Karpathos

The wind comes first. It funnels through the strait between Karpathos and Rhodes, and by the time the ferry rounds the headland it is clear that this is an island shaped by sea and stone. The winding road up to Olympos, the famous village in the far north, feels like going back a century. Old women in the traditional black-and-gold dress sit at their looms, spinning wool and singing the old songs; the houses are built of white stone and slate, pressed against the mountain to face the wind. At the edge of the village in the evening, the sun sinks into the sea, with the islet of Saria dark against the horizon. The next morning brings a swim at Apella, the island's most photographed beach, a crescent of white pebbles between cliffs, the water a colour thought to exist nowhere but in Karpathos and in dreams. And then there is the wind again, filling the sound with the island's heartbeat. Karpathos is not an easy island, but it is a true one.

Karpathos is the second largest island of the Dodecanese after Rhodes, lying in the sea between Rhodes and Crete that the ancients called the Carpathian Sea. Diodorus names its first inhabitants as men who joined Minos on his early campaigns at sea, and says that many generations later Iolcus, an Argive, sent a colony here on the advice of an oracle. The island was inhabited from the Neolithic, and Strabo describes it as a tetrapolis of four cities, one of which was itself called Nisyros — a name still familiar as a neighbouring island — and the four later federated under Rhodes. In the Middle Ages Karpathos passed through Byzantine, Venetian, Genoese, and Ottoman hands, and it suffered heavily in the 17th and 18th centuries from pirate raids, which drove the population inland and into fortified villages. In 1897 the island briefly fell under Turkish administration before being ceded to Italy in 1912, and it was united with Greece in 1948 along with the rest of the Dodecanese. The remoteness that made the island poor also preserved it: Olympos, in particular, kept its dialect, its dress, and its festivals so intact that linguists and folklorists have studied the village for a century, and it remains the most traditional community in the entire Aegean.

Karpathos beaches are dramatic and various, and the best of them demand a little effort. Apella, on the east coast, is the queen: a long beach of white pebbles under high cliffs, with a chapel on a rock and water so clear you can count the pebbles beneath the boat. Kyra Panagia, a little further north, is a perfect sheltered bay with a monastery above it and soft sand at the waterline. On the south coast, Amoopi and Agios Nikolaos offer organised swimming with tavernas and sunbeds. The wild west coast faces the open Aegean and is best seen from the water or the cliff paths — the coves at Agios Minas and Kastelia are almost always empty. And at the northern end, Diafani is the base for boat trips to Saria and the remote beaches of the Panayia area, where the only company is the wind and the goats.

Karpathian cooking is mountain cooking, honest and nourishing, spiced by an island that had to feed itself from its own soil and sea. The great local dish is makarounes — handmade noodles rolled in the classic Karpathian way, dried in the wind, and served with a rich tomato sauce, grated local cheese, and plenty of olive oil; it is the dish of every festival and Sunday. Goat, slow-cooked in a clay pot with wine, garlic, and herbs, is the other pillar, and the island's cheeses — the sharp white sitaka and the hard, salty krasotyri aged in wine lees — are served with bread and honey from the mountain thyme. The sea provides octopus dried on the lines, grilled over charcoal, and the small fish of the region fried whole. In Olympos, women still bake paximadia, the twice-baked rusk of the island, and press their own honey; ask for the local sweet wine with the almond pastries at the end of the meal.

May, June, and September are the sweetest months on Karpathos: the wind is lighter, the beaches are quiet, and the island is green and scented with thyme and sage. July and August are the liveliest — full of Greek and Italian families, with festival after festival in the villages — but the west coast and the far north stay wonderfully empty. The sea is warm from June to October. If you want to see the great traditional festivals, time your visit for the summer panigiria, when Olympos and the other villages dance the old dances in full traditional dress under strings of lights.

Karpathos is reached by air from Athens, into the island's airport at Pigadia. By sea it is about two hours by fast boat from Rhodes, while the big seasonal ferries sail from Piraeus.

A car is essential to explore, and the road to Olympos is narrow and winding — take it slowly and stop at the viewpoints. For Apella and Kyra Panagia, either drive down the steep access roads or, better, take a boat trip from Pigadia or Diafani, which also reaches Saria. The wind can be strong on the east coast in July and August — bring a windbreaker. Carry water on walks, wear proper shoes for the hill villages, and buy a jar of thyme honey and a wedge of krasotyri to take home. And go to at least one panigiri: it is the soul of Karpathos.