Anko Yachting

We are a couple (Thanos and Alicia) with a great love for the sea, the peaceful easy-going life of the islands and we really enjoy sharing this world with you. Our base is the small village of Rio at the north-west coast of the Peloponnese and we operate with our own yachts, providing personalized service.
Our guests come from all over the world and for us, this is our profession, but it is also a way of life as we spend a big part of the year cruising around the islands.

It all started back in 1993 when I (Thanos) who was born and grew up in Greece by the sea all my life moved to the UK as a university student. While I was there and looking at Greece from the distance, I had the idea to create a crewed yacht charters around my favorite Greek Islands. For a few years, I followed a career at sea, sailing around Europe and the Caribbean but my dream never left my mind, so in 2004 I bought my first yacht Alexandros and started my cruises at the Ionian Islands of Greece.

In 2005 I met my future wife Alicia, who actually came to work on the Alexandros as a chef/hostess for the summer and together we kept cruising around the beautiful Greek Islands, extending the cruising areas to the Aegean and the Caribbean and giving the cuisine onboard its gourmet touch that it’s well known for today.
In 2010 we bought Velos (an Ocean Star 56.1) which was a lot bigger than Alexandros with very comfortable ensuite guest cabins, giving our cruises a more luxurious character. I and Alicia crewed Velos but we kept our first yacht Alexandros because we loved it, but also to provide a more ‘economy’ option for our guests. It operated with another captain and hostess/chef.

In February 2016 our son Nicolas was born and we knew the time had come for us to step off Velos and let another crew continue the job that we loved so much. But to our surprise, Nicolas turned out to be the perfect baby, always happy, smiley, rarely crying and he slept all night, so the unthinkable happened!!!
We didn’t have to leave our magic world of cruising and what’s more, we did it together with Nicolas who spent two beautiful seasons onboard with us, not missing a single day!!! All our guests loved him and as you can imagine he loved all the uncles, aunts, granddads and grandmas that came onboard every week

And then in March 2018 our daughter Georgia was born, so with two kids it was time to step off the yacht and enjoy the family life at home. We still do the occasional cruise together with Nicolas and Georgia when guests ask specifically for us to be their crew, but these days there is a permanent crew on each one of our yachts.
By now our cruises had become so popular that the requests were more than we could accommodate, so being land-based and having more time to organize and run our cruises, we decided to replace Alexandros with the bigger yacht Mythos and order two new catamarans (which will be ideal for our Caribbean cruises!).

So, in 2019 we operated with 2 new yachts, Mythos which is an Ocean Star 56.1 identical to Velos in every way except for the color of the hull which is beige. And Malena (a Beneteau 523) which we used only for the summer of 2019, while Velos was undergoing a complete refit/refurbishment.
The first catamaran, to be delivered by the Lagoon shipyard in February 2020, is the Lagoon 450 named Evi with 4 very spacious ensuite guest cabins. The bigger catamaran, to be delivered also by the Lagoon shipyard in July 2020, is the Lagoon 52 named Nicolas with 6 very spacious ensuite guest cabins!

We love a winter break in warm tropical waters and as we ran some very successful cruises at the Caribbean Islands in the winters of 2008, 2009 and 2019, we plan to have our first full Caribbean season with our new catamaran Nicolas from December 2020 until April 2021.
If there is a lot of interest we will also take the catamaran Evi to the Caribbean, but of course we will be back to Greece with both catamarans in May 2021 for our summer season at the Greek Islands.

From the very first day back in 2004 until today, our cruises have been addressed to people who are not sailors. The majority of our guests are actually people who were originally looking for hotel or villa accommodation on one of the islands, or a holiday on a cruise liner, but when they heard about our Greek Island cruises they liked the idea of visiting a different bay for a swim every morning and docking at a different village every evening to stay for the night.

We take care of all the little details related to your holiday, from the smooth running of the yacht to advising you about transfers from/to the airport. The only thing you will need to take care of is booking your flights and making your way from your house to the airport.
Our aim is to provide a relaxed and easy-going holiday for you, where you will feel at home onboard our yachts, taste some of Alicia's delicious homemade dishes and enjoy the fresh homegrown vegetables, fruits and olive oil from Thanos' dad’s garden.

See you onboard for an unforgettable holiday!
Thanos and Alicia