Best beaches
The island’s best beaches are on the east coast, which also also has lots of secluded coves for more adventurous swimmers and sunbathers.

This doesn't sound like the notorious Faliraki that’s given the rest of the island an unjustly bad name in recent years. But North Faliraki – the posh end – is three miles from the brash teen-zone and is lined with villas and apartments and four-star hotels within striking distance of excellent beaches.

A bus ride – or 45-minute walk – south from Faliraki is Ladiko beach, known as Anthony Quinn Bay because The Guns Of Navarone was filmed here. Further on is the four-mile, pebbly Afandou beach, popular with the locals. Visit the nearby village for its excellent tavernas and ceramics shops. 

Further south, there’s a good beach at Kolymbia and an exquisitely sandy and unspoilt stretch at Tsambika Bay, watched over by a cliff-top monastery up to which barren women climb to pray for the gift of a child.  

Lovely Lindos
Well, it is lovely, but in July and August it can seem as if it’s being loved to death. Most of the half a million visitors who go there each year pack into the village’s tiny car-free cobbled streets during the peak summer months. Go in May, June, September and October to see it at its atmospheric best – and have room to explore in comfort the alleys lined with imposing 16th to 18th century sea captains’ villas, protected by ornately-decorated doors and gates.

If you can’t face a steep climb, donkeys take you up to the acropolis, where you’ll see a restored Doric Temple of Athena, Hellenistic ruins and what remains of a Crusader castle. The views across the sea and along the coast make the ascent more than worthwhile. Afterwards, surrender to the pleasures of the village’s massive bay with its two sandy beaches and clear waters that stay deliciously-warm right up until late October.

The best place for a good lunch or dinner in Lindos is Mavrikos, on the main square. Founded in 1933 and run by the same family ever since, it’s rightly famed for its quality Greek and French cuisine, with highlights such as oven baked lamb, succulent beef fillets and grilled and seasoned fresh red snapper. Past diners at its large rustic terrace, by the square’s fig tree, have included Jackie Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller and King Abdul of Jordan. It’s expensive, but you don’t have to be a billionaire to eat there – and it’s a treat you won’t forget.

Sail to Symi
Take a day trip to the island of Symi, just an hour away on the ferries and hydrofoils which sail regularly from Mandraki harbour. Known as Portofino in the Med, its harbour town – where the Germans surrendered the Dodecanese islands  to the British in 1945 – is lined with pastel-coloured neo-classical houses that cling to the hillsides.

Most day trippers wander the stone-flagged streets browsing stalls selling sponges before relaxing in one of the numerous cafés or restaurants for a lazy lunch. If you have the energy, walk slowly up the kali strata, the 357 steps which lead to a strategically-placed café and to the upper chorio, or town. This is the place to watch the sun setting over Symi – but make sure you don’t miss the ferry back.