Samothrace

Samothrace is one of the wildest and least developed islands in Greece, a great dome of rock and forest in the far north of the Aegean, off the coast of Thrace. It is dominated by Mount Fengari, also called Saos, which at 1,611 metres is the highest peak of any island in the Aegean, and from whose summit, legend says, the god Poseidon watched the Trojan War. The mountain shapes everything: it wrings rain and mist from the sky, feeds cold streams that tumble down wooded ravines, and keeps the island green when others are parched.

The island's great cultural treasure is the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, one of the most important religious sites of the ancient Greek world. Here, from prehistoric times into the Roman era, initiates came to take part in the secret Kabeirian mysteries, rites open to slave and noble alike and never revealed. Among its ruined temples and colonnades once stood the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the great marble Nike discovered in 1863 and now the centrepiece of a grand staircase in the Louvre. A cast stands in the island's museum, and the atmospheric site repays slow exploration.

What draws many visitors, though, is the island's raw nature. The Fonias river and other streams form a series of waterfalls and deep, cold rock pools known as vathres, reached on walks through shady gorges and much loved for swimming on hot days. Hot mineral springs at Therma soothe tired legs, the forests offer superb walking, and remote beaches such as Pachia Ammos and Vatos lie at the end of rough roads or boat trips. The dramatic Kremasto Nero waterfall spills straight into the sea on the wild southern coast.

Samothrace has little mass tourism and a countercultural, free-spirited feel, popular with campers, walkers and those seeking somewhere genuinely off the beaten track. Facilities are concentrated around the port of Kamariotissa, the main village Chora beneath its castle, and Therma.

Ferries run from Alexandroupoli to Kamariotissa in around two hours. Summer is best for swimming in the rivers and sea, late spring and early autumn for walking. Give the island two or three days to feel its wild character.