Top Ten
Biggest Greek Islands 

What are the ten biggest Greek islands? If you're planning a visit to Greece then it can help to know how big or small an island is, when figuring out how long to stay. We once spent six weeks on the largest island, Crete, while researching a guidebook and we could have spent six months. On the other hand, sometimes you want to visit a small island and just get away from it all.

The Lasithi Plateau on CreteThe Lasithi Plateau on Crete

How Many Greek Islands Are There?

According to Wikipedia, estimates of the number of Greek islands range from about 1,200 up to 6,000 or more – depending on how big a lump of rock in the sea has to be before you can call it an island.

Of these you can more safely say that about 200 are inhabited. This number also varies as some are only inhabited in the summer. There are also a number of privately-owned islands which may just be home to one family, who may be there for only a few months of the year.

Sunset on EviaEvia

How Big are the Largest Greek Islands?

To provide some sense of scale, Crete is the biggest island at 3,219 square miles (see the table below for size in square kilometres). This would make it only the 49th largest US state, bigger than Delaware but much smaller than Connecticut. The next biggest is Evia, which is slightly smaller than the smallest US state, Rhode Island.

For UK readers, all ten of the biggest islands in Greece would comfortably fit into Wales. The four biggest islands together are slightly larger than Northern Ireland.

The Ten Biggest Greek Islands

This, then, is the list of the ten largest islands in Greece.

ISLAND

SQ MILES

SQ KMS

GROUP

Crete

3219

8336

Evia

1417

3670

Lesbos

630

1633

NE Aegean

Rhodes

541

1401

Dodecanese

Chios

325

842

NE Aegean

Kefalonia

302

781

Ionian

Corfu

229

593

Ionian

Lemnos

184

478

NE Aegean

Samos

184

477

NE Aegean

Naxos

166

430

Cyclades

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  • Quick Guide to Greece: How to Choose the Best Destination for You

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  • Luxury Weddings in Greece

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  • Life as a Waiter on Zakynthos

    Life as a waiter on Zakynthos tells what it was like for travel writer Mike Gerrard to work in a Greek restaurant, the Mantalena in Alykanas.

  • Greek Music

    Greek music is the sound of the bouzouki and tunes like Zorba the Greek and Never on Sunday are heard everywhere, while rembetika is called the blues of Greece.

  • Greek Ferry Guide

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  • Greek Architecture

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  • Greece for Beginners

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