Santorini is one of the most photographed places on Earth. Antiparos is not. This, in the most compressed form available, is the comparison — and it tells you nearly everything you need to decide which island is right for you.

What Santorini actually is

Santorini is a geological event that happens to be inhabited. The caldera — the submerged remnant of a volcanic explosion in roughly 1600 BCE, one of the largest in recorded history — is a near-circular bay of extraordinary depth and colour, ringed by cliffs of white houses, churches, and hotels. The famous sunsets from Oia are not a cliché because they have been photographed too many times. They are a cliché because they are genuinely magnificent, and the photograph only approximates what the actual sunset looks like when you are standing there watching the disc drop into the caldera.

Santorini is spectacular. It is also, in July and August, extremely full. The cruise ships that anchor in the caldera in peak season are visible from every hotel terrace — dozens of them, sometimes, at anchor simultaneously, emptying thousands of people into the narrow lanes of Oia and Fira. The queues for the famous sunset point extend for hundreds of metres. The restaurants require advance booking; the hotel prices are among the highest in the Mediterranean.

None of this makes Santorini a bad place to visit. It makes it a specific place to visit — one that delivers a particular, very powerful experience in exchange for accepting certain conditions.

What Antiparos actually is

Antiparos is a small island without a dramatic landscape. There is no volcanic crater. There is no sunset point famous the world over. There is a village, a cave, empty beaches, and a rocky island visible to the southwest with an ancient temple on it that most people have never heard of.

The landscape of Antiparos is beautiful in a minor key — low hills of scrub and stone, a few olive groves, a coastline of small coves and pale limestone cliffs. Nothing announces itself. Everything rewards looking closely.

The island has about 1,500 permanent residents. In peak summer, the population swells, but even at its fullest it remains a quiet place. The main square has a few cafés. The tavernas are simple. The port is small enough that you can see from one end to the other.

The beaches

Santorini's beaches are volcanic — black and red sand, dramatic against the dark cliffs but hotter underfoot and steeper than the sandy Mediterranean beaches most people picture. Perissa and Perivolos are the main beach strips, organised with sun loungers and beach bars. They are perfectly pleasant, but they are not the reason most people come to Santorini.

Antiparos's beaches — particularly Faneromeni in the south — are the reason many people come to Antiparos. Fine sand, shallow clear water, and an almost complete absence of facilities. In September, you may find yourself alone on a kilometre of beach. In August, you will share it with perhaps 30 to 50 other people. This is not a comparison Santorini can make.

Cost

Both islands are expensive by Greek standards. Santorini has pushed prices higher because the demand for caldera-view rooms substantially exceeds the supply of them — a room looking directly into the caldera in high season routinely costs €600 to €1,000 per night or more. Away from the caldera, prices fall, but the most famous hotels and restaurants remain among the most expensive in Europe.

Antiparos is expensive at the luxury end — private villa accommodation reflects the scarcity of high-quality supply — but remains substantially more affordable than Santorini at every other level. A good meal for two in a taverna will cost €50 to €70. A simple studio costs €100 to €150 per night. You are not paying for the spectacle of being at a famous place; you are paying for the quality of the experience itself.

Who each island is for

Santorini is for people who want to see one of the most extraordinary natural and man-made landscapes in the Mediterranean, who want a world-class wine programme (the island's Assyrtiko vines are among the oldest and most distinctive in Europe), who want excellent restaurants, and who have accepted that all of this comes with crowds and cost. Come in May or October if you want Santorini without its worst excesses.

Antiparos is for people who want the Cyclades without the performance of the Cyclades. It is for the person who has been to Santorini, loved the view, and found themselves wishing the lane in Oia was a little less photographed. It is for the person who does not need the most famous island — who would rather have something slightly harder to find, more genuinely theirs, less curated for an audience.

The honest comparison

Santorini has better sunsets. Antiparos has better swimming. Santorini has more restaurants with international ambitions. Antiparos has better fish tavernas. Santorini is easier to reach. Antiparos requires more effort to get to, and this is why it remains the way it is.

The two islands are about three hours apart by ferry. They are not in competition because they are not offering the same thing. What they offer is, in almost every meaningful way, the opposite of each other. Which of those opposites is the right one depends entirely on the person asking.

People who choose Antiparos and understand what they are choosing rarely wish they had chosen somewhere more famous. The island has a way of making that kind of wish seem beside the point.

More on the comparison: Antiparos vs Mykonos. Or, if Antiparos is already the answer: when to go.