I’ve been to more than 40 Greek islands — this one is my favourite

By Victoria Hislop, travel writer.

Featured in The Times on April 02, 2024. Copy written by Victoria Hislop, holiday ideas provided by Sunvil. 

The other day, I did a quick count of all the Greek islands I have visited, and it came to more than 40, with dozens more on my wish list.

One of the reasons I keep travelling to new and sometimes obscure islands is that they are all so individual. “The Greek islands” may get lumped together in people’s minds, but no two are the same. Each has a unique landscape, culture, history and tradition, and even food or vegetation that is particular to that place. Skiathos in the Sporades and Santorini in the Cyclades have about as much in common as Stratford-upon-Avon and Stratford in east London.

There is something impressive, memorable and beautiful about every island I have visited. Crete is the one I know best. It feels like a small country, taking six hours to drive from end to end. It’s 30 years since my first visit, and I am still discovering new villages, beaches and aspects of culture despite the fact that I spend a few months there every year.

Last summer I visited the chic islands of Spetses and Hydra, the antithesis of the relatively rustic Crete, where sleek yachts line the marinas which are well served by gourmet restaurants and designer shops.

Other favourites of mine trace the dark history of Greece. Many of these have been inspirational to me, such as Makronisos, a barren island which was a prison during both the Greek civil war and the junta period, and Spinalonga, a former hospital island for leprosy patients. I have been there countless times and the atmosphere of the place gets to me every time.

The Cyclades are a big group with huge variety between them and Naxos is one of the islands I have visited most recently — and a place where I fell in love with a statue. More of that later, but needless to say it soared close to the top of my hit parade.

Something that I am sure of is that Greek islands are better visited and explored outside of summer. They have another character entirely without the glare of the sun, which can make us too languid to move from a sunbed or a shady taverna, when landscapes are parched and tourists outnumber locals.

Spring or autumn are when an island is its authentic self, when it reveals its true nature and when those who live there are really pleased to see you. In the spring, carpets of wild flowers are abundant on many islands. In the autumn the sea has had the whole summer to gather heat and the waters are calm and clean. You will have a whole bay to yourself to swim in.

I went to Naxos in October when the long sandy beaches of the west coast were all mine. I explored most of the island (which is the largest of the Cyclades, with mountains, wide valleys and almost 93 miles of coastline). I wanted to feel its atmosphere and appreciate its landscape before retreating into the ordered space of a museum. Unlike some of its smaller neighbours, the entirety of which can be discovered in little more than 24 hours, Naxos offers many days of touring and discovery, by car or on foot. I did both.

The best way to reach any island is by sea, even if there is a temptation to hop between them by plane. Approaching any island slowly across the waters always brings a sense of excitement and growing anticipation and this is particularly true of Naxos. For some distance, you can make out a huge doorway in the distance and as you come into the port, this massive structure towers over everything. This is the remains of the unfinished Temple of Apollo, and the emblem of the island. It is not the only monumental sight in Naxos.

Deep in the countryside, I tracked down two unfinished kouroi, male statues, still lying in the ground, abandoned in the marble quarries at Melanes and Apollona, where sculptors had begun to carve them in situ. These giant inchoate figures (one of them more than ten metres tall) were probably abandoned because cracks appeared in the marble before they were completed. There is something melancholy about them, but they live in my mind much more for their unfinished state.

Two villages especially cast their spell on me. One was Apeiranthos, birthplace of Manos Glezos, the hero of the resistance against the Nazis who famously tore down the swastika flag from the Acropolis in May 1941. He was subsequently sentenced to death several times, tortured for his leftist political views and even exiled by the Greek dictatorship. It made sense that someone born in this rugged village of marble-slabbed alleyways and arcades might have had the resilience to survive all of this and to live to the age of 97.

A very basic kafenion (traditional coffee house) in the village with its formica tables and stone floor has his name above the door. I drank a wonderfully muddy Greek coffee inside, reflecting on the fact that such a brilliant man had come from this tiny village.

The other village that charmed me was nearby Filoti, where a Venetian mansion stands at the centre. Much of Filoti’s colour was provided by its brightly painted doors and café chairs, and by the most stupendous hardware store. Its floor-toceiling shelves are laden with locally woven baskets displayed on turquoise shelving, and on the outer wall there are racks of bright metal wine jugs and funnels in blues and oranges. My hire-car rattled with samples in every colour and size when I left.

Even the food of Naxos had an intensity. Though the sight of grazing cows took me by surprise, I should have guessed that the silky-textured Naxiot cheese had such a source. Similarly, the fields of potatoes growing in fertile soil seemed incongruous on a Greek island but when I tasted some flavoursome fried potatoes on my first evening at Taverna Dalas — in the hills above the village of Koronos — I appreciated how short a distance these ingredients had travelled from field to plate. This is an island that could be self-sufcient, with all its fruit, grain, flocks of cows, sheep and goats — and that perfect cheese.

As well as all the archaeology waiting to be found on diaerent parts of the island, a whole ancient city lies beneath the main, modern town of Chora. Some of these remains are visible today but much, much more is to be excavated.

The Archaeological Museum of Naxos, housed in an impressive Venetian building, displays one of the most impressive collections of Cycladic figurines, many of them dating from 2800 – 2300 BC. In quantity and quality, these statuettes, mainly of the female form and some several feet tall, are impressive. Standing in the main gallery of the museum, I found myself encircled by these unique, upright and strikingly modern representations of womanhood. From that moment, I knew I wanted to make one of these serene figures the centrepiece of a novel, an object of extreme beauty and desirability.

Even now, Naxos retains the sense that it was an important centre of culture and history in its ancient past. What is particularly alluring is its vibrancy in the present day, with traditions and crafts that remain important to the inhabitants, and the feeling that if no tourists ever went there again life would roll on. That’s my kind of Greek island.

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