GREECE

Land of conquerors and vacationers, nothing beats the Greek islands for those looking for a beach chair with a sea attached. Corfu, off Greece’s northwest coast in the Ionian Sea, is, perhaps the most rugged of these places, Poseidon’s chosen spot for a honeymoon and the launching of the Phaeacian race. The subsequent years spent under Venetian, French and British flags before uniting with Greece in 1864 make Corfu as culturally compelling as it is dazzling with all its siren-studded coves calling from the distance.