Greek Islands

There is little information that can be provided because you have given us no information on what your interests are, how long you will be in Greece, when you are going and haw many days you have in total.

One thing that may be of interest to you is, after a transatlantic flight Jet lag is a problem for most people. Experienced travellers suggest you fly to your first island immediately after you arrive in Athens. You need a minimum of 2 hours to make a connecting flight to you first island. You will thank us for that suggestion as it is way better to get over jet lag on an island.
Keep Athens for the end of the trip when you have had time to absorb how Greece works and how things are done.

I liked Hydra and Naxos but there are many to choose from depending on your interests, whether crowds bother you, etc.

Jet lag does not really bother either of us. We have taken tours in the UK and Italy after arriving. Total days will be 20 or so. We really just want to hit beaches and night life (not too wild) on the islands. Not too crowded either. We have been told Santorini is over crowded.

Naxos and Paros are two islands you might take a look at. Flights from Athens to either island take about 45 minutes and it’s only a 40-minute ferry ride between the two islands.

Crete might be a good choice. It is large and you can spend the rest of your vacation just on Crete. Our favourite area is around the old town in Chania. Here you can have a hotel room inside the city walls. There are lots of beaches in west Crete and you can also head to the south coast where there are several villages with beaches.

If you want two smaller islands the suggestion of Paros and Naxos is a good choice. Although you can easily spend 10 days in Naxos alone.
Here is what Chania is like.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720318408008/
And Naxos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr54/albums/72177720329571437/

Sifnos, Paros, Folengandros, Serifos, for starters. They’re all close to each other and there are ferries from Sifnos, which absolutely loved and fell in love with instantly, to all of those, and more, depending on season. There’s a,so Naxos close by, Antiparos, of course is close but you’ll have to contend with the paparazzi hanging out around Tom Hanks’ house there.

Or Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Halki, Mandraki or Crete, Karpathos, Rhodes. There are so many islands and in 20 days you can cover a lot of them, or you can stick to two or three and keep it simple. We’ve also been to Milos, although we went in early June and the crowds, thankfully, were somewhat thin.

When visiting Greece, you should generally plan to be in/near Athens the night before your flight home, which is another reason (besides jet lag) to keep your Athens time at the end of your visit.

The exception to this is if you can get a flight, on one ticket, from an island to your home airport.

But if you can’t, it makes sense to fly to an island first. You can then ferry or fly to your second island. And then ferry (or fly) back for your Athens time.

Not knowing what your interests are (besides relaxing) it’s hard to give suggestions. There are at least 100 populated Greek islands.

I’d suggest getting a Greek guidebook (your library likely has one) and find an island that looks appealing to you. Then go online & look for YouTube videos of that island. If you still like it, come back here for help finding a good island to pair it with, logistics, hotels, etc.

There are many experienced Greek travelers here who would be happy to help.

There are hundreds of Greek islands, at least 150 of which can be visited, so there are just as many possible recommendations.

No island is better than another, the best is the one that best suits your preferences. Therefore, it's up to you to define what you're looking for, while respecting a few basic principles:

Stay within the same island group (there are six main Greek island groups plus Evia and Crete)

Keep in mind that only a minority have an airport, and even by ferry, you won't necessarily be able to easily travel from one island to another, even if they are in the same island group.

By visiting the official Greek website, click on Places To Go:

https://www.visitgreece.gr/

V&J — That’s a great website that JoLui provided. Take some time envisioning yourselves in these lovely places.

I loved Chania. . . lots of history, lovely shops, charming cobblestone byways, and lots of seashore. Though I didn't see sandy beaches, I'm told the is a nice one not too far from the historic center by bus or car. I also loved my time on Naxos, lots of beautiful sandy beaches, good restaurants, and a possible day trip to Mykonos and Delos (ancient historical ruins) or small group tour around Naxos.

You can fly to most any island from Athens, but between island you'd take a ferry.

JoLui

Thanks for the link.

I've seen a lot of Greece websites but this is a new one for me.

This is the official Greek tourism website. It only contains basic information, but it can helps to narrow down a search, and most importantly, it doesn't (in principle) have the private interests and clickbait tactics common to many other commercial websites.

There's a similar website dedicated solely to the Peloponnese region:

https://visitpeloponnese.com/en

Another link to bookmark.

There is never too many to have access to info.

I think 7 days Athens is too much. Unless you have friends/relatives living there.

If you are looking for websites for more info, we've found Greeka really useful when deciding which parts of Greece to visit, which beaches on each island to go to, etc: https://www.greeka.com/

It's run by a travel agency but we've never actually bought anything from them, just lots of helpful info and location guides.