Santorini alternatives: Greek islands that still feel like islands

At 9pm on a Thursday in the second week of September I counted eleven people in the main square of Folegandros Chora, and four of them were one family waiting for a table. On Santorini in high season you share a sunset wall with several hundred people, and the whole economy of the rim is arranged around that hour. I have only seen Santorini in the off-season, so I am not going to tell you it is bad. I am going to tell you what I looked for when I wanted somewhere else.

I spent nine nights in the Cyclades in June and nine in September, across five islands, and they are the five below. They are different from one another on purpose. If you pick one, pick the personality that matches how you like to spend a day.

I used four tests. A school and a bakery that opens early, so there is a life that goes on without visitors. One walk from the port that ends somewhere with nothing for sale. Ferries that run often enough in a normal week of the season to arrive and leave without a plan B. And a reason to be there other than a single view.

None of these islands is empty in August. All of them are easier in June or September, and a couple, Milos in particular, are no longer secrets. I say so where it matters. Prices are not in this story because ferry and room prices move with the week, and I did not log them in a way you could check.

Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades, and it is the one where a week does not finish the island. The long sandy beaches are on the west coast. The interior is mountain and farmland, with villages such as Apiranthos, where the streets are paved in marble, and Halki, with its old stone houses and a tower. Naxos Town has the Portara, a marble gateway left from an unfinished temple of Apollo, on a small islet joined to the harbor by a causeway. The island grows potatoes and makes cheese, and you will taste both within a day.

In June I rented a small car and was in Apiranthos by 10am on a Tuesday. Two other cars were in the square. The beaches on the west coast had rented umbrellas, but the sand still had space between them. I did not go in August, and I would not expect the same.

Naxos has a small airport with domestic flights and ferry links from Piraeus on the central Cyclades routes. Distances are the thing to plan around. Naxos Town to Apiranthos took me about 40 minutes by road, and the beaches in the south are further.

Choose Milos if the sea is the main event. The island is volcanic and the shoreline shows it: the white rock at Sarakiniko that looks like a moonscape, the sea caves at Kleftiko that are reached by boat, and dozens of beaches in different colors of sand and stone. Plaka, the hilltop village, is where people gather for sunset. In fishing hamlets such as Klima and Mandrakia, the ground floors of the houses are boat garages painted in bright colors, the syrmata.

It is also the busiest island on this list. Sarakiniko at sunset in early September felt like a small festival. I went back at 8am the next day and shared it with three other people. The steps up to the kastro in Plaka were full by 7:15pm. If you want Milos to feel like an island, plan your sunsets for somewhere other than the famous ones and do your swimming in the morning.

Milos has an airport with flights from Athens and is on the western Cyclades ferry line from Piraeus, which also stops at Sifnos. Boat trips to Kleftiko run most days in the season and are cancelled when the sea is rough, which in July and August can mean several days in a row.

Folegandros covers about 30 square kilometers and has one road that matters. Chora, the main village, sits on top of a cliff roughly 200 m above the sea. A stepped path climbs from the village to the church of Panagia above it in about 15 minutes. Further along the island, Ano Meria is a farming settlement with terraces and a small folk museum. The walk from Chora to Agios Nikolaos beach took me just under an hour, on a stony path with views the whole way down.

The island's evenings are the point. After dinner the main square fills with locals and visitors in about equal numbers, and by 11pm it is empty. There is no airport, so everyone arrives by ferry. Boats link Folegandros with Milos and Santorini, and some routes from Piraeus call here. Check the operator's timetable for your dates, because there are fewer sailings than on the larger islands.

I lost a day here, and it is the lesson I would pass on. A boat I had planned to take to Milos was cancelled in wind, the next was the following afternoon, and I paid for a night I had not planned. On a small island there is no second route. Keep a spare day.

Sifnos is known on the Greek mainland for its cooking and its pottery. The signature dish is revithada, chickpeas baked slowly overnight in a clay pot, traditionally on Sundays. Potters still work on the island, and you can watch one throw at a wheel and buy straight from the workshop. A network of marked footpaths links the villages and the white chapels, and I walked a good part of it.

The best walk I did was from Apollonia to Kastro, the medieval village on a rocky promontory on the east coast, which took about an hour. Kastro is small, with narrow stone lanes and houses built into the sea wall, and in the late afternoon I met more cats than people. The monastery of Chrysopigi, on a rock at the sea's edge, is a short drive away.

Sifnos is on the same western ferry line as Milos. Check arrival times before you book a room, since some boats on this line reach the islands late in the evening. The beaches are pleasant and uncrowded outside August, though none has the drama of Milos.

Tinos sits next to Mykonos and could hardly be more different. It is a pilgrimage island. The church of Panagia Evangelistria above the port draws pilgrims all year, and on 15 August, the feast of the Dormition, the town and every ferry fill up with them. Some pilgrims cover the road from the harbor to the church on their knees. If you are not going for the festival, do not go that week.

Away from the port, the island has about forty villages, with hundreds of ornate dovecotes in the fields. Pyrgos is the marble-carving village, with workshops and a museum. In June I stayed three nights in Tinos Town and took the bus to Pyrgos, which took about 40 minutes, and walked in the village for most of a morning with almost nobody else about. Greek families make up a large share of the visitors, which changes the restaurants and the hours people eat.

Tinos is exposed to the meltemi. In July and August the wind reaches most beaches and you choose your bay by its direction, not its looks.

Most of these islands are reached by ferry from Piraeus, Athens's port. Naxos and Tinos are on the central and eastern routes, Sifnos and Milos are on the western line, and Folegandros sits between Milos and Santorini. Ferries from Rafina and Lavrio serve some of the other islands. Timetables change from year to year, so check the current one with the operator before you plan a route. Our transport guide has the general picture.

Conventional ferries are slower, cheaper and better in rough sea. Fast boats take less time, carry fewer people and are the first to be cancelled when the wind blows. At Piraeus, ferries leave from different gates that are far apart, and I lost 15 minutes in September walking between them. Check the gate on your ticket the day before. Book on the operator's own website or a platform that sells the operator's tickets, and keep a spare day before an international flight. Carry some cash too: small islands have few ATMs and the queue builds on August evenings.

June and September are the best months for all five: the sea is warm, the boats run often and the crowds are manageable. In July and August the meltemi blows, the ferries are full and rooms cost the most, and 15 August is the peak of the domestic summer. Many hotels and restaurants close from about November to March, and some ferry routes drop to a few sailings a week. Our guide to the best time to visit Greece has the month-by-month detail and the ferry season.

If you can only go in August, choose Naxos for its size, or Tinos away from the 15th, and book rooms and ferries early. Milos and Folegandros are the two I would avoid in August, because the first fills and the second is small.

Two islands in a week is a good number. A tidy pair is Naxos and Folegandros, with a contrast between a big green island and a small cliff village. Milos and Sifnos share a ferry line and work for swimmers who like to walk. Tinos goes with Mykonos if you want a day of the other extreme. Santorini fits on the end of any of these as a short stop, and the Cyclades guide and the Santorini guide cover what that costs you in crowds.

For a base, I would choose a small hotel within a short walk of the harbor, so that the ferry day does not depend on a taxi or a bus.