North Aegean Islands
The North Aegean Islands are in Greece. These islands are places of mountain villages, fishing harbours, beaches, some ancient ruins, and some natural wonders.
Regions
Major islands:
| Thasos A green, mountainous island with many picturesque bays and sandy beaches. It attracts families and people who want to relax at wonderful and not overcrowded beaches, but also has some interesting antiquities to visit. |
| Samothrace A small island that make for a nice rural retreat. It is unsophisticated and lacks almost all tourist infrastructure. There is no nightlife, except during the annual music festival. |
| Limnos A hilly and barren island for a relaxing holiday in close contact with nature. Sheltered bays, long sandy beaches and landscapes of volcanic rocks, interspersed with small hills and plains, and traditional villages of stone houses. Some of the beaches are excellent and uncrowded. |
| Agios Efstratios A small, sparsely populated island that retains its old Mediterranean charm. The island lives on fishery, agriculture, sheep farming, cheese making, bee keeping and very sparse tourism in summer. |
Get in
Lemnos International Airport is the only airport in the region. It is about a 40 minutes' flight from Athens airport to Lemnos.
By boat
There are ferries in from mainland Greek cities including Lavrio and Piraeus (both serving Athens), Thessaloniki, Alexandroupolis, and Kavala.
Get around
Between the islands, you'll travel by ferry.
On the islands, you'll want to rent a car or motorbike to get around. Thasos, Samothrace and Lemnos have bus service, although it may operate only in the summer. Some islands have taxis. Agios Efstratios, however, has neither taxi nor bus service.
See
Thasos has a range of archaeological sites from temples to ancient mines, in addition to mountain villages.
The Sanctuary of the Great Gods, on Samothrace, is a major archeological site of the centre of a mystery cult that rivaled Delphi, dating back to the pre-Greek period (Bronze Age).
Poliochni, on Lemnos, is important archaeological site that was the best-known city in the northern Aegean after Troy in the 3rd millennium BC. Ifestia, also on Lemnos, has remains of a large settlement, with ruins of a castle, a cemetery, a baths, and an Hellenistic theatre.
Do
On land: hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, sunbathing....
In the sea: swimming, sailing, boat trips, diving, fishing....
On land and sea: the Aliki salt lake on Lemnos is a big salt lake you can walk on in summer, but during rainy season it becomes a wetland that is a resting and wintering area for many species of migratory birds.