At least once in your life you need to visit the Aegean Islands surrounded by the beautiful blue Mediterranean waters. Previously a bit of a hike it could take a day out of your trip just getting to your choice of islands after you arrive in Athens.

While I’m a big believer in cliches and the whole thing about the trip itself being the whole point of the journey, sometimes exploration doesn’t properly start till you’re all settled in at your destination. Now you can arrive at just about any one of the islands without a moment to lose. You can do this via a new route of regularly scheduled helicopter flights that have turned the journey into a 45 minute whirlwind tour with breathtaking views. The new airline goes to 11 destinations and can even hit the harder to reach islands with no trouble at all. Now that exploring the archipelago has become so easy, here’s some of our top picks in the region.

Antiparos

Antiparos is off the beaten track just a little, bringing the tourist tempo down a few notches. All the stores have retained their local vibes and haven’t been blasted into chain franchises

Antiparos Cave

Touted by travellers as one of the best experiences of their trip, this cave descends to a depth of 85 metres, or about 28 stories down. Take water as there’s nowhere to get any while you’re there. Then take 400 steps up and down. The photos you’ll take of the stalactites and stalagmites will be National Geographic levels of incredible. And the whole trip is easily done on a constructed walkway. No actual spelunking knowledge required. Just be good at putting one foot in front of the other. You can’t help but bump into history while you’re exploring greece, but you might just find the oldest bit of it here in this cave. It’s the home of the oldest stalactite in Europe estimated to be 45 million years old. According to an inscription in the cave Archilochos the Parian (680 – c. 645 BC) visited the cave. If it’s good enough for the poet, it’s good enough for me.

Folegandros

Folegandros is a blustery little island with history stretching back to the prehistoric. It’s so windy that the architecture has mostly favoured squat buildings that not only stay sheltered from the winds, but also kept the village out of sight from pirates back in the day. The island is small (32 km2) and has only 600 inhabitants. Dry-placed walls around the island built over centuries between it’s three villages have created terraces for growing cereals. Try the local bread while you’re there. It has served as a place to exile political prisoners since at least 338 B.C. from various regimes up till the 1970s. While empires come and go, Folegandros carries on. If I was going to be banished anywhere you could do worse than Folegandros with its locally grown wines and handcrafted cocktails.

Panagia of Chora

Overlooking the village is an old female only catholic monastery built on top of the bones of an even older sanctuary dedicated to Artemis and Apollo. It has a striking zig zagging staircase up the mountain toward incredible views. It’ll take you about 15 minutes to ascend but it’s worth it. There’s a marble inscription from 1687 referencing the renovation, and the monastery has been in its current state since 1816. But we really have no idea how old it is.

Come back a man or don’t come back at all. Or at least that’s what some archaeologists believe. The names carved inside this cave date back to 400 B.C. and going inside is mind blowing. Roman era baths are carved inside in the first chamber. The second chamber has 70m stalacties inside.

At one point getting into the cave was much easier. but the carved footing has worn away with time.

Karavostasi and Angali

While there are plenty of nice beaches, only two beaches are really quickly accessible by land via bus. From Karavostasi you can walk around to a number of other beaches. Take water and food with you because you’ll have fully prized yourself out of the jaws of the tourist trap once you’re down by the water enjoying nature.

One oceanside attraction that’s completely inaccessible is a cave inset into a cliff 40 metres above the water. Inside is the names of about 400 guys, and a few women, who managed to swim, and then clamber into it. This may have been a young mans right of passage. Personally I’m glad all I needed to do to become a man was… Get a full time job? Either way, it’s a heritage sight but has too much archaeological value for visitors to go dragging in coke cans and other rubbish.

Patmos “Island of the Apocalypse”

For those with a biblical bent your go-to island should be the Island of The Apocalypse, or Patmos if you don’t want to be dramatic about it. It’s so named due to the fact this is where it’s believed that John tripped out and had his visions that then became the book of revelations. The end times could even be heralded by your helicopter landing as it was written way back then. “The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle… Something like golden crowns was on their heads… they had chests like iron breastplates; the sound of their wings was like the sound of many chariots… they had tails with stingers like scorpions.”

Ok so that might be more an apache gunship than a tourist chopper but we’re getting in the weeds here.

Cave of the Apocalypse

If the above sentence meant anything at all to you then your first and only stop will be the Cave of the Apocalypse. The cave is 6.60 m long and 5.50 m wide. It’s a UNESCO heritage sight and no photography is allowed within it. Unlike most of the rest of the planet, you won’t find much of it on instagram. A monk sits inside recounting the story of what is believed to have happened in there as St. John used this as a home while he was in exile from Roman Emperor Domitian.

Petra Beach

Chill out at the beautifully calm pebble beach of Petra. At one end is an imposing rock formation which used to be a hermitage in the middle ages and was even inhabited earlier in the bronze age in 1100 BC. Excavations of the area have found ancient tools and artifacts. After you’re done swimming and sunning the beach is a 20 minute walk from the settlement of Grikos where you should be able to find a restaurant or cafe to whittle away the last remaining hours of sunlight.