AS IF IT’S THE FIRST TIME…

vines on the hillside, the slab of feta cheese drizzled in olive oil, the slosh of waves on the harbour walls. Close your eyes. You can almost taste the grilled sea bass caught that very morning.

While every Greek island is subtly different, you will encounter the fantasy above on each one of them, including the 10 fine destinations below. depth. It costs from £1,595 per person, including flights.

Perhaps it is a legacy of fly-and-flop packages promoted on 1980s TV travel shows, but there can be a tendency to view Corfu as cheaply cheerful. In fact, it is an Avalon, shimmering in the Ionian beyond the Epirus shoreline – and home to villas, including the sixbedroom Nero Beach House at Kalamaki – available for £2,398 in the week of Sept 28 (flights cost extra), via CV Villas (020 3918 7811; cvvillas.com). sey is not the islet now called Ithaca, but its magnificent neighbour. Watch the sun plunge into Homer’s “winedark sea” from Kefalonia’s west coast, and you can believe it. A week at the Sea Path Apartments in Assos, flying from Gatwick on Aug 22 – costing from