Tiny Greek island Hydra has taken the top spot in Condé Nast Traveller UK's 2026 Readers' Choice Awards for best island in Europe, scoring 98.12 and edging out heavyweight names like Sardinia, Naxos, Sicily, Mallorca and Ibiza. Greece did well overall, with seven islands in the top 20 - but the car-free, airport-free rock of Hydra is the story here.
Its appeal is largely what it doesn't have. No airport. No cars, apart from a handful for essential services. Getting around means walking, boat taxis or your own two feet. Step off the ferry at Hydra Town and you're in a horseshoe harbour ringed by stone houses climbing the hillside, with fishing boats and yachts tied up beside waterfront cafés.
There aren't proper sandy beaches, but swimming is still the main event: locals dive off the rocks at Spilia just outside town, while Kamini and Vlychos villages are easy walks along the coast. Water taxis reach the more hidden coves. Away from the water, coastal paths, long lunches and a peek at the Historical Archives Museum by the harbour - which tells the island's seafaring history, including Hydra's role in the Greek War of Independence - fill the days nicely.
Hydra has form as an escape hatch, too. Artists and writers colonised it in the 1950s and 60s, most famously Leonard Cohen, who bought a house there in 1960 and lived on the island for several years.
The practical bit that makes it genuinely doable: ferries from Piraeus take as little as about 90 minutes, so a couple of slow days on Hydra pairs easily with a city break in Athens. Summer brings crowds to the harbour, but with no large-scale development permitted, the island retains a sense of place that's harder to find on its busier Mediterranean cousins.
Who's this for? Anyone burnt out on traffic, beach clubs and packed itineraries who'd rather trade convenience for quiet. Hydra rewards walkers, swimmers and readers-of-novels rather than thrill-seekers - and that's precisely why readers voted it number one. If 2027 is the year you slow down, this little Argo-Saronic island is a solid place to start. Credit: Condé Nast Traveller UK
