Edipsos

Edipsos, properly Loutra Edipsou, lies on the north-west coast of Evia beneath the wooded slopes of Mount Telethrio. It is the best known spa town in Greece, and the reason is elemental: more than eighty thermal springs rise here, pouring warm, mineral-rich water into the bay so that in places you can bathe where the hot flow meets the cool sea.

The waters have been prized since antiquity. Ancient writers recorded their curative reputation, and the town claims a roll call of famous bathers stretching from Roman emperors such as Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius to a twentieth-century cast of Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis, Maria Callas and Greta Garbo. That belle époque heyday left Edipsos with a stock of handsome old hotels and bathhouses, giving the seafront a faintly nostalgic, cure-town air unlike anywhere else on the island.

Today visitors come to soak in organised spa centres and hydrotherapy hotels, or simply to wade in at free public spots where steaming streams tumble over the rocks into the Aegean. The most photographed of these is the natural cascade at Gialtra bay, where hot water spills down to the shoreline. Between treatments there are pleasant waterfront tavernas, pebble beaches and easy walks in the green hills behind the town.

Edipsos is reached by a short car ferry from Arkitsa on the mainland, a crossing of around three-quarters of an hour, which makes it a straightforward weekend trip from Athens or central Greece. It also sits within easy reach of the rest of northern Evia, so a spa break here combines naturally with the forests, waterfalls and quiet coves further along the coast.

Go for the waters, the slower pace and the sense of stepping into an older style of Greek holiday, one measured in long soaks rather than beach clubs. Spring and autumn are especially rewarding, when the springs feel their most restorative and the town is at its calmest.