Where to go in Greece? Guide by island chains and regions

Par Gabriel Goldberg 17 June 2026 11 min read

Over thirty trips. Probably more. After all these returns, the same question comes back every spring like a ritual before summer: where to go in Greece this year? Not a destination — a riddle. An archipelago-country of more than 6,000 islands, 227 of them inhabited, six distinct island chains, and a mainland the size of a small subcontinent. You could devote a lifetime to it and barely scratch the surface. This is not a ranking. It's a mental map — mine — to help decide before the summer holidays. Chain by chain, region by region, with their characters, their light, their drawbacks. Over the coming days I'll dive into specific destinations one by one. For now, here is the overview. Santorini, the caldera at dusk — the postcard everyone has in mind. Greece is far more than this one image. Why Greece is never chosen at random Choosing a Greek destination means first choosing a mood . The white marble and cobalt of the Cyclades have nothing in common with the dark, almost Tuscan green of the Ionian islands. The mineral austerity of the Mani peninsula is the opposite of Mykonos worldliness. The Sporades smell of maritime pine; the Dodecanese smell of the Levant and medieval stone. Crete is a continent of its own. Athens, a capital that reinvents itself every five years. The second variable is tempo . One island, sinking roots. Two or three islands of the same archipelago, by slow ferry. Or a mainland thread — Peloponnese, Epirus, Macedonia — by car. The three logics don't mix…