Nature
Swim in the vathres
Walk under the plane trees to the waterfalls and jump into the cold green rock pools below them, then climb on to the next one.
Gria Vathra and the Fonias gorge, near Therma
Samothraki · Things to do
Things to do in Samothraki
Beaches, trails, festivals, food and wine: the experiences that make this island its own.
Experiences
Our favourite things to do
Ideas for every kind of day, from a lazy swim to a full-day hike.
Hike
Walk the Fonias gorge
An easy marked path of about 15–20 minutes leads to the first waterfall. Beyond it the way gets steep and rough, past more pools and falls, for those with good shoes and a head for heights.
From the Fonias bridge, east of Therma
Hike
Climb Fengari
Follow the marked trail from Therma through oak and plane forest to the bare summit of Mount Saos, where Homer's Poseidon sat. It is a long, steep day, four hours or more up: start at dawn, take plenty of water and turn back if the cloud comes down.
From Therma
Wellness
The hot springs at Therma
Sit in the warm sulphur water, in the municipal baths or the simple open-air pools under the trees, best of all late in the evening after a day in the cold rivers.
Therma
Beach
A boat along the south coast
Take a small boat along the roadless south coast, past cliffs where waterfalls fall straight into the sea at Kremasto, to the wild cove of Vatos for a swim. Boats sail only when the sea is calm.
From Kamariotissa or Pachia Ammos
Culture
The Sanctuary of the Great Gods
Walk through the sanctuary of the Mysteries at opening time, find the niche where the Winged Victory stood, and see the finds in the museum at the gate.
Paleopoli
Culture
The Gattilusi castles and towers
Climb to the Genoese castle above Chora, then visit the towers at Paleopoli and at the mouth of the Fonias, built against the pirates of the 15th century.
Chora, Paleopoli and Fonias
Food & wine
Sunset and goat at Profitis Ilias
Drive up to the hill village for kid roasted on the spit, a spoon sweet of wild plum, and the sun going down over the west of the island. Or watch it from the chapel of Krimniotissa above Pachia Ammos.
Profitis Ilias
Nature
Out to the lighthouse
Walk west from the port past the lagoon of Agios Andreas, full of birds in spring and autumn, to the lighthouse at the tip of the island, and look back at the mountain.
Kamariotissa
Only on Samothraki
What makes Samothraki different
What makes Samothraki different from every other Greek island.
Waterfalls and the vathres
Dozens of rivers and streams run off Mount Saos, and on their way down they fall over the rock into vathres, deep, cold, green pools. Swimming in them, at Gria Vathra above Therma or up the Fonias gorge, is the thing everyone remembers. On the south coast, the Kremasto waterfall drops straight into the sea.
A mountain out of the sea
Mount Saos rises to about 1,600 m in a few kilometres from the shore, the highest mountain in the Aegean islands after Crete and Evia. Homer has Poseidon sitting on its peak to watch the Trojan War. The marked trail from Therma takes most of a day up and back, and on a clear morning the view reaches across the sea to Imbros and the coast of Turkey.
The Mysteries of the Great Gods
For a thousand years people sailed here from all over the Greek world to be initiated, at night, into the cult of the island's Great Gods, in a sanctuary that kings and queens filled with marble. Philip II of Macedon was initiated here, and it was here that he met Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great.
Goats, forests and nobody in a hurry
There are said to be far more goats than people on Samothraki, and you meet them everywhere, on the roads, the rocks and the beaches, and on the table, roasted, in the pot or in gorgovrasto. There are no big hotels, just rooms, small family places and a campsite under the trees, and the summer crowd is young, barefoot and easy-going.