One of my favourite villages on Kalymnos is Emborios (Εμπορειός), the northern-most inhabited part of the island. Emborios is located about 27km North from this island’s capital, Pothia (Πόθια).
Emborios is a quiet village with a few tavernas, a beach (its sheltered but full of seaweed which puts some people off) and a small harbor. It is the end of the bus line, with about 3 or 4 buses per day. The name is actually the Greek word for “trade”.
I visited the village twice. The first time my family went in the (rented) car. Traveling up the Western side of the island, it takes about 30 minutes to get up there. There is a good sized car parking area next to a mini-market, across the road from the beach.
The beach itself is very quiet – there can’t have been more than about 5 familes on it. It seems less however, since the size of the length of it means everyone is spread out across the bay.
Along the front, there are several tavernas/cafe bars where you can stop and have a quick lunch or an evening meal. During the summer months, most are open all year round, however many Greeks return to their normal lives during the winter and this may mean some have slightly different operating hours at this time.
The second time I visited Emborios was when we booked Olympic Holidays’ “Sunset Dinner”. The Sunset Dinner involves being picked up from your accomodation on a Saturday night (we were picked up at 19:00) and being taken to Emborios – normally arriving at 19:40.
We spent about 20 minutes is spent in Emborios, before the coach picked us up to take us to the Kastello Resteraunt in Kastelli (Καστέλι). From this location you have a good view over to the Agean sea of the sunset… or at least you should have! Our coach managed to get the timings wrong, so we had to stop between Emborios and Kastelli to watch the sunset. We were supposed to have made it to the taverna before the sunset.
When at the resteraunt a traditional Greek meal (usually consisting of tzatziki (τζατζίκι) and some sort of meat dish – souvlaki or mousaka (σουβλάκι ή μουσακάς) is served). Since we were travelling as part of an ‘excursion’, the food was already paid for by our ticket price. However: drinks were not included at all which means they have to be paid for before you leave the taverna.
If you are thinking of travelling to Emborios, you can either travel with a tour operator (however bear in mind that Olympic are the only UK tour operator still featuring Kalymnos in their brocures) or independantly. A little Google search brings up few locations in Emborios where you can stay. This it may be worth a look if you would prefer to travel to the island without going through a tour operator.
The video used was created by me – filmed at the beach in Emborios in July 2009 – and is is licenced under a Creative Commons license. This means you are free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work on the conditions that you attribute it (with a link to this website) and do not use for commercial purposes. If you alter it, the work must be re-distributed under an identical or similar license.
