Vacation plans

In September I'll finally fulfill an ambition I've had for more than 10 years: Go Back to Greece. I have my plane ticket, but no other concrete plans yet. One of the places I'd really like to visit is Karpathos, a Dodecanese island northeast of Crete, where ladies in the village of Olympos still dress like this:




In typical Lonely Planet fashion, my guidebook bemoans the transformation of the villages into a "kitsch eco-Disney." But is there some superior alternative?