Kéa (Tzía)

Life ‘n’ Art is Kéa’s current tourist slogan, and it’s as good as any for this little island, the closest of all the Cyclades to Athens, and yet one of the least known, partly because you can’t get there from Piraeus but usually have to go the east Attica port of Lávrio and most foreigners don’t bother.

But Greeks in the know do. Kéa, with its fine beaches, has for many years been a favourite place for Athenians to build their summer villas – and it’s guaranteed to have no room on holiday weekends, when jeeps, dogs, boats and windsurfers pile off the ferries; if you want to make a short stay, time it for midweek.

Kéa also feels very different from its fellow Cyclades. In spring it’s green with lush valleys and terraces of fruit and almond trees, fields grazed by dairy cattle and grubbing pigs; since antiquity it has been famed for its fertility, its red wines, its lemons, honey and almonds. Most of the 2,500 permanent residents live inland, in traditional stone-built farm houses.