How I learned to tackle burnout like an ancient Greek
Shivering in the late spring breeze whisking off the bay beneath me, I slip into my swimsuit and slide inside. Worn by the bodies of countless bathers, the stone is silky soft. I soon forget the eggy scent of sulphur as I sink up to my neck in the hot spring waters and watch the sun descend in a scarlet blaze over the bay where Agamemnon sheltered with his warships on his way to Troy.
I'm in the remote town of Edipsos in northern Evia on the first stage of my journey to see if Greece 's mineral-rich waters, which the ancient Greeks once prescribed for treating 'imbalances in the humours' and akidia (brain fatigue), can heal my writer's burnout.
Bubbling out of the ground at 35C, Edipsos's mineral-rich springs – that were 'sent by the gods for healing' according to ancient Greek philosopher Pausanias – have been popular with 'greats', ranging from Aristotle and Strabo since the 4th century BC. A celebrity magnet right up until the late 20th century, stars including Greta Garbo, Omar Sharif, and Maria Callas once flocked here in their bathing suits and budgie smugglers to 'take the waters'.
In the post-war years, however, when holistic treatments were replaced by quick-fix chemical cures, Edipsos's glitzy hotels went out of fashion. Nowadays, the resort has plenty of abandoned buildings. With their peeling ochre facades and gaping windows, they frame weed-tangled alleyways criss-crossed with rivulets of steaming spring water where endangered tortoises love to hibernate.
I'm staying at Thermae Syllae. Edipsos's first spa hotel, which opened in 1896, it's one of the few resorts that have remained open. Named for a Roman general who was cured of a mysterious skin disease here in 84BC, the resort has won countless awards for its hot-spring-fed pools and medical spa complex. Wrapped from top to toe in slimy thermal mud in one of Therma Sylla's treatment rooms on the following day, I ponder the sanity of this trip. 'It doesn't feel very nice now, but you'll feel great later,' therapist Ioanna says soothingly.
When the dried mud cracks like the veneer on an old painting and Ioanna power-showers me clean, my skin feels soft and smooth. 'It's volcanic mud and full of minerals needed by your skin – and your soul,' she laughs.
That evening, sipping a refreshing ouzo sour made with anise liqueur and lemon juice at Venti, a clifftop taverna perched high above Euboea's storied bay, I begin to enjoy my hot spring trip.
After a hearty breakfast of local treats – spoon sweets in creamy yoghurt and fried feta pie tiropitaria – I trundle across the Euboean Gulf in one of the open ferries that Greeks call pantoufla (slipper) because of their sloppy shoe shape, and drive around the bay to Kamena Vourla. Backed by the pine-furred foothills of Mount Knimis, and overlooking a golden sand beach, this seaside resort loved by Greeks – but rarely on tourist radars – is home to countless hot water springs that contain radon – dangerous in high doses, but beneficial for both mind and body when taken occasionally. I spend the day dipping in and out of the different spring pools. 'I come here all the time,' a healthy-looking octogenarian tells me. 'It's good for me and it's free – what could be better?'
The following night, I go upmarket with a stay at Mitsis Galini, a wellness resort and spa with the largest mineral spring pool in the Balkans. Although the lagoon-like pool with its tree-studded islands surrounded by trimmed lawns is stunning, I can't help wondering why I'm paying so much money for a health treat that I'd enjoyed on the previous day for free.
Just along from Kamena Vourla on the main Lamia road, I discover the spear-waving statue of Leonidas, the Spartan king who launched a suicide mission to defend the pass against vastly superior Persian forces in 480BC. It signals the entry to Thermopylae, a hot spring waterfall that's been a healing site since Mycenaean times. The stream of hot water gushes out of a cleft in pine-furred cliffs at 37C. Eyes closed, I let the hot water pummel my body. The noise is deafening.
Afterwards, I feel relaxed and invigorated, just as Hercules must have done when he came here to restore his energy after killing the Nemean lion.
Vouliagmeni Lake, a few hours' drive away, is my last stop. Greeks have soaked away their troubles in this hot spring-fed lake for more than 2,500 years, so it seemed like a good spot to end my journey. Floating motionless in the emerald-green waters, I stare up at the luminous blue vault of sky, realising that I haven't thought about work all day. These ancient treatments have been the perfect cure for my modern aches.
How to get there
Flights from London Heathrow to Athens with Aegean Airlines start at £147 return. From there, you can hire a car with Hertz and drive three hours to Arkitsa, where the 'slipper' ferry leaves for Edipsos.
Thermae Sylla bookings include access to the resort's mineral-rich hot spring pools.
Mitsis Galini room bookings include breakfast and pool access.
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I'm on a steadily rising road in northern Greece as swallows sweep over the burnished grasses to either side of me and pelicans spiral through the summer sky. Gaining height, the land thickens with oak forests and a Hermann's tortoise makes a slow, ceremonial turn on to a sheep track at the edge of the asphalt. And then, just as the road briefly levels out before corkscrewing down the other side, a glittering lake appears beneath me – a brilliant blue eye set in a socket of steep mountains. I can't even begin to count how many times I've crossed the pass into the Prespa basin on my way home from trips into town, but the sight of shimmering Lesser Prespa Lake – often striking blue in the afternoons and silvery at sunset – takes me back to the summer of 2000 when I saw it for the first time. A little over 25 years ago, my wife and I read a glowing review of a book about the Prespa lakes region. 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While Prespa is a popular winter destination for Greek visitors, in part because of a ski-centre halfway between Florina and the basin, it's the quieter spring and summer seasons when the place comes into its own for walking and nature tourism. There's a mosaic of cultural riches to explore here too: the remarkable ruins of the 1,000-year-old Byzantine basilica on the island of Agios Achilleios; the lakeside cliffs on Great Prespa Lake, studded with centuries-old hermitages and monastic cells, reached by hiring a boatman from the fishing village of Psarades; the churches screened by sacred groves of immense juniper trees, found on some of the many marked walking trails. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion Besides the abundant nature and mountain walking that prompted us to move here, what also makes this place so special is the food and hospitality. There are welcoming, family-run guesthouses in many of the villages and excellent tavernas serving regional specialities, including slow-baked beans in a rich tomato sauce with oregano, fresh carp and sardine-sized tsironia from the lake, grilled florinela cheese brushed with red pepper marmalade, and wild greens called horta doused in lemon juice and olive oil. I stop to watch the cross-hatchings of light on the lakes as the hum of insects deepens with the heat. A short-toed eagle turns into the wind ahead of me, briefly motionless as it hunts for snakes in the forest clearings. Then it steers northwards and away across the mountains. Beyond those peaks encircling Prespa are the beautiful, traditional market towns of Korҫë in Albania and Bitola in North Macedonia, which, together with Florina and lakeside Kastoria just outside the basin in Greece, help make the entire region one of endless fascination for me. There are plans to re-open the long-closed crossing between Greece and North Macedonia within the Prespa basin in the next few years, an opportunity to build further bridges between communities and make movement for tourists easier. Another project will establish a cross-border walking route between our village and the neighbouring mountain village of Brajčino in North Macedonia; it will celebrate the cultural and natural heritage of the common watershed while highlighting the importance of low-impact tourism to local economies, particularly at a time when climate change is making itself felt around the lakes and threatening agricultural livelihoods. It's almost time to return along the path and head home, but first I sit in the shade of an oak, its leaves rustling in the warm breeze. A steel-blue dragonfly unzips the air and I can hear sheep bells somewhere in the hills. The sound shifts and swirls, just as on the saint's day festivals of summer, called panigyria, when the wild, soaring music of clarinets and raucous Balkan brass rises into the mountain nights as people gather with food and drink to circle-dance in village squares. I've never thought of Prespa as anything but a shared place, where human cultures and wild species come together and co-exist, a place best experienced slowly and with care. And although Prespa has been my home for a quarter of a century now, when I see that blue water glimmering beneath me as I cross the pass, it still so often feels like the first more information visit Society for the Protection of Prespa and Visit Prespes Julian Hoffman is the author of Lifelines: Searching for Home in the Mountains of Greece published by Elliott & Thompson (£18.99). To support the Guardian order a copy from Delivery charges may apply
