Symi

A small island ninety minutes by ferry from Rhodes port, north and east. Symi is the second-richest piece of architecture in the Dodecanese — its harbour at Gialos is ringed by 18th and 19th-century neoclassical merchant houses painted in ochres, blues and terracotta, all rising up the hill in an amphitheatre.

The houses were built in the late Ottoman period by sponge-divers and ship-owners; the island was wealthier than Rhodes for most of the 19th century. The architecture is protected — you cannot paint a Symi house any colour the council does not approve.

Day trip: leave Rhodes port around eight, return around five. Walk Gialos in the first hour, then climb the seven hundred Kali Strata steps up to Horio — the old village at the top of the hill — for lunch. The monastery of Panormitis at the southern end of the island can be visited by hiring a small boat at Gialos. Symi shrimp, tiny and sweet, are local; eat them grilled.