Kasos

Map of Kasos

Kasos, the southrnmost Dodecanese island with 66km² and 1.100 inhabitants, less than 48km northeast of Crete, is very much off the beaten tourist track. Eever since 1824, when an Egyptian fleet punished Kasos for its active participation in the Greek revolution by slaughtering most of the 11.000 Kassiots, the island has remained barren and depopulated. Sheer gorges slash through lunar terrain relieved only by fenced smallholdings of midget olive trees. Spring grain crops briefly soften usually fallow terraces, and livestock somehow survives on a thin furze of scrub. The remaining population occupies five villages facing Karpathos, leaving most of the island uninhabited and uncultivated , with crumbling old houses poignantly recalling better days.

Halki

The little island of Halki (27km² extension and approximately 500 residents), a waterless limestone speck west of Rhodes, continues to count as a fully fledged member of the Dodecanese, even if its population haw dwindled from three thousand to barely three hundred n the century since its Italian rulers imposed restrictions on sponge-fishing.

While visitation has brought the island back to life, except at the height of summer Halki tends to be very quiet indeed. That said, in the middle of the day in high season, when day-trippers from Rhodes vastly outnumber locals in its broad quayside-cum-

square, Emborio can feel more like a stage set that a genuine town.

Kastellorizo(Megisti)

Map of Kastellorizo

Although Kastellorizo's official name of Meyisti means "Biggest", it's actually among the very smallest Dodecanese islands with 9km²  extension and 500 residents. It's just the biggest of a local archipelago of islets. It's also extremely remote, located more than 100km east of Rhodes and barely more than a nautical mile off mainland Asia. At night its lights are outnumbered by those of the Turkish town of Kas opposite, with which Kastellorizo has excellent relations.

The island's population has dwindled from around ten thousand a century ago to five hundreds now. Having been an Ottoman possession since 1552, it was occupied by the French from 1915 until 1921, and then by the Italians. When Italy capitulated to the Allies in 1943, 1500 Commonwealth commandos occupied Kastellorizo. Most departed that November, after the Germans captured the other Dodecanese, which left the island vulnerable to looters, both Greek and British. By the time a fuel fire in 1944 triggered the explosion of an adjacent arsenal, demolishing half the houses of Kastellorizo, most islanders had already left. Those who remain are supported by remittances from more than 30,000 emigrants, as well as subsidies from the Greek government to prevent the island reverting to Turkey.

Yet Kastellorizo has a future of sorts, thanks partly to repatriating "Kassies" returning each summer to renovate their crumbling ancestral houses as second homes. Visitors tend either to love Kastellorizo and stay a week, or crave escape after a day. Detractors dismiss it as a human zoo maintained by the Greek government to placate nationalists, while devotees celebrate an atmospheric, little-commercialized outpost of Hellenism.

Rhodes

Map of Rhodes

Rhodes(Rodos), the biggest island of Dodecanese islands with 1.401km² and 115.500 population, is deservedly among the most visited of all Greek islands. Its star attraction is the beautiful medieval Old Town that lies at the heart of its capital, Rhodes Town - a legacy of the crusading Knights of St John, who used the island as their main base from 1309 until 1522. The ravishing hillside village of Lindhos, topped by an ancient acropolis, is another worth visiting place. It marks the midpoint of the island's long eastern shoreline, adorned with numerous sandy beaches that have attracted considerable resort development. At the southern cape, Prassonisi is one of the best windsurfing spots in Europe.

Rhodes Town

By far the largest town on the island, Rhodes Town straddles its northernmost headland, in full view of Turkey less than 20km north. The ancient city that occupied this site, laid out during the fifth century BC by Hippodamos of Miletos, was almost twice the size of its modern counterpart, and at 100.000 held more than double its population.

While the fortified enclave now known as the Old Town is of more recent construction, created by the Knights Hospitaller in the 14th century, it' one of the finest medieval walled cities. It gets overcrowded with day-trippers in high season, but at night it's quite magical, and well worth an extended stay.

Donousa

Donousa (13,6km² and 163 population) is a little out on a limb compared with the other Lesser Cyclades and ferries call less frequently. Island life is on the pleasant port settlement of Stavros, spread out behind the harbor and the village beach. Most sunbathers head for Kendros, a long and attractive stretch of shadeless sand twenty minutes over the ridge to the east. A World War II wreck can be easily spotted by snorkellers. The village of Mirsini is an hour's walk from Stavros, while a nearby path leads down to Livadi, an idyllic white-sand beach with tamarisks for shade. In high season a beach-boat runs from the port to all beaches, many of which are nudist. Locals don't seem to mind.

Schinousa

Map of  Koufonisia(Schinousa)

A little to the northeast of Iraklia, Schinousa(8km² and 250 residents) is just beginning to awaken to its tourist potential. Its indented outline, sweeping valleys and partly submerged headlands - such as the sinuous, snake-like islet Ofidousa - provide some of the most dramatic views in the group.

An asphalted road leads up from the port of Mersini to the capital, Hora (Panagia), for 1.2km. From Hora you can reach no fewer than sixteen beaches dotted around the island, accessible by a network of dirty tracks. Tsigouri is a ten-minute track walk downhill from northwest Hora and gradually being developed. The local's preferred choice of beaches are Alygaria to the south, Psilo Ammos to the northeast and Almyros, half an hour southeast.

Iraklia

Map pf Koufonisia

Iraklia the westernmost of the Lesser Cyclades and with the least spoilt scenery has just over 150 permanent residents and 18,078km² extension. As the first stop on the ferry service from Naxos, the island is hardly undiscovered by tourists, but with fewer amenities than some of its neighbours, it retains the feel of a more secluded retreat.

The port of Ayios Georgios is a small but sprawling settlement behind a sandy tamarisk-backed beach that gets quite crowded in August. Livadi, a big, shallow beach, is 2km southeast of the port and its crystal-clear waters are the main tourist attraction of the island. The asphalted road continues 3km on to the tiny capital Panayia(Hora), which has no lodgings to speak of. In season, a local boat sails from the port at 11am to make a tour of the island, stopping at the small sandy beach at Alimia and the nearby pebble beach of Karvounolakos.

Amorgos

Map of Amorgos

Amorgos, the 7th bigger island of the Cyclades(121km² extension and 1970 inhabitants), with its dramatic mountain scenery and laidback atmosphere, is attracting visitors in increasing numbers. The island can get extremely crowded in midsummer, the numbers swollen by film buffs paying their respects to the film location of Luc Besson's The Big Blue, although fewer venture out to Liveros at the island's western end to see the wreck of the Olympia which figures so prominently in the film. In general it's a low key, escapist clientele, happy to have found a relatively large, interesting, uncommercialized and hospitable island. Families tend to stay around Katapola, while younger tourists prefer Aigiali. This is the island to try rakomelo - a kind of fermented grappa with honey, herbs and spices, drunk in shots.

Capital of Amorgos is Hora, located in the center of the island, one of the better-preserved settlements in the Cyclades, with a scattering of tourists shops, cafes, taverns and rooms. Dominated by an upright volcanic rock plug, wrapped with a chapel or two, the 13th century Venetian fortifications look down on nearly thirty other churches, some domed, and a line of decapitated windmills beyond.

Anafi

Map of Anafi

A ninety-minute boat ride to the east of Santorini, Anafi, the 16th bigger island of the Cyclades with 271 population and 38,636km² extension, is the last stop for ferries. It was so for the Argonauts who prayed to Apollo for some land to rest. He let the island emerge from the sea for their repose. Tourists visit Anafi for weeks in midsummer to enjoy exactly that: its seclusion. Although idyllic geographically, Anafi is a harsh place, its mixed granite and limestone core overlaid by volcanic rock spewed out by Santorini's eruptions. Apart from the few olive trees and vines grown in the valleys, the only plant that seem to thrive are prickly pears. The quiet, unassuming capital, Hora, provides a daring dash of white in a treeless, shrub-strewn hillock, its narrow, winding streets offering protection from the occasionally squally gharbis wind that comes unencumbered from the southwest.

Folegandros

Map of Folegandros

Folegandros is the 19th bigger island of Cyclades, with 32,384km² and 765 inhabitants. It's located between Milos(15 miles) and Sikinos. It also called Polukandros.

The sheer cliffs of Folegandros rise 300m from the sea in places and until the early 1980s they were as effective a deterrent to tourists as they had historically been to pirates. Folegandros was used now and then as an island of political exile from Roman times right up until 1969, and life in the high, barren interior was only eased in 1974 by the arrival of electricity and the subsequent construction of a road running from the harbor to Hora(capital) and beyond. Development has been given further impetus by the recent increase in tourism and the ensuing commercialization. The island is becoming so trendy that Greek journalists speak of a new Mykonos in the making, a fact that is reflected in its swish jewellery and clothes shops. Yet away from showcase Hora and the beaches, the countryside remains mostly pristine. Donkeys are also  still very much in evidence, since the terrain on much of the island is too steep for vehicles.

The island's real character and appeal are rooted in the spectacular Hora, the capital of Folegandros, perched on a cliff-edge plateau, a steep 3km from the port. Locals and foreigners mingle at the cafes and taverns under the trees of the five adjacent squares, passing the time undisturbed by traffic, which is banned from the village center. Towards the northern cliff-edge and entered through two arcades, the defensive core if the medieval castle (Kastro) neighborhood is marked by ranks of two-storey residential houses, with almost identical stairways and slightly recessed doors.

West of Hora, a paved road threads its way along the spine of the island towards sprawling Ano Meria. In the middle of the settlement stands the large church of Agios Georgios.

Sikinos

Map of Sikinos

Sikinos has so small extension and population -40km² and 270 residents- that the mule ride or walk from the port up to the capital was only replaced by a bus in the late 1980s. At roughly the same time the new jetty was completed. Until then Sikinos was the last major Greek island where ferry passengers were still taken ashore in launches. With no extravagant characteristics and no nightlife to speak of, few foreigners make the short trip over here from Folegandros or Ios. The end result, however, is the most unspoilt rural countryside in the Cyclades where the image of a priest riding a donkey can suddenly materialize from over a hill.

Hora or Sikinos , the capital, consists of the double village of Kastro and Horio. Most of the facilities are in the larger, northeastern Kastro, whereas Horio is mainly residential. Northeast from Hora is Paleokastro, the patchy remains of an ancient fortress. In the opposite direction , a ninety-minute walk takes leads to an old path throufh a steeply terraced landscape to Episkopi, where elements of an ancient temple-tomb have been incorporated into a seventh-century church - the structure is known formally as the Heroon, though it is now thought to have been a Roman mausoleum rather than a temple of Hera.

Serifos

Map of Serifos

Serifos is the 13th bigger island of Cyclades with 75km² extension and 1.420 population. Capital of the island is Serifos(Hora), located Southeast of Serifos. Other major settlements are Koutalas, Megalo Livadi and Kentarho. Serifos has long languished the mainstream of history and modern tourism. Little has happened here since Perseus returned with Medusa's head in time to save his mother, Danae, from bing ravished by the local king Polydectes, turning him, his court and the green island into stone. Many would-be visitors are deterred by the apparently barren, hilly interior, which, with the stark, rocky coastline, makes Serifos appear uninhabited until the ferry turns into picturesque Livadi Bay. This element of surprise continues as you slowly discover a number of lovely beaches around the island.

Serifos is also great for serious walkers, who can head for several small villages in the under-explored interior, plus some isolated coves. Many people still keep livestock and produce their own cognac-red wines, which are an acquired taste.

Capital of Serifos, Hora, is quiet and atmospheric (only 2km from Livadi) and one of the most unspoilt villages of Cyclades. The best sights are in the precarious upper town: follow signs to the castle to reach the top via steep and occasionally overgrown stairways. The central square, Agios Athanasios, has an attractive church and a small but colorful Neoclassical town hall. 

Kea

Map of Kea

Kea(Tzia), the nearest and the Westernmost island of the Cyclades to the mainland, is an extremely popular island with 131km² extension and 2.500 population. It's coastline reaches 88km. Kea is relatively sparsely inhabited island, except, Korissia, Ioulida and Vourkari which is the most expensive area of ​​the island. The most beautiful areas of the island are located on the Northeast side. The highest mountain is Prophet Elias (568 meters). Also the island has one of the biggest natural harbors of the Mediterranean, the Gulf of St. Nicholas. But the main port of Kea is Korissía.

Kea's capital is Ioulida which is beautifully situated in an amphitheatrically fold in the hills. It is a typical Cycladic town, but is architecturally  the most interesting settlement on the island. Accordingly it has numerous bars, full in summer, but during other times the town is quiet.

Milos

Map of Milos

Milos is the 5th bigger island of Cyclades. It has 158km² extension and 5.000 population approximately. Volcanic Milos is a geologically diverse island with weird rock formations, hot springs and odd outcrops off the coast. Minoan settlers were attracted by obsidian. This and other products of its volcanic soil made it one of the most important of Cyclades in the ancient world. Today the quarrying of many rare mineral has left huge scars on the landscape but has given the island a relative prosperity which today translates into several gourmet restaurants.

The Western side of Milos, as well the other islands around it, including Kimolos, is a nature reserve protecting three endemic species: like the extremely rare Mediterranean seal, the Milos viper and the Milos wall-lizard.

Capital of Milos is Plaka, the largest of a cluster of traditional villages that huddle beneath a small crag on the road Northwest of Adhamas., the lively main port of Milos, a small hamlet until it was populated by refugees from a failed rebellion in Crete in the 1840s.