Skip the crowds in Santorini and hop on a ferry to Greece's beautiful, underrated gem instead

We often associate places with the historical events we know happened there and sometimes it might be the reason we travel, to commemorate and to visit these sites and museums. Places in the U.S. were also named after cities, towns and people in the old world or sometimes they simply described the geography of a place, often in local languages.

I recently went on a short trip to Santorini from my home in Athens and decided to take a ferry both ways.

The world is a big place, and there are oodles of countries to explore and wild experiences to relish. Many folks have saved up vacation days and squirreled away funds for a journey of a lifetime. The questions are: Where should you go and how should you start the planning process? The advantages of small group travel abound. You’ll meet new people from different places around the globe, logistics and safety protocols will be expertly considered, and a professional tour guide will lead the way so that all you have to do is show up and enjoy the ride.

The 19th-century chestnut ‘The journey is the destination: really doesn’t do justice to the epic-scaled scenery that accompanies every trip in Sicily, big or small. This Italian island straddling three seas might be modest in size, but its varied landscapes are larger than life. Bus, boat, car, train or two wheels: however you get around, Sicily throws up stupendous coastline, mountain and volcano scenery in spades. Going slow is key – but even then, you’ll struggle to ingest a fraction of the natural grandeur en route.

Over half of Tripadvisor’s users say that helping the environment is important to them and sustainability increasingly factors into travellers’ choices about where to go.

Cruises are more popular than ever, but they're also more controversial than ever, with destinations around the globe limiting or outright banning them from ports in an effort to combat over-tourism.

I live in Athens, Greece, and often take ferries to explore the Greek Islands.

Few things at a hotel are as luxurious as access to your own private pool. 

We are staying in the House of Light (from £62 a night, £90 in summer, sleeps three, on Airbnb), which is a work of art where even the shower drains through locally handcrafted ceramic. I pad along barefoot to the terrace and sit down on the stone bench in the sun, looking across a field of daisies, poppies and mallow to the crumbling dovecote.

The World Travel Awards are some of the travel industry’s most prestigious accolades, and the winners in the European categories have been crowned at the thirty-first edition of the ceremony in Berlin. Leaders in tourism, airline, hotel and hospitality sectors are all included in the programme, but it’s the destinations themselves that we’re most excited about. And claiming the award for Europe’s next emerging destination, a title won by Batumi in Georgia for the last five years, it was Braga, a city not too far from the coast nestled in north-western Portugal.

What's the highest-rated cruise destination in the world?

Get out your bucket list; it’s time to cross off a major line item: Greece.