Tired of Santorini? The Greek islands with the same blue domes and half the tourists
Alternatives to Santorini: Cycladic islands with blue domes and few crowds, plus a Greece of stone to add to your trip.
Santorini still lives up to its reputation, but in July the climb to Oia is a single-file queue and you watch the sunset elbow to elbow. If you're looking for alternatives to Santorini with the same blue domes, the whitewashed cubic houses and the lanes that tumble down to the sea, the good news is that the "Cycladic model" isn't the preserve of a single island: it's an architectural language spread across dozens of Aegean rocks, many of which receive a fraction of the visitors. Here's where to go, and how to extend the journey into the mainland Greece that almost no package tour includes.
The smaller islands
Start with **Folegandros**, 28 miles south of Santorini but another planet: the Chora is perched on a sheer cliff, with the church of the Panagia dominating from above and a sunset just as theatrical, minus the coaches. A little further on, **Sifnos** offers the same aesthetic plus one of the best cuisines in the Cyclades and a network of trails among hundreds of chapels. For true solitude there are **Sikinos** and **Anafi**: the latter is almost stuck onto Santorini yet nearly deserted, and it has a curious twist, because it was its stonemasons who built the neighbourhood of Anafiotika below the Acropolis, right next to the oldest house in Athens I'll come to later. If you'd rather push further east, **Astypalea** joins a white-and-blue Chora to a Venetian castle above the windmills, and the difficulty of getting there keeps numbers low. Add **Milos**, with its domes above Plaka and its volcanic landscapes, and **Tinos**, where the marble villages stay surprisingly quiet. One tip good for all of them: travel in the shoulder seasons (May-June or September-October), when the sea is warm, the ferries emptier and the prices fair.
The mainland
But the blue domes are only half of Greece. If you want to capture the same allure of stone and sea without boarding another crowded ferry, the mainland offers alternatives that stand the comparison. The most surprising is Monemvasia: a medieval town built entirely of stone, clinging to a rock in the sea, invisible from the mainland until you round it. It doesn't have the postcard domes, but it gives that island-fortress feeling that in Santorini is now buried under souvenir shops.
The Peloponnese
Staying in the Peloponnese, the deep Mani offers Vathia, a cluster of stone towers perched in the wind above a harsh, blue sea: a severe aesthetic, the opposite of white and azure, but with the same photographic power. In the Arcadian interior, Dimitsana is a stone village suspended over the gorges, with its old watermills: perfect for those wanting mountains and cool air when the islands scorch. Further north, on the Gulf of Corinth, Nafpaktos guards a little Venetian harbour enclosed between two towers, an intimate alternative to the Instagram-famous ports of Naoussa on Paros. And if you're after big nature, the Vikos Gorge in Zagori is among the deepest in the world relative to its width, with its stone arch bridges: another Greece, green and silent.
Athens
Almost every itinerary passes through Athens anyway, and it's a shame to treat it as a mere stopover. In the heart of Plaka, behind a wall, stands the Benizelos konaki, the oldest house in the city, right next to Anafiotika. For a green, archaeological pause off the beaten track there's the park of Plato's Academy, where the philosopher taught. For sunset, skip the queue at Lycabettus and climb the Ardittos hill in Mets, the viewpoint above the Panathenaic Stadium. And if you really can't do without a dome, on Mount Hymettus the monastery of Kaisariani has a Byzantine one resting on a Roman temple, deep in greenery.
The point isn't to avoid Santorini on principle, but to realise that the blue domes, the stone and the Aegean sea can be found elsewhere with more space and more truth. Build an itinerary that alternates a smaller island with a few mainland stops: you'll spend less, walk more and come home with photos you haven't already seen a thousand times.
Practical guides for Udine
Practical info
When is the best time to visit Tired of Santorini? The Greek islands with the same blue domes and half the tourists?
The recommended time is April, May, June, September and October, when it is less crowded.
Where is Tired of Santorini? The Greek islands with the same blue domes and half the tourists?
Tired of Santorini? The Greek islands with the same blue domes and half the tourists is located in Italy.
