Leros Greece | holiday travel guides to the Greek islands

Agia Marina windmill


Agia Marina quayside

The port of AGIA MARINA is one of two large harbours on Leros (the other is at Lakki) and the main tourist centre on the island and the port of call for most ferries, catamarans and excursion boats.

Cafes line the quayside which eventually leads to a narrow shingle beach. The beach is a miserable, scruffy affair, no more than a thin line of sharp sand littered with debris and backed by a dull line of plain houses and bare concrete wall.

By way of compensation there are sweeping views across the bay and, at the northern end, squats an attractive and much photographed windmill that sits at the end of a small causeway.

A warren of whitewashed back streets, though pleasant to look at, is marred by the seemingly endless stream of traffic that squeezes through alleys and makes crossing roads a head spinning pain and driving through them a major test of nerve.

Cafes have turned upmarket in recent years, with hard cane chairs abandoned for soft cushioned settees and internet access a much touted addition to the menus.

Cappuccinos and iced tea are not particularly Greek but the atmosphere is, and the charm of colourful boats bobbing in the harbour a few feet away and fishing nets sprawled across the quay is hard to beat.

The whitewashed homes of Agia Marina sprawl up the hillside to merge with Platanos behind, while the impressive Byzantine castle stand aloof on the barren skyline of Apityki, visible from virtually everywhere on Leros.

Fort above Platanos


Platanos church

Spreading south from Agia Marina, and now virtually indistinguishable from it, is the island's commercial capital of PLATANOS.

A chaotic spread of whitewashed houses stagger up the hillside between two barren mountains, flanking a narrow, busy main road that seems designed more for donkeys than the cars, lorries and bikes that seem to stream endlessly along it.

It's a steep, exhausting and dangerous walk up the hill with no paths in places - you are better off in a taxi. Attractive houses line the main road and the even narrower alleys that branch off left and right.

Platanos houses the island council and library and there are plenty of shops, cafes and supermarkets. The area was extensively bombed by the British in World War Two but much has survived or been restored. At the top of the hill is the main square which holds one of the biggest markets on Leros.

The Venetian castle dominates, and you can drive up to it or walk, though the climb involves trudging up about 300 steps. There are tremendous views of the whole island and the beautiful 10th century Church of Our Lady stands inside the castle and has a small religious museum.

There is also an Archeological Museum on the main road to Agia Marina, housed in the renovated building of the old Astiki Sholi built in 1882.

Pandeli beach


Pandeli windmills

Below Platanos - and as much a part of it as Agia Maria is on the other side of the hill - sits the small seaside resort of PANTELI or PANDELI. The road drops steeply down to the beach where there is limited parking.

Cafes and tavernas embrace a small but attractive strip of sand and shingle at the end of a deep bay. The best of the sand is in the middle of the beach where a couple of tavernas encroach onto the shore.

There are tamarisk trees behind for natural shade and a small harbour at one end is usually packed with fishing boats and yachts.

There are few sunbeds or umbrellas on the beach so you are stuck for shade if all the best spots are taken. The sea is shallow with a few stones that give way to sand further out.

A pleasant café lines the southern headland and a newly paved walk beyond it leads to views over the nearby long beach at Vromolithos, though getting down to it can be tricky from here as the path runs out on the edge of a steep cliff.

Back in Panteli houses climb the hill behind and both the castle and a line of six ancient windmills sit on the skyline. There are some clubs and a disco for those who enjoy nightlife, though nothing too wild or noisy. On the way into the village a sign points to the winding road to the castle.

Panteli is a pleasant, mild seaside resort and makes for a good base Leros, with plenty of places to eat and easy access to Platanos and Agia Marina.

Vromolithos

Around the headland from Panteli and down a hill off the Platanos road is a long beach at VROMOLITHOS or BROMOLITHOS.

Often touted as one of the best beaches on the island it turns out to be only the biggest. There is shingle and coarse sand and a couple of tavernas - the one at the northern end providing a few sunbeds.

Coarse sand at each end of the beach turns to shingle and stone in the middle and it's a pleasant enough spot with dense vegetation all around and trees on the beach to provide shade. The straight beach runs the length of a large open bay.

The biggest problem is the large slabs of rock that lie just under the surface of the sea along the whole length of the beach. The slabs are large, flat and extend well offshore, many of them with deep crevices between them and a slippery seaweed coating on top.

The slabs are extensive enough to make swimming a problem unless you are prepared to venture some way offshore.

Apartments dot the low hill behind and there are shops, minimarkets and cafes within easy walking distance. There is plenty of good parking near the Taverna Paradisos.

The resort is also close to both Platanos and Panteli so there is plenty of variety for those basing a holiday here.

Lakki promenade


Lakki marina

The large bay at LAKKI is one of the biggest and deepest natural harbour in the Mediterranean and, it has to be said, one of the dullest too.

Occupied by the Italians for 30 years before the end of the last world war, Mussolini had the loopy idea of turning it into an Italian flagship city for his Greek island empire.

They created the grandiose town of Portolago, now called Lakki, and erected wide, boulevard streets, impressive parks and bombastic buildings in a strange blend of Art Deco and Bauhaus dubbed 'Rationalism' by the showy Fascist regime.

Although individual buildings are of some architectural interest, the overall impression is of an empty car park with as much character as a garage forecourt.

Nowhere is the bizarre grandeur more monumentally in evidence than at the old cinema, currently being restored with EU grants after being heavily bombed in Word War Two.

A long promenade, wide enough and long enough to host a military parade, runs the length of the shore and sports eucalyptus trees and ornate lampposts, ending in a large yacht marina to the west.

In 2005, the Leros War Museum was opened in Merkia, near Lakki inside an old tunnel created by the Italians in World War Two. There are several items from the battle of Leros including guns, helmets, bombs, uniforms and photos.

There are a couple of small beaches around the bay at KOULOUKI and MERIKIES but they are rather stony and have no facilities, although they are popular with locals and easily reached from Lakki. A couple of tavernas provide the basics.

Also near Lakki is the temple of Agios Iiannis Theologos, which dates from 1000 and is one of the island's more noteworthy churches with some astonishingly good 11th century mosaics.

Xirokambos beach

Located in the extreme south of the island XIROKAMPOS or XIROKAMBOS or KSIROKAMPOS is an old seaside village located in a small inlet.

It's only about 4km from Lakki and well signposted but the beach road is not easy to spot and if you miss the turning you head up into the hills to a huge quarry where you will be sharing the narrow and unfenced road with giant lorries.

The village, though tiny, has a large and incongruous football stadium. It sits in a valley of olive groves, with almond and cypress trees spread along the valley in good numbers. There are plenty of rooms to rent in the area and there is a campsite based here.

Above the village is an ancient castle, Paliokastro, which was built on the site of an even older Acropolis, itself thought to date from around 2,500BC.

The beach is coarse sand with a few trees and bisected by a small jetty from which local schoolchildren like to dive. For the more adventurous there is also a diving school based here.

There are shady tavernas behind the beach and out to sea the tiny Glironisa islands out to sea and beyond them, only about 2km away at the nearest point, the northern tip of Kalymnos.

Alinda beach

The main beach strip of Leros, if you can call it that, lies just north around the bay from Agia Marina at ALINTA or ALINDA.

The beach is not particularly impressive, just a long string of shingle and sand that peters out into a rocky area where improvised wooden jetties stick out finger-like from the shore to provide anchorage for small boats.

But tavernas and apartments have sprung up along the road that runs along the back of the beach and chairs and tables are placed along the shore at intervals for those who enjoy a romantic meal with waves lapping at their feet.

Long lines of tamarisk give plenty of natural shade and taverna owners sometimes put out a few sunbeds where they can, but the beach is often so narrow there is barely room.

The main road at the back of the beach can hardly be said to be busy and cars park along most of its length. A small wall separates it from the sands. There are good views across the bay to Agia Marina.

For those that like their sunbathing spots a little more isolated there is a small crescent beach of shingle and sand at a sharp bend in the road at KRITUONI to the north, with a small roadside café nearby, and there are more quite, sand and rock coves to the north within a short walking distance and before you reach Panagia, though they have no facilities and little shade.

Inland is the Mpeleni Tower, a renovated mansion house that houses the island Folklore and History Museum. In August its large courtyard hosts several cultural events.

Panagia beach

Two tavernas sit above the coarse sand beach at PANAGIA where the road around the bay from Alinda eventually runs out. This is a very pleasant spot with cliffs at one end, a swathe of fine sand and clear, shallow waters with an outcrop of rocks to add interest.

Taverna owners lay out sunbeds on the sand that are known locally as DIO LISKARIA and you can always climb the short steps to the tavernas themselves, both overlooking the beach, if you fancy a meal or refreshment. There is plenty of parking in a large concrete area, and the road to Panagia is good, with lighting at night.

Strange that this small and very attractive beach rarely gets a mention in the island brochures and guidebooks. The sands are among the best on the island, it has all the tavernas and there are very fine views across the bay to Agia Marina, nestling between two mountains.

Locals will point to the blue roof across the bay (one of the tavernas has roof tiles of pale blue) and suggest a visit but, other than that, it rarely gets a mention. It is easily walkable at no more than 2km from Alinda.

Another small beach can be found at KRIFO or KRIFOS further around the headland and there is a rough track that gets you about half way before it dwindles to a footpath. There are no facilities there.

Gourna beach


Agios Isodoros

West of Alinda and set in a large bay on the west coast of Leros is the small resort of GOURNA. The wide bay is home to two beaches, at Gourna and a little way south at DRIMONAS, both disappointingly drab and uninspiring.

Gourna has a wide and long swathe of dirty coloured sand with a clutch of tamarisks at the far end of the beach. Banks of dry seaweed line the shore and rubbish litters the unkempt beach. The scene when I visited wasn't enhanced by a rusting upturned pick-up truck in the field behind and some abandoned sunbeds dumped in the trees.

The beach to the south at Drimonas is marred by great mounds of black seaweed that cover the narrow stretch sand to a depth of half a metre. Stunted tamarisks stand like broken teeth along the road that runs behind.

There are a few houses scattered on the relatively flat, open countryside behind and the odd taverna along the coast road, but not much else except groves of citrus and olive.

On the north side of the bay, and approached through the inland village of Kamara, is a tiny shingle beach at AGIOS ISODOROS with a beautiful white chapel spectacularly perched on an offshore rock and connected to the shore by a long stone causeway.

Cove at Partheni

The main road heads north is a straight line past the island airport and through a Greek military base to the north coast fishing port of PARTHENI, set at the end of a long, deep bay with the island of Archangelos at its mouth.

There are no beaches here as such, though small scraps of sand can be found in coves dotted along the shore west of the village. There is a large boat repairing company here and various semi-industrial sites, with the airport taking a up large chunk of land, as does the large Greek military base.

Tracks lead west into the hills and around the coast for those that enjoy hill walking in the mountains of Kasteli, Markelos and Tourloti, though the coastal path unfortunately leads to a military area and warning signs to keep out.

If you follow the tracks south you will find a small, stony beach at LIA. Nearby is the 10th century church of Agios Georgios built with stone from an ancient temple to Artemis.

The area around Partheni is notorious for the mental asylum once sited here and closed in 1999, where seriously ill patients were kept in shocking conditions.

To the north of the village is small inlet of Agios Kioura where the church has wall paintings by political prisoners held in the same asylum during the US-backed Junta's control of Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Plefouti beach

A jewel in the crown of Leros beaches, PLEFOUTI or BLEFOUTI lies to the east of Partheni over the headland and down to a long and peaceful bay fringed with a beach of coarse sand.

At the western end, at the bottom of the hill, are several small jetties providing anchorage for fishing boats and yachts with a pleasant and shady taverna set back among the trees.

There are no sunbeds on the long and narrow beach, but tamarisks every few yards provide plenty of natural shade. The sea is stony underfoot for a few meters before giving way to sand. It is shallow and clear with views out to the uninhabited islets of Strogili and Tripyti offshore in the bay.

There are low hills behind the beach with fields of wheat, olive and citrus orchards, a small white chapel and the odd home here and there among the trees.

A long road runs down the back of the beach to the eastern end, where the shoreline slowly gives way to rocky coves and, in one of the coves a relic from the last war - a machine gun post with the gun holster still pointing out to sea.

The road eventually gives out and a rough track curves up to the headland and then follows the coast for several kilometres until it reaches a small stony cove at VAGIA, which would be a pleasant spot but for the rubbish that always seem to gather on remote north-facing beaches in Greece.