Destinations
The Cyclades
AmorgosAmorgos is the easternmost island of the Cyclades, and the one you reach last.
AndrosAndros is the northernmost Cyclades island, green and mountainous, reached by ferry from Rafina rather than Piraeus.
AntiparosAntiparos sits across a narrow channel from Paros, close enough that the ferry takes minutes, and far enough
DelosDelos is a place you visit and leave the same day.
DonousaThe most isolated of the Small Cyclades, a small dry island with one harbour village, a handful of
FolegandrosFolegandros is the small, steep island at the southern edge of the Cyclades, reached only by ferry and
IosIos is two islands on one Cyclades hill: a party town that runs till dawn, and a quiet
IrakliaThe least developed inhabited island in the Small Cyclades, with two settlements, a walk to a large cave,
KeaKea, known to Greeks as Tzia, is the closest Cyclades island to Athens, and looks nothing like the
KimolosA small chalk island a ten-minute ferry from Milos, with a Venetian kastro village, a rock formation called
KoufonisiaA flat sandy island small enough to walk end to end, with turquoise coves along its south shore
KythnosThe closest Cyclades island to Athens by ferry and one of the least visited, with thermal springs running
MilosMilos is a volcanic island in the western Cyclades, shaped like a drowned volcano and ringed by some
MykonosMykonos is a small Cyclades island that sells one thing better than anywhere in Greece: a polished, expensive
NaxosNaxos is the largest and greenest island of the Cyclades, a farming island that largely feeds itself.
ParosThe ferry crossroads of the Cyclades, and its most balanced island: Parikia or Naoussa, wind-proof beaches, and a
SantoriniSantorini is the rim of a drowned volcano, a crescent of cliffs with white villages strung along the
SchinoussaA tiny Small Cyclades island with one ridge village, a scatter of unorganised beaches on every side, and
SerifosA bare, rocky western Cycladic island with one of the most dramatic hilltop choras in Greece and the
SifnosThe island the rest of Greece rates for its food, with a pottery tradition, a network of stone
SikinosA small Cycladic island between Ios and Folegandros with one road, two joined villages on a ridge, terraced
SyrosThe administrative capital of the Cyclades, and the one island where the main town is a working neoclassical
TinosTinos is two islands at once: Greece's biggest Orthodox pilgrimage, and a quiet Cyclades island of marble villages.
The Dodecanese
AgathonisiA tiny island north of Patmos with about a hundred residents, three settlements, no bank and no road
ArkiA minute island north-east of Patmos with about fifty residents, one hamlet around a fjord-like harbour, and an
AstypalaiaA Dodecanese island shaped like a butterfly, two lobes joined by a strip a hundred metres wide, with
KalymnosA steep Dodecanese island that made its living from sponge diving and now draws climbers from across Europe
KarpathosKarpathos is a long, mountainous Dodecanese island stranded between Rhodes and Crete, and hard to reach on purpose.
KasosThe southernmost Dodecanese island, small, bare and barely visited, with a seafaring history, a massive emigration story and
KastellorizoThe easternmost Greek island, a single painted harbour two kilometres off Turkey and 120 from Rhodes, with a
KosThe Dodecanese's flat, cycleable island: Kos Town's layered history, which beach coast to pick, and a day trip
NisyrosA small Dodecanese island that is an active volcano, with a caldera floor you can walk across, steaming
PatmosPatmos is the small, ferry-only Dodecanese island where, tradition says, John wrote the Book of Revelation.- PserimosA tiny island with a single village on a sand beach, packed by day-trip boats from Kos and
RhodesRhodes is the largest island of the Dodecanese, in the far southeast of the Aegean, closer to Turkey
SymiThe island of Symi is a small Dodecanese island in the southeastern Aegean, just north of Rhodes and
The North Aegean
ChiosChios is the big North Aegean island whose southern villages grow the only mastic commercially harvested anywhere on
FourniA small chain of islands between Ikaria and Samos that lives on fishing rather than visitors, with one
IkariaIkaria is a mountainous North Aegean island famous as a Blue Zone, where people live long and the- LimnosA large, flat, farmed island in the north Aegean with a Venetian castle over its port, a genuine
OinoussesA small island off north-east Chios that produced an outsized share of Greek shipping dynasties, with a maritime
SamosSamos is a green, mountainous island in the eastern Aegean, set across a narrow strait from the Turkish
SamothrakiA steep volcanic island in the far north Aegean with rock pools under waterfalls, the highest peak in
ThassosA round, pine-covered island off the coast of northern Greece, reached by a short car ferry, with white
The Ionian islands
CorfuA Venetian old town, calm bays out of the meltemi, and the honest trade behind all that green:
IthacaIthaca is a small, quiet Ionian island known for three thousand years as the home of Odysseus.
KalamosA high, forested Ionian island opposite the Acarnanian coast with one harbour village, almost no cars, and a
KefaloniaKefalonia is the largest Ionian island, big and mountainous enough that you plan it by driving hours, not
KythiraA large, empty island off the southern Peloponnese that belongs administratively to the Ionians but sits in the
LefkadaLefkada is the one Greek island you can drive onto.
MeganisiA green, low island twenty-five minutes by ferry from Lefkada, with three villages, a coast of yacht coves
OthonoiThe largest of the Diapontia islands north-west of Corfu and the westernmost land in Greece, with a cave
PaxosPaxos is the smallest of the main Ionian islands, and the one you cannot fly to, reached by
ZakynthosAn island split in two: a party south around the loggerhead marine park, and quiet cliffs and blue
The Sporades
AlonissosA quiet Sporades island whose waters are a national marine park, protecting Mediterranean monk seals, with an earthquake-abandoned
SkiathosSkiathos packs two holidays onto one small Sporades island: a nightlife town and sixty-odd pine-backed sandy beaches.
SkopelosThe most densely forested island in Greece, where pine runs to the shoreline, with a tiered harbour town,
SkyrosA Sporades island split in half by geology: pine and farmland in the north, bare mountain in the
The Saronic islands
AeginaThe closest proper island to Athens, with one of the best-preserved Doric temples in Greece, a pistachio crop
AgistriA small pine-covered Saronic island an hour from Piraeus, with clear water off rocky coves, one road and
HydraHydra is a Saronic Gulf island a fast ferry from Athens, with no cars, scooters or bicycles anywhere
PorosA pine-covered Saronic island separated from the Peloponnese by a channel a few hundred metres across, with a
SalaminaThe island in the strait where the Greek fleet beat Xerxes in 480 BC, now a lived-in suburb
SpetsesA wooded Saronic island two hours from Athens where private cars are restricted, the old harbour still builds
Crete
ChaniaChania is a Venetian harbour town on the northwest coast of Crete, and the base for everything in
CreteCrete is the largest Greek island, a country-sized land of four regions that runs 250 km end to
GavdosA small island south of Crete that is the southernmost land in Europe, with a few dozen residents,
Attica, and around Athens
Central Greece
AgrinioThe largest town in Aetolia-Acarnania, built on tobacco and now largely agricultural, between the Trichonida and Lysimachia lakes
ArachovaA stone town on the flank of Parnassos, ten minutes from Delphi, that fills with Athenians every winter
ChalkidaThe capital of Evia, joined to the mainland by a short bridge over a channel whose current reverses
DelphiDelphi is the sanctuary of Apollo terraced into the slope of Mount Parnassus, a mainland mountainside, not an
EdipsosA spa town in northern Evia where very hot mineral water pours out of the rock and down
EviaEvia is Greece's second-largest island, and the rare one you reach by bridge from the mainland rather than
GalaxidiA quiet harbour town of nineteenth-century shipowners' mansions on the Gulf of Corinth, half an hour from Delphi,
KarpenisiA fir-covered mountain valley in central Greece with rafting rivers, stone villages and a ski centre, almost entirely
KarystosA planned nineteenth-century town at the southern tip of Evia, under Mount Ochi, with a sea castle, ancient
LamiaA central Greek town with a castle above it, halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki, and the nearest base
MessolonghiA town inside a vast shallow lagoon of salt pans and stilt fishing huts, where Byron died in
NafpaktosA tiny circular Venetian harbour closed by two stone towers, with a castle running up the hill above
Osios LoukasA tenth-century monastery on a slope above the Boeotian plain, holding gold-ground mosaics of the highest order and
The Peloponnese
Corinth CanalA six-kilometre channel sliced through the isthmus joining the Peloponnese to the mainland, 90 metres deep and too
DimitsanaA mountain village in Arcadia stacked above a gorge, once the gunpowder works of the Greek revolution, now
ElafonisosA small island off the south-east Peloponnese, reached by a ten-minute ferry, whose double bay at Simos is
EpidaurusA fourth-century BC theatre with acoustics good enough that a coin dropped on the orchestra floor is audible
ErmioniA quiet Argolid town on a narrow pine-covered headland, with a harbour on one side, a bay on
GythioA tiered port town on the Laconian gulf where the Mani begins, with a causeway to a small- KalamataThe capital of Messenia and the practical base for the southern Peloponnese, with an airport, a four-kilometre seafront
KalavrytaA mountain town in the northern Peloponnese at the top of a rack railway through a gorge, suspended
KardamyliA small stone village on the green edge of the Mani, with a walled medieval quarter above it,
KatakoloA small west-coast harbour whose main function is landing cruise passengers for Olympia, half an hour inland, with
KoroniA Messenian harbour town under a Venetian sea castle whose walls now enclose gardens, houses and a convent
KylliniA small west-coast port that exists to run ferries to Zakynthos and Kefalonia, with thermal springs in a
LeonidioA town under an enormous red rock face on the Arcadian coast, now a world climbing destination, whose
LoutrakiA spa town an hour from Athens built on thermal springs, with a long pebble seafront, one of
ManiThe middle finger of the Peloponnese, dry and stony, where families built fortified tower houses against each other
MethoniThe grander of the two Venetian fortresses of Messenia, a huge walled enceinte reaching into the sea with
MonemvasiaA medieval town built on the seaward face of a huge rock off the Peloponnese coast, invisible from
MystrasA whole late-Byzantine city on the slope of Taygetos, abandoned in the nineteenth century and left standing: palaces,
NafplioNafplio is Greece's first capital, a Venetian old town on the Peloponnese mainland under three castles, two hours
NemeaThe most important red wine region in Greece, an hour from Athens, growing the Agiorgitiko grape among the
PatrasGreece's third city and the ferry gate to Italy, with an arcaded main street, a Byzantine castle above- Porto HeliA sheltered natural harbour on the eastern Peloponnese that became the mainland base for the Saronic yacht set,
PylosA small arcaded town on a vast natural harbour where a naval battle decided Greek independence, with the
SpartaThe ancient power that built no monuments and left few ruins, now a modern town under Mount Taygetos,
ToloA long sandy bay with islands offshore, fifteen minutes from Nafplio, which does the beach half of an
TripoliThe inland capital of Arcadia, a high plateau town almost nobody visits deliberately, but the junction every Peloponnese
VoidokiliaA near-perfect semicircle of sand in Messenia, enclosing a lagoon behind it, with a Bronze Age tomb and
VytinaA stone village at 1,000 metres in the Arcadian fir forest, the traditional Greek mountain weekend, with walking,
XylokastroA Corinthian Gulf resort town an hour from Athens, whose defining feature is a large seafront pine forest
Epirus and the north-west
IgoumenitsaA working port on the Epirus coast that exists to move vehicles: ferries to Corfu in about ninety
IoanninaThe capital of Epirus, built on a lake with an inhabited island in it, keeping the best-preserved Ottoman
KonitsaA hillside town in the far north of Epirus below Mount Smolikas, with the largest single-arch stone bridge
MetsovoA Vlach town high on the Pindus pass, unusually wealthy for a mountain village because its emigrants endowed
PargaA tiered amphitheatre of pastel houses under a Venetian castle on the Epirus coast, looking and feeling like
PrevezaA harbour town at the mouth of the Ambracian gulf with the airport most Ionian trips fly into,
SivotaA small mainland harbour among wooded islets on the Epirus coast, with turquoise bays reachable only by boat
TzoumerkaA range of sheer limestone peaks in Epirus with stone villages on their flanks, arched bridges over the
ZagoriForty-six stone villages in the mountains of Epirus, linked by slate paths and arched packhorse bridges, above one
Thessaly
Lake PlastiraA reservoir in the Thessalian mountains ringed by fir forest and stone villages, with a road all the
MeteoraMeteora is a cluster of monasteries built on top of sandstone rock pillars in mainland Thessaly, not on
VolosA waterfront city on the Pagasetic gulf whose drinking culture comes with food attached, and the base for
Macedonia
DionThe sacred city of the Macedonian kings at the foot of Mount Olympus, waterlogged and green, where parts
DramaA northern town built around a park where springs rise straight out of the ground into pools and
EdessaA northern Greek town on the edge of a cliff, where the rivers running through it fall off
FlorinaA northern border town known nationally for its red peppers and its winters, and the base for the
KastoriaA town on a peninsula in a mountain lake, built on the fur trade, with more than fifty
KateriniA plain town between Mount Olympus and a long sandy coast, unremarkable in itself and the practical base
KavalaA northern port city built up a headland under a Byzantine castle, with a Roman-era aqueduct running through
LitochoroThe base for climbing Mount Olympus, a stone town where the Enipeas gorge comes out of the mountain,
Mount AthosA self-governing Orthodox monastic state on a Halkidiki peninsula. Twenty monasteries, a permit system, and men only on
SerresA working northern town on the tobacco plain, with a Byzantine acropolis above it, an Ottoman market hall
SithoniaThe middle of Halkidiki's three peninsulas, pine-covered and indented with coves, the quiet alternative to the developed leg
ThessalonikiGreece's food capital and second city: where to stay by neighbourhood, the Byzantine old town, and day trips
VerginaThe burial ground of the Macedonian kings, where an unlooted tomb widely identified as Philip II was found
VeriaA Macedonian town on an escarpment with dozens of small Byzantine churches hidden in its lanes, an old
