Paxos Antipaxos Boat Trip: Life on the Boat

What is included and what is not

Four things come with the booking: pickup and drop-off if your option has them, the cruise itself, multilingual guides, and a bar aboard the vessel. Two things do not: towels, and food and drinks.

Those two statements sit together more easily than they look. The bar is part of the vessel and open to you throughout; what you buy at it is a separate matter from the booking.

That is a normal arrangement and it is stated plainly rather than left to be discovered at sea. Bring a card, because a bar on a day boat is not the place to find out what it does or does not accept. None of it is unusual for a Greek day cruise, and all of it is stated up front rather than emerging over the course of the morning.

Paxos antipaxos cruise: eating on the day

Lunch is in Lakka, for most people. Two hours ashore in a village full of tavernas is more than enough to eat properly, and it is what the majority of guests do with the free time.

One guest raises it directly, suggesting that a modest lunch could reasonably have been part of what the ticket covers. That is a fair opinion and the operator has chosen otherwise, which is why the exclusion list says what it says.

The alternative is to bring something. On a twelve hour day that is not unreasonable, and it means the two hours in Lakka can go on walking or swimming rather than on sitting down.

The atmosphere

This is a sociable boat and the reviews are unambiguous about it. Guests describe energy, music, dancing and a barbecue, with several calling the atmosphere on board the thing they remember most.

There is a DJ setup on the deck, which tells you what kind of day this is. The return leg in particular has a reputation for being lively rather than a quiet run home after a long day.

Whether that appeals is a matter of temperament and worth being honest about. If you want silence and a book on the water, this is the wrong boat. If you want a day out with life in it, the reviews are describing exactly what you are hoping for. It is also the reason a twelve hour day does not feel like one, which on the Corfu Port option is doing real work.

Paxos antipaxos and blue caves cruise: the deck

There is a lot of it, and being on it is most of the point. Photographs show passengers on the bow as the boat enters cave mouths, seated in rows under awnings watching the cliffs, and lining the rails at the swim stop.

Shade exists but is finite, which matters on a Greek summer day running to twelve hours. The people who are comfortable at four in the afternoon are the ones who thought about sun in the morning.

Move about. A day this long spent in one seat is a waste of a boat with this much deck, and the view changes constantly depending on which side of it you are standing.

Things to pack

The operator's own list is comfortable shoes, sunglasses, a sun hat, swimwear, a towel, sunscreen and a jacket. All seven are there for a reason and the towel is the one people forget.

Wear the swimwear under your clothes rather than packing it. Changing space on a day boat is limited and the swim stop is not long enough to spend a meaningful part of it standing in a queue for it.

The jacket is the item that gets questioned in a Greek August and vindicated at seven in the evening on the water. Sea air after sunset on a moving boat is considerably cooler than the day suggested it would be.

Sun, and the length of the day

Twelve hours on the Corfu Port option, much of it on open water with reflection off the sea adding to what comes from above. This is more sun exposure than a day on a beach, not less.

Apply before you board and reapply at least twice. The wind on a moving boat removes any sensation of heat, which is precisely why people burn badly on days like this without noticing until the evening.

Drink more than you think you need. Something cold can be bought at the bar throughout, and there is nothing sensible about arriving back in Corfu dehydrated after a day you were supposed to enjoy. Guests who mention regretting anything about this trip mention sunburn more than anything else, which is entirely preventable.

Who the boat suits

People who like being on the water for a long day, families who want a mixture of sightseeing and swimming, and anybody who enjoys a lively boat with music and other people on it.

The operator states it is not suitable for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairments, and unaccompanied minors are not allowed. Those are real restrictions on a vessel of this kind.

For everybody else it is a straightforward proposition: a long day out, two islands, a set of sea caves, a swim in remarkable water and a bar, with somebody explaining all of it to you as you go.

What people want to know