The NorthEast Aegean Greek Holiday Island of Samos has probably got all you could wish for whilst on
your holidays - good reliable weather, excellent beaches, marvellous scenery for a day out
touring or sightseeing on the island - and the islanders
we met whilst out and about were extremely freindly and welcoming.Samos Island has excellent tavernas with good, simple and in-exspensive food - and equally importantly for us at least has great tracks and paths available for a day's out walking too. There is nothing better than a day out hill and path walking followed by a nice swim and sunbathe on a nudist beach before heading back for an evening out in a freindly taverna. Kokkari. We stayed for two weeks in Kokkari during June 2000 and really loved the place. It has two stoney beaches and a working fishing harbour which is surrounded by numerous tavernas, bars, shops and lots of alleys. |
Whilst on holiday on Samos a really excellent way to finish off the day's walking or beaching and sunbathing is to take a slow meander around the harbour, eventually spending a few hours eating and drinking some wine at one of the excellent tavernas and then having another meander around - totally relaxing. Kokkari is also a very good start off point for many walks some of which we have described on our walks pages - see below for a page link.
Samos Town lies to the east of Kokkari. The town is split into two in that the "new" part is centred round the harbour and has the usual tavernas and shops, whilst the "old" part - which is called Vathi - this is situated more on the hillside and you will discover the traditional Greek Island type of narrow winding paved streets and alleys here.
Leaving Samos town heading eastwards the road winds up to the Monastery of Zoodochou Pigis. (You will find many monasteries named Zoodochou Pigis all round the Greek Islands - the name translates to "Life Giving Source" i.e. a water supply.)
The road then goes back down to B. Mourtia where there is a small fishing harbour.
On the south coast there is another delightful little village and a harbour at Posidonio where you will find several tavernas - also perhaps of particular interest is just how close you are to Turkey here. This is a really lovely little spot to stop off for meandering and of course a drink etc. There is a sandy beach at Psili Amos but the area was crawling with cars and bikes and in the end we gave up trying to get onto it. There is a largish lake near here called Alyki Wetland - which is also known as Flamingo Lake - however there were two problems here, firstly the lake had virtually dried up (we were there in June so prhaps not a real surprise) thus no flamingos were around and secondly there were odds and ends of rusty and brocken looking Greek military vehicles scattered around and plenty of "no photograph" signs. This was somewhat surprising since all around there were also signs of quite a bit of holiday apartment building going on - presumably one or the other will win out...
Pythagirio is further along the south coast and is very much one of Samos's main holiday and tourist locations - the town has a harbour and plenty of tavernas, shops and accomodation. There is a sandy beach starting here which proceeds along the coast and runs alongside Samos's airport at one point. There is a track alongside the beach which is driveable but this becomes a dead end (at least it was but who knows what the bulldozers have been up to..). At the other end of the beach is a small fishing village called Ireo - again lots of tavernas and accommodation.
Around a kilometre
heading west out of Kokkari
you will see a parking area and taverna at the top of a hill - if you take the
steep path down from here you come to a split beach called Tsamadou, the left
hand side is for those who are shy and the right hand side is for us nudists who
like to globally warm ourselves as much as possible.
The beach is composed of heavy pebble - and note these pebbles become very hot at times
so take flipflops - there are sun-chairs and umbrellas
available on the beach at a reasonable price and there is also a small taverna
where you can buy cold drinks, snacks and so on. Continuing west on the road you pass the junctions for Vourliotes and
Manolates (mentioned on our
Samos Walks Page) before coming to the fishing harbour of agh. Konstantinos -
another small Samos fishing village. Towards the end of this village is a side road which
leads to the Byzantine Church of Ag Konstantinos. Another
small road a little further out of the fishing harbour leads you to Stavrinades -
also mentioned as visited on part of a walk described on our Samos Walks page.
Back on the road heading west you pass the church of Agh. Dimitrios before arriving at
the largish town of Karlovasi and after that Potami. At Potami there is a marked
track to the Byzantine church - the track continues past the church and follows
the stream inland - apparently this eventually leads to some waterfalls but you do have to swim to get to them.
The road through Potami continues for a little while but then the tarmac surface
ends and the road becomes a track - you can park around here and we have another walk
giving some information on this on our walks page linked just below
Please take a look at our Samos Walks Topic - lots of Photos as well as walks on the Island.
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External Links
Samos by Greeka
Samos Greece Travel Guide from Greek Island Postcards