma Square -- Athens' central square -- also has been reborn as a tree-filled haven from which to take in the city's gorgeous neoclassical Parliament building and catch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. (Yes, that means you get to watch those men in frilly skirts, elaborate waistcoats and bobbled shoes do their high-kicking thing.) Athens, once (in some parts, still) one of the most frenetic and traffic-polluted cities in the world, now owns a real buzz and is well worth spending a few days in if your cruise starts or ends there.

Sailing into the harbor of Syros, you might not feel like you're in Greece. The island's port city could easily pass for a coastal town on the French Riviera or Italy's Amalfi Coast. That's because immigrants who came to Syros from France, Italy, Germany and other parts of Greece between the early to mid-1800s collectively influenced the architecture, which consists mostly of multistory stone buildings with arches and pops of pastels. The heart of Syros' port city -- Ermoupoli, which also happens to be the capital -- is Miaouli Square. Visitors to the square will be awed by its main attraction, the grand Town Hall, which not only serves as the island's political center, but also the archeological museum. Adjacent to the square are various cafes and shops, as well as a statue of Andreas Miaoulis, an admiral from the Greek War of Independence. The shops in Ermoupoli sell mostly goods handmade or manufactured in Greece, with lots of unique jewelry, handbags, clothes and cookware. Outside the port city, Syros continues to offer a taste of authentic Greece at its seaside villages with quaint restaurants and beaches. Aside from only a few small cruise lines, Syros is mostly visited by other Greeks, so it doesn't feel crowded with tourists like more popular islands Mykonos and Santorini.

Paros is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, about halfway between Mykonos and Santorini. Part of the Cyclades Islands, Paros shares territory with Mykonos but has avoided the same flocks of foreign tourists. This means that, while the water is just as sparkling, the buildings are just as iconic, and the shopping and dining rival those on any other island, there are fewer people competing for space on the cobblestone streets. Home to more than a dozen notable villages, Paros is much less a sleepy island than a hub for holidaymakers or a jumping-off point to nearby islands like celebrity haven Antiparos or hidden gem Naxos. Cruisers who are lucky enough to visit Paros can strike out on a ferry adventure or stay and wander the maze of boutiques, gelato shops and cozy cafes in the capital, Parikia, where ships tender.

Spectacular Santorini -- scene of one of the world's most violent volcanic eruptions around 1450 B.C. -- is inarguably the most scenically dramatic of all the Greek Islands. Officially the island is Thira, yet the Latin name of Santorini persists. With its pitch-black beaches, rugged landscape and stunning caldera (volcanic crater), it's more akin to one of the Canary Islands than the Cyclades, though its whitewashed churches and clifftop houses score highly in the charm stakes.

This is the island for lovers of natural beauty, though sun seekers may not fancy its beaches. Best views are from the cliffs bordering the caldera, which was formed when the center of the island basically collapsed into itself. Geologists marvel at the cliffs' multi-hued strata of rock, lava and pumice, so take your camera and be prepared to feel the earth move (perhaps even literally -- Santorini's most recent major earthquake was in 1956, although there was one nearby in 2009).

It's worth remembering that the bay surrounding Santorini is actually the world's largest volcanic crater, created 3,500 years ago by a massive eruption of the Thera volcano (which is still active). The bay is also believed by some to conceal the legendary lost city of Atlantis. There's plenty here to set your imagination working, even though the modern-day city of Thira, officially Fira, was completely rebuilt after an earthquake in 1956.

If you're happy to enjoy a browse around the shops and a lazy lunch with a view, Fira will fit the bill perfectly -- and it even has some 9th-century clifftop ruins to explore. But to see the best of Santorini, you should take a shore excursion, via bus or taxi, further afield.

Crete's eastern corner is home to the resort of Agios Nikolas, a port that leads the way to the island's most significant ancient ruins. The ancient Minoans lived on Crete as far back as 2500 BC in a society that was by far the most advanced at the time. The ruins of the Minoan palaces that remain today date from 1700 to 1500 BC and reveal remarkable achievements. You may wish to visit the fantastic ruins of the Palace of Knossos or Gournia, where an entire small town has been excavated. Gournia features a small palace, a shrine and a main street where many of the houses were evidently two stories high. Other significant periods in Crete's history include medieval times when Turkish artists and writers fled to Crete following the fall of Constantinople and resulting in a "Cretan Renaissance" era.

Rhodes, with an average of 300 sunny days per year and mild temperatures in the winter, has been a popular tourist attraction for centuries. Located 12 miles off the coast of Turkey, it's the largest of Greece's 12 Dodecanese islands. Rhodes sits in the Aegean Sea, and its beautiful blue green waters reflect a tropical paradise. The island features 35 beaches and many cultural and historical attractions.

The view from the sea is spectacular as you sail into the port of Rhodes. It's one of the best preserved medieval towns in the world and a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. The ship disembarks its passengers just outside of Old Town, a maze of cobblestone streets, flanked by historic buildings dating from the 14th century.

Between the city's sturdy walls, magnificent palaces, fascinating museums and ornate mosques line the narrow, atmospheric passageways and carefully planned squares. Souvenir shops, restaurants and boutiques are plentiful in Old Town.

The main attraction here is the Palace of the Grand Masters, built in the 14th century by the Knights of St. John. The structure survived an earthquake but was destroyed by an explosion in 1856; it was later restored by the Italians in the 1930's. Now a museum, the palace contains priceless mosaics, sculptures and exhibitions of medieval and ancient Rhodes civilizations.

But it is not just Old Town that attracts visitors to this beautiful island. The New Town, located across Mandraki Harbor from Old Town, contains a large marketplace, the Nea Agora, which contains a food court, gift shops, cafes and bars. New Town also offers many luxury hotels and beautiful beaches that attract vacationers who enjoy paragliding, windsurfing, swimming and sunbathing. A casino also is available for those who want to try their luck at games of chance.

Cruise ships offer half-day tours that include Old Town sites and full-day tours that include jeep tours of the island and visits to the ancient city of Lindos with its cliffside acropolis, whitewashed houses and picturesque scenery. Guided tours and excursion boat tours are also available, but just walking around with a guidebook will be enough to enjoy this interesting and picturesque part of the world.

Nearly 20 years ago when we first sailed to Kuşadası, our gulet, a traditional Turkish sailing vessel, docked in a modest marina across from a row of open-air shops. We came to explore nearby Ephesus, one of the Mediterranean's most impressive ancient sites whose ruins detail life in the once-powerful Greek and later Roman city. Upon returning to Kuşadası, our guide herded us into what he swore was "the best carpet shop in Turkey." In between sips of thick Turkish coffee, we haggled with the owner, eventually settling on a blue Hereke, which we stowed in the yacht before dining at the simple dockside eatery.

Remarkably, our rug's much the same, but everything else has changed. Now the former seaside village's population hovers around 50,000, streets bustle with tourists, rug shops bloom in high-rise buildings, and an air-conditioned shopping mall with sleek jewellery stores and European fashion boutiques anchors the modern port.

What Kuşadası lacks in charm it makes up for in locale. At Ephesus, about nine miles from town, you'll travel back thousands of years. The Terrace Houses, now open to the public, make the centuries-old city even more enthralling.

Despite Kuşadası's crowds, you can still find an outdoor cafe to sip Turkish wine, savour just-caught fish and enjoy the sea breezes.

One of the smallest of the Dodecanese Islands, Patmos is an island steeped in political and religious history. Visit the Grotto of St Anna or the fortress-monastery of St. John with its maze of Byzantine courtyards and arcades and its fascinating Treasury housing priceless icons and manuscripts.

Said to be the birthplace of Homer and just 8km from Turkey, Chios is a strikingly beautiful island that remains largely untouched by mass tourism despite offering arguably some the best beaches in the region. If you prefer to discover some local history, you'll find fascinating Byzantine churches and ancient cobbled streets with plenty of charming cafes available in which to pause, reflect and refresh.

A geographic and metaphoric melding of East and West, Istanbul is the world's only city covering two continents. The Bosporus runs through the centre; Europe lies to the west, Asia to the east.

For nearly 2,000 years, the ideally situated metropolis has been the keystone of some of the world's great empires, serving as the capital city for the Romans (under the name Constantinople, as noted by the informative "They Might Be Giants" tune), Byzantines and Ottomans.

Inside the sprawling city, the secular and the sacred mingle -- minarets with nightclubs and dusty prayer rugs with designer digs. The idea of Istanbul as a collision between East and West reveals itself immediately, with monumental churches cum mosques (the Hagia Sophia), Roman ruins (the Hippodrome, where horse and chariot races were held in Roman times) and unadulterated symbols of consumerism (the Grand Bazaar with its thousands of shops).

Even if these iconic attractions are what draw many of its tourists to this vast (second only in size to Shanghai) city of 17 million inhabitants, visitors, dutifully plodding through them, may easily miss what makes this city one of the world's most vibrant right now.

Increasingly prosperous, Istanbul has exciting neighbourhoods, upscale shops (not just the usual international brands like Prada but also fashion designs by Turkish clothiers) and a thriving restaurant scene that ranges from classic fare to newer, Mediterranean-infused interpretations of local standards. Its Museum of Modern Art -- handily located pierside, where ships dock -- is new and offers both rotating internationally-minded exhibitions and works from Turkish artists.

Istanbul is increasingly popular as a port of embarkation (or disembarkation) for a range of itineraries, from the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Greek Isles trips to the migration, twice a year, of ships between Europe and Asia. You can find as many as six ships a day docking there. This noisy place, in which the magical call to prayer several times a day manages to overcome the sound of honking cars, is a great place to add a pre- or post-cruise stay.

A geographic and metaphoric melding of East and West, Istanbul is the world's only city covering two continents. The Bosporus runs through the centre; Europe lies to the west, Asia to the east.

For nearly 2,000 years, the ideally situated metropolis has been the keystone of some of the world's great empires, serving as the capital city for the Romans (under the name Constantinople, as noted by the informative "They Might Be Giants" tune), Byzantines and Ottomans.

Inside the sprawling city, the secular and the sacred mingle -- minarets with nightclubs and dusty prayer rugs with designer digs. The idea of Istanbul as a collision between East and West reveals itself immediately, with monumental churches cum mosques (the Hagia Sophia), Roman ruins (the Hippodrome, where horse and chariot races were held in Roman times) and unadulterated symbols of consumerism (the Grand Bazaar with its thousands of shops).

Even if these iconic attractions are what draw many of its tourists to this vast (second only in size to Shanghai) city of 17 million inhabitants, visitors, dutifully plodding through them, may easily miss what makes this city one of the world's most vibrant right now.

Increasingly prosperous, Istanbul has exciting neighbourhoods, upscale shops (not just the usual international brands like Prada but also fashion designs by Turkish clothiers) and a thriving restaurant scene that ranges from classic fare to newer, Mediterranean-infused interpretations of local standards. Its Museum of Modern Art -- handily located pierside, where ships dock -- is new and offers both rotating internationally-minded exhibitions and works from Turkish artists.

Istanbul is increasingly popular as a port of embarkation (or disembarkation) for a range of itineraries, from the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Greek Isles trips to the migration, twice a year, of ships between Europe and Asia. You can find as many as six ships a day docking there. This noisy place, in which the magical call to prayer several times a day manages to overcome the sound of honking cars, is a great place to add a pre- or post-cruise stay.