Please recommend a greek island that may suit us?

[Madmog]

Can anyone recommend a greek island or greek resort that may suit us. We're looking for somewhere fairly quiet and scenic/pretty or mountainous. We'd probably want to drive around a bit to see scenery, do a boat trip and possibly snorkelling if there's any around.

In spite of its commercial reputation, there is a lot of Corfu that is unspoilt. We stayed in Arillas on the north west coast. It has several excellent tavernas and a few bars, but is pretty low key. Corfu is beautiful.

Tinos is worth a look at. It's fairly small but near other island so quite easy to hope around. Fell in love with the first restaurant we went to, so can't really comment on that many others :-)

Would also reccommend Corfu. Lots of beautiful beachs and quieter resorts. paleokastritsa was beautiful when I was there (although over ten years ago). St Georges in the south of the island has a lovely long sandy beach. Boat trips available to Paxos and Antipaxos.

Thanks for your suggestions. I've never heard of Tinos, so will certainly look into that. We're not against somewhere well known like Corfu, just want somewhere quieter and scenic.

I agree that Paleokastritsa is utterly beautiful, but is gets very busy. I loved visiting it on a day trip, but I wouldn't want to stay there.

Lefkada - small but with a range of beaches, a lovely town to eat out in and a nice mix of holidaying European families. I also second previous suggestions, just wanted to offer another option.

We're going to the Messenia region of the Peloponnese this year, which is supposed to be very Greek and scenic. Vassilikos on Zakynthos and the Chania area of Crete are also lovely.

Osquito can you recommend any areas of Lefkada? Considering there for next year. We go SC but don't hire a car, so would want to be near a village/beach (sorry to hijack, Madmog!).

Santorini. I'd go back there like a shot - gorgeous.

try Kalamata.
Easy transit to the town only 5 km away. Car hire at the airport.
Nice town with plenty to do.
Lots of places to eat on the sea front.
Hire a car and drive down the Mani. Lovely scenery.
Good hotels.
Oh and its a centre for Free Diving.

Kefalonia is very quiet and beautiful.

Another vote for santorini - it's beautiful and has everything you are looking for.

We stayed in Alykanas, Zante a few years ago. You've got a few shops and some lovely restaurants. There's the main strip of beach but you can walk along a couple of mins to a lovely part and be away from everyone if you want. We hired a car and drove up behind Zante - there's some lovely scenery and villages to be found. Can't remember the name but we visited a place which had fantastic views and feel - we drove through Argassi's main street going away from other resorts.

We are going to Crete and staying in the beautiful village of Gavalochori. It is in the mountains but not far from the sea.

The nearest airport is Channia. It is sleepy but has thriving restaurants for lunch and dinner.

Thanks for your replies. I've got some holiday brochures now so we're looking at them and online to see what we can find. Any other suggestions still appreciated as we haven't made a final decision yet!

Fly to Corfu, then head down to Paxos. So quiet, utterly beautiful. Heading back to Corfu after Paxos was like entering Brits Abroad hell (though some bits of Corfu are still lovely). Thassos was pretty quiet too (but that was 10 years ago), ditto Parga on the main land.

I'm just searching for the same sort of trip and am looking for something near Rethymos in Crete...

Kefalonia: we have been several times. Ithaka is a very short boat trip away from Fiskardo, and is very peaceful.

A work colleague recommended Kefalonia to DH the other day - said it was beautiful.

Have a look at Kokkari in Samos. We stayed at a place called Villa Penny, which was fantastic. Lovely pool, really gorgeous beach just below and Kokkari is a pretty and welcoming little town, all based along the waterfront.

We went last year and really enjoyed it. It's quite mountainous and green but also felt very Greek.

Loggos in Paxos is also fantastic. Really beautiful harbour and lovely beaches. Pebble again but very pretty.

We also went to Crete this year and stayed in a place called Panormos. It's got a couple of lovely beaches (sandy) and some really fantastic tavernas. It's not as picturesque as some places but the back streets are cobbled and dripping in bougainvillea, with tavernas setting up their tables there at night. It's got a couple of bars and we had some excellent food there.

Hi
I would recommend Crete. The west is really fantastic with so much to do. Stayed in this very family friendly house in Kissamos where they supplied so many bits and pieces for the kids, so made it so easy and homely. Take a look and enjoy your holidays -> www.spitikissamos.com

Also second and third Peloponnese region and flying into Kalamata. We went to Westin Costa Navarino, which is very family oriented but they have the Romanos hotel on same property, which is more adults-only type of place. Only heard Greek spoken among other guests for first 3 days of our stay and then it thinned out a bit after the long weekend (it was still their term time) but still not many English speaking guests.

Incredible region and very unspoilt. Lots of self catering apartments and beautiful, unspoilt public beaches that look like glossy pages out of magazine. Inland, you have Sparta and one of them most scenic mountain drives in entire country to get there.

We love love love Greece.

Crete is lovely and very varied. Would suggest Georgioupolis or Paleochora if flying into Chania, Elounda up the other end of the island. Also Vassilikos on Zante is worth a look.

My favourite place is Kantouni on Kalymnos, you need to fly to Kos then catch ferry across, gorgeous beach with amazing sunsets away from all the tourists.