Twenty-nine islands, and for each one a precise reason to go: a sea cave you have to yourself at dawn, a channel where dolphins hunt at first light, a beach where you wade a hundred metres out and the water is still at your knees, a volcano working away above the cockpit at dinner.
Why some are empty and others full
How busy a place is follows how many ways there are to reach it. Milos has an airport and direct ferries from Piraeus; Kimolos has a twenty-minute ferry few people take; Polyaigos has no landing stage at all, therefore no visitors. It is as simple as that, and it is the only rule that matters when you are looking for empty anchorages.
Sleeping where others only pass through
A sailing yacht inverts the logic: it makes hard-to-reach places easy, and queues irrelevant. It also lets you sleep where others only pass through — Kleftiko at dawn before the day boats is the same rock and a different day.
Cyclades
| Island | What sets it apart | The guide |
|---|---|---|
| Poliegos | The largest uninhabited island in the Aegean. No harbour, no road, not one house — you cannot get there except by boat. | Polyaigos and Kimolos |
| Kimolos | Nine hundred inhabitants, Psathi to land, Chorio on the hill. A twenty-minute ferry from Milos that almost nobody takes. | Polyaigos and Kimolos |
| Milos | Kleftiko and its white volcanic arches. The day boats come out from Adamas mid-morning, so we sleep there and have it at dawn. | Cyclades in the meltemi |
| Sifnos | The island where you eat best in the Cyclades. Platis Gialos on the south coast is safe shelter in the meltemi; Cheronissos, north, only in southerlies. | Cyclades in the meltemi |
| Kythnos | Kolona, a tongue of sand joining the island to an islet, sea on both sides: the only anchorage in the Cyclades where you choose your face to the wind. | Polyaigos and Kimolos |
| Syros | The antidote to Mykonos. Finikas, on the sheltered western face: two streets, a bakery, three tavernas, a night in the lee even in the meltemi. | Cyclades in the meltemi |
| Antiparos et Despotiko | An uninhabited islet with an Apollo sanctuary under excavation, and a shallow channel between the two that needs attention. | Polyaigos and Kimolos |
| Kéa | Carthaea: an ancient city with a Doric temple and a theatre cut into the slope, with no road reaching it. There is no ticket office. | Cyclades in the meltemi |
| Folegandros | The most spectacular cliff in the Cyclades, the Chora perched two hundred metres above the sea. The anchorages are open: settled weather only. | Polyaigos and Kimolos |
Balearics
| Island | What sets it apart | The guide |
|---|---|---|
| Majorque | The big one, the island you coast along rather than tour: Port d’Andratx and its fishing quay where the boats land in the evening, Sant Elm facing the sunset, and Cala Murta where shoals of fish pass under the hull. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Sa Dragonera | It closes the horizon off Sant Elm, a mile from the beach, and you take the Freu between the two. At sunset it keeps the light: the whole ridge in silhouette and the lighthouse coming on at the far end. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Minorque | The south-western coves — Turqueta, Macarella, Macarelleta, Son Saura — and the north coast, Pregonda and Algaiarens, which only exists in settled weather. | Mallorca to Menorca |
| Illa d’en Colom | A narrow channel between the island and Es Grau, on Menorca’s north-east coast. You spend the night and the whole morning there: the white village set on the hill, boats lying to their anchors, and nothing moving on the water before noon. | Mallorca to Menorca |
| Cabrera | A national park where anchoring is banned across the whole archipelago. You take a numbered buoy, booked weeks in advance. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Ibiza | The other Ibiza, the one you see from the water: Cala Comte at sunset, Ses Salines, and the west-coast anchorages you leave before the sea breeze gets up. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Es Vedrà | Four hundred metres of rock rising out of the sea off Cala d’Hort, south-west of Ibiza. You see it an hour before you get there, and it grows the whole time you take to reach it. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Formentera | Ses Illetes, water that stays clear for hundreds of metres and sand that shoals without warning: you come in on the sounder and anchor wide. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
| Es Palmador | The bare sand bar between Ibiza and Formentera, reachable only by boat — and shallower than it looks. | Mallorca, Ibiza, Cabrera |
Aeolian Islands
| Island | What sets it apart | The guide |
|---|---|---|
| Stromboli | The Punta Lena buoy is the volcano’s only workable mooring. The Sciara del Fuoco goes off above the cockpit; Ginostra stays hostage to the swell. | Aeolian Islands |
| Panarea | Cala Junco, and next door the fizzing water at Bottaro: volcanic gas bubbling up from the bottom under the hull. | Aeolian Islands |
| Salina | Pollara, the Cinema Paradiso set, works only in the morning: rocky bottom and an open bay, it becomes untenable in the afternoon. | Aeolian Islands |
| Lipari, Vulcano, Filicudi et Alicudi | The other four. June brings a light anticyclone, 4 to 8 knots: it is largely a week under engine, and we say so before you book. | Aeolian Islands |
Saronic Gulf
| Island | What sets it apart | The guide |
|---|---|---|
| Hydra | Not one car on the island, donkeys and boats. You do not berth in the harbour: you anchor at Mandraki and a taxi-boat runs you into town. | Saronic Gulf |
| Dokos | No village, no road, no ferry. The seabed offshore holds the oldest known shipwreck in the world, a Bronze Age cargo. | Saronic Gulf |
| Égine et Moni | The temple of Aphaia above the harbour, and next to it Moni, a former deer park overrun with peacocks that come down to the beach. | Saronic Gulf |
| Spetses et Agistri | The old harbour of Spetses for provisioning and a proper lunch; Aponissos on Agistri as a deliberately undeveloped midday stop. | Saronic Gulf |
Further north, and out of season
| Island | What sets it apart | The guide |
|---|---|---|
| Sørøya et Magerøya | Rounding the North Cape by sea, not by coach as others offer. The week only works because the sun does not set at 71° north. | Tromso to Nordkapp |
| Sardaigne du Sud | Cagliari, Villasimius and Carloforte in April and May: turquoise lagoons, flamingos and nobody, before the season starts. | South Sardinia |
| Îles d’Or | Porquerolles, Port-Cros and Le Levant in October, when Greece has closed and the Var coast still holds its light. | Cote d’Azur, Iles d’Or |
None of these islands is an itinerary. A week is built with you, then with that week’s weather — the wind decides the order, and sometimes the list. Tell us which ones appeal and we will tell you honestly which ones hold together.
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