Greek Islands Dictionary
A field guide to the greek islands to know - groups, pairings, and where to actually stay, because everyone's going how are you supposed to pick!
So what I have learned is Greek islands aren’t one thing and saying that can be similarity as broad as when I said I was going to Napa not realizing the different parts to this area that are very specific to certain people- Napa Download hereee.
They’re 6,000 islands (around 230 inhabited), split into distinct groups and here you go!
THE CYCLADES
The white-and-blue postcard group. These are the ones everyone pictures when they say “Greece.”
The Cyclades sit in the center of the Aegean and get their name from the Greek word for circle - they ring the sacred island of Delos - uninhabited today and can only be visited by day trip…
MYKONOS
Jackie Kennedy and Onassis put Mykonos on the map. Before that it was a quiet fishing village with 16 windmills. As you know! Today it’s expensive, loud, and gets a rep of being overdone but it is genuinely beautiful.
Stay: Kalesma Mykonos - notable architecture, and a pool carved into the hillside. Cali Mykonos is more boutique and design-forward with beach club access. Both not right in Mykonos Town for more of an Oasis. Bill & Coos is right in town (also has a property across).
PAROS
Paros is what Mykonos was before Mykonos was Mykonos”. The old town of Naoussa is the draw, a real fishing harbor, and the nightlife is genuinely good without being a production - all of the restaurants turn into bars and you can walk around exploring each while staring out at the crashing water - it was incredible.
Stay: Cosme Paros opened to serious buzz and delivers - it was designed after the town of Naoussa. Avant Mar is smaller and more intimate or Parilio minimalist Greek architecture done properly, good pool but no views.
ANTIPAROS
Tiny - you can walk the main village in 20 minutes. I learned Tom Hanks has a house here. One main street, very good tavernas, beaches that are uncrowded even in August, and somewhere greeks vacation. I would compare it to St. Barths - I have not been to St. Barths Lol but the shopping is beautiful, beach clubs had the allure and felt similar.
Stay: Rooster Antiparos is the property that put the island on the design radar. Casual and excellently done
SANTORINI
The views are real. Most dramatic landscapes in Europe - what you’re looking at is the collapsed rim of a volcanic eruption with the Santorini levels. The sunset in Oia is also constant. But Santorini parts can be overrun and tainted from so many crazy travelers. .
Stay: Perivolas (In Oia — 300-year-old cave houses, clifftop, most photographed on the island, minimalist)
MILOS
Volcanic and visually unlike anywhere else in the Cyclades - at times we literally felt like we were driving on the moon. The rock formations at Sarakiniko look like a moonscape. It has increased popularity a ton but due to the minimal ultra luxury (which I think is a good thing) has kept it to more exploration style travelers. It leans very couple, relaxed, family friendly.
Stay: Erema - the new kid on the block and already the one to watch it is in a more remote area of the island so perfect for seclusion. White Pebble Suites if you are hoping to be more in action.
FOLEGANDROS
Small, clifftop Chora, no cars in the center, a church perched on the edge of a cliff. If your version of Greece involves reading and walking and eating well without noise, this is yours
Stay: Gundari - clifftop, 80 acres of wilderness, most luxurious on the island by a stretch
TINOS
Marble villages built into the hillside and a village literally surrounded by boulders, Takeaway is the food scene & artisan/stone/craftsman is huge.
Stay: Odera - the first proper luxury hotel on Tinos and worth the wait
SIFNOS
The food island! The local chickpea soup is the dish to order. The island also has a serious pottery tradition -. It’s quieter and more genuinely local than Paros.
Stay: Verina Astra - Small, well-run
NAXOS
The largest island in the Cyclades - so close to ParosNaxos grows its own food, makes its own cheese, produces its own wine, and has some of the best beaches in the group.
Stay: 18 Grapes
IOS
Always the party island but I think it is more pushing design-forward
Stay: Calilo - Sculptural installations throughout pretty unique
SYROS
The capital of the Cyclades and has a year-round population and a real city life. It’s not primarily a beach destination so has culture over beach clubs is growing fast.
Stay: Aristide Hotel - a restored neoclassical mansion, SLH property - SO COOL
THE IONIAN ISLANDS
Greener, softer, Venetian-influenced. Greece’s west coast, looking toward Italy.
The Ionians are lush, and this is because the west gets more rainfall than the Aegean, with cypress forests, and olive groves. Interesting to learn that Italian influence shows up in the food, the buildings, and even the music.
Pair with: Albania!! From Corfu, a 45-minute ferry gets you to Saranda on the Albanian Riviera. The Albanian Riviera itself has near-empty beaches and extremely affordable everything - A friend just visited and said that they could see it coming into the popular travel market soon. Worth 2–3 days if you’re already in the region.
CORFU
The interior is rural, hilly - emphasis on hills!, and remote calm style beautiful. The food is a bit distinct from the rest of Greece since it has the Italian flare - sofrito (veal in garlicky white wine), pastitsada (local pasta with spiced meat sauce), bourdeto (fish in spicy red sauce) all common and something I did not see elsewhere.
Stay: Corfu Imperial - built on its own private peninsula with four Blue Flag beaches and I guess feels like a private estate..
KEFALONIA
Absolutely dreamy - Known for Myrtos Beach, excellent local wine, and Mellissani Cave - an underground lake where sunlight comes through a hole in the ceiling and turns the water an improbable blue.
Stay: F Zeen (adults-only, two pools, right on Lourdata Beach - looks more interesting than the usual suspects here)
ZAKYNTHOS
So I guess the island is also a major nesting site for loggerhead sea turtles- Can feel package-holiday-ish in peak season; the natural draws are the reason to go if you pair it
Stay: Lesante Cape - Scattered between olive and cypress trees on a hillside in Akrotiri, with a private beach below and six on-site restaurants. Doesn’t seem like you need to leave honestly
LEFKADA
The only Ionian island connected to the mainland by a causeway, which makes it both more accessible and slightly less remote-feeling than its neighbors. Porto Katsiki, a beach with turquoise water backed by sheer white cliffs - notable
Stay: Crystal Waters - Still not up to par just yet but it’ll do
THE DODECANESE
Southeast Aegean, closer to Turkey than Athens. Heavy history, excellent old towns and I would say new to me and the usually Greece goers
The name means “twelve islands” (there are actually more). These were the last Greek territories to join Greece
RHODES
Rhodes Town’s medieval old town is the most intact medieval city in Europe. It is honestly huge. Rhodes gets over 300 days of sunshine a year - more than almost anywhere in Europe.
Stay: Casa Cook Rhodes - design-forward, minimalist concrete and warm wood, private plunge pools
SYMI
Neoclassical mansions climbing a steep hillside above a harbor. Easily done as a day trip from Rhodes (50-minute ferry) but could be worth an overnight
Stay: The Old Markets - centuries-old national monument, restored above the harbor,
KOS
The town is lively and the archaeology is underrated; the rest of the island leans toward beach holidays.
Stay: OKU Kos - whitewashed cubic buildings
Also Includes - PATMOS
THE EASTERN AEGEAN
Nowwww this is the closest to Turkey. Evenarger, greener, and genuinely off the radar
Several islands are literally visible from the Turkish shore.
Pair with: Turkey. From Samos, the ferry to Kusadasi takes 20 minutes. Ephesus, one of the best-preserved ancient cities in the world, once home to 500,000 people, is 20 minutes from Kusadasi by taxi so you can visit Ephesus and be back in Samos for dinner.
SAMOS
Lush, mountainous, and you could drown in the Muscat wine. The Turkish coast is close enough that on a clear day you’re looking right at it.
Stay: Casa Cook Samos -adults-only, village-style layout
Also includes - LESBOS (MYTILINI) & CHIOS
and while we’re at it...
A few more island groups worth knowing about, even if they’re not in this guide.
The Saronic Islands - Hydra and Spetses in particular: Sits just off the Peloponnese coast and are a quick ferry from Athens. Hydra has no cars, no motorbikes, everything by donkey or boat. It’s one of the most atmospheric places in Greece and easy to underestimate because it’s so close to the city. Spetses is similarly car-light, pine-forested, and beautiful. Neither is a beach destination.
The Sporades, Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos, sit off the central mainland coast and are greener and more lush than the Cyclades. Skopelos is where Mamma Mia was filmed. Skiathos has some of the best beaches in Greece and a lively town. These islands tend to attract a European crowd and are genuinely lovely, but stylistically they’re a different world from the white-cube Cyclades.
Hydra and Spetses have a special place in my heart