Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ACCOMMODATION, EATING AND DRINKING
THE PORT
Archipelagos Hotel
T
22750 51250,
W
archipelagos
hotel.gr.
This smart modern hotel by the fishing port offers
quality fittings in its eighteen doubles and suites, as well
as an o
n-si
te restaurant during summer. Breakfast
included.
€45
Ì
Iy Kali Kardhia
T
22750 51217.
The aroma from
the superb €8
kondosoúvli
and
kokorétsi
rotating on the
huge spits outside this place just behind the inland square
is tempting enough. Some
mayireftá
, fresh salads and
decent wine complete the picture.
April-Oct daily
7pm-late.
Kafenio Platia
T
22750 51678.
With tables crowded
beneath one of the huge plane tree on the inland square,
this traditional
kafenío
doubles up as a restaurant, serving
the island's best
souvláki
.
Daily 8am-late.
Patras Rooms
T
22750 51268,
W
fourni-patrasrooms
.gr.
A choice of wood-floored, antique-bed rooms, some
with balconies above the owner's café-bar in the middle of
the seafront, and fourteen
supe
rb hillside apartments, in a
tiered complex. April-Oct.
€30
To Koutouki tou Psarrakou
T
22750 51670.
This local
staple, halfway along the main market street, still does
9
decent
mayireftá
and roasts accompanied by Cretan bulk
wine and a Peloponnesian liqueur, despite an enforced
change of management.
Daily noon-1am.
SOUTHERN FOÚRNI
O Yiorgos
Kambí
T
22750 51025.
With tamarisk-shaded
beach seating, the family ferries inexpensive fish plates,
Ikarian
soúfiko
and other oven dishes 100m to your table
from the premises back along the southern access road.
There are a couple of ultra-cheap rooms too (€15).
Daily
noon-midnight.
Studio Rena
Kambí
T
22750 51364,
W
studio-rena
.com.
Stacked in three tiers on Kambí's northern hillside,
these comfortable apartments, painted island blue and
white, of
er
fully equipped kitchens and sea-view
balconies.
€40
NORTHERN FOÚRNI
Almyra
Kamári
T
697 91 41 653.
The most accomplished
out-of-town taverna on the island rustles up a range of fish
at standard prices, goat and various mezédhes, with
seating right behind the beach.
11am-1am: June-Oct
daily; Nov-May Fri-Sun.
Ikaría
IKARÍA
, a narrow, windswept landmass between Sámos and Mýkonos, is
comparatively little visited and sadly underestimated by many people. The name
supposedly derives from Icarus, who in legend fell into the sea just offshore after the
wax bindings on his wings melted. For years the only substantial tourism was
generated by a few
hot springs
on the southeast coast; since the early 1990s,
however, tourist facilities of some quantity and quality have sprung up in and
around
Armenistís
, the only resort of note.
Ikaría, along with Thessaly, Lésvos and the Ionian islands, has traditionally been
one of the
Greek Left
's strongholds. This dates from long periods of right-wing
domination in Greece, when, as in Byzantine times, the island was used as a place of
exile
for political dissidents, particularly Communists, who from 1946 to 1949
outnumbered native islanders. This house-arrest policy backfired, with the
transportees (including Mikis Theodhorakis in 1946-47) favourably impressing
their hosts as the most noble figures they had ever encountered, worthy of
emulation. Earlier in the twentieth century, many Ikarians had emigrated to North
America and ironically their capitalist remittances kept the island going for decades.
Yet anti-establishment attitudes still predominate and local pride dictates that
outside opinion matters little. Thus many Ikarians exhibit a lack of obsequiousness
and a studied
eccentricity
, which some visitors mistake for hostility, making the
island something of an acquired taste.
Except for forested portions in the northwest, it's not a strikingly beautiful island,
with most of the landscape being scrub-covered granite and schist put to use as
building material. The mostly desolate south coast is overawed by steep cliffs, while the
less sheer north face is furrowed by deep canyons creating hairpin road-bends extreme
even by Greek-island standards.
