I am Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my tips for travellers. In this episode
we're going to learn about cruising Greece and the Greek islands, and I'm
going to share with you 9 tips to make the most of any cruise vacation around
this magnificent part of the world. First, why on earth should you actually
go? It has something for pretty much everybody. The islands are beautiful and
all of the islands have unique characters, stories and landscape.
Secondly, they have magnificent beaches and some islands have the
best beaches in the world. So, if you're a beach lover
you're going to love cruising the Greek islands. Thirdly, if you're a history buff
like me you're going to love Greece. It's the cradle of civilization. Both on the
mainland stops and on the islands you're going to come across many magnificent
historical and archaeological sites. Fourthly. if you're into shopping
there's remarkable amounts of local produce, like olive oil and different
foods, that you can buy and also there's a great range of crafts. When is the
best time to go? The season really runs from May to late October. July and
August are the most popular times and the islands and Greece can be absolutely
packed, and also it can be very very hot with temperatures up to the late 30s
Celsius (over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit). In my view the best times to
go are in June and September or into early October. It's before and after
the real madness of the season, but everything's open and the weather's is
great. My third tip is around what is the best itinerary? There are three broad
types of itineraries. The first of these is the eastern Mediterranean. Many of
them start in either Venice or Athens and they cruise down to
Greece or from Greece, stopping at places along the Adriatic like Dubrovnik
and Kotor in Montenegro. They also
include, of course, a number of stops at some mainland parts of Greece and on a
number of the islands. They do tend to focus on the bigger and more popular
islands. The second cruise you can choose is a Greek islands only cruise. These
tend to be operated by Greek owned cruise lines with smaller ships,
and they will just go around a number of islands. The third type of cruise, which
used to be very big but are less big now because of lots of the issues with
Turkey, but they used to be combined Greece and
Turkey cruises. Many of these would then include a couple of stops at the
Greek islands and go to some of the key sites in Turkey, and some of the
cruises would then go on to places like Israel. However, there's fewer cruise
lines that do this itinerary now because of many of the issues, certainly at the
time of recording, with Turkey. Personally I really like the eastern Mediterranean
or the Adriatic cruise because you get great chance to see some of the parts of
the Adriatic, like Montenegro and Serbia, but you also get to spend time in the
Greek islands - and of course you see the two iconic cities of Venice, which is
magnificent, and Athens which is another magnificent city. Many of the
cruises will focus on the big islands, so Mykonos,
Santorini and perhaps Crete. Look at itineraries and cruises that include
the following as these are for me the must-see places to go: Santorini is a
real must on an itinerary. The area of Santorini was created by massive
volcanic activity so it's a big caldera and you have big 300-meter high
cliffs with the town's perched on top of the cliffs. Secondly, you want
to go to Mykonos. It was very trendy and hip in the 70s and 80s, after a
period of decline it's really back in vogue. Also very important are visiting
places with huge historical significance. Obviously Athens, so make sure if you're
embarking or disembarking your cruise in Athens that you do spend time there Athens
and go visit the Acropolis, which is on a big outcrop overlooking the city, and
also make sure you go and visit the new Acropolis Museum. Make sure that
you are going to Katakolon on your cruise and head out to Olympia, which is
the side site where the original Olympic Games were held, and still has a link to the
Olympic games of today because the flame is created here for each of the Olympic
Games. I recommend that you ensure that Crete is on your itinerary and you
head out to the incredible Palace of Knossos. This was the centre of the
Minoan culture and of course is famous for the Minotaur which allegedly lived
underneath it in the labyrinth, which was a half-man half-beast. Another key island
to go and visit is Patmos. It's a very beautiful island and not many cruises go
there. You have the Monastery of Saint John and you have the famous cave where
Jesus appeared to John and encouraged him to write the Book of
Revelations, which is the last book in the New Testament.
Another great island which I recommend you look for on an itinerary is called
Githeon. This is a very small island and it has a beautiful little town and
you should head out to the Glafada caves and go on a boat trip, which lasts about half
an hour, weaving your way through this magnificent complex. Another island which
a lot of cruisers will call on is Corfu. Corfu is great more if you want to go
and have a beach type of scene. So, those are my tips around the places and
islands to look for. Make sure that you don't just go to the obvious islands and
the trip does include some of those more unusual places. Look at the
itinerary and places you want to go to first and then decide the cruise line.
The good news is that pretty much every major Cruise Line visits Greece
either for the whole season or part in the season. So, probably any
cruise line that you want to cruise with is probably going to go to Greece and
the Greek islands at some point during the year.
First of all, you could choose to go on one of the major cruise lines which
operate bigger ships. You'll find they all go there so whether it's
Princess, Holland America, Celebrity , Royal Caribbean Norwegian. All those cruise
lines will include Greece at some point during the year, so if you like to go on
a ship with lots of facilities then definitely do that. However, bear in mind
you can be on a ship with lots of people and some of these islands are quite small
and can get really packed and really busy with the big ships in. Secondly,
which is my personal preference, is to go on a smaller ship Cruise Line. For
example on my most recent cruise around the Greek islands was with
Azamara Club Cruises, but I've also done it with Windstar Cruises. Go on cruise
lines which have much smaller ships. The advantage of those is they're much more
likely to go to some of those smaller and out-of-the-way places, because they
have a much smaller ships. The third thing you can do if you wanted a real
Greek experience is to go with one of the Greek cruise lines.
For example, Celestyal cruises which does lots of Greece and Turkey
cruises, and there's another cruise line called Variety which use much smaller
ships and they'll do much more going around just the Greek islands.
The next step is around what to do once you get to the
islands the simplest thing to do, of course, is to do excursions with
your cruise line. The advantage of that is that cruise lines always guarantee if
their own excursions are delayed the ship will wait for you. The second thing
you can do is go through independent providers which will offer very similar
tours, often for a lower cost. The other thing, which I like to do, is self touring.
You'll find many Cruise Lines will offer lots of resources. For example, on the
Azamara cruise they gave us talks, they gave us port guides and also
someone from the tourist board would come on board the ship when it docked
and provide maps and other advice. Most of the islands that you call on will
have either a hop-on hop-off bus tour, which will normally leave from the port,
or some of them will also have for example in Santorini there was a boat
service and that will shuttle you to other parts of the island. Also, when
you get off the ship, at all of the islands you'll find other taxis or providers
ready to provide independent touring. My next tip is around things
to watch out for and be aware of. Four things I really want to draw to your
attention. First of all, bear in mind it can get
really really hot. So if you're going in the peak times of July and August
it will get very hot and sticky, so make sure that you
come prepared for that - make sure you've got sunscreen, hats and lots of water. The
second thing is be ready for crowds in the peak season. It's manically busy, and
even in the offseason places can be very busy. One of things I recommend you do
is if you want to go to the big famous sites, like Olympia, Acropolis or Palace of Knossos,
is try and plan your day to get there really early so you miss the
of peak around midday time. The third thing is be ready to use tenders. Many
of the ships will have to dock not on land but moor out in the
harbour and use tender boats. Very likely have a lot of
tendering, so one of the advantages again of booking a cruise line excursion is
often they'll give you priority on the tenders. The fourth thing to bear in mind
is, of course, you're in Greece and Greek is going to be spoken everywhere - but
you'll find all of the destinations you go to in the islands they are used to
speaking English. So what should you pack? Obviously you've need Euros, Sun
Hat and other items to be ready for the heat. You also need to make sure that you've taken into
account the dress code of your particular Cruise Line. Two other really
important things are the archeological sites that you visit have
uneven and rough surfaces, so make sure that you've got the right sort of
footwear. Good comfortable solid footwear. Also, if you are planning to
go to some of the religious sites like into
some of the churches, they are going to be Greek Orthodox and fairly conservative,
so you have to make sure the things like your shoulders and
knees are covered. What is the best and easiest way to book
a Greek island cruise? There's three key ways you can do it. The first which is by
far the simplest and easiest, is to buy a package. For example on my cruise, I
went with a company called Titan Travel and they did a package which included
some pre stay at the lakes in Italy, a transfer to Venice and they met us
at the end of the cruise to do some touring around Athens.
They also included a door-to-door service, so they picked me up at home
took me to the airport and once we got back from our trip we were then had a
transfer back home. The second thing you could do if you want a more tailored
package is obviously talk to a cruise agent, and they could then put together a
package which may include some pre and post days. The third of course is you can
just go directly to the cruise lines and just book the cruise. Certainly the
simplest easiest way is buying a package. Cruising Greece and the Greek
islands is magnificent. There's lots of different ways that you can cruise it. I
personally really like the Adriatic combination where you start in Venice or
Athens, because it gives you a chance to see the Greek islands plus some of those
magnificent places like a Kotor and Dubrovnik.
I also like going in a smaller ship as it makes sure this gets me to lots of
those iconic and really important places, and not just the big regular places.
You'll find you have a much more varied cruising experience. There are lots of
things to do whether you are a beach lover, history lover, somebody who likes shopping.
You're going to find lots of things to do, and it really is magnificent. I hope you
found that helpful and if you did I'd love it if you watched many more of my tips
for travellers videos to help you make much more of your travel time and money.