Cruise ports in Greece

The Greek ports on a standard itinerary have almost nothing in common with each other except the currency. Piraeus is a vast industrial harbour serving a capital city 12 km inland. Santorini is a volcanic caldera with no pier at all. Rhodes puts you 500 metres from a complete medieval walled town. Heraklion is a working Cretan city with the best archaeological museum in the country.

Getting ashore is the difference that matters most. Rhodes and Heraklion are straightforward walk-off berths. Mykonos berths at Tourlos about 2 km from town, or tenders closer when the pier is full. Santorini tenders and then requires a cable car up a 300-metre cliff — comfortably the hardest logistics of any Mediterranean port, and the one to plan a group around.

The archaeology is spread across the ports rather than concentrated. Athens has the Acropolis, Crete has Knossos, Rhodes has Lindos, and Delos is reached from Mykonos. All are unshaded, uneven underfoot, and much harder work in July and August than the temperature alone suggests.

The meltemi wind blows through the Aegean in midsummer. It makes the heat bearable and occasionally cancels a tender operation outright — Santorini and Mykonos being the usual casualties, since both depend on small boats.