When someone seeking travel advice recently told me she'd brought her three-week-old to Turkey and, later, toted her toddlers around Sicily, I suggested she take her two girls to Greece. "Really?" she replied. "People tell me Greece is for staying up late."
That this someone, the supermodel Veronica Webb, had the same misconception as so many Americans — who think Greece is for touring ruins by day and partying like rock stars by night — is revealing. This reputation is certainly deserved when it comes to the best-known Greek island, Mykonos, where the nightlife goes on nonstop. But having spent my childhood in Athens, the past twenty summers working in and writing about Greece and a year rebuilding my grandparents' house, in a mountainous village there, I'm messianic when it comes to spreading the word: there's more to island-hopping in Greece than mojitos on Paradise Beach.
Greece has more than 100 inhabited islands, each one suited to specific personality types, from sybarites to sports fanatics. So whenever friends and even strangers ask for help with travel plans, I give them this advice: Visit in May, June, September or October to avoid the crowds and the heat. And don't settle for an off-the-rack vacation; move beyond Mykonos to find an island that's tailor-made for you. These are a few of my favorites.
The Web site greekferries.gr provides information on all ferries serving the Greek isles. When calling the telephone numbers below from the United States, first dial 011-30, unless otherwise noted.
Perfect For The unique and chic.
The Lowdown If your art is one of a kind, your clothes are custom-made and you're always looking for experiences that can't be had anyplace else, head to Chios, in the eastern Aegean. Only three and a half nautical miles from Turkey, Chios is large (325 square miles, population 50,000) and unusual. First there's the mastic evergreen, which grows exclusively on the island and produces a resin used in cooking, medicine and beauty products. Then, in Pyrgi, you'll see xysta architecture: gray patterns scratched on whitewashed buildings with a kitchen fork. And come spring, Chios is full of lalades, rare purple and white wild tulips.
Getting There Up to seven forty-five-minute flights (from $75 one way; aegeanair.com or olympicairlines.com) leave from Athens daily, as do two six-hour ferries.
Stay The gorgeous Argentikon (suites from $730; Kambos; 2271-033-111; argentikon.gr), one of the Yades Heritage & Hospitality Hotels of Greece, was home to the Argenti family from 1550, when the Genoese occupied Chios, until 1995, when Phillip Argenti's son Lorenzo sold the estate. The eight-suite hotel opened in 2005 after an extensive ten-year renovation, but many of the original antiques, china and statues remain, as do the citrus groves, the source of the mandarin liqueur served to guests on arrival and the marmalades that go with them when they leave.
Eat On the harbor in Chios Town, To Tsikoudo (2271-040-111), named for a local nut, serves Chian specialties, from the extreme (sun-dried fish) to the exquisite (sautéed mastelo, a native cheese). The Argentikon's namesake restaurant makes a more ornate version of mastelo, covered in sesame seeds and drizzled with honey.
See Chios's most picturesque region is Mastichochora, twenty-four villages whose inhabitants cultivate mastic. The most interesting are Pyrgi, whose main square is ringed by xysta-adorned homes, and Mesta, with its medieval fortress. Between villages lie miles of mastic groves; the resin is harvested in mid-August and September (for information, visit mastihashop.com or contact the Mastic Growers Association at info@gummastic.gr).
Swim The island's breathtaking beaches include the volcanic Mavros Volia, which produces the black stones used in the town's pebble mosaics, and Vroulidia, a white-sand crescent that's considered one of the country's top beaches.
Shop Traditional products in retro-chic packaging are for sale at the MastihaShop (36 Leof Aigaiou, Chios Town; 2271-081-600). Everything on display, including jam, cookies, liqueurs and sought-after Korres cosmetics, contains the magic ingredient, mastic.
Perfect For History buffs.
The Lowdown The second largest island (229 square miles, population 100,000) in the lush, green Ionian chain, Corfu (Kerkyra in Greek) has a capital that's so beautiful, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage site last year. In and around Corfu Town, there are two fortresses from the 16th century and three palaces from the 19th century within a fifteen-minute drive of one another. Royal watchers can pretty much bet that the massive yacht bobbing below one of the Venetian-built fortresses belongs to the sultan of Brunei. Charter a yacht of your own (valefyachts.com or alphayachting.com) and tour the Ionian Sea, or take a hydrofoil to the islands of Lefkada and Cephalonia (ionian-cruises.com; also see Seven Steps to Chartering a Yacht, for suggestions).
Lefkada is a sizeable island famous for its long beaches, interior mountain villages and satellite isles (notably Scorpios, Onassis’s private isle where paparazzi once snapped Jackie O sunbathing topless). Stay in Katouna, a picturesque village with Byzantine churches and a delicious taverna in the main square, at the Pavezzo Country Retreat, a collection of eight restored Venetian homes (some with private indoor or outdoor pools) with a newly opened spa and whimsical décor. Cephalonia is a large island with gorgeous scenery and world-renowned beaches (Mirtos and Anti-Samos are favorites). The lovely port of Fiscardo is where discerning yachties dock. Try the oceanfront Emelisse hotel on its own cove.
Getting There Fourteen one-hour flights go from Athens to Corfu every day (from $75 one way; aegeanair.com or olympicairlines.com). Several ninety-minute ferries leave daily from Igoumenitsa, in northwestern Greece, for Corfu Town and Lefkimmi.
Stay Sail to the dock of your private palazzo at the 301-room Grecotel Corfu Imperial (double rooms from $320, suites from $740; 2661-088-400; grecotel.gr), on the Kommeno Peninsula. If you prefer to be in town, the 106-room Corfu Palace Hotel (double rooms from $390, suites from $605; 2 Leoforios Dimokratias, Corfu Town; 2661-039-485; corfupalace.com) has an inviting pool with a fortress view on one side and a wall built by the Crusaders on the other.
Eat To Dimarchio (Town Hall Square, Corfu Town; 2661-039-031), across from the ornate town hall and the Italianate Catholic church, serves artfully arranged salads and pastas under a canopy of bougainvillea and jacaranda. Farther afield, on the pebbled beach at Agni bay, spicy shrimp pilaf is the house special at Toula's Taverna (Agni Beach; 2663-091-350).
See Stroll the Liston, Corfu Town's colonnaded, café-lined street modeled on the Rue de Rivoli; when the Venetians ruled here, the promenade was off-limits to all but noble families. Then palace-hop from the Museum of Asiatic Art (Corfu Town; 2661-030-443), in the British Palace of St. Michael and St. George, to the Mon Repos Villa (Corfu Town; 2661-030-680). A former summer residence of the Greek royal family and the birthplace of the U.K.'s Prince Phillip, Mon Repos has been converted into a museum celebrating the island's natural and archaeological history; the grounds include a beach and the ruins of temples of Hera and Apollo. The most famous Corfiote palace, the Achilleion (Gastouri; 2661-056-245), was a getaway for "Sissi," Empress Elizabeth of Austria; a summer home of Kaiser Wilhelm II; and the casino in the Bond film For Your Eyes Only.
Swim With more than 136 miles of coastline, Corfu has shores both sandy (Agios Giorgos) and pebbly (Barbati and Kerasia). At the Korission Lagoon, sand dunes form perfect beaches, like the long oasis of Chalikounas.
Shop Corfiote ladies buy egg-shaped charms every Easter at an outpost of Ilias Lalaounis (Corfu Town; 2661-036-258), which has boutiques in Athens, Mykonos, Paris and New York.
Perfect For Poetic preppies.
The Lowdown Get out the boat shoes: with its gray captains' mansions, domed churches and cobbled streets, tiny Hydra (twenty square miles, population 3,000) is the Nantucket of Greece. Less than two hours from Athens by ferry, the island manages to be both cosmopolitan — with yachts in the bays, galleries on the harbor and second homes in the hills — and traditional. Cars are banned; donkeys transport everything, even bottled water.
Getting There Several ferries leave the Athenian port of Piraeus daily for Hydra.
Stay The Bratsera Hotel (double rooms from $195; Hydra Town; 2298-053-971; bratserahotel.com), in a building occupied by the Verveniotis Sponge Factory from 1860 through 1986, has been cleverly converted into a boutique hotel whose twenty-eight affordable rooms are centered around a lovely courtyard pool (the only swimming pool in town).
Eat Formerly a yacht club, Omilos (Hydra Town; 2298-053-800) is today a white-tablecloth restaurant with creative Mediterranean cuisine and staggering views of the Gulf of Hydra. For a traditional Greek meal, follow the path off the harbor to the hamlet of Kaminia, where the low-key Taverna Kodylenia (2298-053-520) serves fresh fish above a caïque-filled bay.
See There's art for every appetite along the harbor. The Gregory Christeas gallery (Hydra Town; 2298-053-428; christeas.com), named after its Athenian owner, a modernist painter who honed his craft in Beverly Hills, is just steps away from the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra (Hydra Town; 2298-052-355), which hosts shows promoting Greek artists and permanent exhibitions of maritime memorabilia. Still, Hydra's most inspiring sight may be the sun setting over the gulf from the Hydronetta Bar (Hydra Town; 2298-054-160).
Swim Locals take bracing dives from cliffs near the harbor, but the real beaches, complete with deck chairs and snack bars, are outside Hydra Town. Hop a boat from the harbor's center to the crystal waters and gray pebbles of Agios Nikolaos.
Shop Hydra Town's cobblestoned alleys are packed with boutiques. The best street for shopping is Economou, which starts on the harbor, with jeweler Elena Votsi (2298-052-637; elenavotsi.com), who created the medals for the 2004 Summer Olympics. Farther down the block you'll find the boutique of Panagiotis Asproulis (2298-052-096), who makes clothing with time-honored crochet techniques. Finally, at Meltemi (2298-054-138), antique wooden breadboards serve as displays for graceful baubles.
Perfect For Modern-art mavens.
The Lowdown Midsized Ándros (147 square miles, population 9,000), the Cycladic island closest to Athens, is the birthplace of many shipping magnates, one of whom sponsored the top-notch Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art, known as MoCA-Ándros. Once a single building devoted to Greek artists, the museum has expanded with a new wing in which it mounts exhibitions of superstars, from Picasso to Kandinsky. As more galleries open, MoCA-Ándros is turning this island of monasteries and dovecotes into a summertime stopover for art fans.
Getting There Several ferries leave from the Athenian port of Rafina daily for the two-hour trip to Gavrio, in northwestern Ándros. Opt for a car ferry so you can bring your rental from Athens.
Stay Live like a returning shipowner: rent a villa (from $800 a week; homeaway.com) or book accommodations at Archontiko Eleni (double rooms from $95; 2282-022-270; elenimansion.gr), the Embiricos family's 1890 mansion, now an eight-room inn at the top of pedestrian-only Embiricou Street, Ándros Town's main drag.
Eat O Nonas (Ándros Town; 2282-023-577), a mezedopoleion (Greek-tapas bar) on the harbor, makes great seafood pilaf. A five-minute drive from Ándros Town, Ta Gyalia (2282-024-650; lunch only) has an ideal location across from Ta Gyalia beach. The chef cooks up fresh fish with side orders of livraki, a local squashlike vegetable.
See Inaugurated in 1979, MoCA-Ándros (Ándros Town; 2282-022-444; moca-andros.gr) is housed in two buildings overlooking the sea. One hosts a permanent exhibition; the other is devoted to a new show each summer; it also has a gift shop and a rooftop café. In the guest book, visitors leave gushing comments, like "Sea and art: they are enough to quench one's thirst."
Swim There are beaches everywhere; two even border Ándros Town. But the island's most scenic shores are To Pidima Tis Grias (Old Lady's Leap), a sandy beach on the east coast near the town of Korthi, and Achla.
Shop Galleries and gift stores line cobbled Embiricou Street. Many Greek adults, and most Greek infants, sport blue evil-eye talismans to protect themselves from envious stares; Paraporti (2282-023-777) stocks stylish versions of this ubiquitous jewelry. Since 1906, Konstantinos Laskaris (2282-022-305) has been selling spoon sweets, traditional fruit preserves made of everything from rose petals to watermelon rinds.
Perfect For Hopeless romantics.
The Lowdown There's a reason nearly every Santorini hotel offers wedding-planning services: the setting is so swoon-worthy, only the most cynical visitors can keep from falling in love. This much-photographed volcanic island (twenty-nine square miles, population 13,000), also called Thíra by residents, is the southernmost of the Cyclades and looks like everyone's fantasy of Greece: whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches sparkle against the backdrop of the dark Aegean Sea.
Getting There Thirteen forty-five-minute flights leave Athens for Santorini daily (from $75 one way; aegeanair.com or olympicairlines.com). There is also a seven-and-a-half-hour ferry from Piraeus.
Stay Oia, Santorini's prettiest town (designated a protected community by the Greek government), has the most impressive view of the lagoon and caldera that were created by a volcanic eruption in 1600 B.C. You can't stroll for two minutes without passing a luxury hotel; a longtime favorite is the twenty-five-room Katikies (double rooms from $495, suites from $575; 2286-071-401; katikies.com), with two pools that seem to drop off into the ocean and a masseur on hand to make the sundeck even more relaxing. The newest resort is Mystique (suites from $670, villas from $1,670; 519-637-6499 [U.S. number]; mystique.gr), Greece's latest Starwood property, with eighteen terraced suites and villas that overlook the caldera. By day, mountain bikes are available for exploring; at sunset, drinks from the wine-cellar bar help guests segue into the evening.
Eat In Oia, try Ambrosia (2286-071-413) or the more formal Ambrosia & Nectar (2286-071-504) for dishes using indigenous produce creatively: fava beans, white eggplant, capers, cherry tomatoes. In the island's capital, Thíra (also known as Fíra), refined versions of cod with saffron and pistachios, artichokes with sea urchin and yellow-split-pea cream, and other innovative dishes can be enjoyed on the two terraces at Selene (2286-022-249).
See One of Santorini's most famous sights, the ruins of Akrotiri, a Minoan civilization destroyed in a volcanic eruption 3,650 years ago, has been closed since part of a ceiling fell down in 2005. (It is being repaired.) Luckily, you can always catch Santorini's other main attraction, the spectacular sunset, from your balcony in Oia. Or reserve a deck chair at Franco's Bar (2286-024-428), in the capital, where guests recline while drinking Champagne cocktails; the Maria Callas is sour and sweet, like the diva. There are also many wineries to explore; Boutari (Megalochori; 2286-081-011; boutari.gr) is the most modern. For ancient-relics junkies, the Archaeological Museum (Thíra; 2286-022-217) displays prehistoric vases, clay figurines and other artifacts from Akrotiri. To cruise to the satellite island of Thírasia, and for a peek at the dormant volcano and hot springs on the tiny island of Palaía Kaméni, charter a boat from Dakoutros Brothers (2286-022-958). Santorini is also a great base for visits to Mykonos (see Iconic Mykonos, for more information on Mykonos).
Swim Santorini's beaches are out of the ordinary; the volcanic soil produces black and red sand instead of beige. Red Beach can be crowded; if there are too many people, take a boat from there to White Beach. As for black-sand beaches, Kamari is jam-packed, Perissa and Perivolos are less so, and Vlihada is the most remote.
Shop Pop into the Mati Gallery (2286-023-814; matiartgallery.gr), in Thíra, for finds including sculpture and jewelry. In Oia, Atlantis Books (2286-072-346; atlantisbooks.org) resells English volumes brought in by British and American expats and carries works in many other languages as well. It also hosts readings by international writers, book signings and film screenings.
Perfect for Athletic adventurers.
The lowdown The largest of the Greek islands (3,189 square miles, population 500,000), Crete is practically built for hikers and sports-minded travelers. It's home to the eleven-mile-long Samaria Gorge, said to be the longest in Europe, and more than fifty other gorges, all spilling into the Mediterranean north of Libya. (The southernmost island in Greece, Crete is almost as close to Libya as it is to the Greek mainland.) The island is also home to a burgeoning organic-food movement, which comes in handy for fortifying yourself after all that exertion.
Getting there There are seventeen fifty-minute flights daily from Athens to Heraklion, in the center of Crete, and thirteen fifty-minute flights a day to Chania, in the northwest (both from $55 one way; aegeanair.com or olympicairlines.com). Several six-and-a-half-hour overnight ferries leave Athens for Heraklion daily.
Stay In Elounda Bay, three hotels make up Greece's most luxurious resort complex. The seventy-one-room Elounda Mare Hotel (double rooms from $350; 2841-041-102; eloundamare.gr) is a romantic and discreet Relais & Châteaux member; the family-friendly, 168-room Porto Elounda (double rooms from $350; 2841-068-000; portoelounda.com) features a nine-hole golf course, two tennis courts and Greece's first Six Senses Spa; and Elounda Peninsula (suites from $845; 2841-068-250; eloundapeninsula.com) has fifty-seven suites, each with a private pool or outdoor Jacuzzi.
Eat The Elounda resorts have award-winning restaurants, among them the Michelin-starred Calypso (2841-068-250), run by chef Jacques Le Divellec. To try traditional-with-a-twist cuisine, explore the island's organic scene. Any restaurant certified by ConCred, an organization devoted to preserving the organic Cretan diet, uses only virgin olive oil, which locals claim is the secret of their longevity. The extensive menu at Avli (22 Xanthoudidou and Radamanthios Sts.; 2831-026-213), in a 1660 Venetian villa in Rethymnon's otherworldly old town, covers the classics (zucchini blossoms with cheese) and the unexpected (goat with honey and thyme; smoked eggplant with cheese and peppermint).
See Hike the Samaria Gorge with a guide from Cretan Adventures (Heraklion; 2810-332-772; cretanadventures.gr), which also organizes other hiking trips as well as rafting excursions. And don't miss the Palace of Knossos (2810-231-940), the seat of the Minoan civilization, which thrived here until 1400 B.C.
Swim The island's best beaches are on the west coast. The most stunning is the pink-sand beach on the islet of Elafonissos.
Shop Crete's most beloved exports are olive oil, herbs and other foodstuffs that flourish in the mild climate. An excellent outlet for such goodies is Raw Materials (22 Xanthoudidou and Radamanthios Sts., Rethymnon; 2831-058-250), which is run by the Avli restaurant; it has more than 460 Greek wines and sufficient treats to have you savoring the taste of Crete long after returning home.