A while back I tried to recruit a friend to come on The Yacht Week with me and I couldn’t seem to find a partner in crime. So, I used TYW facebook group to post and see if anyone was looking for one more female to join their crew. Originally, I had posted about doing the Croatia route, but I was easily persuaded into Greece, because why not? A couple of the girls already in the crew happened to live in Nashville, so I was sold. Literally, I think I booked it the next day. I’m impulsive like that. I was able to hang out with them a couple times before we left which made me feel better about living on a yacht with 10 strangers for 7 days. We immediately connected and I couldn’t wait to go to Greece with my new friends!

TYW Day 1:

Woke up and headed to Alimos Marina to check in for TYW, where met the amazing and energetic yacht week crew. Next, we headed to EDEM Cafe for an amazing greek lunch and rosé of course. This turned into a 3 hour lets get to know each other and get a solid day buzz going. Our skipper, Tony, met us at the restaurant, so we overwhelmed him with questions and finally headed back to the marina to get on our floating home for the next week. We relaxed, made drinks and got ready for the opening dinner at Thomas restaurant - Ellados Eikones. This was by far the best restaurant we ate at! The restaurant had a beautiful outdoor space that held all 80ish of us. They feed you family style with no shortage of food or wine obviously. Dinner was followed by the welcome party which was held at a gorgeous bar in the marina, Pennarrubia. We called it a night around midnight to be fully rested for sailing in the morning to Poros and watch the sunrise as we sailed away!

TYW Day 2 - Poros:

We set sail around 6:30 am, watching the sunrise light up the sky with beautiful pastel colors from the deck. By afternoon we arrived to Poros, a small Greek island in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf. Tony was a “lead skipper” so we often got best docking spots and arrived first. We explored Poros by ATV’s and did some light shopping around the quaint town. Next, it was time to get ready for the Tropical Retro Party at Love Bay. For this party, we had to water taxi over to the private bay reserved for TYW, it was perfect. Drinks were served by the bucket and the beach had floating tables perfect for getting to know new friends from the water. We played some water volleyball, however beaches are very rocky in Greece so it didn’t last long. Fast forward a couple hours, cue tropical house music. The “dance floor” was full and the limbo competition was live! Later that night we grabbed some local Greek cuisine and changed for the after party, more dancing, how perfect.

TYW Day 3 - Porto Heli/ Nikki Beach

We set sail early to arrive at Porto Heli, a small summer resort town that held the glamorous Nikki Beach Resort & Spa. The yachts rafted off side by side for some boat hopping before the real party got started. We headed into Nikki Beach by the way of water taxi, where we had our first table service. This party was my favorite, who doesn’t love a good pool party? Cue music, dancing, new friends and all the sparkles. The view was to die for and sunset from the pool was magic.

TYW Day 4 - Natural Bay

Set sail to Natural Bay for Regatta day! Regatta is essentially a themed party and competition between the yachts on your route, judged by TYW crew. It involves costumes, champagne showers, dancing and lots of energy to prove how fun your crew is. This lasted for at least an hour, fun, but exhausting. Once that was over, what I thought was a hang over turned into a 24 hour flu, joy! I never get sick, how the hell was I getting sick in Greece out of all places? Turns out one of the guys in our crew was getting over being sick when the trip started and spread the plague to everyone, including our skipper. It was miserable and it didn’t help we didn’t touch land this day at all. We were rafted off all day and night, sleeping in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, how could I complain? After countless naps, night time finally rolled around. We laid on the deck to look up at the stars, again, we were in the middle of the Mediterranean…MAGICAL! It was so nice to relax and engage in quality conversation with my new friends.

TYW Day 5 - Ermioni

We set sail for Ermioni, a small gorgeous port town. Today we got to explore the town on our own, however I was still in recovery so I didn’t do much exploring here. I got myself ready for the next themed party, Riviera Chic at Cavo Bianco. Cue stripes, nautical colors and 1950’s vibes. Oh, and more dancing of course. The venue overlooked the deep blue hued water, it was picturesque. For dinner we wandered the town and stumbled upon the amazing local Soulvalki Bar to get some local Greek food and relax back on our boat for the night. There was an after party option, however that was not in the books for me. Note there are a lot of parties on TYW and they are optional, this isn’t band camp.

TYW Day 6 - Hydra

I woke up in Hydra, another gorgeous island and was finally ready to explore! I walked around the different shops, had lunch and went to the beach. It was unlike a normal beach, more rocks, less sand. The water was a shades of blues I had never seen before. I floated in the water and looked around, really taking it all in. I could have stared into the sea for hours. Next was the family style dinner at Sunset Restaurant, did I mention I love family style? TYW crew greeted us with bubbly while we took pictures alongside the amazing sunset. After dinner, we strolled down the cobblestone path to Omilos for the after party, where we had a table reserved inside perfect for dancing on. Not like that…it’s just a thing you do there. I danced for 4 hours straight and loved every second, it was hip hop night and I was so happy to be back to normal!

TYW Day 7 - Back to Alimos Marina

It was finally coming to an end, so sad! We set sail back to Alimos, the rough waters made it about a 7 hour sail back, this was our longest sail day. When I was below deck, I was convinced the boat was going to break, seriously we were airborne a few times. Along the way we stopped for one last swim, ahh the water was so perfect I can’t even explain it. We packed up our stuff and got ready for our last night. We had dinner in Athens with just our crew at a gorgeous restaurant with layers of vines wrapping throughout, cute cats and a spectacular view. We laughed the night away reminiscing on everything that happened throughout the week. After dinner, we walked to the closing party at Oionos Cafe Bar/ City Zen. Rooftop views were insane. The Acropolis was light up in the background creating the perfect atmosphere for the closing night.

Check-out Day:

With a heavy heart we had to say our goodbyes to our amazing skipper and hostess who cooked breakfast and dinner for us some of the days. Her food presentation was beyond impressive considering she had to cook as we were sailing and the kitchen space was like 2’ x 2’. Tony was an outstanding skipper, I never once felt concerned about anything. He knows what he is doing and does it with ease, because he’s cool like that. The Yacht Week was one of the best weeks of my life, just as they suggest it would be. The staff does an amazing job planning and making the experience stress free. I would definitely go again, who’s ready for Montenegro?!

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about The Yacht Week, I would love to connect!

Anayat ❤

Professional photos by: James Patrick

My Yacht Week Itinerary