Folegandros

Folegandros is a small, narrow island in the southern Cyclades, lying between Milos, Sikinos and Santorini. Long overlooked in favour of its glossier neighbours, it has become a byword for understated Cycladic beauty without surrendering its calm. Ferries dock at the little port of Karavostasis on the east coast, with connections from Piraeus, Milos, Naxos, Santorini and the western Cyclades. There is no airport, which helps keep numbers down.

The island's crowning glory is its Chora, widely considered one of the most beautiful in Greece. It sits about 200 metres above the sea on the edge of a dramatic cliff, its heart the medieval Kastro quarter, a compact grid of defensive houses dating from Venetian times. A string of small, plane-shaded squares links café to café, and cars are kept out, so evenings unfold on foot. Above the town, a zigzag path climbs to the white church of Panagia, floodlit at night and offering wide views over the Aegean, especially fine at sunset.

Beyond the Chora, the second settlement of Ano Meria stretches along the island's spine, a scattered farming village with a small folklore museum and tavernas serving matsata, the local handmade pasta. From here footpaths descend to some of the island's best beaches, including the pebbly coves of Agios Georgios, Livadaki and Katergo, several of them reached only on foot or by small boat.

Folegandros is an island for walking, swimming and long unhurried dinners rather than nightlife or big resorts. It is small enough to feel intimate yet varied enough to fill several days, and it rewards those who come simply to slow down. The island stayed a place of exile and quiet farming well into the twentieth century, and something of that self-contained calm survives in its measured pace and its close-knit villages. Late spring and early autumn are the sweet spots, when the weather is kind and the Chora's squares are lively but never crowded.