Lonely Planet: Lesser-known Greek Islands Gaining Popularity

Kythira island

Leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet revealed some of Greece’s lesser-known island destinations that are gaining popularity among UK travelers.

“Hidden gems like Karpathos and Tilos may not dominate your Instagram feed like Santorini just yet but they offer equally rewarding sights that are less crowded and often cheaper,” Lonely Planet mentioned in a recent feature published on its website.

The feature cited data by specialist tour operator Sunvil that analysed search volume for Greek islands – the number of times per month that people in the UK search online for terms including each island’s name – and found that the biggest increases in volume between 2018 and 2019 were for lesser-known islands.

Kokkari, Samos. Photo © Facebook – ΟΙ ΟΜΟΡΦΙΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ ΜΑΣ

According to Lonely Planet, Kythira with its perfect beaches, waterfalls and sugar-cube architecture generated the most searches this year (up by 340 percent), followed by Samos (up 39 percent) and Limnos (up 38 percent).

Lonely Planet’s Top 10 list includes the following islands:

1. 

   Halki. Photo © leoks / Shutterstock

   Kythira (+340 percent)

2. Samos (+39 percent)
3. Limnos (+38 percent)
4. Kythnos (+32 percent)
5. Halki (+30 percent)
6. Koufonisia (+25 percent)
7. Milos (+23 percent)
8. Meganisi (+22 percent)
9. Tilos (+21 percent)
10. Karpathos (+14 percent)

Kythnos island. Photo: Maria Theofanopoulou

Lonely Planet underlined that all of the aforementioned islands offer excellent places to stay with often cheaper rates.