The Basics

Ikaria Page 1

Long and narrow with an often cloudy, mountainous backbone (up to 1000 m in elevation) Ikaria, with a population of 9100, is divided into northern and southern sections. Quite fertile, there are many pine and cypress trees as well as fruit and olive trees within its land mass of 255 sq. km and its coastline of 102 km. It lies 10 nautical miles southwest of Samos and is 114 nautical miles from Piraeus.

It posseses the most beneficial thermal springs in Europe. The best beaches are on the north coast. The islands apricot harvest is particularly favorful. Many still say that apricots from here are the best ever tasted.

Island Features

If you are looking for a different type of island you should visit Ikaria. The island was a place of banishment for leftist dissidents during right-wing Greek regimes. It has definitely soaked up the liberal spirit–not just politically but in its daily life. Greeks are the primary visitors and many of them come to visit the island's thermal springs.

The wooded north has better sandy beaches. The more rugged south has pebbly beaches and rocks, and many mountain springs. It's often windy here. Some say it was the blustering wind, not the sun, that brought Icarus down here.

Ikaria is sometimes held up as a model of environmental and economic sustainability. Part of the reason this is possible is that tourism is fairly irrelevant here.

More Ikaria page: 1 | 2 | 3