How to Choose an Island: Greece, Thailand or the Maldives for Your Style of Holiday

Most people choose an island from a photograph, which is how you end up in a very expensive villa with nothing to do, or on a party beach with a toddler. Greece, Thailand and the Maldives all do blue water beautifully. What they sell, underneath that, is three quite different holidays.

We have spent weeks on all three and have opinions, some of them unfair. This is the honest version: what each costs, when to go, how long it takes to get there from the UK, and who will come home happy. Prices are rough, at the time of writing, and vary a great deal with the school holidays.

The comparison at a glance

Greece: the easy yes

Greece wins on convenience. Direct summer flights from most large UK airports reach Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Kos, Kefalonia, Santorini and others in a morning, so a one-week trip gives you nearly seven days on the island. You can be swimming by mid-afternoon on the day you leave home.

The islands also differ more than the postcards suggest. Santorini and Mykonos are beautiful, busy and priced to match. Crete is big enough for a fortnight, with gorges, mountain villages and proper food. Naxos has long sandy beaches that suit children and a very good cheese. Milos has strange white rock formations and a smaller feel. Reckon on roughly £80 to £150 a night for a pleasant double room outside the headline spots, and £15 to £25 each for a decent taverna dinner with wine.

What to skip: Santorini at the height of August, unless queueing for a sunset is part of your plan. And note the wind. The Cyclades get the strong northerly meltemi in July and August, which keeps you cool but can blow your towel to Turkey and cancel a small ferry. Build in a spare night before a flight home.

Thailand: the most holiday for the money, after the flight

Thailand costs more to reach but less to live in. Long-haul flights from the UK run roughly £600 to £900, and that is where the budget goes. Once there, a simple beach bungalow might be £30 to £70 a night, and a plate of very good food from a stall is often only a couple of pounds. A week is possible, but we would push for at least ten days, because you lose a good chunk of time getting from Bangkok to the coast by domestic flight, ferry or both.

The seasons trip people up. The two coasts have different monsoons. Phuket, Krabi and Koh Lanta on the Andaman side are at their best from November to April. Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao on the Gulf side are better for much of the first half of the year and through summer, with their wettest weather around October to December. That means there is almost always somewhere dry, as long as you pick the right side.

Thailand suits people who get bored on a sunlounger: a morning of kayaking through limestone, a temple, a cooking class, then a night market. It suits fewer people who want true peace, because the longtail boats start early. Skip Phi Phi at its busiest, and plan your island around the season rather than the other way round. You will also want a passport with plenty of life left, usually six months, so check that in good time.

Pick the island for the holiday you actually take, not the one in the photograph.

The Maldives: less expensive than you think, or much more

The Maldives has two versions, and the price gap between them is enormous. Resort islands are what you have seen in pictures: one hotel, one island, a water villa over the lagoon. Expect roughly £300 to £1,000 or more a night, and everything on top, because you cannot walk to a cheaper dinner. Transfers from Malé by speedboat or seaplane can add several hundred pounds each, so ask for that figure before you get excited about the room rate.

Local islands such as Maafushi, Dhiffushi and Thulusdhoo are a different story. Guesthouses run at roughly £60 to £120 a night, the public speedboats are cheap, and you can often snorkel from the beach or take a boat trip to a reef. The catches: these are Muslim communities, so there is no alcohol, and you should dress modestly away from the designated bikini beach. If that sounds fine, you can have the same water at a fraction of the price.

Either way, it is a quiet holiday. There is not much to do except swim, snorkel, eat and read, which is either the point or a very long week. Non-divers and non-snorkellers should think hard about that. May to October brings more rain and lower prices, and it is often showers rather than washouts, though nothing is promised.

If you are X, choose Y

• If you have one week and little annual leave, choose Greece. Thailand and the Maldives both spend your first day on travel.
• If you have young children, choose Greece: a short flight, shallow beaches and tavernas that do not mind noise.
• If you have two or three weeks and a limited budget, choose Thailand. Your money lasts longest once you are there.
• If you want a once-in-a-decade treat, choose a Maldives resort, in the dry season, and do not look at the bar bill until the end.
• If you want a Maldives reef without the resort price, choose a local island and accept the alcohol-free evenings.
• If you like walking, choose Crete or Naxos.
• If you want to go in winter, choose Thailand or the Maldives. Most Greek islands are quiet and chilly from November, with many places shut.
• If you get bored on the beach by day two, choose Thailand, and do not let anyone talk you into a water villa.

How to decide in ten minutes

Ask three questions, in this order. First, how many days do you really have, door to door? Under eight points to Greece. Second, what month is it? Rule out anything in its wet season, unless you have decided the savings are worth a few showers. Third, what will you do on day four? If the answer is nothing, and that sounds wonderful, look at the Maldives. If the answer is a cooking class and a boat trip, look at Thailand. If it is a long lunch and a walk to a different beach, you already know the answer.

Once you have decided, our guide to finding cheap flights will help with the fare, and the seven-day packing checklist works for all three, minus most of the shoes. And if none of these quite fits, our piece on Bali without the crowds might be the island you were actually looking for.