July-August are by far the busiest months in Europe for travel. The Greek islands are overrun with visitors at this time so finding a quiet place is difficult, although not impossible. You'd have to focus your search on the 'out-of-the-way' islands that don't have the same attractions as the more popular ones in the Cyclades group such as Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Ios and Naxos. Concentrate on Anafi, Antiparos, Folegandros, Sikinos and Amorgos as possible destinations. These are all accessible by ferry from Athens/Piraeus. You can also fly to Santorini and catch a ferry from there.

My friends on Antiparos tell me it's mad in Jul and Aug. I was there at the end of Aug last year, and can attest it was very crowded.

As a rule, the harder to reach, the quieter the island. The ones with the best beaches are the busiest. Amorgos, Folegandros, Sikinos, and Anafi don't have airports or daily ferry connections, as far as I know, so that keeps them quieter. You can still reach them, but it requires careful planning. Milos might be another possibility. It has an airport and daily highspeed ferries, but doesn't get as many tourists as the central Cyclades islands.

Cyprus is a package holiday destination, so except for the Turkish controlled northern sector will be extremely crowded.

To me, if you want beaches Mikonos, but crowded the most of the time but if you prefer beautiful views Santorini, I heart Santorini, and especially book a hotel on the Caldera side of the island, in Imerovigli for example, not crowded like fira really nice and peaceful and just relax or in Oia, the most beautiful village I have ever seen,
Of course there are a lot of beautiful islands in Greece but to me the most spectacular is Santorini, you never forget it.
And about Crete,it is very far away from Athens, one full night on a ferry, don,t go to heraklion it is realy ugly but Chania is really nice if you want to go to Crete.

StefandSara: for beaches, Mykonos cannot be beat! While July is the high season, there are many beaches which remain quiet and family oriented despite the crowds (stay away from the big, famous beaches like Paradise and Super Paradise) For the most part, the quieter beaches are found to the North..where it is admittedly somewhat more windy. For privacy, a villa would be your best bet, but you will be hard pressed to find one located directly on the beach...unlike the Caribbean, this sort of real estate really doesn't exist on Mykonos. Keep in mind the size of Mykonos: driving the perimeter will take only 1/2 hour, so everything is within easy reach. Mykonos is also well located for day trips to the surrounding islands.

There are beautiful beaches on almost every island in Greece during the summer. That is why there are so many tourists!

If you are looking for someplace a little off the beaten path, and don't care about trendy nightlife, you might want to look at northern Aegean islands such as Lesbos and Chios. Both are gorgeous, and very pleasant and relaxing places to spend time. Both have incredibly beautiful beaches. The food in this region of Greece, and particularly the seafood, is wonderful.

Matt Barrett has written a lot about Lesbos, and these writings may interest you: http://www.lesvos.com/
He has great pictures of the beaches of Lesbos. If you click on the "houses and villas" link, you may see a rental that interests you.

PS: The villas Barrett has on his site come from www.villasofgreece.com. If you click on the link for "eastern Aegean islands," there is good information about Chios, Lesvos, and the other northeastern Aegean islands.

Mainland Greece has beautiful beaches. I like the area of Pelion and the beach at Mylopotamos is very beautiful, with clear water and marble pebble beach. There are other beaches nearby, Papa Nero, Damouchari, Fakistra. The area is very green even during the summer and has dramatic landscape.

There seems to be a bit of buzz about the Cape Verde islands at the moment, off the African coast.

Beautiful beaches?

Turkey.

And I was going to suggest gorgeous Kenya. It's c. 8 hours from London but as you are in Eire (I assume) it's outside your time frame. Shame.

Greek Islands are lovely but July is not the time to go. Does it have to be July? are you a teacher?

Thanks for everyone's replies. Lots of food for thought.

July is the most convenient month for us, also there's a week that encompasses both my husbands and my birthdays, when we were planning to go. But it sounds like Greece in July might not be our cup of tea. Maybe we should try for September instead, or think elsewhere...

If it was just us, we'd love to go to a tiny, hard-to-find island, but travelling with an infant I think will be harder. I will investigage lesbos/Chios.

I've been intrigued by Cape Verde, but the little research I've done doesn't make it sound very appealing. Anyone have any tips?

Where in Turkey would I go for a beach holiday?

Cabo Verde is not an easy destination. For independent travel you need a lot of time. I visited Sal, San Vicente, Santo Antao and Santiago. I loved Santo Antao where I stayed in the mountains, in hotel Pedracine. Forget about Sal. It´s a desert. But good for windsurfers and kiters.
Gaspard
P.S. In Greece I like Sifnos (architecture), Milos (stayed there in a windmill) and Syros. This year I´ll try Kythira and Evia.

Sometimes I think the summer crowds in Greece are overstated but maybe it depends on where you're from and what you're used to. July and August may be the most crowded time to go but you can always find somewhere peaceful. For a family oriented holiday, I would vote for Naxos. There is plenty to do on the island and with a car, you can escape. My husband and I visited Amorgos last summer and we both loved it. It had a real hippy vibe (it felt very 1970s), a good beach and plenty of restaurants that were never full in the evenings. We rented a car and drove from one tip of the island to the other and it was so empty! We sat next to a young French family one afternoon at lunch and the mother, who was breastfeeding, was the picture of relaxation. The links to the island aren't bad. When we went to the ferry office, we did notice that there were far more boats on offer than was posted on the ferry schedule website. However, you may feel more comfortable on, say, Naxos where there are more scheduled boat options. I would definitely vote for the Greek Islands (even Crete, which is superb). You won't regret it.

You could also consider the Canary Islands. Some have beautiful white beaches - other balck beaches, others hardly any beaches. Early July is preferable to late July as less schools are on holiday then, but June or September would be better still.

Or The Gambia maybe?

Because of my ongoing love affair with Crete that's probably where I'd go.

But if I wanted to go somewhere new, I would probably try the Atlantic coast of France or the Basque coast of Spain. Or Morocco.

Agree, Sheila - if you want more than beach - but those Atlantic rollers are very different from the Cariribean.

The best tip I can give you, OP, is to get yourselves down to a travel agent and pick up some brochures. See what you fancy.

Greece in September is infinitely preferable to July, and Lesbos is lovely.

I can recommend Naxos. It is not as touristy as some of the other Greek islands. It is a more traditional Greek island. You can also hire a car and drive round the island. It has some fabulous beaches Ag Prokopios, Ag Anna. We stayed at the Kavos Hotel in Ag Prokopios for one week in early July. I wished we could have stayed for two it was fantastic there website is www.kavos-naxos.com