I Ranked 18 Greek Islands I Visited From Best to Worst… Santorini Came Last

You need to go to Crete! 🙂

Good video to the information

Naxos is great but to say it is not touristy is an exaggeration. Most shops are targeting tourists, there are plenty of beach clubs on the best beaches which charge almost as much as Mykonos. Yes, there is also another part of the island where tourists don’t go. We enjoyed it a lot. But overall I would not say Naxos is the best Greek island.

Fun fact – Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson own a house on Antiparos.

Mykokos is an embarrassment to Greece, in my opinion – it's like St. Barth's. My cousin went there to work for a summer and left after a few weeks, giving up a huge amount of money to be made. She worked at a beachfront hotel and said she got sick of having to see the gay tourists having orgies on the beach first thing in the morning 🤮 She went over to Santorini and had a much better time there and made great money. It's more conservative and traditional, despite the tourism. She said she would love to live there.

corfu

You definitely need to go to Crete. Great pricing, nice locals, wonderful food, and quite a bit to do. It’s my most visited location. I agree spot on with your recommendations, so try Crete. Chania is wonderful, I like the character of Heraklion. A walkable city built like a fort, yet fair priced.

I agree about Naxos. We went to Mykonos annually for many years but got increasingly fed up with the pretentiousness and rip off culture. A huge negative was also the invasion of cruise ships which went from 4 or 5 a week to 6 a day (the once peaceful port, always busy at night but quiet by day, became jam packed with heaving relentless throngs). You are also spot on about the monetarisation of all the beaches, Ornos used to be a peaceful retreat from the bustle of chora and now it’s a rip off, heaving, sunbed hellscape. We switched to Naxos and it was a revelation, larger, greener and with exquisite beaches and relaxed authentic resorts, mercifully without the vulgar ostentation or sky high prices of Mykonos.

My favorites are Hydra ,Skiatos and Milos.

I have been going to Greece for 37 years now, mostly on on a twice a year base. Besides several trips to the mainland and the Peloponese I have been to nearly 60 different Greek islands. For the last 5 years Naxos has been my base during 6 week island hopping trips in April-May-June. But I wouldn't like to stay there in high season. Much too crowded and prices have gone up considerably over the last few years.
I am very surprised there is only 1 Dodecanese island on your list. I prefer many Dodecanese islands above other islands. It's the island group I go to for 6-7 weeks after high season with Kalymnos as the island where I stay the longest (mostly a full month). But islands like Leros, Lipsi, Agathonisi, or Tilos are absolutely fabulous. Less tourists, slower rythm.
Btw: Halki can be reached from Rhodes (town) in 70 minutes or 2h30 min, depending which ferry you take (the caption in the video said 3h30min) and from Kamina Skala in 45 minutes.
Mykonos and Santorini were visit once and never again islands.

We smiled at this because Crete completely stole our hearts years ago. But that's one of the joys of Greece—every island has its own personality, and everyone discovers a different favorite. Ranking Greek islands is a brave thing to do! 😊 It just shows how personal travel is—everyone connects with a different place, and that's part of what makes Greece so special.

For someone interested in archaeology, my two favourite islands are Crete and Santorini. Most of the rest are just beach, backpacking boring bits of rock.

Koufonisia was amazing! I also liked Syros, the capital of the Cyclades, not your typical looking Greek island. Milos and Naxos were spot on too!

I agree Naxos is a better choice than Santorini

Was on all. All beautiful. But crete is absolute no.1, not only greece

Ive been loads of islands and I just couldn't rank them.. ive been Corfu, Crete, Halkidiki, Kefelonia, Ithica, Peloponnese, Parga. Paxos, Zante. Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonissos, Kos, Kalymnos, Telendos, Leros, Patmos, Santorini, Ios, Naxos, Paros and Anti Paros..
I'm doing Rhodes and Karpathos in September.. hoping to get to Kasos for the day but as you've said, ferrys not frequent and didn't work around my September plans..

Great video by the way.. I have many many more islands still yet to visit 😅😅😎😎

Samos has always been my no.1 island as a Greek. Perhaps because I studied there, who knows, but it has a lot of charm. Naxos, as pretty as it might be, isn't probably a place a Greek might go to for a vacation, at least I wouldn't – we've got August and August on Naxos is hell. Probably I would go to another country, to be honest, how many times do I need to go to Hydra, Andros, Tinos, Egina or Lefkada to say "enough is enough! I want something different." Not to mention that for us Athenians, and with the current economy, even Salamina has been a viable option for many years, when it comes to "an island experience". Most of our islands got "hijacked" by tourism. None of us can afford those insane prices anymore. Just look at the ferries tickets and fees for a whole family + a vehicle.
A small addition: For some of the least fortunate of us Athenians, there's Anafiotika. 😀

I mostly agree with this especially having Naxos at the top. Santo is till great so long as you avoid Oia and Fira, The ruins at Akrotiri are a world treasure, Also just for clarity its pronounced ee-ya not oi-ya,

I will never tell you my favorite