Limnos

ΑAn island that farms

Limnos does not look like the Greece on the posters. It is large, low and open, more wheat and barley than olive and pine, with volcanic rock pushing through the fields and long empty horizons in every direction. The west, around the harbour town of Myrina, is hilly; the centre is almost flat and split nearly in two by the huge bay of Moudros; the north-east is a moonscape of weathered lava and sand. There are no mountains to stop the wind, which is why the island grows what it grows and why windsurfers keep coming back.

ΒMyrina, the castle and the deer

Myrina is the kind of port town that justifies a week on its own: a Byzantine and Genoese castle on a headland splitting the town into two beaches, neoclassical houses along Romeikos Gialos, a fishing harbour on the other side, and a bazaar street of stone shops between them. Fallow deer live inside the castle walls and come out at dusk, which makes the twenty-minute climb a fixed item on everyone's first evening. Below the walls, the Archaeological Museum holds the finds from the island's four excavated ancient sites.

ΓDeep history, thinly visited

Poliochni, on the east coast, is one of the oldest excavated settlements in Europe — occupied from before 3000 BC, with streets, a drainage system and a hall that has been read as an early assembly building, all of it older than the Troy you can see across the water. Hephaistia was the island's main ancient city and keeps a theatre looking out over the bay. The Kabeirion, on a headland further north, ran a mystery cult related to the one on Samothraki, and the cave of Philoctetes below it is where Homer's abandoned archer is said to have waited out the Trojan War. You will usually have all three to yourself.

ΔBeaches, and how to pick one

The south-west coast around Myrina has the easy ones: Platy and Thanos are broad crescents of sand with tavernas and sunbeds, and Riha Nera in town is shallow enough for toddlers. Evgatis, a little further south, is the one islanders name first. The north and east are wilder and often windier: Gomati has genuine desert dunes, Keros is a wide shallow bay that has become a serious windsurfing and kitesurfing spot, and Plaka sits at the far north-eastern tip. On a windy day, cross the island: there is always a sheltered coast.

ΕEating and drinking

This is a food island. Look for kalathaki Limnou, a PDO sheep and goat cheese sold in its little basket, melipasto, and flomari, the thick local pasta. The vineyards matter too: Limnio is one of the oldest named Greek grape varieties and the island's Muscat of Alexandria has its own PDO — the Chatzigeorgiou winery near Kontopouli receives visitors. In Myrina, O Platanos and Riza are the reliable tables; at Varos Village inland you eat where you sleep.

ΣΤGetting there

Limnos has an airport (LXS) with flights from Athens and Thessaloniki and some seasonal links; ferries run from Kavala and Lavrio and on the North Aegean line that connects Lesvos and Chios, so the island fits an island-hopping route northwards. From Romania, the practical options are a flight via Athens or Thessaloniki, or driving to Kavala and taking the boat — the same road people use for Thassos. See ferries and from Romania. On the island you need a car: distances are real and the bus is built around school runs.

ΖWho it is for

Families who want sand without a resort, people who like wine, cheese and empty roads, windsurfers, and anyone who finds ancient sites better without a queue. Skip it if you want nightlife, dramatic cliffs or a short transfer from a beach to a bar. Moudros Bay, incidentally, was the Allied base for the Gallipoli campaign, and the armistice with the Ottoman Empire was signed there in 1918 — the war cemeteries around the bay are quiet, well kept and rarely visited.