Epic Travel Guide: 6 Best Greek Islands to Visit Now!

Here is an easy to understand guide to various Greek islands chain.

I have published guides to numerous Greek Islands, briefly mentioning which Greek archipelago, the particular island belongs to.

Greek Islands top the list of islands that are suitable for memorable holidays. I would say, even, the tropical Caribbean Islands occupy the second spot in the list, followed by the Indonesian Islands.

The 6000 islands in Greece are classified under different groups, mostly based on which sea, the islands are located.

Moreover, some island groups are named after something else.

How to Plan Your Greek Islands Travel Trip:

In this article, you will come to know all the names of Greek Island archipelagos, and the seas that host them.

It will be useful for you to plan your exclusive Greek Islands holiday trip. For example, if you do a search to know which islands in Greece are highly popular, you will get a handful of the names of them that include, Crete, Mykonos, Corfu, Rhodes, Santorini, etc.

However, you cannot visit all of them in a trip unless your budget is unlimited, and your holiday is for a month.

The reason is, each of them may belong to different groups, and are scattered across all the 3 seas that surround them.

It is just like the beautiful Caribbean Islands that are clustered in different groups such as Windward Islands, Leeward Islands, Greater Antilles, etc.

I hope I sounded clear.

First, let us know the different seas that surround Greece mainland and the Greek islands.

Aegean Sea-east
Mediterranean Sea-south
Ionian Sea-west

Aegean Sea is geographically split into north, and south Aegean Sea, Thracian Sea. It is just for convenience’s sake.

Do you know?

The beautiful Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea meet at a point called Prasonisi, a small town that is located at the southern tip of Rhodes Island. You can see the merger from the lighthouse in Prasonisi Beach.

The lighthouse is abandoned. You can still climb 135 steps to reach the top. However, the meeting of the two seas cannot be distinguished.

Different groups under which, the islands in Greece are classified.

Aegean Islands
Sporades Islands
Argo Saronic Islands
Cyclades Islands
Dodecanese Islands
Ionian Islands

Let us look into:

the islands that fall in each group,
the reason behind the name of the group
which are the major islands in each group that tourists go to
the way to reach the main island in each archipelago.

Epic Travel Guide: 6 Best Greek Islands to Visit Now!

Again, I assure you, this guide will come in handy to organize your trip to the Greek Islands, the dream destinations for millions of people in the world.

Please note that only 227 out of 6000+ islands are inhabited

Aegean Islands

The reason for the name is because of the Aegean Sea in which, the islands are located.

If you look at the map of Greece, Crete Island, the largest of Greek Islands is clearly seen at the southern end of Greece and this is fallen under the Aegean Sea.

Actually, the Sporades, Saronic, Cyclades, Dodecanese island groups are also floating in the Aegean Sea and hence must come under Aegean Islands. But, for various reasons, they are further divided to those groups.

Crete, Rhodes, Santorini, Evia and Kos are considered the most visited islands in the overall Aegean group. Once you reach Rhodes, you can visit many other smaller islands.

Evia that is also called Euboea is the second largest island in Greece, preceded by Crete.

Crete is usually visited separately, and deserves a week to see around the historic island.

While it is well connected with Athens, U.K. also operate flights. 4 hours is the flight duration from London.

It can be safely assumed that, Athens, the Greek capital is the best gateway to all major islands located in the three main seas surrounding Greece.

Rome is another city from where you can directly fly to Crete.

Turkey being the closest country to Greece, serves flights to Crete directly, The flight duration is only 30 minutes.

Once you are in Crete, you can do island hoping to 17 islands and that include Santorini, Mykonos, Hydra, and Naxos. The mode of transportation is both by flight and ferry.

Santorini

Santorini is another most visited island in Greece. Tourists from Paris, Rome, Milan, Venice, Naples, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Prague can land directly in Santorini, Greece.

Santorini is truly breathtaking. What a seascape!

If you keep your headquarters in Santorini, you can visit the following islands hassles free.

Naxos
Paros
Milos
Thirasia
Mykonos
Folegandros
Amorgios
Anafi
Ios
Sikinos
Rhodes
Crete

It seems, Santorini Island acts as the best gateway to several, popular Greek Islands except the Ionian Island chain.

Some of the islands mentioned above may be found under other Greek Islands group.

For example, Santorini is placed under Cyclades Islands.

Sporades Islands

This group is located northeast of Athens City. The islands are surrounded by the Aegean Sea.

Out of the 24 big and small islands placed under Sporades, the following islands are main.

Skiathos
Skopelos
Skyros
Alonnisos

Sporades suggests sporadic or scattered. Each of the main island may have siblings where no one lives, but they can be visited.

Athens serves a flight to one of the Sporades Islands. However, bus ferries are abundant from Athens, and Evia. The distance to cross in the Aegean Sea will be around 200 km only.

Argo Saronic Islands

You can simplify the name into ‘Saronic Islands’.

Salamina Island appears big and the largest of the Saronic Island group. Aegina is the second-largest island among the islands that are located in the Saronic Gulf.

Four other islands that attract tourists are Poros, Agistri (Agkistri), Hydra, and Dokos.

Since these islands are located close to Athens, lots of ferries ply from Athens’s main port, Piraeus.

Salamina Island is only 17 km away from Athens. Car ferry is the most preferred mode of transportation. Sea crossing takes 35 minutes only.

The second largest and highly visited Greek island in the Saronic group is Aegina. The distance from Athens is just 30 km.

Similarly, the distance between these islands is less than 100 km which can be crossed in a car ferry.

Aegina is in a strategic location from where you can plan day trips to other islands places in the Saronic Gulf.

Next to Aegina, Hydra is the second highly visited island.

Cyclades

This is one of the main Greek Islands group because, most of the islands here are extremely beautiful. In addition, you get authentic Greek food and drinks on these islands.

The above map shows the islands form a circle and hence named, ‘Cyclades’.

Major islands in Cyclades:

Map attached

Santorini
Milos
Syros
Naxos
Anafi
Mukonos
Andros

Ferry seems to be the only option from Athens to the Cyclades. You can take your taxi in the ferry.

Since Santorini, the most important island in the Cyclades is located around 300 km from Athens, it is advisable to fly. The flight duration is 50 minutes only.

Once you reach Santorini, you can depend on sea passage to other islands in the Cyclades group.

While Santorini itself demand 3 days minimum, you need a total of two weeks to visit the main siblings of Santorini.

Flying is also possible in between them. For example, you can book a flight from Santorinito Naxos (250 km). However, this flight first goes to Athens, picks up passengers, and then land in Naxos.

Therefore, it is better you depend on a ferry. I think the duration will be around two hours only.

Dodecanese Islands

Dodecanese means 12 islands. I think when the group was formed, only 12 were considered as big and worthy of visit. Afterwards, more islands were added that now stands at 26.

Rhodes is the predominant island in this group. It is located roughly 600 km southeast of Athens. It is a historic island and important for maintaining original Greek culture, religious beliefs, and traditions.

Catch a direct flight to Rhodes from Athens. One hour is the flight duration.

Out of 165 islands, only 15 concern us. The remaining 150 include islets, and uninhabited islands.

Keeping your base at Rhodes, you can join an island hopping tour that takes you to Kalymnos, Kos, Patmos, etc.

Terrace to the world

The views from Dodecanese Islands are jaw-dropping. Below is an example of a house in Karpathos Island.

Look at the terrace! Can you call it a terrace to the world! Karpathos is the second important island in the Dodecanese group after Rhodes.

Ionia Islands

Since the islands are located in the Ionian Sea, they are thus named. The Ionian Sea is on the west coast of Greece. Seven islands are rated as major and are touristy.

The tourists throng the following Greek islands floating in the Ionian Sea.