Ikaria – Greece for True Island Escapists
The Greek Island of Ikaria Best Beaches and Resorts Guide
Oct 26, 2009
Ikaria is the most dramatic of the North Aegean islands, a craggy, wind-whipped little rock hemmed by precipitous cliffs, slashed by plunging gorges and crowned with mist-wreathed pine forest. Ikarians seem in no hurry to embrace mass tourism so it remains an unspoilt hideaway a world apart from the noisier neighbours Mykonos and Samos.
There is certainly less to see and do than on other nearby islands. No buzzing bars, no beat-pumping clubs, no beaches rammed shoulder to shoulder with holidaymakers checking each other out. So the party crowd head elsewhere, leaving Ikaria to those who seriously want to get away from it all, and are content with little more than superb beaches and lots of books.
Ikaria Best Beaches and Resorts
Armenistis is Ikaria’s largest resort, an intimate cluster of small hotels, rooms to rent and tavernas clinging to a rocky headland. Half-hearted construction work lends the place a rather unfinished air, but it’s a seductively casual, low-key hideout. Two heavenly soft sand beaches just a few minutes walk from the village once attracted hippies, but rows of loungers and straw sunshades have displaced the flower children.
Near Armenistis, Livadia beach is the best bit of sand on Ikaria for sizzling against a picture-perfect backdrop. When the winds whip the sea into action - which is most of the time - surfies hit the waves in search of a ride.
About 4km west of Armenistis down a narrow road, the ramshackle hamlet of Nas perches above a pebbly cove that is popular with butt-naked Germans, since it is Ikaria's unofficial naturist beach. A handful of tiny pensions and tavernas caters to the needs of well-heeled beach bums, offering tempting dishes of home-reared kid or chicken cooked in wood ovens.
Ikaria Sights Around the island
A nerve-wracking drive along 60km of snaking, chewed-up road climbing the island's mountainous spine separates Armenistis from the 'capital', Agios Kyrikos over on the south coast. A statue of test-pilot Icarus, the island’s namesake, sits on the harbour wall to greet newcomers fresh off the ferries.
To be honest, it is a bit of a one-horse town, but things perk up in the evening in Agios Kyrikos centre. The quayside cluster of cafes and tavernas comes alive with Greek families’ socialising boisterously, and the slap of backgammon counters echoing from kafeneion fraternities.
There’s no compelling reason to stay unless ferry schedules present no option, but it's worth clambering over a rough clifftop path to see the spa at Therma, a bizarre paint-flaking health resort frequented by elderly Greeks who wander around in bathrobes taking the cure at the radioactive springs.
Getting to Ikaria
Charter airlines such as Thomson fly direct from the UK, Holland and Germany throughout the summer season to the neighbouring island of Samos, from where daily ferries connect with Ikaria. Olympic Airlines operates daily flights direct from Athens to Ikaria.
 |
 |
