Ios

By day Chora, the whitewashed village on the hill above the port, is quiet, which is not the Ios of its reputation. The island has long sold itself on its nightlife and drawn the young crowd to match, and in July and August, when the crowds and the prices peak together, the reputation is at its most literal. We went in September, which is the month to go. The sea is still near its warmest, around 24 to 26°C, and the crowds and prices of the summer ease back, more noticeably in the second half of the month, when we were there.

The days want very little organising. Most of their hours go to Mylopotas, the long bay below Chora, and the lazier the better: a kilometre of golden sand that shelves quickly into deep water, with beach clubs at one end and tavernas at the other. With a car or a scooter there are better beaches, and no crowds on them. Down on the south coast, a drive from Chora or a boat from the port, Manganari is four connected bays of white sand with little built around them and few facilities, so the day has to bring its own. Keep an evening for wandering the old streets of Chora, narrow lanes of whitewash and coloured shutters that climb past its churches to Panagia Gremiotissa at the top, where the view is over the rooftops to the sea.

Stay in the hills above Mylopotas. The beach and its restaurants are at the bottom of the hill, and Chora is a short taxi or bus hop up the road, about 3km, which is near enough for dinner and comfortably far from the last round. Chora, where the bars are, suits anyone who wants the night outside the door.

For dinner, Chora has a good choice of local Greek tavernas. On Mylopotas, go to Drakos, at the end of the beach, opened in 1963 by George and Irene Drakos and run now by the third generation. The fish is still cleaned in front of the diners, at a blue table on the edge of the pier with two tin buckets of sea water. The other places along the beach try too hard to be cool, and we thought the food and the prices both suffered for it. Drakos makes no such effort and puts it into the cooking instead. In the evenings the water laps over the breakwater and across your feet, which on Mylopotas is the only way to be cool without trying.