The Dodecanese.

Yialos harbour — chef Stavros's wood-oven Symi kitchen, the room the harbour-front locals book and yacht crews squeeze into. Slow-cooked meat from the oven, the sweet small Symiakos shrimp (the island's famous catch), an unfussy wine list. The Yialos dinner.

On the edge of Yialos harbour walking out toward Charani (not Pedi — Taverna Tolis is the Pedi one) — a quiet fish-and-mezze room with a long-view-down-the-harbour terrace. Sunset over the pastel mansions is the point; the fish is the supporting cast.

The Yialos waterfront fish-meeting-point — long-running, the room the celebrity-yacht crowd cycles through. Order whatever's on the ice that day; share. Reservations help in season.

At the top of the Kali Strata (the 500-step stone staircase from Yialos to Chora) — English-run, breakfast-and-lunch only, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. The reward for the climb. Excellent shakshuka and a small Greek-island wine list by the glass. Daytime only; closed for dinner.

Sapsila inlet just outside Skala — opened 1997 by Benetos and Susan Matthaiou, fourteen tables on a seaside veranda, the Patmos dinner every food writer who has been to the island writes about. Book at least a week ahead. Seasonal · closed Nov–Easter.

On the Skala marina — twelve tables, modern Greek fine-dining, the most considered kitchen in Patmos's harbour town. The booking that competes with Benetos for the yacht-week table. Seasonal.

In Chora, in the literal shadow of the Monastery walls — the family taverna, the right lunch after the monastery morning. Greek classics done well, the kind of meal that defines Patmos for the people who get up there.

A modest, affordable seafood taverna on the Skala waterfront — the casual second-night dinner after a Benetos or Vegghera splurge. Local fish, the Patmos-favourite aubergine in oil, retsina from the carafe.

Above Loukakia Beach in the Sapsila bay — chef Ettore Botrini (the same Botrini behind Etrusco on Corfu, who holds a Michelin star at his Athens restaurant) running a pool-side terrace kitchen. Shrimp risotto with vanilla, smoked-sygklino tagliatelle, the kind of cooking the Patmos yacht crowd talks about. The third Patmos dinner if you've already booked Benetos and Vegghera.

Pigadia waterfront on Karpathos since 1989 — note: the name suggests Olympos village but the restaurant is in Pigadia harbour, the capital. Steak, grill, a serious wine list for the island. The Pigadia dinner.

On the Pigadia waterfront, attached to the Poseidon Blue Gastronomy Hotel — modern Greek, the most-considered cooking on Karpathos. The fish off the morning boat is the right order.

By the small mosque at the eastern end of Kastellorizo harbour — a former lighthouse converted into the island's day-swim-and-sundowner spot. Glass-clear water off the harbour rocks; cocktails as the sun drops over Turkey. The Kastellorizo defining moment.

The 1088 fortified monastery on top of Patmos's Chora — UNESCO-listed since 1999, the most important Greek-Orthodox site outside Mount Athos. Halfway down the hill the Cave of the Apocalypse where St John the Divine is said to have written Revelation. Modest dress required (covered shoulders, long skirts/trousers); 9–13 daily. The Patmos morning.

At Panormitis bay on Symi's south coast, a 25-minute drive from Yialos — the 18th-century monastery dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the island's pilgrimage site. The chapel's gold-and-silver-leaf wall is the photograph; arrive by boat for the right approach if you're combining with a Rhodes day-tour.

Housed in the 15th-century Knights' Hospital infirmary in the Old Town — Mycenaean gold, the famous Aphrodite of Rhodes (the Hellenistic statue emerging from a bath), the Lindos pediments. The right pair with the Palace of the Grand Masters in a single Old-Town morning. Allow 90 minutes.

The 50–90-min ferry from Rhodes harbour to Symi Yialos — the defining Dodecanese boat. Take an early ferry (~9 a.m.), stay the night, ferry back the next afternoon. The harbour at dusk after the day-trippers have left is the unsold experience the page is built around.

A 90-min boat tour from Kastellorizo harbour to the Parastas Blue Cave — accessible only in calm seas, you enter lying flat in a small boat through a 1 m gap, the chamber inside is filtered Aegean blue. Lycian rock tombs visible from the harbour. Combine with Faros Bar for the day.

Olympos perches on a cliff at the north tip of Karpathos — the easier access is by morning caïque from Pigadia or Diafani up the east coast, returning by 1990s-jeep over the mountain. The cliff-top village still observes its own dialect and the women wear traditional dress for festivals. Half-day on a boat; pair with a Pigadia waterfront lunch.

The defining Symi walk — 500 stone steps from Yialos harbour up to Chorio (Symi Chora) at the top. 30 minutes up, 20 down, an hour to see the medieval Chorio at the top and walk back. The Olive Tree at the top is the breakfast/lunch reward; sunset at the top is the unbeatable Symi-harbour photograph.

The sand spit at Rhodes's far southern tip where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean — when the wind is up the two seas have different colours and waves on either side of the same beach. One of Europe's top kitesurfing beaches; lessons run from the Atrium Prestige side. Drive an hour and a half from Rhodes Town; pair with an Atrium Prestige lunch.

If you've made it up by boat-and-jeep, give Olympos two hours on foot — the windmill stub on the ridge, the church of Panagia, the women's bakery and the lace-and-textile shops. The local festival days (mostly Easter, mid-August) are when the dress comes out; the village is the rare Greek place still attached to its own pre-1950s identity.

A protected oriental-sweetgum (storax) woodland 25 km south-west of Rhodes Town — the only place in Europe where the Jersey Tiger moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) congregates in millions to mate. Peak activity is late June through early September, with July–August the textbook window. Walk the wooden trails quietly; the moths rest on tree trunks and shouldn't be disturbed.