National Geographic writes from epic landscapes and cultural reawakenings to conservation initiatives and family favourites, National Geographic Traveller’s Best of the World list is back with the destinations that should be on your radar for 2023 and at number one comes Greece's Dodecanese Islands
1. Dodecanese Islands, Greece
This Greek archipelago balances growing popularity with sustaining its ancient traditions
The Greek islands of the Dodecanese cast an alluring spell stemming from their rocky beauty and feisty history. A cast of conquerors — Romans, Ottomans and Italians — left their fingerprints on everything from the architecture to the food, but today’s invaders come not for fortune, but for selfies, at such better-known Dodecanese islands as Leros, Patmos or Kos.
But now less trafficked parts of the archipelago like Karpathos, located halfway between Crete and Rhodes, must balance between the economic need for tourism and the environmental stresses caused by it. In this arid, hilly land of milk and honey, many families keep bees and make their own butter and cheese.
Karpathos’s lonely white churches, timeworn towns and ancient traditions may draw adventurous visitors fleeing the more crowded Cycladic islands of Mykonos and Santorini, but the island’s water scarcity and lack of recycling capacity pose challenges.
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