7 nights / 8 days · Hellenic Republic

Paros with Santorini and Mykonos

Three Athens nights and four on Paros, with shared day cruises to Santorini and to Mykonos and a coach tour of Paros itself.

Plan this trip See the day-by-day

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Duration: 7 nights / 8 days
Where you stay: Athens → Paros
Style: Multi-city

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About this trip

The island half of this trip has one address. You unpack once, on Paros, and the rest of the Cyclades comes to you: a shared cruise south to Santorini on the fifth day and another north to Mykonos on the sixth, each going ashore in the middle of the day and each returning to the same hotel at night.

It is the version to take if changing hotels every second night is the part of island-hopping you dislike, and Paros is the right base for it — central in the Cyclades, well served by ferry, and quieter than either of the islands it looks across at. The trade is time on the water: both cruise days are long, with a few hours ashore in the middle of them.

What you go for

Four nights on one island, not four hotels in a week
A day cruise to Santorini, ashore for Oia and Fira
A day cruise to Mykonos, ashore for Chora and Little Venice
The Athens half-day tour at the front, with the Acropolis and its museum

The route

Day by day

Times are the operator's planned schedule. They shift with the season, the light and the traffic on the day.

Day 1
Arrival in Athens
On arrival
Athens International Airport
Met after baggage reclaim and driven into the city privately. Check in at your four-star hotel; the rest of the day is yours.
Day 2
Athens sightseeing
Morning
The ceremonial city, by coach
A half-day seat-in-coach tour with a guide. It opens at the Panathenaic Stadium, the marble horseshoe rebuilt in Pentelic marble for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, then the Hellenic Parliament and the changing of the guard at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, where the Evzones do the drill in full dress.
Seen from the coach
Passing sights rather than stops: the surviving columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Arch on the old boundary between the Greek city and the Roman one, the neoclassical run of the Academy, the University and the National Library, and Syntagma Square.
Acropolis and Acropolis Museum
The two stops where you get out and walk. Up the rock for the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion, then down the hill to the museum built to hold what came off it, with the Parthenon gallery on the top floor aligned to the temple itself.
Afternoon
Free. Entrance fees are not in the package price and are paid on the day; the rest of the day is your own.
Day 3
Athens to Paros
Overnight: Paros
Morning
Breakfast, then a private transfer from the hotel to Piraeus, the port below Athens.
The crossing
A shared ferry out through the Saronic Gulf and into the Cyclades. On arrival at Paros, a transfer to your three-star hotel.
Afternoon
Free. The harbour villages and the beaches are the obvious first afternoon, and the island is small enough that nothing is far.
Day 4
Paros by coach
Overnight: Paros
Full day
Around the island
A shared coach tour of Paros, through the traditional villages and the historic sites, with the interior — marble quarries, olive terraces, hill villages of white and stone — filling the gaps between them. Back at the hotel for the evening.
Day 5
Cruise to Santorini
Overnight: Paros
The caldera from the water
A shared cruise south to Santorini, coming in under the caldera wall: three hundred metres of layered rock left by the Bronze Age eruption, with the villages along the rim of it.
Midday
Ashore
Off the boat to see the island's set pieces — Oia at the north end, Fira on the rim, and the volcanic beaches where the sand is black or red rather than pale.
Evening
Back on board and back to Paros for the night.
Day 6
Cruise to Mykonos
Overnight: Paros
North to Mykonos
Out of Paros on a shared cruise up the island chain, along the Mykonos coastline with the row of windmills above the harbour.
Ashore
Time in Chora: the lanes laid out deliberately as a maze against pirates, Little Venice where the house balconies overhang the water, and the whitewashed Panagia Paraportiani, five chapels built into one another over two centuries.
Evening
Back on board and back to Paros for the night.
Day 7
Paros to Athens
Morning
Breakfast, then a transfer to the port of Paros and the shared ferry back to Piraeus.
Afternoon
A private transfer into Athens and your four-star hotel. The rest of the day is at your leisure.
Day 8
Departure
Morning
Breakfast at the hotel, then a private transfer to Athens International Airport for your flight home or onward.

Where you stay

Hotel options

Pick a line and the whole trip is costed against it, so you can see what the difference actually buys.

4★ and 3★
- President Hotel or similar, Athens (4★)
- Eri Hotel or similar, Paros (3★)
Quoted on enquiry

Per person, twin share. Land only — international flights are not included. Rates move with the season, the number of you travelling and the hotel line you choose, so we confirm the final figure against your dates before anything is booked.

The detail

What is included

Included

Three nights at a four-star hotel in Athens.
Four nights at a three-star hotel on Paros.
Seven breakfasts.
Half-day guided sightseeing tour of Athens, seat-in-coach.
Shared scenic cruises to Santorini and to Mykonos.
Ferry tickets.
All transfers as set out above.
A 24-hour emergency contact number.

Not included

International flights.
Travel insurance.
Personal expenses.
Gratuities.
Entrance fees.
City tax.
Tour leader.

Entry rules, tourism taxes and health requirements change without notice and depend on your passport. Everything above is confirmed by our operations desk before your booking is finalised.

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