dd, this is VERY CONFUSING ... there is another thread you started, that someone else answered with some Greece advice... and I answered it too --- but it does not now appear on the GREECE forum list (???) I thought I'd carefully written something that disappeared... but fouond it by clicking your name. Just because others may be mystified as to where their answers went, tht's the explanation. And I'm pasting my answer here, too --
(THE 1st Paragraph is because the other Query neglected to give any dates, or info n previous visits-- remember, when you post a new query, its' polite to recap the key facts from earlier query)
dd, it is always a good idea to include dates when asking for good free advice... May is very different from August, or October. Also helps to mention if you've already been to some of the most mentioned places, so people won't be helpfully tryiing to sell you on their appeal.
I've been to Samos 2x, in May & arly June -- the first time, using it as an ideal "Springboard" to other places -- Chios, Patmos, Ephesus. We didn't have a car but stayed in VERY handy cute place just uphill from Vathy port, HOtel Pythagoras not fancy but balconies on that wonderful TEAL-blue bay. Some random memories...
• ANO VATHY -- uphill from the port town, at that time 2006 very unchanged, quiet, you coul hear goatbells & roosters crowing, looking down on town & sea. I hear it has changed, and luxe villas built (a lot of German holiday-makers have bought property on Samos)... hope not too gentrified.
• SURPRISE GEM -- Vathy has one of the BEST museums in the Greek isles... stunning small votive items found at Temple of Hera ... aaaand -- the Largest KOUROS In the entire world (they built a special room for the headless statue, and when it was done they found the head, and had to raise the ceiling; true story!)
• AMAZING SUNSETS -- In May the sun sets right in the middle of the Bay, flanked both sides... I've watched sunsets in more than 25 greek Isles, and this was #1, have photos to prove it. We were at a tiny taverna rigt next to Hotel Pythagoras (if it's still around; it doesnt open til June) -- tables were on a terrace only 1-foot above the water.
• HIDDEN VILLAGES -- I wish we'd had a car because in the far NW of Samos, there are villages where nothing has changed for decades. At dinner in Vathy, we met a group of British "ramblers" who'd walked between these hamlets, and found it like a trip back in time.
