North Aegean Travel Guide
The fortress of Mytilene, Lesbos. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
The North Aegean islands lie close to the Turkish coast: larger, greener and quieter than the Cyclades. Lesbos is the third-largest Greek island: birthplace of the poet Sappho, capital of ouzo, and home to a petrified forest 20 million years old.
Chios is the mastic island: the mastichochoria villages where mastic resin has been harvested for centuries, plus Nea Moni monastery (UNESCO 1990). Samos is the birthplace of Pythagoras, with the Heraion and Pythagoreion UNESCO site (1992). Ikaria is the famous 'Blue Zone' island of longevity.
Key destinations in North Aegean
Chios mastic villagesPyrgi and Mesta: the fortified mastic villages of the south.
Pythagoreion and Heraion, SamosThe UNESCO site: the ancient port and the great temple of Hera.
Molyvos, LesbosThe stone village under its Genoese castle.
IkariaThe Blue Zone island: slow life, hot springs and panigiria festivals.
MytileneThe capital of Lesbos: the fortress and the waterfront.
Petrified Forest of LesbosThe 20-million-year-old fossilized sequoias near Sigri.
Hover a region to explore it. Click a city pin to open its guide.
Top Cities & towns in North Aegean
Regional food
- Ouzo of Lesbos (Plomari)
- Mastic products of Chios
- Ladotyri cheese of Mytilene (PDO)
Getting there
Airports on Lesbos (MJT), Chios (JKH), Samos (SMI) and Lemnos (LXS). Ferries from Piraeus are long crossings; shorter hops run from Kavala and Thessaloniki in the north.