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'Hidden' island in Greece becoming a tourist destination


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Despite being the second largest island in the Dodecanese after Rhodes, there’s an acute feeling of disconnectedness on Karpathos. The ferry from Athens takes 28 hours, and although Karpathos has an international airport, there are direct flights from only a handful of countries, such as Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

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Karpathians have also managed to maintain a deep sense of self-sufficiency and independence, especially on the northern side of the island where most families still take up farming and shepherding to survive. In many households, cheese and butter is made with milk from their sheep and goats, and it’s not uncommon for families to produce their own honey, wine, and olive oil.

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But things are changing on the island. And compared to tourist hot spots such as Mykonos and Santorini, Karpathos has one advantage: its late arrival to the tourism industry. This has given the locals time to examine what’s been happening on other islands, which, says Agapiou, has helped them “avoid many problems and not focus on mass tourism like it’s the only solution.”

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Until recently, Karpathos’ only summer visitors were the children and grandchildren of locals who had moved abroad to America from the 1950s to the ’70s and who would spend their summer months visiting relatives.

Agapiou founded Ecotourism Karpathos, when she realized that the island, still under-the-radar for even most Greeks, was starting to see more tourists during the summer months. They were specifically interested in outdoor activities—wind surfing, trekking, and bird watching—as well as local Karpathian traditions, such as the annual Easter celebration when locals don colorful traditional clothing.

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“My vision is to help people here in Karpathos—which isn’t a touristic island like Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, or Rhodes—see a different side of tourism,” she explains. “I saw how, in 10 years, our society changed because of mass tourism, how our traditions have been lost now.”

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Source: National Geographic

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I went there with my parents some years ago. It was nice but so f.cking windy all the time it was quite annoying actually. 

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ScreamQueen007

They need to do what that village in Austria did and limit the amount of tourists that can visit the island at one time in order to preserve the beauty and environment. 

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Max
1 minute ago, ScreamQueen007 said:

They need to do what that village in Austria did and limit the amount of tourists that can visit the island at one time in order to preserve the beauty and environment. 

A village here did that? Why have I never heard of it :air:

call me the kg bitch
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bionic
31 minutes ago, Kimmo said:

Because is "Hidden"

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like they just drive around until they happen to find it? i thought greeks were supposed to have invented maps. so much for that

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FfFfFfFF
6 minutes ago, bionic said:

like they just drive around until they happen to find it? i thought greeks were supposed to have invented maps. so much for that

Well it's 200kms from Athens. I have no idea how navigation works but probably currents and winds and the need to avoid other islands makes the journey longer (just a theory...)

In all honesty Greeks know quite a bit about navigation as they colonized the whole Mediteranean Sea and founded settlements in North Africa, France, Ukraine etc. They are also the reason why we name Europe Europe and Asia Asia. And partly why Christianity was written in Greek and with Greek specific concepts. This sounds like an elogy, but Ancient Greeks were just the real deal. :vegas: There is a theory that the Renaissance happened in part because of the Byzantine refugees from after the Fall of Constantipole, which bought Aristotelian philosophy to the West.

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VasilisVas

I’ve been to this island before and was my least favorite of all Greek islands I’ve been to. Greece has amazing and beautiful islands and this one wasn’t one of them for me at least. 

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MonsterPaws
1 hour ago, Marges said:

A village here did that? Why have I never heard of it :air:

Exactly

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