Peace, antiquity and beaches: a guide to five famous Greek islands

Corfu, Kos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini are among Greece’s most popular islands – but there’s tranquillity beyond the hotspots

Viewed from an incoming ferry, the island’s semi-circular volcanic caldera, surrounded by towering reddish-brown cliffs and crowned by whitewashed houses perched perilously above the sea, is awe-inspiring. The black volcanic beaches on the eastern shore, which would be the defining feature of a lesser destination, seem here to be the cherry on the cake.