Most Beautiful Places in Greece — 15 Destinations Worth Travelling For
Greece doesn't just impress you — it ruins you for everywhere else. There's a quality to the light, the sea, the silence of a hillside village in the afternoon heat, that nothing else in Europe quite replicates. The difficulty isn't finding somewhere beautiful. It's narrowing it down.
Here are the 15 most beautiful places in Greece, and what makes each one worth the journey.
15 Most Beautiful Places in Greece
1. Santorini
The most iconic view in Greece — white cubic houses and blue-domed churches on the rim of a volcanic caldera, the Aegean spread dark and glittering below. Santorini is as beautiful as the photographs suggest, which is a rarer thing than it sounds. Oia at sunset, the black sand beach at Perissa, a glass of Assyrtiko wine overlooking the caldera — some things genuinely live up to expectation.
2. Kefalonia
The largest of the Ionian Islands and arguably the most beautiful — dramatic limestone cliffs, the extraordinary turquoise of Myrtos Beach, dense cypress and olive forests inland. Kefalonia has a scale and wildness that the smaller islands don't. The kind of place you discover rather than simply visit, and find yourself planning to come back to before you've left.
3. Hydra
The island with no cars, no mopeds and no roads. Donkeys carry everything; boats arrive and depart; the town rises steeply from the harbour in tiers of stone mansions and whitewashed houses. Hydra is what the Greek islands were before tourism arrived — elegant, unhurried and completely unlike anywhere else in the archipelago.
4. Mykonos
Beyond the famous nightlife lies a genuinely beautiful island — the iconic windmills above the port, the labyrinthine white lanes of Chora designed to confuse pirates, fishing boats in the little harbour of Little Venice, the beaches facing west into the afternoon sun. Mykonos in May or October, before and after the season, is one of the most beautiful places in the Mediterranean.
5. Rhodes
A medieval walled city that is one of the best-preserved in the world, a coastline that runs from rocky coves to long sandy beaches, and an interior of olive groves and Byzantine villages. Rhodes Old Town at night — walking the Street of the Knights by lamplight — is one of Greece's most extraordinary experiences.
6. Crete
Greece's largest island is a country in itself — the Minoan ruins of Knossos, the White Mountains of the interior, the deep blue of Elafonissi beach with its pink-tinged sand, the Venetian harbour of Chania, the gorge of Samaria. Crete rewards proper exploration far more than a week on a sun lounger.
7. Milos
One of the lesser-visited Cyclades and possibly the most beautiful — a volcanic island with over seventy beaches, each one different in colour and character. The coloured fishermen's houses of Klima, the sea caves of Sykia, the lunar landscape of Sarakiniko. Milos is the Greek island that people who know the Greek islands always recommend.
8. Naxos
The largest of the Cyclades, with the Portara — a monumental marble doorway from an ancient temple — standing on a promontory above the harbour. Naxos has long sandy beaches, mountain villages, Byzantine churches and the best food in the Cyclades. More generous, more varied and less visited than its famous neighbours.
9. Corfu
The greenest of the Greek islands — Venetian architecture in the old town, olive groves that have been growing for centuries, a hillside above the port where the old and new fortresses face each other across a cricket pitch. Corfu Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful small cities in Greece.
10. Lefkada
One of the Ionian Islands connected to the mainland by a causeway — which makes it accessible without the ferry but feels no less like an island once you're there. Porto Katsiki, on the west coast, is consistently ranked among the most beautiful beaches in Europe. The turquoise of the water against white cliffs is the kind of view that stays with you.
11. The Mani Peninsula
The middle finger of the Peloponnese, reaching down into the Mediterranean — a landscape of tower houses, olive trees, stone villages and a coastline of extraordinary clarity. The Mani has been isolated enough to preserve a character unlike anywhere else in Greece. Stoupa, Limeni and the cave of Diros are all extraordinary.
12. Thessaloniki
Greece's second city and arguably its most interesting — Byzantine churches, Ottoman markets, Roman ruins and a waterfront promenade that is one of the most lively in the country. Thessaloniki has a food culture, a music scene and an energy that Athens often doesn't. It's the Greek city that most rewards returning to.
13. Delphi
The sanctuary of Apollo on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, where the ancient world came to hear the oracle. The setting alone — terraces of ruins against the mountain, the valley below falling to the Gulf of Corinth — is one of the most dramatically beautiful sites in Europe. Worth the journey from Athens and infinitely better than any photograph of it.
14. Zakynthos
Home to Navagio Beach — the shipwreck beach — one of the most photographed places in Greece. A rusted freighter marooned on white sand in an enclosed cove of impossible blue water, accessible only by boat. The rest of Zakynthos is beautiful too, but Navagio is one of those views that doesn't disappoint even when you've seen the pictures a hundred times.
15. Athens
Often underestimated as a city to spend time in — people treat it as a gateway to the islands — but the Acropolis at dawn before the crowds arrive is one of the great experiences of European travel. The neighbourhood of Plaka below, the covered market of the Varvakios, the view from Lycabettus Hill over the city at night. Athens is deeper and more beautiful than most people allow themselves to discover.
Bringing Greece Home
Some places stay with you long after the flight home — in the quality of light you start noticing elsewhere, in the particular blue you keep comparing every other sea to. If Greece is one of those places, a watercolour print of the island or destination that got under your skin is one of the most lasting ways to keep it close. Sundays In Tuscany's Greek Islands Edit covers Santorini, Kefalonia, Hydra and more — printed on premium matte fine art paper, free UK shipping, made to order.