Lefkos is a relaxed seaside village on the west coast of Karpathos, built around three linked coves of pale sand and shallow. Clear water sheltered from the wind by low headlands and offshore islets. Once a quiet fishing settlement, properly called Kato Lefkos, it has grown into a low-key beach resort with tavernas. Rooms and … Read more
Kyra Panagia is one of the most photographed beaches on Karpathos, a semicircular cove of golden sand and pale pebble set between white cliffs. With luminous turquoise water and a little red-domed chapel perched above the sand. Fully organised yet still striking, it is the easiest of the island’s famous east-coast coves to reach and … Read more
Apella is the most celebrated beach on Karpathos, a cliff-framed cove on the east coast where white pebbles drop into water so clear the seabed shows metres down. Backed by a slope of pine and cedar and reached by a short walk from a car park above. It was once ranked among the most beautiful … Read more
The food of Karpathos grew out of a self-sufficient mountain economy, so it leans on grain, goat, cheese, honey and herbs rather than the fish of the ports. At its heart is makarounes, the hand-rolled pasta that appears on every menu. The island’s kitchen runs deeper: soft and salty cheeses. Slow-cooked goat, sweet, tiny shrimp, … Read more
Away from the coast, Karpathos keeps a string of old villages across its mountainous interior, each built inland and uphill to escape the pirate raids that once plagued the shore. Menetes, Aperi, Volada, Othos and Piles line a green ridge above the capital. Mesochori and Spoa cling to the slopes further north. Each guards its … Read more
Pigadia is the capital and main port of Karpathos, a working Greek harbour town set against rugged hills on the south-east coast. Built on the site of the ancient city of Poseidion, it is where the ferries dock, the excursion boats leave, and most visitors are based. It holds no grand monuments, and that plainness … Read more
Karpathos has a Mediterranean climate of hot, dry summers and mild. Wet winters. The detail that shapes any trip is the meltemi, the strong northerly wind that blows hardest in July and August. When you visit decides whether you find calm turquoise coves or a wind-whipped coast, empty beaches or the crowds of the mid-August … Read more
Karpathos is long, mountainous and slower to cross than it looks on a map, so where you base yourself shapes the whole trip. A stay in the lively port of Pigadia feels very different from a quiet week on the west coast at Lefkos. A beach base at Amoopi, a windsurfing stay by the southern … Read more
Karpathos lies far out in the southern Aegean, between Rhodes and Crete, and that isolation is a large part of its appeal. It also means reaching the island takes a little more planning than a quick hop to the Cyclades. There are two ways in: a short flight from Athens to the island’s small southern … Read more
Karpathos hides much of its finest coast from the road. A long, rugged eastern shore breaks into coves that no car can reach. Off the northern cape lies the wild, uninhabited islet of Saria, cut off by a narrow strait. The only way to see them is from the water, which is why a boat … Read more