Dodecanese

The name Dodecanese means 'twelve islands' in Greek, but there are actually over 160 of them. The dozen that count are the inhabited ones, sitting east of the Cyclades and just off the Turkish coast. Saint John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelation in a cave on Patmos in the late first century AD, and the cave is still there, white-washed and quiet, listed by UNESCO since 1999. Down the chain, Symi's harbour rises in tiers of neoclassical mansions painted in ochre and terracotta, all of them built on the wealth from sponge-diving when Symi was the centre of the Aegean trade in the 19th century. Rhodes, the largest island in the group, was once home to the Colossus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, although nothing of the statue itself survives.

A Dodecanese charter is the Greek-and-Turkish week. Symi sits about a couple of hours by yacht from the Turkish coast at Marmaris, and a charter usually crosses over once or twice during the trip; Bodrum's marina at Yalıkavak is the polished one if you want to spend a night in town. From there, the route runs back through Kos and on up to Patmos, with stops at Astypalaia and Karpathos for their wind-shaped beaches and at Kalymnos, a sport-climbing destination for the limestone cliffs that rise straight out of the sea.

The crossings are sheltered most days because the meltemi, the strong dry north wind that dominates the central Aegean from June to August, is softer here than it is around the Cyclades. The season runs May to October, and September into early October is usually the best of it, with the meltemi ebbing and the water still warm. Most charters pick up in Rhodes or Kos, and a week or ten days is enough for the major islands plus a Turkish detour.