The easternmost island of the Aegean, Samos, was one of the
first Greek islands to take advantage of the package tour boom that
began in earnest in the 1980s. Today, easily accessed with its
international airport, it has become 184 square miles (477 sq km)
of holiday resort, its beaches crammed with sunbeds and encircled
by hundreds of hotel rooms, its roads blocked with tour buses and
its waterfronts lined with tavernas, bars and cafes. Tourism may
have taken over, but that does not mean that this lovely island has
lost its traditional charm or its scenic beauty. The very fact that
it remains such a popular destination testifies to the fact that it
has a great deal to offer the thousands of holidaymakers that come
to enjoy themselves each year, many returning again and again.
In ancient times when the great mathematician, Pythagoras, was
born here in the 6th century BC, Samos flourished, as evidenced by
the now few remains of its magnificent architecture, which included
a temple and marble paved road lined with 2,000 statues (now
largely covered by the airport runway). The course of its more
modern history has seen the island in a tug of war between Greece
and Turkey, but since 1913 Samos has been indisputably Greek.
Samos town curls around a semi-circular bay with its pretty
pastel-coloured buildings rising in tiers up a green hillside from
its busy, and somewhat tacky touristy waterfront. Numerous other
coastal towns and villages encircle the island, all offering
holiday accommodation and tourist trappings. Inland there are some
delightful mountain villages with picturesque alleyways and
friendly locals, which, out of season anyway, still maintain the
illusion of being unspoilt by mass tourism.
Samos has always been known as being blessed with natural
beauty, and this has not changed. The dramatic, indented coastline
is dotted with sand and shingle coves, while inland the slopes of
the mountains and hills are covered in samian vines and verdant
forest.
All in all, for a classic Aegean summer holiday with hot
weather, jolly crowds, lively tavernas, sights to see, shops to
browse and a selection of good beaches, Samos comes up trumps.
