A Journey to the Turkish Riviera and Ancient Vineyards

7 nights - 31 May 2025
Mediterranean

CRUISE ONLY WAS £3010 pp £2859 PP
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 2 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY WAS £3150 pp £2992 PP
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 2 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY WAS £4655 pp £4422 PP
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 2 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY WAS £8120 pp £7714 PP
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 2 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

Want to add a hotel stay or change your flights?

Just call our team of cruise specialists to help build your dream cruise holiday today!

CRUISE ONLY Call
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 1 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY Call
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 1 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY Call
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 1 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

CRUISE ONLY WAS £4030 pp £3828 PP
FLY CRUISE Call

Prices based on 1 people sharing. Cruise only price does not include flights. Fly-cruise price may vary by chosen UK airport.


Where solo or family pricing is not available please call for more details.

Image featured for illustrative purposes only

Want to add a hotel stay or change your flights?

Just call our team of cruise specialists to help build your dream cruise holiday today!

(Prices correct as of today’s date, are updated daily, are subject to change and represent genuine availability at time of update).

Cruise only holidays are financially protected by ABTA. Fly cruise holidays are financially protected by Explora Journeys under ATOL number

Please click here to check the essential travel requirements before booking this cruise.

Itinerary

1

Istanbul

The only city in the world that can lay claim to straddling two continents, Istanbul—once known as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine and then the Ottoman Empire—has for centuries been a bustling metropolis with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia. Istanbul embraces this enviable position with both a certain chaos and inventiveness, ever evolving as one of the world’s most cosmopolitan crossroads. It’s often said that Istanbul is the meeting point of East and West, but visitors to this city built over the former capital of two great empires are likely to be just as impressed by the juxtaposition of old and new. Office towers creep up behind historic palaces, women in chic designer outfits pass others wearing long skirts and head coverings, peddlers’ pushcarts vie with battered old Fiats and shiny BMWs for dominance of the noisy, narrow streets, and the Grand Bazaar competes with modern shopping malls. At dawn, when the muezzin's call to prayer resounds from ancient minarets, there are inevitably a few hearty revelers still making their way home from nightclubs and bars. Most visitors to this sprawling city of more than 14 million will first set foot in the relatively compact Old City, where the legacy of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires can be seen in monumental works of architecture like the brilliant Aya Sofya and the beautifully proportioned mosques built by the great architect Sinan. Though it would be easy to spend days, if not weeks, exploring the wealth of attractions in the historical peninsula, visitors should make sure also to venture elsewhere in order to experience the vibrancy of contemporary Istanbul. With a lively nightlife propelled by its young population and an exciting arts scene that’s increasingly on the international radar—thanks in part to its stint as the European Capital of Culture in 2010—Istanbul is truly a city that never sleeps. It’s also a place where visitors will feel welcome: Istanbul may be on the Bosphorus, but at heart it’s a Mediterranean city, whose friendly inhabitants are effusively social and eager to share what they love most about it.

31 May 2025
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Istanbul
2

At Sea

01 June 2025
3

Ermoupoli, Syra

Syros is an island in the Aegean Sea, 78 miles (125 kilometres) southeast of Athens, and the administrative, commercial, intellectual and cultural centre of the Cyclades. Syros is 32 square miles (82.8 square kilometres) in area. Its largest towns are Ermoupoli, the capital of the island and Cyclades, Ano Syros and Vari. Although Syros belongs to the Cyclades islands, its architecture is more medieval than Cycladic. The beaches of Syros are especially inviting, and surrounded by many tourist facilities and accommodations.

02 June 2025
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4

Bodrum

03 June 2025
Bodrum
5

Rhodes

Early travelers described Rhodes as a town of two parts: a castle or high town (Collachium) and a lower city. Today Rhodes town—sometimes referred to as Ródos town—is still a city of two parts: the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site that incorporates the high town and lower city, and the modern metropolis, or New Town, spreading away from the walls that encircle the Old Town. The narrow streets of the Old Town are for the most part closed to cars and are lined with Orthodox and Catholic churches, Turkish houses (some of which follow the ancient orthogonal plan), and medieval public buildings with exterior staircases and facades elegantly constructed of well-cut limestone from Lindos. Careful reconstruction in recent years has enhanced the harmonious effect.

04 June 2025
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Rhodes
6

Samos

05 June 2025
7

Páros

06 June 2025
8

Piraeus

It's no wonder that all roads lead to the fascinating and maddening metropolis of Athens. Lift your eyes 200 feet above the city to the Parthenon, its honey-color marble columns rising from a massive limestone base, and you behold architectural perfection that has not been surpassed in 2,500 years. But, today, this shrine of classical form dominates a 21st-century boomtown. To experience Athens—Athína in Greek—fully is to understand the essence of Greece: ancient monuments surviving in a sea of cement, startling beauty amid the squalor, tradition juxtaposed with modernity. Locals depend on humor and flexibility to deal with the chaos; you should do the same. The rewards are immense. Although Athens covers a huge area, the major landmarks of the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine periods are close to the modern city center. You can easily walk from the Acropolis to many other key sites, taking time to browse in shops and relax in cafés and tavernas along the way. From many quarters of the city you can glimpse "the glory that was Greece" in the form of the Acropolis looming above the horizon, but only by actually climbing that rocky precipice can you feel the impact of the ancient settlement. The Acropolis and Filopappou, two craggy hills sitting side by side; the ancient Agora (marketplace); and Kerameikos, the first cemetery, form the core of ancient and Roman Athens. Along the Unification of Archaeological Sites promenade, you can follow stone-paved, tree-lined walkways from site to site, undisturbed by traffic. Cars have also been banned or reduced in other streets in the historical center. In the National Archaeological Museum, vast numbers of artifacts illustrate the many millennia of Greek civilization; smaller museums such as the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum illuminate the history of particular regions or periods. Athens may seem like one huge city, but it is really a conglomeration of neighborhoods with distinctive characters. The Eastern influences that prevailed during the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire are still evident in Monastiraki, the bazaar area near the foot of the Acropolis. On the northern slope of the Acropolis, stroll through Plaka (if possible by moonlight), an area of tranquil streets lined with renovated mansions, to get the flavor of the 19th-century's gracious lifestyle. The narrow lanes of Anafiotika, a section of Plaka, thread past tiny churches and small, color-washed houses with wooden upper stories, recalling a Cycladic island village. In this maze of winding streets, vestiges of the older city are everywhere: crumbling stairways lined with festive tavernas; dank cellars filled with wine vats; occasionally a court or diminutive garden, enclosed within high walls and filled with magnolia trees and the flaming trumpet-shaped flowers of hibiscus bushes. Formerly run-down old quarters, such as Thission, Gazi and Psirri, popular nightlife areas filled with bars and mezedopoleia (similar to tapas bars), are now in the process of gentrification, although they still retain much of their original charm, as does the colorful produce and meat market on Athinas. The area around Syntagma Square, the tourist hub, and Omonia Square, the commercial heart of the city about 1 km (½ mi) northwest, is distinctly European, having been designed by the court architects of King Otho, a Bavarian, in the 19th century. The chic shops and bistros of ritzy Kolonaki nestle at the foot of Mt. Lycabettus, Athens's highest hill (909 feet). Each of Athens's outlying suburbs has a distinctive character: in the north is wealthy, tree-lined Kifissia, once a summer resort for aristocratic Athenians, and in the south and southeast lie Glyfada, Voula, and Vouliagmeni, with their sandy beaches, seaside bars, and lively summer nightlife. Just beyond the city's southern fringes is Piraeus, a bustling port city of waterside fish tavernas and Saronic Gulf views.

07 June 2025
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Piraeus

*This holiday is generally suitable for persons with reduced mobility. For customers with reduced mobility or any medical condition that may require special assistance or arrangements to be made, please notify your Cruise Concierge at the time of your enquiry, so that we can provide specific information as to the suitability of the holiday, as well as make suitable arrangements with the Holiday Provider on your behalf.

Map


What's Included with Explora Journeys

In-suite welcome bottle of champagne and sweet treats
Unlimited fine beverages*
Thermal Spa Access
All on-board gratuities
Shuttle services from port to city centre**
Guest to crew ratio of 1.25 to 1 - one of the highest in the industry
Bottle of wine and spirit of the guests’ choice upon arrival
9 Culinary Experiences
Wellbeing and fitness programmes
Complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi
Authentic, cultured, intuitive service

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