Greek godliness: Ithaca - and the fishing village of Kioni - is one of the Ionian's quietest outposts Like all the best ideas, it was simple and brilliant. We wanted a holiday that would tap into our adventurer spirit and keep the children entertained - a holiday that would be about more than just eating and drinking while we moaned about the kids doing nothing except eating and drinking.
Then came the lightbulb moment: we persuaded our 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, to take Classics GCSE. 'It's just great stories. You'll love it,' we said, and when she came home one day enthusing about Homer's Odyssey, an idea for the perfect family holiday began to form.
All aboard: Ellie (left) and Loulou await the start of their voyage into Odysseus's worldWe'd make it real. Before having children, my wife and I had been Odyssean travellers, finding our way across the world, bumping into life's challenges and negotiating gods and monsters along the way. A Homeric holiday might bring out the hero in us all. We'd fly to Athens and make our way to Ithaca, home of Odysseus. It would be an epic voyage where we'd face our own challenges, see off our own cyclops, resist the sirens - and if any suitors came looking for my girls...
Unlike Odysseus, who had ten years to get to Ithaca, we had only ten days, and so we set ourselves one challenge each. Ellie would have to conquer her fear of the sea after too many viewings of Jaws. Loulou, 11, would find the rite of passage that would transform her from primary school kid to a secondary school pupil in September.
Searching for home: A statue of Odysseus in the town of Stavros marks Ithaca as his 'home island'We also had the challenge that all one-time travellers who are now family people have: finding uncharted terrain in a world packaged into a tourist's dream while keeping the girls happy.
Like all epic voyages, the first step was the hardest - three hours spent on a budget flight felt longer than Odysseus's seven years of bondage on Calypso's island.
After that, we didn't take the easy path. The adventurer's spirit compelled us to take the more 'interesting' route: we'd drive across the Bay of Corinth towards the Ionian island of Lefkas. Still, it was only a six-hour journey.
Travel Facts
Expedia (0871 226 0808, www.expedia.co.uk) offers return flights with easyJet from Gatwick to Athens and ten days' car hire from £307. Wildwind (0844 499 2898, www.wildwind.co.uk) offers sailing packages from £649pp, including flights and tuition. A house sleeping four at Levendi's Estate, Ithaca, costs £4,400 per week with discounts in May. Visit www.levendisestate.com.
source: dailymail
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