Samos

ΑGreen, steep and close to Asia

Samos is separated from Turkey by a strait less than two kilometres wide at its narrowest, and that proximity explains a great deal — the trade that made it rich in antiquity, the Anatolian touches in the food, the ferries that still cross to Kusadasi in season. It is also one of the greenest islands in the Aegean: two mountains, Ampelos in the middle and Kerkis in the west, hold enough rain to keep pine forest, vineyards and running water going through the summer. Wildfires have taken chunks of that forest in recent decades, and an earthquake in 2020 damaged buildings in the north; both are visible if you look.

ΒThe UNESCO pair

Pythagoreion and the Heraion were inscribed together on the World Heritage List in 1992, and they are a single argument about what a sixth-century BC tyrant could build. Polycrates ruled from the harbour town now named after Pythagoras, who was born here, and commissioned three works that Herodotus called the greatest in the Greek world: a mole still under the modern harbour, the enormous temple of Hera, and the Tunnel of Eupalinos — a kilometre-long aqueduct driven through a mountain from both ends at once, which met in the middle. You can walk a long section of it. Of the temple, one column stands out of a hundred and fifty-five.

ΓVathy, Pythagoreio and the villages

Vathy, officially Samos Town, climbs the slope around a deep bay in the north-east: a working capital with the archaeological museum and the five-metre kouros that is the largest surviving. Pythagoreio on the south coast is the pretty one, a yacht harbour with a castle, ruins at the edge of the pavement and the airport ten minutes away. Kokkari on the north coast is the old fishing village turned resort, and Karlovasi in the west is a university town with a tanning-industry past. Inland, Vourliotes, Manolates and Pyrgos sit in the chestnut forest on the flank of Ampelos.

ΔBeaches and walking

The north coast beaches are pebbles and very clear water: Tsamadou, Lemonakia and Tsabou in a row west of Kokkari, with Potami beyond Karlovasi next to a river gorge and a Byzantine chapel. The south has sand: Psili Ammos facing Turkey, and the long strip at Votsalakia under Mount Kerkis. The walking is the island's quiet strength — the Potami waterfalls, the coastal path to the protected Seitani coves where monk seals breed, and the chestnut villages linked by old kalderimia.

ΕMuscat, and what to eat

Samos is a wine name before it is a holiday name. The island's Muscat of Alexandria, grown on terraces up to eight hundred metres, has its own PDO, and the cooperative's wine museum outside Vathy explains the system and pours the range from dry to the fortified Nectar. On the table, expect more vegetables and herbs than on a dry island, good goat, and fish on both coasts. Loukoulos at Votsalakia and the tavernas along the Pythagoreio waterfront are the obvious tables.

ΣΤGetting there and around

Samos airport (SMI) takes seasonal charters from much of Europe and flights from Athens; there are three ferry ports, with Piraeus overnight services and the North Aegean line to Chios and Lesvos, plus the short crossing to Turkey. From Romania, assume a connection through Athens. See ferries and island hopping. On the island, rent a car: the roads are good but mountainous, the distances between the north and south coasts are real, and the best villages are up switchbacks the bus does not climb.

ΖWho it is for

People who want a Greek island with somewhere to walk and something to read about, families who like pine shade as much as sand, and anyone with an interest in wine. Skip it if you are after Cycladic whitewash or a party. July and August are hot and busy on the north coast; May, June, September and October are better, and the walking season runs from March.