Syros

This is the practical case for the island. Mykonos is close enough to visit for a day and return the same evening, at a fraction of the accommodation cost and with none of the August crush.

The same logic reaches Tinos in half an hour and Paros in about an hour. Syros is a base from which the famous islands are day trips, which inverts how most people plan the Cyclades.

Ermoupoli rises in tiers around its harbour, in marble and neoclassical plaster rather than whitewash. There is a town hall by the architect of Athens's own, a nineteenth-century opera house modelled on La Scala, and a shipyard that still works.

Above it sit two hills with two cathedrals — one Orthodox, one Catholic — which is the visible remnant of a genuinely unusual history: Syros was under Catholic protection under Ottoman rule, which is why it filled with refugees during the Greek revolution and became the country's commercial capital.

Syros has beaches and they are pleasant. They are not why anyone comes, and if a Cycladic beach holiday is the plan, this is the wrong island.

What it has instead is restaurants that stay open in February, a population that does not leave in October, prices set for residents, and a ferry service that runs all year because the island administers the rest of the group. For some travellers that is the entire appeal; for others it will be a disappointment. Decide which you are before booking.

Because the infrastructure is year-round rather than seasonal, Syros is one of the few Cyclades that genuinely works out of season. The Piraeus boats keep running, the town keeps functioning, and you get a Greek island in November that is inhabited rather than shuttered.

The trade-off is that the fast inter-island craft thin out, so a winter visit is Syros itself rather than Syros as a hub.

Two hours from Athens makes it a plausible first or last stop — close enough to reach on an arrival day, close enough to leave from on a departure morning without a night's buffer.

From here the northern Cyclades open up: Tinos, Mykonos, then Paros and Naxos to the south. The Heraklion sailing at just over five hours also links it to Crete, which very few Cycladic islands manage directly.

The island is small and the bus network is real, running from Ermoupoli to the beach villages of Galissas, Kini, Vari and Finikas. Taxis are inexpensive and available in winter, which is not true everywhere in the Cyclades.

A car is optional. A scooter covers the island comfortably in a day, and Ermoupoli itself is walkable — steeply so, in places.

Ermoupoli is served year round from Piraeus. The high-speed links to Mykonos, Santorini and Crete concentrate between May and September, which is when Syros is at its most useful as a base.

June and September give you the full network with the town still behaving normally. August brings Greek domestic tourism rather than international crowds, which is a different kind of busy and, for most visitors, a better one.