Roughly as big as Hertfordshire or Surrey, the island of Lesbos – Greece’s third largest – sits more than 12 hours by ferry from Athens, just off the coast of Turkey.
Consequently, it was at the centre of the 2015 migrant crisis, and still hosts migrant camps. It doesn’t see hordes of tourists, however, said Antonia Quirke in Condé Nast Traveller, and has a refreshing lack of the upmarket shops and general “swank” that are found elsewhere in the Aegean.
Its capital, Mytilene, is a working port town, home to 60,000 people, with a “relaxed and egalitarian thrum”, and its villages have a “robustly blue- collar” air. You might not describe the island as “pretty”, but I would say it is better than that – it’s “magnificent”: wild mountains, ancient ruins, glorious coast. Mytilene is peppered with the ornate mansions of 19th-century olive-oil merchants. And Lesbos is a paradise for nature lovers, too. In the fourth century BC, Aristotle stayed for two years, studying the island’s plants and animals. Its wildflowers are still wondrously various, as are its birds, especially in spring and autumn, when a host of species (including ibis and flamingo) pass through.
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And then there are the beaches. For a “bohemian” vibe, head to Eressos, birthplace of the poet Sappho, whose verses “eroticised” women (hence “lesbian”). At the pebbled beach of Skala Sikamineas, the water is amazingly clear, and the beaches on the nearby Tokmakia Islands have sand as white as in the Maldives. Pottering around the island, you frequently come across signs to “mysterious” ancient sites – a Byzantine fortress here, a Roman aqueduct there.
And there are some lovely places to stay, including the “smart” wooden cabins of Five Olive Dream Trip, and villas such as the “gorgeously restored” former house of the writer Tasos Athanasiadis, which has high ceilings and many paintings and books, and commands an “addictive” view over Mytilene towards the coast of Turkey. Rental enquiries can be made through Five Star Greece.
