Patches of cobalt blue and turquoise water that quiver in the heat. Salty squid and octopus flung over taverna railings like soggy laundry. Clouds of incense wafting out of the cool, icon-studded innards of Byzantine churches.
Many travellers yearn for the sun-bleached, simplistic charm of the Greek islands — the raw, scrubby beauty that captivated the likes of Patrick Leigh Fermor, Henry Miller and Leonard Cohen. It’s the unique personality of each island that keeps travellers gripped to this Mediterranean scatter, returning year after year, in a sort of annual sun-drenched speed dating session.
Everyone has their type, or characteristics they’re naturally drawn to, whether it’s unspoilt, moonscape beaches dipped into surreal blue shallows or more sceney, parasol-lined spots with lounge music and ouzitos.
With Greek islands a winning shoulder season option and summer round the corner, here are the ones to visit depending on your vibe and tribe.
Santorini: for the content crowd
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The Grace Hotel, Auberge Collection Santorini
Who goes: influencers, Americans and people who holiday in Dubai or St. Tropez
Known for its magnificent caldera views (particularly from the cliff-carved terraces), blue-domed churches and yolky sunsets, Santorini is an undeniable looker. That is, if you’re able to look beyond the endless strips of real estate tracking up the cliffs, or an alarming abundance of content creators, swarming the island’s hotspots and choking the narrow mule tracks winding through its towns.
It’s a favourite with American travellers, who are sold those ravishing sunset snaps from whitewashed terraces (ensuring the seven other hotels in the vicinity are well out of shot). The island had its Slim Aarons era in the 70s and 80s, when the jet set were lured here by parties doused in crimson evening light and villas and hotels with privileged perches along the cliffs.
Now, the prevailing feeling of Santorini is a more mainstream one, of pilates studios, juices and sushi nights at Nobu. If you’re looking to be pampered in a spa, to gaze at the caldera from a squishy sunlounger and sip cocktails with surreal sunset views, Santorini is the one for you.
The Grace Hotel, Auberge Collection Santorini
Stay: The Grace Hotel, Auberge Collection Santorini for beautiful caldera views from whitewashed balconies and a haute spin on traditional Hellenic food. The hotel’s vertiginous grounds ensure each guest is granted that same striking view, with terraces and balconies are the ultimate theatre seats for those legendary Santorini sunsets, painting the sky in red and orange strokes. It’s all layered plunge pools, sugar-cube villas and al fresco seafood lunches (and an easy walk to Oia’s warren of rooftop bars and restaurants). From around £973 per night, auberge.com
Hydra: for media and art elites
Pexels
Who goes: the global art circus, film directors, writers with bestsellers
A sun-bleached hub of artistic energy just beneath the Eastern Peloponnese, Hydra lures a well-heeled creative set with its various festivals, exhibitions and Leonard Cohen legacy. The prolific Greek painter Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas can be thanked for this pretty Saronic isle’s creative pulse, inviting a handful of artists and writers to visit his Hydra home at the turn of the 20th century: Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Patrick Leigh Femor. Later, Australian writer Charmian Clift gathered the likes of Leonard Cohen, Axel Jensen and Marianne Ihlen, forming the sort of literary circles you’d expect in leafy Bloomsbury.
It’s this social, artistic spirit in tandem with Hydra’s undressed beaches and quiet, secluded coves that makes the island so enticing — a peaceful, otherworldly setting with a scene you’d typically find in a city. When off-duty, the global art set park themselves on Hydronetta beach (Hydra’s north) for a blast of sunshine, before cooling off with a dip in the balmy shallows beyond the rocky crags, and a cool drink at the chic bar.
Similarly, an elegant set line up along pebbled Kamini to top up their vitamin D, before retreating to nearby taverna for grilled octopus, squid and tsagari (pork stewed in cinnamon and wine). While most major art contemporary exhibitions tend to be held at DESTE Foundation Project Space, there are plenty of other galleries and spaces to explore and creative retreats and festivals to sail in for, including the ArtCinema Hydra, and Katja Nagel’s ATHEA at the Museum of Hydra.
Stay: Set in a quiet cove just east of Hydra’s main port, Mandraki Beach Resort is a reimagined Naval base (Greek revolutionary Captain Miaoulis’ 18th century hideout), with only a few suites gazing across a glistening Aegean. It also, quite rightly, makes the most of its privileged setting along Hydra’s only sandy beach, with straw parasols lined up for idle hours and a restaurant that practically dips its toes in the water. From around £681 per night, mandrakibeachresort.com
Bill & Coo
Who goes: the glam pack, A-listers, models and footballers
Mykonos is well-known as Greece’s upscale party isle: where Leonardo Di Caprio and Kendall Jenner top up their tans, and Silicon Valley billionaires moor their shiny yachts. The original bohemian chic brought by artists and LGBTQ community, as well as the loosey goosey aristocracy in the 50s-80s has spun into an A-Z cosmetic surgery guide, poolside, with wannabe fruit flies circling various celebrities and supermodels tendering in from some billionaire’s yacht.
They’re here for world famous DJs with sets until sunrise, for the white-sand beaches and blast of sunshine, and for the sceniest of scenes, which is unashamedly bikini bling (the expensive sort, with first-rate people watching). This peaks at haute beach clubs such as Scorpios (a classic), Principote (sexy wood and raffia) and 75 euro-a-lounger Alemagou on Ftelia beach. Revellers can escape to nearby Tinos via a 30-minute boat ride, once the 29 euro mojitos and 5am-ers have caught up with them.
Santa Marina
Stay: Santa Marina is the protagonist in Mykonos’ story, evolving in step with the island’s various chapters and frequently hosting A-listers, politicians in need of downtime, and well-heeled nomads. Perched on its own pretty peninsula, the hotel is choreographed around Cycladic rhythms, Mykonos’s only private sandy beach and the inescapable mass of the twinkling blue sea. Guests return year after year for the sunken infinity pool cabanas, the Buddha Bar’s scene and the candlelit Elias’ Greek Mediterranean Kitchen. The hotel is a luxe exhale from all the party spots scattered along the island’s sun-baked edges. From £758 per night, santa-marina.gr
Corfu: for Kensington-on-Sea
The Thinking Traveller
Who goes: stealth wealth (to the north)
OK, not the south of the island, where RyanAir trucks in the faux-tanned Kavos-bound (no prizes for its nickname), but the pine-clad north east coast (Rothschild and Joanna Lumley territory).
Villas here blink out across a glittering Ionian Sea from their dramatic hilltop perches, and lazy afternoons can be spent plunging into glassy bays from yachts or snoozing along unspoilt beaches, such as the secluded Kaminaki and Agni beaches.
Unlike the scrubby interiors of many Greek islands, Corfu is surprisingly green – its hills combed by olive groves and cypress trees. Those with sprawling villas here tend to float through Corfu town’s striking Venetian and neoclassical architecture, shopping then taking a drawn out Spianada Square pause for a coffee.
If they tire of their yachts or poolside set up, they’ll mooch on down to Paleokastritsa, a string of headland-backed bays dotted with authentic tavernas or escape the heat with cultural jaunts, such as Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi)’s thumping great Achilleion Palace, or the Museum of Asian Art, now located in the Palace of St. Michael and St. George. And if the chef has a night off, they’ll book a table at the Venetian Well, or Monastre in Paleokastritsa for the breath-snatching clifftop setting.
The Thinking Traveller
Stay: Your family villa, of course. If that’s yet to surface in trust discussions, it’s worth having adult-only Domes Miramare on your radar – once the Onassis family’s island escape, now a minimalist exhale onto a sandy stretch of coastline, with kumquat cocktails, elite sushi and more swimming pools than guests. True to Kensington-on-Sea form, villas are often available to rent, the smartest through The Thinking Traveller, such as the palm and cypress-wrapped Ophira in Kommeno.
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Golden Milos Beach House
Who goes: design-forward DINKS with vintage cameras
It will stamp itself to your Instagram homepage on the brink of summer, and feature in many a fashion shoot, but Milos still retains an air of moonlike mystery, with its luminous chunks of milky rock surging from turquoise waters and its scatter of pocket-sized churches. This is where Venus de Milo was discovered, where a low-key lot work their way through 70 ethereal beaches (head to Sarakiniko and Kleftiko) and where Greek mythology never feels too far away.
This understated, design-driven set is drawn to the lunar-like isle for its boho-chic, earthy hotels, restaurants placing creative spins on traditional Greek fare and the coastal plunder, and bars that capture the quiet charm of this beguiling isle. When not swimming or kayaking through the surreal blue water, or taking their vintage Fujifilms to yet another moonscape beach, this tribe will hop on fishing boats bound for Kleftiko Cave or other secluded coves, perhaps spotting the likes of Diane Von Fursternburg and Barry Diller on yachts drifting along the coast.
The ferry from Athens takes under five hours, or under three from Santorini, and the island pairs beautifully with Folegandros, Sifnos or Kimolos (all three attracting a similar Fujifilm, Birkenstock, Toast set who’ve left their Stoke Newington houses with a cat sitter).
Stay: Skinopi Lodge for its photogenic pools, stylishly go-slow interiors and Dalmatian coast views. The hotel’s contemporary take on the island’s traditional fishing houses threads beautifully into the surrounding, freckled landscape of endless olive groves and wild herbs. From around £600 per night, skinopi.com
Local Library
Who goes: serious foodies
An epic island-hopping base, Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades and remains largely unscathed by tourism (and celebrity culture), despite beautiful beaches, postcard mountain villages and proximity to party isle, Mykonos. Its interior is far more verdant and hilly than its Cycladic cousins, with Mount Zeus the island chain’s highest peak, and its white sandy beaches have so far kept the all-inclusive resorts occupying great chunks of Greek island coastline elsewhere at bay.
Of all Naxos’s beaches, Agios Prokopios is considered one of the loveliest (its shallow waters are ideal for families). Grotta beach is where snorkellers head to explore (on a calm day) the underwater ruins of an ancient city, and Pyrgaki is a wild, pretty stretch of sand without the parasol malarkay. The mix of Venetian and Cycladic architecture also gives Naxos an edge over the surrounding islands – days can be spent exploring the capital’s Venetian mansions, 13th century hilltop forts and one of Greece’s oldest temples.
But it’s the island’s famously bountiful fields, orchards and olive that put the island firmly on the gourmet map. Greece’s finest cheeses are made here, and the fertile soil and microclimate see superlative produce (grapes, figs, olives, kitron) that heads for the authentic taverna kitchens or smarter joints, such as Rotanda, high in the hills (try the garlic-filled pork rosto).
Stay: Boho-beautiful and adult-only Naxian on the Beach makes the most of the island’s powder soft stretches of sand and its easy going disposition. It’s all driftwood and wicker, modish spins on classic Greek style and earthy linens that mirror the sun-baked long grasses flanking Plaka Beach. From around £225 per night, naxianonthebeach.com
Greek Tourism Board
Who goes: hikers, divers and those with wealthy Greek friends
Just east of Skiathos and part of the Sporades islands (aka Mamamia territory), Alonissos is one of those Greek isles passed quietly around knowing groups, all speaking the same language of brisk morning hikes, docile afternoons along empty east coast beaches, and taverna-nights dressed in linen and candlelight.
The beaches here are quietly ravishing, hiding their beauty from unwanted attention with a dense barrier of Aleppo pines and gorse. Agios Dimitros spans both sides of a pointed headland with a lush green interior and smooth white pebbles that dip into the sea. Glifa is known for its impossibly blue waters, while Kokkinokastro takes its name from the red-hued cliffs that slice the beach in two and is also a stellar spot for snorkelling.
In fact, Alonissos is surrounded by a vast national marine park, with rare sea birds, marine life and mammals such as Mediterranean monk seals. Snorkelling jaunts and dives off the island’s fringes feel far too exotic for Europe, with kaleidoscopic coral reefs, lit up like a stage with brilliant shards of light, dropping abruptly into the deep, mysterious blue. On land, hikers are in for a treat with winding paths snaking through the island’s olive grove and orchard-carpeted south, as well as its more unruly, uninhabited north.
Stay: Locals and a few in-the-know loyalists like to keep this Caribbean-of-Europe to themselves. The Thinking Traveller’s Hibiscus villa, woven into the pine carpeted slopes overlooking a calm sea sea, with a path leading to its own empty beach, perfectly embodies this spirit of this quiet (and rather smug) discovery.
Folegandros: low-key and lovely
Gundari / Marth Vosdou
Who goes here: those unwilling to share their coordinates
Many of compact Folegandros’ white cubic houses, blinking out through blue shutters, sit in splendid isolation – nothing but the sea freckled hills that surge behind them. The romance of ‘nothing’ can peter out with limited bar action beyond the tavernas or the lack of shops to mooch about in (except for a few in chora) but therein lies Folegandros’ charm.
It’s not your island escape with people watching (though Margot Robbie appears to have fallen for its Cycladic charms), but a bona fide, back-to-basics escape, where island rhythms take hold. Fashion influencer and well-known philhellene Lucy Williams has reluctantly shared her love for Folegandros — its car-free streets, lack of beach clubs and handful of easy-going seafood tavernas dotting the beaches.
Time can also be easily swallowed up along this scorched island’s shores, where an indescribably blue sea cools off the smooth stone, perfectly curved chunks of sand and those (in on the secret) bobbing in its gentle current. This small Cycladic slice of loveliness is, like most lovely things, tricky to reach, with ferries from Santorini as elusive as the Golden Fleece. But once there, and fully ensconced in Folegandros’s pure flickering light and wild beauty, it’s all about the beaches (Fira, Agios Georgios, Kartego), tavernas that grill whatever the boat’s brought in (Barbounaki in chora is also great for seafood) and floating through its Cycladic-style towns and villages (Chora, Kastro, Ano Meria).
Ana Santl
Stay: Anemomilos is a whitewashed boutique dreamscape with both rooms and a knockout infinity pool chiselled into the cliffs high above a sparkling Aegean. Guests can scoff just-caught seafood beneath parasols or pootle down the narrow streets to the village of Hora. Gundari Resort opened in 2024 as the island’s first five-star boutique resort, with its thrilling perch along soaring cliffs, high above the Aegean, dialing up the food, the spa treatments and cliffside swims with heart-tugging sea views. Anemomilos from around £220 per night anemomilosfolegandros.reserve-online.net; Gundari from around £400 per night, gundari.com
Antiparos: for a smaller, edited Paros
The Rooster Antiparos
Who goes: the fashion pack, writers, socialites
Paros’s laidback little sister, Antiparos, is quietly passed around the Greek island cognoscenti. Indeed, the island remains deliciously unspoilt, with tavernas hovering over warm shallows, various fisherman hauls splayed out in the sunshine along their roped railings and boat days without the bunfight for crystal-clear swim spots.
Those in-the-know make annual pilgrimages here (often parking themselves for a month) for simple pleasures: languorous beach or boat days, Kreatopita (Greek meat pie), Moussaka and feta-topped salads, and sunsets that burn the Aegean tangerine. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson own a villa here, Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling have holidayed here, but it’s the fashion pack and socialites who jet here every summer to friends’ stealth wealth villas.
The Rooster Antiparos
Stay: The island’s most stylish hotel, The Rooster, channels Antiparos’s back-to-basic’s appeal, though with an elevated take on earthy fabric and textures, and cane furniture. Chiselled from local stone, suites spill onto terraces in driftwood, raffia and cacti, with sweeping Aegean views and a salty Mediterranean breeze. Spanking fresh seafood, a nearby farm’s wild-roamed meat and vegetables from The Rooster’s organic gardens are worked into creative spins on Greek classics. The wellbeing mood here is Greek yoghurt drizzled in lavender honey and poolside recalibration with a cool glass of wine. From around £900 per night, theroosterantiparos.com
