Cruising the Aegean: Turkey and the Greek Isles - with Smithsonian Journeys

In alliance with Smithsonian Journeys. This cruise is part of a collection of Ponant voyages that are specially-tailored for English-speaking travelers who want to engage with the world. In addition to the usual elements of the Ponant experience, the listed price for these voyages includes transfers to and from the ship, talks and discussions aboard ship by world class experts, and a shore excursion or activity in each port of call that encourages guests to embrace the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of the local environment and culture.

Departing from Istanbul, capital of the Roman,...read more Byzantine, and Ottoman Empires, your first stop is the port of Canakkale, from where you may travel south to explore ancient Troy, site of the war that is the subject of Homer's Iliad, or cross the Dardanelles to visit the World War I battlefield and cemeteries at Gallipoli. Kusadasi on Turkey's Aegean coast is your gateway to Ephesus, one of the world's greatest archaeological sites, spanning the period from the Hellenistic world through the early Christian era.

The immense excavation here includes temples of several Roman emperors, the iconic Library of Celsus, and the terraced hill houses, with their splendid mosaics and frescoes, overlooking the city below. Leaving Turkey for the Greek Islands, spend a day on Patmos and discover the monumental Byzantine monastery that guards the cave where St. John the Evangelist received his visions of the Apocalypse. You will also have time to explore the island's Chora (main town), home to an 11th-century monastery and to a labyrinth of picturesque, cobbled streets and arched alleyways.

Santorini offers a choice between browsing the sundrenched shops and restaurants of Thira and Oia, perched on cliffs overlooking the caldera of an ancient volcano, or exploring the Bronze Age site of Akrotiri, destroyed by a massive eruption of that volcano in the 2nd millennium BC, but preserved in ash and pumice much like Pompeii. The island of Delos was sacred to the ancient Greeks-the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and home to countless shrines and temples-a veritable open-air museum.

Mykonos, by contrast, is a sophisticated island resort with smart cafes and boutiques, where you will enjoy an afternoon and evening at leisure to soak in all that this dazzling town has to offer. From Nafplion travel to Mycenae, the legendary home of Agamemnon and an important center of the extraordinary civilization that flourished here in the 2nd millennium BC, before continuing to Epidaurus, the ancient shrine of Asklepios, whose ruins are dominated by a 4th-century BC theater that is one of the finest in Greece. Your journey concludes in Athens, Europe's oldest capital and birthplace of democracy.