Greece in May

The largest of the Cyclades and the most self-sufficient: marble villages, mountain farms, Archaic temples and a west coast of long, shallow sandy beaches. Naxos suits families, walkers and anyone who wants the Aegean without Mykonos prices.

The Cyclades' best all-rounder: a busy ferry hub with a Byzantine church in Parikia, a fishing harbour turned stylish in Naoussa, marble villages inland and beaches on every coast, plus Antiparos a short hop away.

Milos is the Cyclades’ volcanic sculpture park: white lunar rock at Sarakiniko, the sea caves of Kleftiko, painted boathouses at Klima and dozens of beaches, with good tavernas and far less swagger than Mykonos or Santorini.

The rim of a flooded volcano, with cliff-top villages above the caldera, Bronze Age Akrotiri, black-sand beaches and Assyrtiko vineyards. Spectacular and crowded: go in late spring or September and choose your base with care.

Greece’s largest island is almost a country of its own: Minoan palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, Venetian harbours in Chania and Rethymno, gorges in the White Mountains and lagoon beaches like Balos and Elafonisi. Plan for distance, and for more than a week.

Rhodes pairs a walled medieval town built by the Knights of St John with Lindos, a sheltered sandy east coast and a wild, windy west. Big, easy to reach and good in the shoulder seasons, it rewards travellers who rent a car.

Tinos is the island Greeks come to on their knees and leave talking about dinner: a pilgrimage church above the port, marble-carving villages in the hills, a thousand dovecotes, and a food scene that has quietly become the best in the Cyclades.

Pine forests, two mountains and a UNESCO inscription covering the Heraion and Pythagoreion. Samos grows the sweet muscat, sits a few kilometres off the Turkish coast and has the best walking in the North Aegean.