Every destination guide compares areas on verifiable facts — beach character, transfer times, walkability, peace — so you can pick the right base before you pick the villa. One coast at a time, done properly.
Lagos vs Albufeira vs Carvoeiro vs Vilamoura vs Tavira — five very different stretches of Britain's best-loved villa coast, compared on facts. Plus who operates there and the beach-distance trap to avoid.
Read the Algarve guide →
Pollença vs Sóller vs the south-west vs the east-coast calas vs the rural centre — five islands in one, plus the finca question the brochures gloss over.
Read the Mallorca guide →
The north-east villa heartland vs the family north coast vs Paxos by boat — where the specialists concentrate their hand-picked stock, and the sand trap to know about.
Read the Corfu guide →
Chianti vs the Val d'Orcia vs Lucca vs the coast — and the honest driving-time expectations from Pisa and Florence that decide how the whole week feels.
Read the Tuscany guide →
Chania vs Rethymnon vs Elounda vs the quiet south — Greece's biggest island is three different holidays, and the two-airport trap can cost you two hours each way.
Read the Crete guide →
The Jávea–Moraira–Calpe triangle vs the resort south — one coast, two entirely different holidays, and the villa stock concentrates in the pine-and-cove north.
Read the Costa Blanca guide →
Coral Bay vs the hillside villages vs the quiet Akamas north-west — a genuine year-round villa season, and the good stock west of the resort strip.
Read the Paphos guide →
Kassandra vs Sithonia — the first finger is closer and busier, the second is pine-and-cove country, and the third is a monastic republic. The quiet one is worth the extra half hour.
Read the Halkidiki guide →
The gentle Balearic: a whole-island Biosphere Reserve where nothing is much more than an hour from the airport — built for young families, honest about the missing nightlife.
Read the Menorca guide →
Catania side or Palermo side? Italy's biggest island is a two-airport decision — Taormina and the baroque south-east vs Cefalù and the salt-pan west, with honest driving expectations.
Read the Sicily guide →
The big southern Ionians, each with its own airport — Kefalonia's wild postcard cliffs vs Zakynthos' gentle family bays, with the turtle-bay honesty included.
Read the Kefalonia & Zakynthos guide →
Trulli and masserie in the Itria Valley vs the Salento sands — why the heel does farm-stay villas better than beaches, and which airport serves which half.
Read the Puglia guide →
Stone villas on two very different coasts — Istria's Italianate hills vs Dalmatia's islands — with honest pebble-beach expectations and August-crowd realism.
Read the Croatia guide →
Turkey's villa capital — rooftop terraces, gulet days and sea views that come with genuine hills. Honest about the gradients and the long Dalaman transfer.
Read the Kalkan guide →
The honest winter-sun bet: flights sold across the winter schedule, volcanic looks no other island has, and private-pool stock clustered around Playa Blanca.
Read the Lanzarote guide →
The Atlantic garden island — cliff villas, levada walks and a spring that never really ends, with honest notes on man-made beaches and serious gradients.
Read the Madeira guide →
The Dodecanese heavyweight — Lindos glamour, a medieval walled capital and a breezier west, with honest notes on wind, steps and which coast is actually calm.
Read the Rhodes guide →
The all-year giant — the sunny south vs the green north, and honest notes on which “villa” areas are really apartment country.
Read the Tenerife guide →
The celebrated vertical coastline — cliff villas, serious steps and ferries that beat the traffic, with honest fit-finding before the lemon groves.
Read the Amalfi Coast guide →
The Balearics' third act — rural fincas, pine-backed coves and the family east, with the party strip handled honestly as a fit question.
Read the Ibiza guide →
Andalucía's year-round mainland coast — the villa belts sit in the hills and golf valleys behind the famous strip, and that changes which base to book.
Read the Costa del Sol guide →
Some of the Mediterranean's clearest water — the Costa Smeralda scene against the better-value gulf, south and wild west, honestly compared.
Read the Sardinia guide →
Corralejo vs El Cotillo vs Caleta de Fuste vs Costa Calma vs the south — the Canaries' beach island compared honestly, wind and all, plus who actually operates there.
Read the Fuerteventura guide →
The Sporades pair compared: flight-served Skiathos vs ferry-only Skopelos, the thinnest specialist pool we track, and which island actually fits your holiday.
Read the Skiathos & Skopelos guide →
Lavender country vs the glitter coast: Luberon, Alpilles, St-Tropez and Nice compared on distances, crowds and where the pool villas really cluster.
Read the Provence guide →We publish a destination only when we've done the work — measured, checked and sourced. Next on the desk:
Mainland Greece's villa frontier — Messinia sands to Mani stone towers, with honest notes on drive times and where the beaches actually are.
Year-round sun and honey-stone farmhouses — with honest notes on small-island beaches, crowds and what "sea view" really means here.
The island's softest sands — compared honestly against the Paphos side we already cover, family strips, quiet coves and all.
Hand-checked, distance-measured villa cohorts are live in the villa finder for every destination below. Join the early list from any guide page and we'll send each destination as it goes live.