Tell me about your smaller Greek Islands recommendations

[boys3]

Just that really. Went to Kalymnos last year, absolutely loved it. Where else might be similar for a fly and largely flop type holiday?

• Short ferry if needed, Kalymnos was a very easy ferry transfer from Kos. Not looking to spend more than an hour on a ferry ideally.
• Decent choice of restaurants
• Ideally smaller more boutique type of hotel, its just the two of us - kids all grown up now.
• Not party central, or a cruise ship destination
• Thinking June time if that helps.

All ideas welcome, or indeed where to avoid.

Can I join in and request some ideas . Such a great wealth of knowledge.

Sept/ Oct, easy ferry and sandy beaches with shallow water for non swimmers to float about in with loungers and umbrellas for the fair of face . Too much to ask for ? Hesitant to go to travel agents and keep saying No

Samos and Andros are both lovely

More the merrier. You are more than welcome. I’d actually recommend where we were on Kalymnos, west side of the island at Kantouni. Unblocked view due west so fantastic sunsets as well. No lounger / umbrella set up on the beach itself though. We were there in September so there may be something in peak season.

Oops sorry @Soonenough you mentioned you were going in September, missed that, ignore my peak season comment.

Following for ideas.
It’s probably already been mentioned op but I’ve only ever been to Greece once and we went to Kefalonia.. Argostoli, Fiskardo and Skala, it was beautiful.

I’d recommend Meganisi, you fly into Preveza and get a boat from Lefkada. We stayed at Hotel Meganisi which is family run and wonderful, amazing food and they run a shuttle bus twice a day to a nearby sandy beach. There are a few restaurants and a bakery up in the small village where the hotel is located or you can walk down to the harbour (about 15 minutes walk) where there are lots of restaurants. We hired a boat for the day and went all round the island and stopped in beautiful deserted coves to swim. If you book directly with the hotel it’s very good value and they can organise a driver and boat to get you to the island from the airport and they met us at the harbour with their minibus to bring us and our luggage up to the hotel.

Oh another one - Ithaca. Fly to Kefalonia and get ferry from Sami.

We booked a pension on booking.com in Hydra town, but I would say it had more of a small hotel vibe rather than a traditional pension. Lots of those available, we had a pool but I potentially wouldn’t bother with that if we were to go back.

There were smaller, more rustic, typically styled pensions available in the town and there are a couple of bigger luxey hotels and resorts, which are away from the town, as well as some villas. But, and I cannot stress this enough, on an island with no cars there is no transport :) so for us the idea of a villa, having to transport shopping etc by donkey or boat, seemed a bit much so we stuck to the town (which is really a big village). From Hydra town you can catch water taxis to the beaches, or walk round to sunset point which has rock shelves to sit out on, or you can get a deckchair at the bar which is super-cute.

The food is excellent. I can’t actually tell you how lovely it is to be in a place with no traffic at all.

It is spenny, very yachtie, the shops on the harbour are all ‘silk sundresses for 200 euro or maybe madam would like some art at a million pounds, we ship?’ But I loved it.

aegina Is lovely.

I went there in the 80s.. lovely

The ferry to Meganissi only takes around 20 minutes as I recall so you can easily pop back to Nidri on Lefkas for more tavernas and bars if you fancy a change of scene.

I would recommend Naxos which has a whole coastline of sandy beaches that stretch for miles and is as authentic & rustic as the Greek islands get. If all you want to do is sun bathe & eat great food (and I totally understand that!!) then places like Plaka or Agios Prokopios would be good options. Pretty straightforward to get to from the UK. Either flight to Athens and domestic flight to Naxos (schedules always say the flight is 45 minutes but it isn't - it's more like 25) or a ferry from Rafina or Piraeus with Blue Star or Seajets. You could even take the overnight from LHR to Athens with Aegean which arrives at 4am, with the connecting flight departing at 6am, depending on time of year. Alternatively, you can fly to Mykonos and take the ferry from there.

Naxos is very close to Paros (less than an hour on the faster Seajet ferry) which is great if you feel like exploring further afield. It's a little more chic than Naxos with some lovely shopping and cafe culture in Parikia & Noussa.

You can also take a ferry or one of the many day boats down to the Little Cyclades (Mikro Kiklades) which are tiny islands off the south coast of Naxos. If you take the ferry rather than a day trip you have the option to stay overnight down there in Kouffinisi or Iraklia for example.