Lesbos – Greek Aegean Island of Sappho and Ouzo

The Greek Island of Lesbos Resorts and Beaches Guide

Oct 12, 2009

Greece's third largest island has space enough to soak up the summer tourists without ever feeling busy. And the country's best ouzo and olive oil go down nicely too.

Laid-back resorts, decent beaches, traditional villages and ancient monasteries make a winning combination on Lesbos. Add to these its reputation for producing the finest olive oil and ouzo in Greece, and you have a truly memorable North-east Aegean island.

Greek Aegean island of Lesbos - Best Beach Resort Bases

Skala Eressou is a place of pilgrimage for lesbians coming to visit the birthplace of the poetess Sappho. The focus is a cracking long beach with a buzzing strip of bars and restaurants on wooden decking over the sand. Daytime chill-out music cranks up into pumping dance beats after dark, so a hotel away from the beachside bedlam is recommended for light sleepers.

Molivos is a real delight. Beneath the ruins of Genoese fortress are cobbled lanes of shops shaded by vine canopies with the flavour of a Moroccan souk. Cafes in Ottoman-style wooden houses perch high above the bay, looking to their spiritual home in Turkey. Tavernas with tables smack on the waterside make the harbour a magnet for laid-back, civilised evenings. A pebbly beach is the only let down.

Petra means ‘rock’, and it’s evident how this stone-built town of skinny cobbled streets got its name: it clusters at the base of a lonely pinnacle skewering an 18th-century church. In the town church of Agios Nikolaos are sublime 16th-century frescoes ignored by sunseekers sizzling on the kilometre-long crescent of smooth dusky sand. In the evening, friendly little bars and tavernas set out alfresco tables for a convivial mix of tourists and locals.

Sigri, a sleepy fishing village complete with an 18th-century Turkish fort, has slowly morphed towards becoming a resort. It’s pefect for switching off and de-stressing. Why? - because there’s nothing else to do. The offshore islet of Nissiopi shelters a sand and pebble beach, and dusty tracks lead to a string of small beaches along the coast.

Lesbos main port and island capital Mytilini wouldn't win any beauty prizes but its chaotic jumble of streets is worth poking around for a day. Ermou, the main shopping street is a fascinating bazaar-like tangle of quirky shops from another era - dust-shrouded curios, old-fashioned bakers and street-corner grocers with stacks of ouzo, olive oil and white drums of feta.

The landmark dome of Agios Therapon, laden inside with boatloads of gilt frippery, is worth a visit, as are the icons of the nearby Byzantine Museum. Best of all is the dry-sounding Archaeological Museum: it houses gorgeous figurines and artefacts from excavations around Lesbos, and a superb mosaic of Orpheus charming animals with his lyre.

Out of town is the Teriade Museum, a treasure trove of work by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Miro bequeathed by wealthy art publisher Stratis Eleftheriades to his native island in an improbable location off the airport road . If the bustle of Mytilini has taken its toll, two heavenly beaches, complete with a taverna on the sand await along the road at Agios Ermogenis, where a white chapel perches on headland.

South of Mitilini, Lesbos’ most charming inland town, Agiassos, is at its best in the afternoon when the bus tours have gone, and it's once again a pleasure to wander its vine-canopied streets, browsing dusty little workshops that turn out wood carvings and hand-painted pottery. The pilgrimage church of Panagia houses an icon of the Virgin supposedly made by St Luke.

Skala Sikaminias in the north is the quintessential postcard-perfect Greek fishing village. A tiny chapel overlooks a row of blue and white boats, octopus are pegged out on lines to dry in the sun, and boats land boxes of tangled tentacles and slithery snapper - unbeatably fresh ingredients for a leisurely lunch in the shade of mulberry trees outside one of the quayside tavernas.

Plomari, an offbeat town of crumbling 19th-century mansions with wooden Ottoman-style balconies is renowned for its ouzo distilleries. The odd waft of aniseed perfumes a stroll between the quayside palms and a cluster of tavernas huddled in the shade of a colossal plane tree.

In the west of Lesbos, two monasteries are worth a visit. At tranquil Perivoli, a barn-like chapel sits shaded by ancient walnut trees; inside there’s a hellfire-and-damnation 16th-century fresco of the Judgement Day with apocalyptic imagery worthy of Hieronymus Bosch.

Perched atop Mt Ordymnos, Ipsilou merits a trip for a stunning panorama and ragtag museum of ecclesiastical what-nots. A few chunks of fossilised tree are propped around the leafy courtyard – they come from the nearby petrified forest, where more stumps await inspection in a parched and mercilessly exposed landscape.

As Lesbos is not in the mainstream of Greek Island holidays, it's worth finding a Greek specialist operator to organise a package trip. The Association of Independent Tour Operators website can offer plenty of help. Independent travellers can find direct charter flights with Thomsonfly. Scheduled flights connect via Athens to Lesbos.

The copyright of the article Lesbos – Greek Aegean Island of Sappho and Ouzo in Greece Travel is owned by Michael Pedley. Permission to republish Lesbos – Greek Aegean Island of Sappho and Ouzo in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.