Cruise report

The Cyclades

Snow-white houses, blue domes and shining little chapels. Barren hills, bizarre rocks, sandy niches and deep blue as far as the eye can see – this is the backdrop that surrounds you on a sailing trip in the island world of the Greek Cyclades. Around 50 islets belong to this group of islands, which are arranged in a circle – in the Kyklos – around the once sacred island of Delos. And there are new postcard-perfect motifs on every island: on Mykonos, for example, the gleaming white windmills, on Santorini the reddish shimmering volcanic crater and on Delos the ancient columns. Anyone who sails from island to island in the Cyclades soon realizes that they are sailing in what is probably one of the most beautiful areas in the world.

The underwater world - an endangered beauty

A total of 26 guests can explore the Cyclades on board the RHEA. You spend the night in air-conditioned double or deluxe cabins (with a family bed if required), enjoy the good food that the chef prepares fresh every day and have fun in the bays – on a wakeboard, for example, in wave kayaks or in a sailing dinghy. Or they can be pulled through the azure waters of the Aegean Sea on water skis or a banana boat.

Santorini – this Cycladic island is said to be the most beautiful of all the Greek islands. It is the destination of honeymooners, dreamers and romantics. It was born out of a volcano around 3500 years ago, and since then the small island has risen vertically out of the sea as a dark tuff rock up to 300 meters high. At the top of the caldera, the crater rim, lie the island’s villages: for example the capital of Santorini, Thira, whose little houses cling to the steep crater rim, all whitewashed and with light blue shutters. If you have time, you could hike ten kilometers along the caldera from here – all the way to Oia, probably the most beautiful little town far and wide (duration of the hike: around two to three hours). And in Oia, you absolutely must marvel at the sunset, as locals and vacationers alike claim: Nowhere else in the world is the sunset anywhere near as breathtaking as here!

But by the next day at the latest, the time is ripe for the next nautical miles on board the RHEA. Santorini is left in the wake. The next destination: Paros – another little island with white houses and shutters in the colors of sky and sea.

Paros: once an insider tip, now a cult destination.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Paros was still an insider tip among backpackers, but today the island is on every Cycladic traveler’s itinerary. No wonder: after all, Parikia, the main town, and Naoussa, the picture-book harbor in the north of the island, are among the most beautiful Cycladic settlements of all. And at every corner of the island there are enchanting little beaches.

“It’s the mixture that makes Paros special”sums up Elena, a tourist from Hamburg who has become a die-hard Paros fan in recent years. Beaches. And a backdrop like a painting. “And in the evening”says the woman in her mid-forties and squints into the sun, “I walk through Naoussa. Past the dried fish hanging on lines and drying here and there, through the winding alleyways and into the nice little boutiques. I even painted once. Everyone does that here”says the vacationer. “Because Paros is so incredibly beautiful!”

lasting impressions

The next day, after a few hours, Delos, the smallest of the Cyclades islands, lies ahead. Today, only a few archaeologists and museum guards live here, but Delos used to be densely populated: Around 30,000 people are said to have lived here at times. At that time, Delos was a place of worship, as it was here that the goddess Letho is said to have given birth to her son Apollo. Even today you can still discover magnificent things on the island: the Temple of Apollo, 2000-year-old statues and the Terrace of the Lions with huge marble lions. The crew of the RHEA sets sail, the sea gurgles in the wake, behind them lie days on various Cyclades islands and on the deep blue Aegean, ahead lies Mykonos again. To get to know Milos, Serifos, Syros and co, you have to come back. And also to see what weather Poseidon, the god of the sea, has in store for you next time.

As an alternative to the route presented here, the RHEA also sails to other Cyclades islands on some trips. The alternative route also starts on the picture-book island of Mykonos, but then leads via Delos to Santorini and on via Milos (the island in the south-west of the Cyclades is rich in natural resources, including allegedly large quantities of gold) to Serifos and Syros back to Mykonos.

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