Itinery, points of interest and photos of day 1.Click here or on the little map to view our today’s itinerary, points of interest and photos using Google Maps and your web browser.

Click here to download our day 1 itinerary, points of interest and photos for use in Google Earth.

 

We arrived at Samos airport with Airberlin’s monday early morning flight directly from Berlin Tegel TXL. We picked up rental car (previously reserved via Internet) at Samos airport, AVIS has a regular booth there.

Drove to beach place Agios Konstantinos in the north of the island to pick up keys for Valeondades apartments, but the guy was not there – driving up the road to Valeondades we decided to take a quick first look to Manolates – since it was so nice we decided to return the next day.

 Returning to Valeondades an unfriendly guy welcomed us and handed over the keys to the renovated village house. Although house and site were nice, we didn’t feel well. Construction activities were ongoing in the neighboring houses, the bathroom was unacceptable (shower didn’t work, no warm water) and there was  no air conditioning. Decision to look for another accommodation was inavoidable.

Continuing along the northern coast to the western part of the island, we passed Karlovassi. Deciding to spend some hours at the nice Potami beach west of Karlovassi where there is a  characteristic church (Agios Konstantinos) and an acceptable snackbar.

Tried to find another beach more to the west, but had to return because of bad condition of the dirt road. A small jeep would have been helpful here! So if you don´t have budget constraints, rent out a 4*4, would make the holiday funnier! Later our friendly host at Karlovassi Erato Hotel told us that there used to be boat service from Karlovassi to the very beautiful beach called Megalo Seitani to the west but they stopped due to insufficient demand. The only way to get there is to walk around an hour. We did not dare to try given the temparatures over 35 degrees in August ( and that there are no facilities on the beach like umbrellas, tavernas etc… ) but give it a try if you are there in spring/autumn.

Tried to reach Leka from Potami beach but we had to return again due to the bad road condition. Nevertheless there was a very cute village called Tsourlei with relaxing Kafenion on the way so it worthed the effort. It was a unique experience to see the joy and curiosity of the villagers about the tourists visiting their place.

Decided to take the dinner at a fish restaurant at the coast of Ayios Nikolaus on the way to our accommodation. Great fresh food, awesome panaroma, reasonable prices. Do not get demotivated arriving there around normal Continental dinner times like 20:00 and seeing all the tables empty. Locals start to take dinner around 21:30.

Advantage would be that you have a Greek speaking person in the group then you would get the friendly owner at your table advising you the fresh fish and the mezhedes of the day ( usually not mentioned in the menu card). If you do not speak Greek, try to insist on things that you want to see on your table like ” do you have melitzane salade? ” “I have seen it on the neighbouring table!!!”

Returning to our original village house in Valeondades we had a tight sleep after the long day that started at 5:00 AM.

Cash dispensers can be found in the center of Karlovassi, it is almost impossible to find places where they accept credit cards on the island.

Final Tips:
- Clicking on one of our photos above will open a bigger version of it in a new browser window.
- Click here for an overview of our trip “Greek islands 2008″
- In case you have a question, just leave a comment on this article!