You may have to fly into Ibiza's airport to get to Formentera, but a holiday here is the antithesis of a wild week in Ibiza. You'll reach Formentera by ferry, and you'll find a quiet, peaceful little island with natural beauty to spare. Rent a scooter or bike to take you from beach to beach.

The Mediterranean's biggest island is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Messina. A mountainous spot, Sicily's coast and its small islands sit at the foot of volcanoes, including Etna, Stromboli and Vulcano. The Greeks, Romans, Normans and Catalans all left their mark on the island in the form of Byzantine palaces, Gothic castles and Baroque flourishes in capital Palermo. Most larger towns offer interesting museums, but Etna and the Hellenic temples in Agrigento offer particularly unique sights.

Once known for smog, traffic and tacky architecture, Athens is a city reformed thanks to fortunes brought by the 2004 Summer Olympics. Spotless parks and streets, an ultra-modern metro, new motorways, an accessible airport and all signs in perfect English make the city easily negotiable. Meriting more than a stopover en route to the islands, sophisticated Athens sites include many pillars of Western history, from the Acropolis to the Temple of Olympian Zeus, as well as treasures in the National Archaeological Museum.

There are beaches for everyone on Paros—families, partiers, watersports enthusiasts, honeymooners. Anyone can find their perfect stretch of golden sand. The same breeze that rustles orange and pomegranate trees will power your kitesurfing or windsurfing session. In the capital city of Parikia, make sure to pay your respects at the Byzantine “church of 100 doors” (Panagia Ekatontapillani) and visit the seaside ruins of a medieval castle built from the marble remains of an ancient temple.

A boisterous port city on the surface, this urban capital of Crete hides millennia of history beneath its modern trappings. In Heraklion, scooters zip past Minoan and medieval relics such as the seaside Koules Fortress, while Turkish fountains bubble up in the shadow of apartment blocks.

Mombasa, with a population of 900,000, is no sleepy seaside village. Its beachfront hotels appeal to travellers in search of sun, sand and surf, while its Arab, Indian and colonial European heritage makes for a wide variety of sights to see. Can't find a taxi? Travel by tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled auto rickshaw.