Samos

Samos is one of the few Greek islands where you can take a boat to Turkey for the day. The strait between Pythagoreio and the Turkish coast is barely a mile wide, and the daily passenger ferry to Kuşadası takes about 90 minutes. From there it is a half-hour drive to Ephesus, the most extensive standing classical city in the Mediterranean. Most guests fold the trip into a Samos itinerary; some make it the reason to come.

The island has impressive ancient sites of its own. Pythagoras was born here around 570 BC, and the modern town of Pythagoreio is named after him. The Tunnel of Eupalinos was dug under a hill in the sixth century BC to bring water from a spring on the far side into the ancient city. It is one of the most remarkable works of engineering to survive from antiquity. It runs for over a kilometre and was dug from both ends at once, and the two crews met in the middle with only a small error in alignment. It was UNESCO-listed in 1992, and you can walk most of its length.

The Heraion, a vast sanctuary of Hera near the village of Ireon, was once among the largest temple complexes in the Greek world. A single restored column stands on the site today. The fields around it hold the foundation outlines of buildings around ten times the size of the Parthenon. The Archaeological Museum in Samos town holds the colossal kouros, a statue of a standing youth, that once stood at the sanctuary entrance.

A few practical notes. Samian Muscat, the sweet, honeyed wine made here since antiquity, is the thing to bring home, rather than ouzo. Mount Kerkis rises over the western half of the island and is mostly pine forest; if you walk it, take a guide. Pythagoreio is the harbour for the Turkey ferry. Vathy, on the northern coast, is the larger commercial port and has a more workaday feel. Three or four nights suits the island.

House Notes

  1. Arrival

    Samos Airport “Aristarchos of Samos” lies 5 km west of Pythagoreio and also serves Vathy. Fraport runs the airport, which has a single 2,100 m runway. Aegean and Sky Express fly the Athens leg in about an hour.

  2. The address

    Two hotels suit two kinds of stay. Doryssa Theorem, a refurbished neoclassical building in the centre of Pythagoreio, is for a town stay close to the harbour and the ferry. Proteas Blu Resort, on the south-eastern tip below Pythagoreio, has two naturally secluded coves and the ΘαλαSEA fish and oyster restaurant, for guests who want the bay rather than the village.

  3. The Eupalinos

    The Tunnel of Eupalinos is a 1,036-metre aqueduct through Mount Kastro, built in the mid-6th century BC by the engineer Eupalinos of Megara. The Ephorate of Antiquities of Samos and Ikaria runs three visiting routes: Route 1 covers 185 metres for parties of 20, Route 2 covers 424 metres for parties of 15, and the full traverse takes parties of 10. Helmets are mandatory, under-14s are not admitted, and the narrow corridor is 1.55 m high and 0.55 m wide.

  4. The Heraion

    The temple lies 6 kilometres south-west of Pythagoreio at the village of Ireon, in the low, marshy basin where the Imbrasos river enters the sea. Its Polykratean phase, from the mid-6th century BC, measured 108.6 by 55.2 metres on plan with 115 columns, and the standing column shaft survived because the sailors of Samos used it as a navigation mark. The site opens from 8.30am to 3.30pm, closes on Tuesdays and was listed by UNESCO in 1992 together with Pythagoreion.

  5. The kouros at Vathy

    The colossal kouros of Samos, a statue of a standing youth 5.25 m tall, is the largest kouros surviving from Archaic Greece and stands in the New Wing of the Archaeological Museum at Vathy. Dedicated by one Isches, son of Rhesis, it was found in September 1980 on the Sacred Way at the Heraion; the head was recovered four years later and the figure reassembled. The museum opens daily except Tuesday, from 8.30am to 3.30pm.

  6. Malagari

    The Union of Vinicultural Cooperatives of Samos was founded in 1934 and gathers grapes from 26 local cooperatives. Its principal winery and the Samos Wine Museum stand together at Malagari, on the road into Vathy, and the museum opens from 1 April to the end of October with a tasting of four wines. Ask for Anthemis, aged five years in oak, or Nectar, a sun-dried Muscat from the best parcels, aged three years in cask.

  7. The kitchens

    Pera Vrysi, at the entrance to Vourliotes by the old plane tree and the natural spring, keeps to the village style: barrel wine, generous portions and the tables the islanders themselves use. To Tigani tis Plateias, on Eirini Square in Pythagoreio, serves modern Samian cooking, where chef Makis Vakras braises beef cheek in Fokiano and bakes lamb in white Muscat. For home cooking, Zoi Tzereta cooks her mother Elisavo’s recipes at Alisavo in Vathy.

  8. Above Vourliotes

    The terraced White Muscat vineyards climb the northern slope of Mount Ampelos to 900 m. Wine Route 6 of the Samian Wine Digital Routes follows the villages of Manolates (380 m), Ampelos (300 m) and Stavrinides along 16 km of switchback road through dense alpine cover. Settlers from Smyrna founded Vourliotes in the 17th century, and the 16th-century Monastery of Vronta, the oldest on the island, stands 2 kilometres south-east of the village.

  9. The Kuşadası crossing

    Meander Travel has run the passenger crossing between Pythagoreio and Kuşadası daily since 1977, from 1 April to 31 October. Most days in season there are two sailings, the first around 9am and the return in the late afternoon, on the Kusadasi Express or the Meander Express, and the crossing of the strait takes 90 minutes. The boats carry foot passengers only, not vehicles, and the drive from Kuşadası to Ephesus takes half an hour.

  10. Megalo Seitani

    The protected north-western coast is one of the few remaining nesting waters of the Mediterranean monk seal, and its Natura 2000 site takes in Mount Kerkis, Mikro and Megalo Seitani and the Kakoperato gorge. Megalo Seitani is reached only on foot from Potami, by the marked Samos Route 1 (3.8 km, the better part of two hours), or by tender, a yacht’s small boat. There is no road, kitchen or service, so bring water and leave nothing behind.

Anchorage Notes

  1. Pythagoreio

    Pythagoreio, in the southeast, keeps the ancient harbour of Samos and its great mole, or harbour wall, which the tyrant Polycrates built in the sixth century BC. Herodotus named the mole among the three greatest works of the Greek world, and it still shelters the fishing boats. Beside it, Samos Marina takes 280 boats up to 25 metres and megayachts up to 50, so a yacht lies where Polycrates’s fleet once did, below the birthplace of Pythagoras.

  2. Vathy

    Vathy, also called Samos Town, is the capital and the main passenger port, at the head of a deep bay on the northeast coast, and it has been the seat of government since the island was a principality. A yacht lies below the town, which rises like an amphitheatre, and the Harbour Master and the customs hall for arrivals from outside the EU are both here. It is the island’s working port, for ferries and trade, and less ordered than the marina.

  3. Karlovasi

    Karlovasi, in the northwest, is the island’s second town and commercial centre. It was once a tannery and tobacco town, and its neoclassical mansions and large stone factories still stand along the Ormos seafront, while the science school of the University of the Aegean keeps 1,000 students here through the year. A yacht lies at the working port, the least touristic of the island’s harbours.

  4. Kokkari

    Kokkari sits on a small peninsula on the north coast, 10 kilometres from the capital: a fishing harbour turned resort, with a quay on one side, a pebble beach on the other and green mountains behind. The coves of Tsamadou, Tsambou and Lemonakia lie along the shore to the west. A yacht lies off this two-sided headland, the most photographed village on this coast of Samos.

Mythology

  1. Hera

    Samos claimed that Hera was born under a willow beside the river Imbrasos, and worshipped her at one of the greatest sanctuaries in the Greek world. The Heraion there held the 1.92-metre Kore of Samos, a statue given in the sixth century BC by Cheramyes and now in the Louvre.

  2. The Heraion of Samos

    The Heraion of Samos stands beside the river Imbrasos, where the people of Samos placed the birth of Hera beneath a sacred tree. Its foundations keep the remains of temple after temple, including the huge Ionic building begun under Polycrates and left unfinished.