Moudros, Kontopouli & the east

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.

The coast here is wilder and often windier than the west. Keros is a wide shallow bay that has become a serious windsurfing and kitesurfing spot, Gomati has genuine desert dunes, and Plaka sits at the far north-eastern tip. On a windy day, cross the island: there is always a sheltered coast.

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, and at Varos Village inland you eat where you sleep. 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.