As Greece continues to welcome record numbers of visitors year on year – more than 40 million in 2024 – The Independent has turned its attention to the quieter corners of the country that remain blissfully untouched by overtourism. In a recent travel feature titled “Seven underrated Greek destinations to head to for October sunshine,” written by Olivia Campbell, the UK newspaper celebrates hidden gems that offer “idyllic, lesser-visited spots” perfect for late-season travel.

While summer may be over, the feature argues that Greece’s enchantment lingers long into autumn. With fewer crowds, milder temperatures, and the Aegean still warm enough for swimming, October can be one of the most rewarding months to explore – whether you’re drawn to the mountains, islands, or healing thermal springs.

Among the islands, Paros is praised as “the island that Mykonos used to be before it was bedazzled by the superyacht set,” according to freelance writer Fiona McIntosh. With its whitewashed villages, near-empty roads, and some of the best food she’s tasted in Greece, Paros embodies the quieter beauty of the Cyclades in shoulder season. So too does Hydra, just an hour from Athens, where writer Rebecca Hall describes stepping off the catamaran as “entering a living painting – an island caught between myth and a Mediterranean daydream.” Calm, car-free, and irresistibly romantic, Hydra proves that true magic needs no reinvention.

Further west, the island of Ithaca (Ithaki) offers a different kind of escape – one steeped in Homeric legend. Writer Victoria Harper calls it “an island of hidden gems,” its beaches and blue-green waters as unspoiled as the myths that surround it. Meanwhile, in the Dodecanese, Leros earns its place as a story of renewal: once known as the “Island of Outcasts,” it’s now a haven of crystalline coves and laid-back charm, its coastline “brush-stroked with beaches.”

Beyond the islands, the feature takes readers inland – to a Greece of forests, stone bridges, and pristine mountain ranges that few tourists, except the more adventurous, ever see. Zagori National Park in Epirus, says McIntosh, is “the kind of untouched wilderness you didn’t know still existed in Europe,” its ancient stone villages and Ottoman bridges offering a total reset in nature. The same could be said for Arachova and Portaria, alpine towns near Parnassos and Pilio, where, as Heidi Fuller-Love writes, skiing in Greece “was akin to the thrill of discovering a new country.”

The feature’s other recommendation, Edipsos on northern Evia, is the oldest escape of all – a spa town famous since the days of Aristotle and Strabo. Fuller-Love recalls soaking in its 35°C mineral-rich springs that were, according to the ancient traveler-philosopher Pausanias, “sent by the gods for healing.” The nearby town has lost some of its post-war glamour, but, as Fuller-Love muses, “there’s something magical about soaking away your troubles the same way people have been doing for thousands of years.”

Taken together, these places sketch a portrait of a Greece that many visitors overlook – one that stretches far beyond the summer season and the maddening selfie-spots of the Aegean. The Independent’s writers remind us that autumn in Greece offers something richer: the chance to slow down, rediscover old rhythms, and see the country as locals know it – sunlit, storied, and gloriously uncrowded.