The Most Beautiful Places in the Greek Islands
The Greek Islands are not one place. They're dozens of places — hundreds, even — each with its own landscape, character and pace of life. Volcanic Santorini has almost nothing in common with the lush green hills of Kefalonia or the quiet stone lanes of Hydra. What they share is a quality of light, a colour of sea and a way of life that has been drawing people from northern Europe for centuries. Once you've been, you'll understand why.
Here are the most beautiful places in the Greek Islands — the ones worth crossing the Aegean for.
1. Oia, Santorini
The village perched at the northern tip of Santorini's caldera, its whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches cascading down the cliffface to the sea far below. The famous sunset, watched from the castle ruins each evening, is one of the great spectacles of the Mediterranean. Oia is the most photographed village in Greece — and somehow, impossibly, it still exceeds every expectation in person.
2. Kefalonia
The largest of the Ionian Islands and arguably the most beautiful — a lush, mountainous island of extraordinary contrasts. Myrtos Beach, a perfect crescent of white pebbles and vivid turquoise water framed by vertical white cliffs, is one of the most dramatic beaches in Greece. Fiskardo in the north, with its Venetian-era harbour and pastel-coloured buildings, is the most elegant village in the Ionians.
3. Mykonos
Windmills, whitewashed streets and a harbour town that has been the social capital of the Greek Islands for decades. But away from the nightlife, Mykonos has a quiet beauty that belongs to another era — the labyrinthine lanes of the old town, the pelicans who wander the harbour, the series of beaches around the island's southern coast. Little Venice, where the houses hang directly above the Aegean, is one of the most beautiful corners in Greece.
4. Hydra
The most sophisticated island in Greece, and the most serene. No cars, no motorbikes — Hydra operates entirely on foot and by donkey, its stone harbour town rising steeply from the water in a crescent of neoclassical mansions. Artists and writers have been coming here since the 1950s, drawn by the quiet, the beauty and the light. An afternoon at a harbourside café watching the water is exactly as good as it sounds.
5. The Santorini Caldera
The great curved bay formed by the volcanic eruption that destroyed the Minoan civilisation 3,600 years ago — the most dramatic seascape in the Mediterranean. Sail across it at sunset, with the caldera walls turning rose gold and the volcano smoking in the distance, and you'll understand what everyone means when they say Santorini is unlike anywhere else on earth.
6. Corfu Old Town
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most elegant towns in Greece — a product of 400 years of Venetian rule that left behind pastel-coloured townhouses, arcaded streets and a civilised way of life that is distinctly Ionian. The Liston, Corfu's answer to the Rue de Rivoli, is the finest promenade in the Greek Islands.
7. Navagio Beach, Zakynthos
The most famous beach photograph in Greece — a shipwreck rusting on white sand inside a cove entirely enclosed by vertical white limestone cliffs, the sea an almost unreal shade of electric blue. Navagio can only be reached by boat from the northern coast of Zakynthos. The view from the clifftop above, looking straight down into the cove, is one of the most extraordinary in Europe.
8. The Old Town of Rhodes
The largest inhabited medieval town in Europe, its 15th-century walls almost perfectly preserved. The Street of the Knights, the Palace of the Grand Masters, the minarets standing alongside Byzantine churches — Rhodes Old Town is a city that has been continuously lived in for over 2,000 years. Walk its lanes in the early morning, before the crowds arrive, and it's extraordinary.
9. Milos
The moon island — a volcanic landscape of dramatic white rock formations, technicolour fishing villages and over seventy beaches, each one different from the last. Sarakiniko, where lunar-white volcanic rock curves into the turquoise sea, is one of the most other-worldly landscapes in Greece. Mandrakia, a tiny fishing village of boathouses cut directly into the cliffs, is one of the most beautiful.
10. Delphi
Technically on the mainland, but no visit to Greece is complete without it. The sanctuary of Apollo clings to the slopes of Mount Parnassus above a valley dropping to the Gulf of Corinth. The ancient Greeks believed Delphi was the navel of the world. Standing at the oracle's temple in the evening light, with the olive groves stretching to the sea below, you can see why they thought so.
Bring the Greek Islands Home
From the blue domes of Santorini to the turquoise bays of Kefalonia — our Greek Islands watercolour print collection captures the light and beauty of the Aegean. Each print is made to order on premium fine art paper with free UK shipping.