I recently did the Sail & Swim Greece tour and while there were some amazing highlights, the whole experience felt a bit undercooked especially compared to other Topdeck tours we’ve done.
🏝️ Swim Stops & Downtime
The swim spots were beautiful and relaxing, and it was great having time to unwind. But if you’re someone who likes to stay active, it can drag. Most of the time we were just sitting around reading, with paddleboards and floaties provided. I bought a ball and the vibes, and a friend had a deck of water proof cards. But there wasn’t much initiative from the crew or guide to make the most of the downtime. One stop had a cool cave; more things like that would’ve helped break it up.
🎟️ Lack of Optional Activities
There was just one optional activity across 8 days, a cooking class (which was fantastic). But surely one of the islands offers something like jet skiing, kayaking, hiking, or even a cultural tour? It felt like a missed opportunity to not include more.
Also, although it’s advertised as 8 days, we started around midday on Day 1 and finished by 10am on the final day, so really, it’s more like 6.5 days.
🧭 Guide & Organisation
Our guide was nice but felt a bit green. Orientation walks mostly involved reading info off her phone. Following this pinning us locations to a pharmacy, ATM, beach, or gelato shop not much local insight or history, and what there was, could’ve been sourced easily. A few times we were delayed waiting for bridges or for the guide to wake up, one morning we were told to be back on board by 10am, but the guide slept in and didn’t reappear until 10:40, only to leave again for a coffee. That’s 90 minutes we could’ve used exploring.
🎉 Vibes & Socials
The social side was disappointing. The vibe was left entirely up to us. One night we had a “boat party,” but there were no decorations, no real effort put into setup, no theme, just overpriced drinks (€7 vodka sodas) and not much atmosphere. We weren’t allowed to BYO, even though wine on land was €2.50 for 500ml, which made it feel like a bit of a money grab.
No ice-breakers, no games, no planned bar crawls, even the beer pong night was something we set up ourselves. My wife found a great bar one night that saved the evening and our guide and crew had no idea it even existed. That sums it up: the group was putting in more effort than the people running the tour.
There’s so much potential for easy wins: dress-up nights, scavenger hunts, trivia, welcome games that turn into drinking games… even a simple pub crawl like every other Topdeck tour seems to offer.
👫 The Group Made It
That said, we had a fantastic group and met some genuinely wonderful people which has always been our experience with Topdeck. It’s the people that made the trip memorable.
⚖️ Overall
If you’re happy to relax and switch off completely, this is your trip! But if you’re hoping for more activities, better organisation, and a bit more energy from the crew and guide, it might not meet your expectations. With more effort put into planning, guiding, and group engagement, this could easily be a much better experience.
