Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The coast
Níssyros is almost entirely devoid of beaches , and only a small proportion of its coast
- along the north and northwest shoreline - is even accessible to visitors. While the coast
road east from Mandhráki peters out after barely 10km, it does make a pretty drive - and
you'll have to come this way anyway if you're heading for the volcano. The largest
structures en route are a couple of huge abandoned spas, dating back to the Italian era.
Four kilometres along, PÁLLI is a fishing village turned low-key resort that can be a
welcome retreat when Mandhráki fills with trippers. All summer, the little harbour here
is busy enough with pleasure boats - which can't moor at Mandhráki - to support
several tavernas. Pálli also has an excellent bakery , cranking out tasty brown bread and
pies. A reasonable tamarisk-shaded beach of reddish-grey sand, kept well groomed,
extends east to the derelict Pantelídhi spa, behind which the little grotto-chapel of
Panayía Thermianí is tucked inside the vaulted remains of a Roman baths complex.
Keep going beyond Pálli, along an initially bleak stretch of shore, to the pleasant
cove of Liés , home to the summer-only Oasis snack-bar. The paved road ends at a car
park a little further on, a spot that can also be reached in summer by taxi boats from
Mandhráki. There's a grey-sand beach right here, while another fifteen minutes by
trail over the headland brings you to the idyllic, 300m expanse of Pahiá Ámmos , with
grey-pink sand heaped in dunes, limited shade at the far end and a large colony of
rough campers and naturists in summer.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
THE COAST
Ellinis Pálli T 22420 31397. This long-established
taverna is the best in Pálli, serving spit-roasted meat by
night and grilled fish in season, all at reason able prices, and
offering a handful of simple rooms upstairs. €45
Ì Limenari Limenari valley T 22420 310233. Excellent
traditional cooking, in an attractive location just below the
main road 1km west of Pálli, halfway down a terraced valley
towards its little namesake bay. Fair prices for big portions of
home-style food. Daily lunch & dinner.
Mammis Apartments Pálli T 22420 31453. A dozen
tasteful self-contained a/c apartments, capable of sleeping
four and equipped with large sea-view balconies and their
own separate entrance s, pe rched amid hillside gardens a
short walk west of Pálli. €60
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The interior
If you've come to Níssyros to see the volcano , you're already there - the whole island is the
volcano. Beyond and behind the steep slopes that climb from the shoreline, the entire
centre of the island consists of a vast bowl-shaped depression. The hills end in a slender
ridge that's the rim of the caldera, meaning that the two hilltop villages that survive,
Emboriós and Nikía , are long thin strips that enjoy stupendous views both out to sea and
down into the maw. The interior is etched almost in its entirety with ancient agricultural
terraces, mostly long abandoned but giving a very real sense of the much greater
population in antiquity. A side road just beyond Emboriós offers the only road access, and
continues south to the craters at the far end.
Emboriós
The road up from Pálli winds first past the village of EMBORIÓS . As is obvious from the
copious ruins that stretch high above the current village centre, the population here once
numbered in the thousands; in winter these days it dwindles to just twenty. It's a gorgeous
spot though, which is being bought up and restored by Athenians and foreigners. New
owners often discover natural volcanic saunas in the basements of the crumbling houses; at
the outskirts of the village there's a signposted public steam bath in a grotto, its entrance
outlined in white paint. One can hike down to the caldera floor from Emboriós; a trail
drops from behind the little platía and it's another fifteen-minute walk to the craters.
Some 3km south of Emboriós, a paved drive leads down from the main road to
Panayía Kyrá , the island's oldest and most venerable monastery, worth a stop for its
enchanting, arcaded festival courtyard as much as its church.
 
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