Greek Islands Holidays For A European Idyll

We’ve been brain washed a little, in recent years, into believing that idyllic holidays have to be far flung. The literature, the posters, the adverts all point to faraway destinations covered in waving palm fronds. Sun, they seem to suggest, is only available when one spends a fortune travelling halfway around the world. Anyone who has ever been on Greek islands holidays already knows the lunacy of that suggestion for the rest of us, then, here’s a little run down of an idyll much closer to home.

The Greek islands have everything – including, at the moment, a rather wonderful habit of offering spectacular holidays at extremely reasonable prices. Sun, sand, sea, culture, ancient temples, glorious plant and wild life: everything that made the Aegean islands the cradle of romanticism, the place Shelley and Byron and all the great Romantic writers wanted to be in is still there in spades. Wonderful food, balmy nights, hot days (but not, unlike the tropics, swelteringly horrible and sticky) – there is nothing the heart desires that cannot be had in Greece and its surrounding islands.

Greek islands holidays can be done in one of two equally outstanding ways. One can either charter a yacht (this isn’t as expensive as its sounds) or hire a villa – or, if one wishes, one can combine the two, hiring a villa with access to a chartered and crewed yacht. All yacht charters are available either as bare boats (i.e. self crewed) or as crewed: if one wishes to hire a yacht bare one may well be asked to provide some proof of seamanship – a recognised license or qualification. To be honest, unless one is a seasoned sailor, the idea of Greek islands holidays on a bare boat is practically insane – why go to all that trouble when a whole professional crew is waiting to sail you around wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go there? Not forgetting, of course, that if someone else is in charge of the yacht then one is free to share a couple of bottles of retsina with one’s companion or, indeed, companions.

Villa hire is just as wonderful (which leads one to suppose that the ideal Greek island holiday would be to hire a villa with access to a yacht). Living for a couple of weeks in a Greek island villa allows one to step slowly back in time, wandering through explosions of fragrant plants in a genuine Mediterranean garden, relaxing for hours in a hammock under a cypress tree. Greek islands holidays, when they have a villa thrown in for good measure, are a positive study in the kind of indulgence tropical holidays often offer but so rarely deliver.

And all so close to home, too! With a Greek island holiday one can forget about 12 hour flights, interminable layovers and crushing jet lag. A couple of hours and one is there, in the bright blue Aegean Sea, ready to start the sensory adventure of a lifetime. Next time one of those posters for faraway lands crops up in your field of vision, stop and think for a minute. Wouldn’t it be better to take Greek islands holidays?

By: Nisos Charter
http://www.articledashboard.com