CRUISE GREECE DESTINATIONS Tried & Tested CELESTYAL CRUISES
Jane Archer cruised around the Greek isles with Celestyal Cruises
If it’s Rhodes, it must be day three of my four-night taster voyage around the Greek isles with Celestyal Cruises, formerly known as Louis Cruise Lines. The Cypriot line changed its name last year and repositioned itself as a Greece specialist. As well as cruising the Greek isles and Turkey, its crew are from both countries, meals have a Greek slant and many wines are of Hellenic origin. On my cruise there were even Greek language lessons and dance classes. The company has three ships
– Celestyal Crystal, Celestyal Olympia, which many agents will remember as the former Thomson Destiny, and Celestyal Odyssey, although the last is leaving the fleet this month. It will be replaced in February next year by Gemini, a 1992-built 1,074-passenger sister ship to Fred Olsen’s Braemar that once sailed for Cunard. It will be renamed Celestyal Nefeli (after the goddess of hospitality) and operate Odyssey’s same programme of three and four-night sailings from Lavrion, a little-used port outside Athens that Celestyal uses in preference to busy Piraeus. The itineraries are packed – just hours after setting sail from Lavrion, we arrived in Mykonos for a late-evening visit and a chance to dine ashore. Soon after
midnight everyone was back on board and we set sail for the next stop, Kusadasi in Turkey, for a morning excursion to Ephesus. We sailed again at lunchtime, arriving a few hours later in tiny Patmos, where John the Apostle is said to have been exiled by the Romans for spreading the gospel. With three islands ticked off in just 36 hours, it was nice to be able to spend the whole of the next day in Rhodes. It allowed time to spend the morning in Rhodes Town and the afternoon in Lindos, about one hour away by car. Next day there were another two ports – Heraklion in Crete, for excursions to the Palace of Knossos, and Santorini, where tours visited Akrotiri and Oia – before the cruise ended in Lavrion the following morning. While not ideal for clients who want a leisurely holiday afloat, this is a perfect itinerary for first- time cruisers who don’t want to commit to a long sea holiday. It’s also great for non-cruise clients who would like an easier and more comfortable way to see the Greek isles than taking ferries. My four-night cruise is also ideal to combine with a few days on land. Book it: Prices start from £309 cruise-only for four nights in March and April 2016. Celestyal also has three-night cruises that skip the day in Rhodes from £215, and one-week voyages from Lavrion or Piraeus from £597.
celestyalcruises.com
TINOS: Variety Cruises’ sailing ship Galileo
offers late-evening departures from Santorini and Crete. For a more in-depth
exploration of Greek history, Voyages to Antiquity has a 15-day cruise round-trip from Piraeus that starts with three nights in Athens, visits six Greek
islands and also calls at Izmir and Canakkale in Turkey, for excursions to the former Greek cities of Ephesus, Pergamon and Troy. Prices are from £2,445 departing April 16, 2016, including flights, transfers, excursions and gratuities.
15 October 2015
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