Nissiros is an island of volcanic origin close to Kos. It is all right as a walking and sightseeing destination, but otherwise it did not feel very interesting. Do your thing and leave to a more friendly place is my recommendation. Because I am sorry to say that the attitudes of the islanders seems to be completely ruined by the day trade, and you will never get anything for free at this place... Many tourist boats from Kos arrive every day. Get the tourists in, put them in buses and get them to the volcano, then kick them back out again (relieved of their money, of course), seems to be the melody. This is also the only place in the world that I have visited where the cleaning personnel on my hotel actually complains to me that they have to work while I am on vacation! And they did not clean much either...
When the daytrippers leave, the place is weird and almost completely dead. The food, on the other hand, is generally very good (and cheap), although the adding skills of the waiters may not be the best. Stay away from that terrible retsina from Evia, in those green fancy bottles (no, not Georgiadi, that one is excellent!). Also be sure to check out the local nonalcoholic almond based drink Soumada. It is so goooood...
Selected walks: For walks on Nissiros take a look in Trekking in Greece by Marc Dubin (referred to below as /Dubin/, now out of print) and Rhodes Karpathos Kos Southern Dodecanese by Dieter Graf (referred to below as /Graf/).
◉ 1 MANDRAKI - VOLCANO - MANDRAKI (duration about 3 1/2 hours): This is walk 35 in /Graf/. At my visit this book was not yet published, what I used was the now out of print /Dubin/.
The road and/or what is left of the path (look out for piles of stone and paint blobs) to Evangelistria should be easy to find and follow. From Evangelistria a pretty good looking path is signed to Emborio. You may arrive at the volcano in better shape by following this path, but I did not take the time to explore. No waymarks to the volcano could be seen, but follow the signed path for a couple of minutes and you will reach a second sign for Emborio (a fork to the left). Here, instead just continue straight ahead for the volcano. The continuing path should be easy to follow, and waymarks will appear after a while. Careful about that descent into the crater! Good boots are required! And a walking stick is recommended. The return to Mandraki can be done via the dirt road from the south of the crater (via the chapel Stavros). When you finally hit the main road out of Mandraki, turn left for a sidetrip to Paleokastro, or cross the road to find the good path down to town (the path is straight in front of the bench to your right).
◉ Good starting points: • Mandraki
◉ How to get there: • By tour boat from Kos • By ferry from some islands • By ferry from the mainland • By hydrofoil from some Dodecanese islands
◉ More info: Sorry, none yet
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