Greece Islands
Greece's 16,000km coastline, offers a highly diversified landscape: beaches stretching along many kilometres, sheltered bays and coves, golden stretches of sand with dunes, pebbly beaches, coastal caves with steep rocks and black sand of volcanic soil...
The Greek Archipelago, is a truly unique phenomenon, embrace 7,500 km. of coastline, and 6,000 islands or islets spread in the Aegean and Ionian Sea.
Only 227 of all Greek islands are populated. The islands are an essential part of the multifaceted cultural past of Greece. They are the cradle of the country’s most ancient civilisation and tradition, and the first flourishing European civilisations. The Greek islands are carrying a unique architectural heritage and fascinating local traditions. All the above, combined with the ideal climate, the safety of the Greek seas and the short distances between ports and coasts, have rendered the Greek islands extremely popular among Greek and foreign visitors. The 58.5% of the Greece’s lodging establishments and the 62.6% of hotel beds are found on the Greek islands.
The Aegean Sea islands are divided in seven groups:
-The Northeast Aegean Islands:
Agios Efstratios, Thassos, Ikaria, Lesbos, Limnos, Inousses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara.
-The Sporades Islands: Alonissos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Skyros,
-Evia
-Crete
-The Argo-Saronic Islands:
Angistri, Aegina, Poros, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra
-The Cyclades islands:
The most important of the 56 islands are:
Amorgos, Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Tinos, Folegandros, Donousa, Irakleia, Koufonisia and Schinoussa.
-The Dodecanese Islands:
Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Thassos, Kastelorizo, Kos, Lipsi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Halki.
-The Ionian Sea is home to one sole island group:
The Ionian Islands are Zakynthos (Zante), Ithaca, Corfu, Cephallonia, Lefkada, Paxoi, Antipaxoi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki, Meganissi, Othoni, Strofades, and Antikythira.These islands, together with Kythira, they constitute the Eptanissa Islands