Cyclades travel guide: which island to choose, when to go and how to sail

Santorini is the rim of a collapsed volcano: a 300 m cliff where Fira and Oia cling, facing the sea. The Minoan site of Akrotiri, buried under ash around 1600 BC, takes an hour under a covered hall. For sunset, the village of Pyrgos or the Akrotiri lighthouse avoid the Oia crush, where several thousand people gather each evening. Two nights are enough: the island is small and expensive, with unappealing black-pebble beaches.

Mykonos runs on two registers: an old town of white lanes, windmills and Little Venice, and beach clubs to the south, Paradise and Super Paradise. From its harbour leaves the trip to Delos, an uninhabited island-museum, the birthplace of Apollo, open Tuesday to Sunday, about 30 minutes' crossing. Next door, Tinos is the exact opposite: a Catholic and Orthodox pilgrimage island, 750 chapels, carved dovecotes and marble villages such as Pyrgos. On 15 August, thousands of the faithful climb to the church of Panagia on their knees.

These are the two islands where you can spend a week without getting bored. Naxos, the largest and greenest, has sandy beaches to the west, marble mountain villages inland and the Portara, the gate of an unfinished temple of Apollo on an islet off the Chora. Paros, more compact, revolves around Parikia and Naoussa, with a good bus network and a 30-minute link to Antiparos and its cave. The two islands are connected in 45 minutes.

Beyond the tourist trio, the islands turn more rustic. Milos, to the west, is done by boat for Kleftiko and its arches, with the lunar beach of Sarakiniko and the coloured boat garages of Klima. Folegandros has a Chora perched on a 200 m car-free cliff. Amorgos, far to the east, was a setting for The Big Blue and keeps a monastery fixed to the rock face. Sifnos is the culinary capital of the archipelago. The tiny Koufonissia can be crossed on foot in a day. For mountain hiking or major archaeological sites, you need somewhere bigger, such as Crete.

The ferry is the transport of the Cyclades. Two families of boat: the large slow and steady ferries (Blue Star), cheaper, which carry cars, and the fast catamarans (SeaJets), twice as quick but twice as dear and sensitive to swell. Reckon 15 to 40 euros per crossing per person. In July and August, the meltemi sometimes blows force 7 for several days: fast links are cancelled, so keep a spare day before a return flight.