Greek Islands Vacations

The Greek Islands are a collection of over 6,000 islands and islets that belong to Greece. Only 227 of the islands are inhabited and of those, only 78 have more than 100 inhabitants. The large body of land in southern Greece called Peloponnese, is not a Greek island at all as it is connected to the mainland by the small Isthmus of Corinth land bridge.

The largest Greek island by area is the 260km long island of Crete, located at the southern edge of the Aegean Sea, and serves as an administrative division (periphery) of itself. Crete to the south, along with Greece to the north and west, and Turkey to the east, make up the rough boundary of the Aegean Sea. The second largest Greek island is Euboea at 150km long. Euboea is located parallel and close to the east coast of the Greek mainland, and is administered as part of the central Greece periphery. Smaller still are the islands of Lesbos and Rhodes, which are both located near the coast of Turkey. The remaining islands are at least two thirds of the area of Rhodes or smaller.

Most of the Greek islands are in groupings located within the Aegean Sea or on its southern edge. A final grouping, the Ionian Islands, is located to the west of the mainland in the Ionian Sea, although one of these islands, Kythira, is off the southern tip of the mainland, but still considered part of the Ionian Islands. The close proximity of so many islands and their respective, historic cities makes the Greek islands an interesting and exciting travel destination.