Greek Islands

Understand

What follows is by no means a complete list of island attractions, but is meant as a starting point to help travelers to the islands, especially first time ones, decide which islands might repay further investigation. Islands top ranked in their category are given first, followed by an also listing of others that rank highly in the category.

Islands with great beaches: Mykonos, Naxos, Thasos, Rhodes, Skiathos, Skopelos; also Kos, Lefkada, Serifos, Milos, Corfu, Kefallonia.

Islands with significant archeological sites and museums: Delos, Rhodes, Aegina, also Kos, Samos, Thasos, Lesvos.

Great island harbor towns: Chios, Hydra, Symi, Naxos, Rhodes, Mykonos, also Syros, Corfu, Lefkada.

Great island medieval towns and fortresses: Corfu, Rhodes, Sifnos, Serifos.

Lots of night life: Ios, Mykonos, Santorini, also Skiathos, Rhodes, Corfu, Paros, Zakynthos.

Good for walking: Samos, Sifnos, Kefallonia, Tilos, also Andros, Skopelos.

Significant connection with early or Orthodox Christianity: Patmos, Tinos, also Chios, Milos.

Impressive landscape: Santorini, Nisyros also Naxos, Milos, Syros.

Closest to Athens:

Saronic Gulf Islands, also Serifos, Sifnos, Milos.

Best access by airplane: Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, also Lesvos, Chios, Kos, Samos, Corfu.

Islands with luxury hotels or resorts: Rhodes, Santorini.

Honeymoon

favorites: Santorini, also Mykonos

Often, though not always, the main town of a Greek island will have the same name as the island; thus, Naxos is the name of the main town on Naxos, and Paros is the name of the main town on Paros. Sometimes these towns also have alternate names; thus Paros town is sometimes known as Parikia. In addition to these names, the main town on an island is often also referred to locally on the island as Hora sometimes spelled Khora, which basically means "the place": thus "Hora" on Naxos means Naxos town, while "Hora" on Paros means Paros town.