We all have an idea in our heads of the perfect Greek island holiday. For many it will essentially boil down to having lots of fun in an upbeat resort, with plenty of lively bars, tavernas, distractions and day trips. The country’s most popular holiday islands are all well set up for this. 

But if Greece does one thing exceptionally well – better in fact than anywhere else in Europe I can think of – it is to offer exactly the opposite: peace, quiet and sense of escape – both physical and mental – from the everyday.

So if you want to relax and recharge away from the tourist hotspots, lie on a beach without the bars, stay in a town where there are as many locals as tourists in the tavernas, where you can watch the sunset in glorious isolation and forget about pandemics and the demands of your iPhone, you will find some wonderful options among the myriad islands of the Aegean and the Adriatic. The only problem is choosing which one.

We have had some fun swapping 10 of Greece’s best-known destinations with a nearby alternative which will offer you a complete contrast. It’s amazing what a difference a short ferry ride can make. 

Who needs Mykonos when there’s Tinos?

Mykonos is a place for posing and pouting, an island of infinity pools, hen-dos and hashtags. There are designer boutiques. There’s even a Starbucks, for heaven’s sake. It’s fast, it’s fun, but it is hardly traditional Greece. Hop on the ferry, however, and in as little as 20 minutes you’ll enter a world of empty landscapes and time-warp villages untouched by mass tourism – indeed, barely touched by tourism at all. It offers everything that makes Greece such a perennial favourite with British holidaymakers. Laid-back lifestyle, fresh, simple cuisine (its artichokes are a highlight), glorious beaches and rugged scenery, but without the crowds. A week there and you’ll wonder why anyone bothers with Mykonos at all.

Stay at: Xinara House (xinarahouse.com). A week in one of the island’s coolest new holiday apartments, housed in part of a former bishop’s home in the rural heart of Tinos, costs from around £800 in the apartment sleeping two or three.