Agios Efstratios

Agios Efstratios, known affectionately as Ai Stratis, is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the Aegean, lying alone in open water some eighteen nautical miles south of Lemnos. Barely forty square kilometres in size and home to only a few hundred permanent residents, it has almost no tourist infrastructure, which is precisely what draws the small number of travellers who make the effort to reach it. There is one village, one harbour, and a great deal of quiet.

The island's modern story is marked by two events. For decades in the twentieth century, particularly after the Greek Civil War, it served as a place of political exile, where thousands of dissidents were interned, a history recorded in a small museum of democracy and exile. Then in 1968 a powerful earthquake destroyed much of the old settlement, and the state rebuilt the village in rows of plain prefabricated houses. A few of the original stone buildings survive above them, and the contrast tells the island's recent history at a glance.

For visitors, the appeal is simplicity and unspoiled nature. The village fronts a small sandy bay, and beyond it lie empty beaches reached on foot or by small boat, among them Alonitsi, backed by a fossilised prehistoric forest, and remote coves on the far coasts. The interior is bare, rolling and green in spring, crossed by walking paths where you are unlikely to meet another soul. Birdwatchers value the island for its migrants and raptors.

Life here revolves around the harbour, a couple of tavernas and the daily anticipation of the ferry. There are no resorts, little nightlife and only the most basic services, so a stay is about slowness, swimming and disconnection rather than sightseeing.

Go to Agios Efstratios for solitude and a glimpse of an island that time and tourism have largely passed by. Summer offers the calmest seas and the most reliable boats; a day or two is enough for most, longer for those who truly want to escape.