Villages & long tables
Islands for mountain villages and long tables
Every island in the guide where the evenings belong to a village square, a family taverna and a feast that runs until morning.
23 islands
“Sunset from a mountain village, then dinner until midnight”
Stone lanes in the pines, raki with the owner and village feasts where everyone dances until dawn.
Κρήτη
Crete
Myth, mountains and the Libyan Sea
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Cyclades · Νάξος
Naxos
Ariadne's island, with marble villages and long sandy beaches
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Cyclades · Σαντορίνη
Santorini
A ring of cliffs around a drowned volcano, with white villages on the rim
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Cyclades · Πάρος
Paros
The marble island, with a fishing harbour that glows at dusk
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Cyclades · Σίφνος
Sifnos
The island where Saturday night smells of wood smoke and chickpeas, and a ferry stops for a rock
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Cyclades · Μήλος
Milos
The volcanic island of coloured rocks, sea caves and painted boathouses
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Cyclades · Φολέγανδρος
Folegandros
'Iron Folegandros': a village on the lip of a 200 m cliff, a medieval Kastro still lived in, and farmsteads walled against the wind
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Cyclades · Σύρος
Syros
The capital of the Cyclades: two hills, two churches, an opera house and loukoumi
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Cyclades · Τήνος
Tinos
Marble villages, a thousand dovecotes and the holiest church in Greece
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Saronic · Αίγινα
Aegina
Two Archaic temples, a ghost town of chapels and the first capital of modern Greece, forty minutes from Piraeus
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Saronic · Ύδρα
Hydra
The best island for art and bohemians: no cars, captains' mansions and an artists' colony that drew Leonard Cohen
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Sporades · Σκόπελος
Skopelos
The green island of the Sporades: pine forest to the sea, a town of slate roofs and the Mamma Mia! chapel
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Dodecanese · Κως
Kos
Island of Hippocrates, hot springs and long sandy beaches
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Dodecanese · Ρόδος
Rhodes
Island of the Knights, Lindos and two seas
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Dodecanese · Σύμη
Symi
A harbour of painted mansions, sponge divers' stories and coves you reach by boat
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Dodecanese · Πάτμος
Patmos
The island of the Apocalypse, quiet and white
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Dodecanese · Κάσος
Kasos
The heroic island at the end of the Dodecanese: a harbour lit from under the water, all-night feasts and the memory of 1824
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North Aegean · Ικαρία
Ikaria
The island where people forget to die
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North Aegean · Σάμος
Samos
Island of Hera, Pythagoras and Muscat wine
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North Aegean · Χίος
Chios
The mastic island, of medieval villages and citrus mansions
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North Aegean · Σαμοθράκη
Samothraki
The wild mountain island of waterfalls, plane forests and the Great Gods
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Ionian · Κέρκυρα
Corfu
The green Ionian island of Venetian lanes, olive groves and turquoise bays
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Ionian · Παξοί
Paxos
The island of peace and quiet: no airport, olive groves to the sea and the turquoise bays of Antipaxos
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Where to stay
Rooms made for this feeling
Our favourite stays on these islands, each one picked for the moment you'll have there.
Chania old town · Crete
Breakfast in a 17th-century Venetian courtyard
Casa Delfino · Boutique hotel · €€€
Armenistis · Ikaria
Step out of your room and onto Livadi beach
Erofili Beach Hotel · Beach hotel · €€
Kokkari · Samos
Wake above Kokkari with the whole north coast at your feet
Arion Hotel · 4-star hotel · €€€
Kos Town · Kos
Wake to the sea, a stroll from the Knights' castle
Kos Aktis Art Hotel · Design hotel · €€€
Rhodes Old Town · Rhodes
Sleep behind a red door in a knight's house from 1340
Kókkini Porta Rossa · Adults-only boutique hotel · €€€
Gialos · Symi
Open the shutters of an 1895 mansion onto the harbour
Hotel Aliki · Neoclassical boutique hotel · €€€
Or maybe
Longing for something else?
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