ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR DESTINATIONS FOR DREAMING AND RELAXING
With around 300 days of sunshine a year, deep blue waters, heavenly beaches, delicious cuisine and a relaxed Mediterranean mentality, it‘s easy to have an unforgettable vacation in Greece!
Although Greece consists largely of majestic mountains, its islands have always had a magical appeal. Whether cosmopolitan or remote, around 6,000 islands, 227 of which are inhabited, promise the perfect holiday destination with their varied landscapes.
With white, blue-trimmed houses, set amid picturesque landscapes, olive groves, fragrant pine forests, the Greek islands are as diverse as they are numerous. Each inhabited island has its own character, and while some attract tourists year round, others are very quiet in the off-season!
There are a total of six archipelagos as well as Crete, the largest island in Greece. The Cyclades boast two of the most famous islands, Mykonos and Santorini. Milos, Tinos, Naxos, Syros, Paros, Serifos, Delos, Kimolos are other Cycladic island gems to discover.
The Dodecanese, which means 12 islands, actually consists of 15 larger and 150 smaller islands, with only 26 of them inhabited. Rhodes and Kos are the two largest, while the smaller ones are quieter and less discovered. These include Patmos, Astypalea, Kalymnos and Karpathos, Kassos, Kastelorizo, Leros, Symi, Pserimos, Nisyros, Chalki, Leipsoi, Nimos.
The Ionian Islands, also known as the “seven islands” or “Eptanissia,” lie to the west of the mainland. Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Kefalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos and Kythira are the seven largest and most popular islands in this group.
The North Aegean Islands are a collection of 13 widely scattered islands still untouched by mass tourism. The most famous include Ikaria, Samos, Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios, Thassos, Samothraki and Agios Efstratios.
The (Northern) Sporades, the name literally means “the scattered ones”, are an archipelago of around 135 islands and rocky islets off the east coast of Greece. Only four of the exceptionally green islands are inhabited, namely Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos and Skyros.
The islands of the Saronic Gulf are the group closest to Athens. They lie between it and the Peloponnese peninsula. They consist of numerous smaller, uninhabited and eight larger inhabited ones: Hydra, Dokos, Spetses, Poros, Aegina, Salamis, Agistri, Methana.
Crete is the largest and most populous island in Greece, and fifth largest in the Mediterranean. It is the southernmost and lies almost 100 kilometers from the mainland. Its coastline covers 1,066 kilometers. Here is the place where the Minoan civilization began, one of the most important civilizations in the world (2600-1150 BC).
Many of the islands have airports and are served by commercial airlines. Some can only be reached from neighboring islands. However, thanks to the large number of ferries, island hopping becomes another vacation experience.