This review is not going to be as organized as others. First - My recommendation for an Athens... read more
This review is not going to be as organized as others. First - My recommendation for an Athens... read more
Our family of four (two adults and two kids, ages 3 and 7) had the vacation of a lifetime with... read more
We once spent a few days in Athens and took a ferry to a nearby island for a few nights. From there, we were hooked on the Greek Island life - clear water, great food, and tons of sunshine. We were then convinced that an entire trip based on sailing the Greek Isles would be fantastic. But not being in the "yachting" class, where to start? There are a ton of logistics and routes to consider, and we're no experts at it.
Luckily, the Greek Seas folks are experts in doing just this - arranging for a week on the water and taking all of hassles out of setting up and executing a fantastic trip. From the reservation process and tons of questions that Austin handled quickly and efficiently, to the actual boat (RoseMary) with its expert skipper and hostess (Kostas and Mary), they took all of the hassle out of organizing and executing this type of trip and allowed our family to simply enjoy a memorable trip skipping through the Greek Isles.
Kostas is a knowledgeable skipper and was able to take us to plenty of great swimming spots and ports, fitting the trip around our desire to swim and avoid large port crowds. Mary does a great job shopping for all of the necessary provisions and serving simple breakfasts and incredible lunches each day. Most of the lunches took her hours to orchestrate on the tiny boat kitchen, and the results were always incredibly good.
We're experienced travelers and have spent many months in Europe and I can say with confidence that this was one of our best weeks on vacation ever. If you're thinking of a trip like this, you can't go wrong with this crew.
What an incredible way to start our honeymoon! Everything was so easy.
First off, the website was extremely clear and upfront with costs, exclusions & inclusions. This was my first reason for booking with Greek Seas. It's a small company, unlike others I was coming across online (which were not very clear with dates/costs/boats). Communication with Austin was fantastic. He was prompt and very helpful in helping us plan our trip. Due to our wedding being on a Saturday, we were only able to get to Athens for Monday. Austin was able to arrange a shorter boat charter for us to accommodate our needs with no sweat! Within the booking process we even decided on upgrading to a larger boat (Lagoon 380).. this was also not a problem (of course this was due to availability and happened to work in our favour).
Monday afternoon we were met at the marina with two friendly waves from Kostas and Mary. We hired a hostess to cook our breakfasts and lunches (TOTALLY worth it!). As it was our honeymoon we were greeted with delicious Greek style champagne. Due to the winds and shorter timing of our charter, Kostas gave us a few options for our first day of sailing. We decided on staying in a little bay off of Poros. Mary cooked us an amazing Greek dinner (not typical - as usually you eat dinner at your own expense on whichever island you dock at). All of Mary's meals were absolutely delicious! I was even diagnosed with Celiac's disease, which made me a bit anxious for traveling... but Mary did an amazing job cooking me gluten free meals and even tried a couple new dishes out. The next three nights were spent at various islands and our days were spent lazing around the boat, swimming and eating! Kostas and Mary gave us insider information on where to eat and have sunset drinks.
The Lagoon 380 was really comfortable and a perfect size for a couple, plus captain&hostess... (and could easily fit one or two young children). It was immaculately clean and well maintained.
It was an extremely relaxed environment, which was exactly what the doctor ordered! I can't say enough about the hospitality of Kostas and Mary. They went above and beyond our expectations. THANK YOU! We hope to travel with you again!
Erin & Patrick
Capt Yiannis A. is the best! He selected the best routes and stops for our trip. The pace of our day was very relaxing and satisfying. We learned about the islands as we sailed, and then explored the towns in the afternoon. Our evenings were filled with great food, conversation, and spirits. Capt Yiannis even joined us for dinner and midnight walks through town. We felt completely safe and in good company at all times. Our boat was very clean and accommodating for a charter of six adults. Great job!!
Yiannis had a fantastic and memorable week with sailing the islands with your group! It wonderful to hear that you had such a great experience and we hope you'll be back out for another adventure in the future.
I can't say enough about this trip. We traveled with a group of 16 aboard 4 boats. The food was amazing, the boats were spotless and the crews were beyond great.
We really appreciate your nice review. Our crews had a fantastic week sailing with your group. Thank you again for sailing with us!
We just got back from an amazing week with Greek Seas - we were on a Lagoon 450, which was in perfect condition and had lots of spaces for cards, naps, reading. Our Skipper was professional, kind and interesting. He gave us all sailing lessons and had great recommendations to make our trip perfect. Our hostess was a spectacular cook and was incredibly helpful at every turn. She made sure that we were totally taken care of for the entirety of the trip, and was completely able to accommodate food preferences and restrictions.
Planning was really easy - Austin was responsive, helpful, and able to answer all our questions. We had a completely seamless experience between the three of them.
I really can't say enough about how idyllic our experience was - I 100% recommend Greek Seas, and we're already thinking about our next vacation with them.
We really appreciate the very nice review and recommendation! It was a pleasure to have you sail with us and we look forward to seeing you again in the future :)
This was our (married couple in early 60s) second sailing trip with Captain Kiriakos and Hostess Josie and it was even more delightful than the first. This time we graduated from the Saronic to Cyclades Islands and got to enjoy the 49 foot Narcissus, a real sailor's boat that could comfortably handle six to eight guests. Kiriakos might be hard for some to warm up to, but once you have his heart he goes out of his way to find the best adventures, to select the best restaurants and foods, to teach you the ropes, to make you comfortable boarding the boat (rigging a hand rail), to run a long extension cord so my wife could blow dry her hair, or to reserve two of our favorite scorpion fish for a final dinner. We had the pleasure of their company at all of our dinners with stimulating conversations throughout the day and evening that kept us in the moment of our adventure. Our first stop was Kea, where we ate dinner at Aristos restaurant, featuring Vlita, Grilled Octopus, fish carpaccio, fava bean, eggplant salad. Our first morning presented a sea turtle sighting and a vigorous 9 knot sail. At our lunch stop Josie prepared Greek salad, vegetable medley Briam, stuffed mushrooms, spicy feta cheese dip. Then we were on to Serafos.
In Sefaros we took the Bus ride up mountain for amazing views (photo) and then had dinner near the beach at Stamatis: Fried zucchini and eggplant with garlic sauce, fennel cakes, marinated anchovies, stuffed cabbage, and chicken and pork slouvaki, and a complimentary dessert of yogurt with berry sauce. Next morning we were off to Lunch in a breathtaking Polyaigos bay, where we were served (photo) Fricassee with mushrooms, orange sausage, fried cheese, colorful salad, stuffed grape leaves, and roasted peppers.
In Kimolos, we had Dinner right on beach at To Kyma (photo), feasting on Ladenia, zucchini pie, zucchini with capers, dentext with lemon sauce, fried red mullet, Greek salad with local goat cheese, and complimentary Fruit salad and liquor. Next stop was Sifnos, where we stopped at Vathi, a quaint inlet with beach, small resorts, and hiking trails. Then we sailed on to the bigger harbor in Sifnos for lunch with Almyra greens, tzatziki, stuffed peppers (photo) with bulgur, zucchini with capers, and olives.
We then had a nice hike above Sifnos port (photo), ice cream in town, boat juggling, and nice sunset (photo). The 10 min taxi to a late 10:30 Dinner in Apollonia was well worth it, with lovely narrow streets with high end shops, dinner outside of mezze, falafel, zucchini balls with spicy yogurt cream, papardelle ragout (Greek kavourma cooked shredded meat with noodles), lamb kebab with curried raisin tabouleh, mushrooms with grilled haloumi cheese, beef in pot with eggplant and mushrooms.
Josie spent the preceding evening cooking to make sure we were well cared for at lunch in Kythnos with moussaka, broccoli, feta with peppers and olive oil, zucchini balls, humus, salad, fresh bread, and a dessert surprise of orange pie and chocolate cake from Kimolos. We had a pre-dinner toast to the Captain and Josie with wine hand carried from Sanoma and then dinner at Ostria: Cheese balls, Greek salad with local Feta, Tomato cheese balls, almyra greens, local psarosyrico grape wine from Gonidakis family, scorpion fish (photo), complimentary cheese cake
Even our last day sail to Athens was memorable with a stop in a bay below the Temple of Poseidon (photo), a dingy ride, and vigorous hike to the temple.
What a fantastic and detailed review! We really appreciate you sharing all this information (our mouth was watering just reading about the meals). We're going to add some of these details about the islands and food on our new site redesign.
Kiriakos and Josie had another fantastic week sailing with you! Thank you so much for chartering with Greek Seas again! We, of course, would love to see you back out for a third time :)