Instead of Santorini: Folegandros, the Secret Cycladic Island Suspended Above the Sea

Folegandros is proof that in the Cyclades there are still islands untouched by mass tourism. It has no airport, no large hotels, no nightclubs. It has only thirty-two square kilometres of rock and light, a medieval main town suspended on a two-hundred-metre cliff and a silence that no longer exists in Santorini.

Chora, the island's centre, is a thirteenth-century jewel: a Venetian kastro whose outer houses form a continuous defensive wall, inner alleyways where you lose yourself in a few steps, small squares shaded by mulberry trees and cafés where time slows down. The Church of Panagia crowns the promontory with its white domes overlooking a deep blue sea. The path that climbs to the church at sunset is one of the most beautiful walks in all of Greece.

The beaches are few but perfect: Angali, reachable on foot from Chora along forty minutes of coastal path, is a sheltered bay of sand and pebbles; Agios Nikolaos is a cove shaded by tamarisks that provide natural shelter; Livadaki is reached by a small boat from Angali and offers near-guaranteed solitude.

Do not expect elaborate tourist infrastructure: on Folegandros you sleep in rooms rented by local families or in small guesthouses, you eat in tavernas where the menu depends on what was caught and harvested that day, and you get around on foot or by the single bus connecting the island's three villages.

The ferry arrives from Athens (about six hours on the slow boat, three by hydrofoil) and also calls at Milos and Sifnos. Frequency is limited, especially out of season, which helps keep the island exactly as it is. September is the ideal month: the sea is warm, the days still long and the tourists — few even in August — have gone home.

Folegandros is the kind of island where the day's plan is decided by looking at the sky: if the north wind blows, go to the sheltered southern beach; if it's calm, take the boat; if it rains, stay at the café and read. It is the exact opposite of the standardised Santorini experience, and for many people that is precisely what they are looking for.