6 *** Sunday 20 June 2021 The Sunday Telegraph The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 20 June 2021 *** 7 Greece Tile style: Pyrgi ciples – from Orthodox pilgrims to jet- Tinos by accident – they hopped over village in Chios is setting fashion editors – Patmos is the from Mykonos while waiting for a little known but full of character Alpha and Omega of Greek islands. delayed flight. “We’d visited lots of Patmos is an eight-hour ferry ride Aegean Islands, though Tinos, typified Find your At the helm: from Athens. The nearest international in guides as a Greek Lourdes, somehow island hop airport is five islands away. Scott got missed,” recalls Peter. “We found around the Williams (01749 812721; scottwilliams. beautiful landscapes, fields of arti - archipelago by co.uk) has a couple of handsome villas on chokes, heavenly beaches and excellent hiring a boat Patmos, from €2,900 (£2,490) per week. tavernas. In a green valley dotted with car-free villages, someone showed us an ancient, dilapidated house once the Greek island home of a bishop. It was for sale. Our life K suddenly changed – too big to restore is for Kea for just the two of us, we created a hotel set among quiet terraces.” Filled with The closest to Athens of all the Cyclades, contemporary art and design, local Kea is a game of two halves. The yacht marble, mosaics, and antiques, Xinara love match set flirt over lobster spaghetti in the bays House is one of the most exceptional of Vourkari and Koundouros, while pur- guesthouses in Greece. ists commune with nature in the oak- Prices per night (low season) from Quick fling or lengthy affair, you’ll find your ideal clad hills, where sheep huddle around €100 (£85) for 2-3 people, €375 (£320) ice-cold springs, and farmers till their for 8-10 people (xinarahouse.com). Tinos sunshine isle with our A-Z, says Rachel Howard fields with donkeys. Whatever your is easily reached by ferry from Mykonos island style, don’t miss the incredible (15-30 minutes) or Athens (2-4 hours). (and incredibly remote) ruins of Karthea. Both have international airports. Kea is one hour by ferry from the port of Lavrion. For splendid isolation, hole up at Kathikies’ (kathikies.gr) two f I had a drachma for every time Lose yourself in 671; nikolaouresidence.gr) from €80 100-year-old farmhouses on the edge of Y someone asked me which Greek whitewashed (£70) in low season. the world. From €575 (£490) per week. is for Yoga island to visit, I’d be as rich as Midas. villages fragrant I with bougainvillea Finding the perfect Greek island for Lithe, lean and radiant, Anna Martinou friends (or even strangers – I receive Amorgos has the and Eranthi Karamali are poster girls for many unsolicited emails requesting B L their yoga retreats. “Our retreats draw clearest waters advice) is like matchmaking: it doesn’t and is not overrun is for Beaches is for Leros upon our childhood memories of sum- always work; but when you get it right, with tourists mers in the Cyclades. The freedom of it’s love at first sight. But how can you From rolling sand dunes to remote peb- Sailing into the lake-like harbour of the first dive, the sweetness of a salty choose just one island, when all are ble coves, echoing sea caves to thumping Lakki is a surreal experience. Along the watermelon, the failed handstands in lovely in their own idiosyncratic way? beach bars, the Greek islands have waterfront are monuments to Musso- mer heat but can whip the mind into an the sand and the joy of having nothing I would describe my own relation- beaches for every mood. The powdery lini’s imperialist aspirations: a 1930s frenzy. Perhaps that’s why Mykonos, more to worry about than your forgot- ship to the Greek islands as polyam - white sands of Lefkada and Zakynthos town, with a school, market hall, hotel P U the windiest isle, has such a wild and ten sunglasses,” says Martinou. As well orous. There are islands I can’t get have legions of fans, but my money is on and cinema, all built in the rationalist is for Paxos is for Underwater diving restless spirit. According to Ileana von as open-air classes by renowned yogis, enough of, like Skyros, Tinos and Amorgos. This far-flung Cycladic isle has style. The wide boulevards and curva- Hirsch, of Five Star Greece: “The melt- Fykiada retreats celebrate simple pleas- Sifnos. Others I rely on for quick thrills: the clearest water, the fewest crowds ceous buildings are unexpected. The “Paxos is a bubble of serenity and still- Greece recently opened up 91 underwa- emi comes in three strengths: kapelata ures: kayaking through sea caves, hikes Aegina, Hydra and Kea, only an hour or and the widest horizons. No wonder Luc rest of Leros is quiet and unassuming. ness in spring,” says Faye Lychnou, co- ter ship and aircraft wrecks to divers. – blows hats off; kareklata – blows chairs to hilltop monasteries, the taste of a real two from Athens. There are the youth- Besson shot The Big Blue here. Olympic Air (olympicair.com) has founder of Friends of Paxos, an Though predominantly from the Second over; and trapezata – blows tables over.” tomato. “We call this ‘the island effect’: ful summer flings, like Anafi and Koufo- It’s a seven to nine-hour ferry journey daily flights from Athens to Leros in association that supports cultural con- World War, some are much older; like the If you’re into windsurfing or people leave our retreats with a nissi, that I don’t dare revisit in case from Athens to Amorgos (check openseas. summer. Or fly direct to Kos, Samos or servation on this sophisticated Ionian 2,500-year-old Peristera shipwreck, off kitesurfing, head to Paros or Naxos, straighter spine and a bigger smile.” they have lost their lustre. And then gr for schedules). No-frills Minoa Hotel Rhodes and take a ferry from there. island. Come summer, tiny Paxos teems the coast of Alonissos. The ship’s cargo where Aeolus will put the wind in In 2021, Fykiada ( fykiada.com) is there are the islands that have eluded (00 30 22850 71480; hotelminoa.gr) is Archontiko Angelou (+30 22470 22749; with stylish Italians and posh Brits. included around 4,000 amphorae of your sails. hosting six retreats on Koufonissia me, like unrequited lovers – best laid well-placed on Katapola waterfront; hotel-angelou-leros.com) a delightful While Bono and Roman Abramovich wine, plus enough crockery for a full- and Mykonos. plans scuppered by sudden gales, ferry doubles from €45 (£38). Vorina manor house from 1985, has doubles jostle for mooring space outside the fan- blown symposium. strikes or just the overwhelming urge to Ktismata (00 30 22850 71580; from €60 (£50). ciest seafood restaurants, the ancient At a depth of around 30m, the Peristera miss the boat rather than travel onwards vorinaktismata.com) is more upmarket; olive groves scattered with secluded is accessible only to advanced divers X to the next island. doubles from €145 (£125). stone houses are deliciously peaceful. accompanied by accredited guides, such is for Xinara House Z Over the years, I’ve stayed in super- As well as a summer arts festival (this as Triton Alonissos Dive Centre (00 30 is for Zen swanky resorts on Mykonos, cliffhang- M year, all venues will be open-air), 24240 65804; bestdivingingreece.com). Peter and Susan Marston stumbled on ing villas on Santorini and shipowners’ is for Marathi Friends of Paxos organises bimonthly Yes, Z is for Zakynthos, the Ionian island mansions on Syros. I’ve had the run of a C history walks, uncovering traces of the that is shaking off its tawdry reputation private island off the coast of Evia. But is for Chios Population: five. Beaches: one. Cars and Venetians and British, who tussled over with a splurge of adult-only hotels. the memories imprinted in my psyche shops: none. When the Emilianos fam- Paxos for about 400 years. V But for serious Zen, head to Serifos are not the Greece of holiday brochures “Chios is an island of unique character – ily jumped ship at Marathi, a speck in The Thinking Traveller (020 7377 is for Vaccines where Kaisanji, Greece’s first Buddhist and airbrushed Instagrammers. They taking in a bloody history, 20 medieval the Dodecanese, in 1977, there was no 8518; thethinkingtraveller.com) has monastery, opened in May. Set among are the moments of quiet communion fortified villages, a Unesco listed monas- electricity and no running water. Unde- several charming villas on Paxos. A The Greek government is vaccinating acres of vineyards and olive trees, over- with the landscapes, people and rituals tery and good walking opportunities,” terred, they set up a seaside taverna week at Panayia View costs from £2,985 the populations of islands with fewer looking the empty sweep of Kalo of these small, intense worlds. I’ve slept says Dudley der Parthog, Sunvil’s Greece where everything was fished, grazed (sleeping 8). than 5,000 residents to reassure tourists Ambeli beach, Kaisanji means “the tem- in the clouds at an abandoned monas- director. “Given that the island possesses ‘Happy is and grown locally. Pantelis taverna has that these destinations are Covid-free. ple of mountain and sea”. Slipped into tery on Anafi; travelled to a church fes- such variety, it remains remarkably little become a cult stopover for Greek island Kastellorizo was the first Greek island the folds of the landscape, the low stone tival in the back of a tractor on Rinia; known.” Perhaps the local shipowners the man, I connoisseurs – particularly those with to be declared Covid-free.