‘One family displayed such wealth, they might easily have been the inspiration for Succession’

Exemplary service, superior food and a chamber orchestra – Jeffrey Mills discovers the luxury cruise that’s even better than a superyacht

It was a warm afternoon in Piraeus, the port of Athens, where giant white cruise ships were lined up along the jetties, coaches and taxis buzzing about the quayside, inhaling disembarking passengers and depositing those waiting to embark. And beside them, sleek and elegant, were the superyachts.

Of course, there is a lot to be said about the joys of owning a large yacht: super-luxurious accommodation, which matches or exceeds that of the finest five-star hotels; the option to choose whatever food and drink you like at any time; privacy; exclusivity; and the ability to base yourself wherever in the world you fancy.

But there are plenty of downsides, too – chief among them the fact that shelling out tens of millions of pounds (in some extreme cases, hundreds of millions) to buy the thing is just the start: the annual costs of keeping it can amount to a pretty penny as well. In the case of an “average” superyacht (if there is such a thing) – say, one roughly 150ft long, at a cost of about scene, and therefore particularly popular with the American passengers), never any need to book.

Admittedly, there are more passengers here than you would find on your own superyacht – but they number in the hundreds rather than the thousands. This means that you are very rarely aware of them, and when you are, it’s a marvellous opportunity for people-watching.

Among the stylish passengers on my sailing was one extended family group who displayed such an everincreasing show of wealth that they might easily have been the inspiration for Succession; an English couple from somewhere in Surrey who could often be heard lamenting what they were missing at the golf club; while a delightful French couple put even the best-dressed among us to shame with their three or four daily costume changes.

Standards, unsurprisingly, remained as high on land as on board. I had chosen a seven-day sailing to the Greek islands of Spetses, Crete, Mykonos and Skiathos, with a stop at the Turkish island of Bozcaada before ending in Istanbul. A splendid roll call of places, but the highlight was at the Turkish port of Kusadasi, where we spent an evening among the ancient ruins of Ephesus – empty of its daytime crowds – enjoying a private classical concert.

There is something magical about being served an endless parade of snacks and drinks while listening to a chamber orchestra play works by Bach, Vivaldi, Boccherini, Shostakovich, Mozart, Dvorak and Brahms against a backdrop of magnificent ancient ruins. And I bet you don’t get that on a superyacht.

i Musical interlude: Seabourn Encore’s itinerary offers a classical concert among the ruins of Ephesus, in Turkey