Drawer: Islands

Island Escapes Beyond the Ferry Rush

Six islands where the harbour still matters more than the beach club, chosen for character, access without a car and a season that rewards an early booking.

Why the Second Ferry Matters

The pattern repeats across every archipelago. The first island off the mainland, the one with the airport or the cruise pier, absorbs almost everyone. Take one more boat, or even the same boat for an extra hour, and the arithmetic changes: fewer rooms, slower boats, families who have run the same konoba for three generations.

The islands below are not undiscovered. Each has a proper ferry, places to sleep and a village shop. What they lack is the volume. Go in the shoulder months and you may share a cove with a single fisherman mending nets.

3D render of a seashell resting on an old ferry ticket against a champagne backdrop

Adriatic · Croatia

Vis: The Island That Was Closed

For decades Vis served as a Yugoslav naval base and was off limits to foreign visitors until 1989. The result is an island that skipped the package-holiday boom. Two towns anchor it: Vis town, with its Austro-Hungarian waterfront, and Komiža on the west coast, where the fishermen's museum occupies a sixteenth-century Venetian tower.

Car ferries and catamarans run from Split, roughly two and a half hours by ferry. Rent a scooter or join a local driver to reach the cove of Stiniva, a narrow-mouthed bay you enter on foot down a steep path. The Blue Cave on nearby Biševo is busy by late morning, so take the first boat from Komiža.

3D render of a small brass anchor representing the island of Vis in Croatia

Cyclades · Greece

Folegandros: A Cliff-Top Chora

Between busier Milos and Santorini sits Folegandros, whose Chora is built along the lip of a cliff. Its medieval Kastro quarter has houses joined wall to wall so their outer faces formed a defensive barrier. In the evening, walk the zigzag path to the whitewashed church of Panagia for a sunset with no crowd jostling for position.

Ferries from Piraeus take anywhere between four and ten hours depending on the vessel. Base yourself in Chora, take the small boat to Katergo beach, and eat matsata, the island's hand-rolled pasta.

3D render of a small church bell representing the cliff-top chapel on Folegandros

Azores · Portugal

Flores: Waterfalls at Europe's Edge

Flores sits on the North American plate, far west of São Miguel, and its offshore islet of Monchique is usually cited as the westernmost point of Europe. The island is a series of green walls streaked with waterfalls; the walk to Poço da Ribeira do Ferreiro ends at a pool beneath a dozen ribbons of water. Nearby, the basalt columns of Rocha dos Bordões rise like organ pipes.

SATA Air Açores flies from Ponta Delgada and Horta. In summer, a short boat crossing links Flores with tiny Corvo, home to only a few hundred people and a vast volcanic caldera.

3D render of a miniature lighthouse representing Flores in the Azores

Three More Islands for the Patient

These require a little more travel, and repay it with landscapes you will not confuse with anywhere else.

Brittany

Ouessant

Penn Ar Bed ferries leave Le Conquet and Brest for this wind-scoured island. Hire a bicycle, visit the Musée des Phares et Balises at the Créac'h lighthouse and watch Atlantic swells break on the rocks of Pern.

Baltic

Hiiumaa

Estonia's second island, reached by ferry from Rohuküla, is forest, juniper and lighthouses. Kõpu, completed in 1531, is among the oldest lighthouses still in operation anywhere.

Yaeyama

Iriomote

Around ninety per cent jungle and mangrove, reached by fast boat from Ishigaki. Kayak up the river to Pinaisara Falls; the rare Iriomote cat lives here and nowhere else.

Small-Island Etiquette

Islands run on limited water, limited rooms and limited patience for visitors who treat them like theme parks. A few habits keep you welcome:

Carry cash. Card machines fail when the mainland link does, and many harbour cafés never had one.
Book the return ferry before you arrive in high summer, and have a plan for when wind cancels sailings, which happens most often in the Cyclades during the meltemi.
Take short showers and refill a bottle rather than buying plastic; some islands still rely on desalination or delivered water.
Stay longer and spend locally. Three nights in one family guesthouse helps more than three islands in three days.

For seasons and ferry operators across every island in this drawer, see our planning guide, which includes a best-season table.

Plan the Crossing