Part of the Dodecanese, Lesvos, or Mytilini, is Greece’s third largest island after Crete and Euboea, and one of the closest to Turkey. Home of ancient Greek “lover of women” Sappho, Lesvos has been a Mecca for gay women but is also popular with families and the young in-crowd. Producer of Greece’s best ouzo and known as the Red Island due to its inhabitants’ politics, Lesvos is covered with olive groves, chestnuts and pines and features some wonderful long sandy beaches and traditional settlements.
Mytilini Town is a mix of modern buildings and 19th century mansions, ticket agencies and municipal gardens, crowned by a Byzantine-Genoese castle, or Kastro built in the 6th century. The most popular town of Lesvos is arguably Mithymna, or Molyvos, at the north. Perched on a hill that is capped with a striking Genoese castle, Molyvos is a charming agglomeration of grey-stone-built houses, a pole of attraction for many. Eftalou on the east is a popular sandy beach.
Petra is another charming, traditional village looking over a cluster of small islets, ideal for bird watching. Sigri a delightful fishing village is close to Lesvos’ 20 million-year-old Petrified Forest, whose pine trees have been fossilised by volcanic ash. Not far from Sigri, Skala Eressou is a long sandy beach popular with Greek families and gay women. Plomari is the Greek Mecca of ouzo. Both the Museum of Ouzo and the Soap Making Museum are worth a visit.
