I’ve been to 14 Greek islands, but there’s only one I keep going back to

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Traditional whitewashed villages and spectacular scenery await here (Picture: Rawf8/Getty Images) Duncan Greenfield-Turk is a British travel consultant with 30 years of…

Duncan Greenfield-Turk is a British travel consultant with 30 years of experience. He tells our Travel Editor Alice Murphy about the Greek island he loves most.

I’ve visited so many Greek islands over the past 20 years, it could be as many as 14 now, depending on whether you count the ones reached by short ferry hop in the same afternoon.

I was recently in Athens and the Peloponnese as well, which only reinforced my view that the mainland is too readily dismissed in the rush to the islands.

That said, when I am asked for a lesser-known island that genuinely repays the effort of getting there, my answer is always Tinos.

Just 30 minutes by boat from Mykonos, the contrast with its famous neighbour is one of the most interesting things about it.

Tinos is a little off the beaten trail — no bad thing in the ever-popular Cyclades (Syros, Delos, Paros…). And it really is magnificent.

Still relatively undiscovered, on this island you will find elegant Venetian -influenced architecture, a tradition of extraordinary marble carving that survives to this day in working ateliers, and a landscape of granite hills, dovecotes, and charming villages that have remained largely unchanged for generations.

It was once a centre of worship for Poseidon, a famous shrine to the Virgin Mary was established in the main town in 1823 and a grand Orthodox church – Panagia Megalochari – settled over it, swagged in red satin like an Edwardian wedding cake.

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