Greek odyssey
The harbour town of Symi, on the Dodecanese island of the same name
Odysseus took 10 years to journey back to Ithaca from Troy, in what is now modern-day Turkey. A sail through the Aegean Sea’s palette of blues, hopping between the Dodecanese, a Greek island chain hugging the Turkish mainland, reveals why he was keen to linger. This is Greece at its sunniest (so much so that the sun god Helios was said to live on Rhodes, the biggest of the islands) and is best explored in late spring, before the thermostat jumps to scorching. Utracks’ eightday Southern Aegean Bike and Sail cruise takes in the millennia-old temples and acropolises, crusader churches and bougainvillea-draped Byzantine arches in Rhodes and Kos, as well as lesser-visited islands such as Symi, with its dainty Italianate harbour, and Nisyros, with its gurgling volcano.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
The eightday Southern Aegean Bike and Sail trip has regular departures from 30 April to 29 October (from £1,065; utracks.com). Prices include accommodation in an en suite double cabin below deck, as well as breakfast and some lunches and dinners, bike hire and entry to museums and archaeological sites (excludes fights). Trips set sail from either Bodrum or Marmaris in Turkey.