| Greece comprises 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Sea,only 227 of these islands are inhabited but every one of these islands heve its own unique culture and tradition to discover. |  |
| The Greek Archipelago takes up 7,500 km of the country’s total 16,000-km coastline, offering a highly diversified landscape: beaches stretching along many kilometers, sheltered bays and coves, golden stretches of sand with dunes, pebbly beaches, coastal caves with steep rocks and black sand typical of volcanic soil, coastal wetlands... Many Greek beaches have been awarded the blue flag under the programme Blue Flags of Europe. |  | The Greek islands are traditionally grouped into the following clusters: The Argo-Saronic Islands in the Saronic gulf near Athens, the Cyclades Islands, a large but dense collection occupying the central part of the Aegean Sea, the North Aegean islands, the Dodecanese Islands in the southeast between Crete and Turkey, the Sporades Islands , a small tight group off the coast of Euboea, and the Ionian Islands, west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea. All the above, combined with the ideal climate,
the safety of Greek waters and the short distances
between ports and coasts, have rendered the Greek
islands extremely popular among Greek and foreign visitors. Most islands lie in the Aegean Sea and are divided in
seven groups (from north to south): - Northeastern Aegean Islands: Agios
Efstratios, Thasos, Ikaria, Lesvos, Limnos, Inousses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara. - Sporades Islands : Alonissos, Skiathos,
Skopelos, Skyros - Evia
- Argo-Saronic Islands: Angistri, Aegina,
Poros, Salamina, Spetses, Hydra and the
coastal area of Methana. - Cyclades Islands : A group of 56 islands,
its most important ones being Amorgos,
Anafi, Andros, Antiparos, Delos, Ios, Kea, Kimolos, Kythnos, Milos, Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, Santorini, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Tinos, Folegandros, as well as the“Minor Cyclades” comprising Donousa, Irakleia, Koufonisia and Schinoussa. - Dodecanese Islands: Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Kastelorizo, Kos, Lipsi, Leros, Nisyros, Patmos, Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Halki.
- Crete-ISLAND-ISLANDS-CITIES
- Ionian Islands: Zakynthos, Ithaca, Corfu, Cephallonia, Lefkada, Paxi, Antipaxi, Ereikoussa, Mathraki, Meganissi, Othoni, Strofades.
These islands, together with Kythira, which is however cut-off from the rest, opposite the southern Peloponnese (Lakonia), as well as neighbouring Antikythira, they constitute the Eptanissa.
The islands of Gavdos (situated south of Crete), Elafonissos (in the Gulf of Laconia) and Trizonis (in the Gulf of Corinth). |
