The underrated and wondrously wild Greek island that's been named best to visit in 2025
A gorgeous Greek island that's 'well beyond the usual tourist radar' has been named as one of the best of the country's islands to visit in 2025.
According to Lonely Planet, Ikaria is one of the best Greek islands to add to your bucket list.
While the island isn't a leading tourist destination, it has been globally recognised for its long-living residents.
Ikaria is one of the world's five designated 'Blue Zones', places where people are much more likely to live to 100.
But why is it one of 2025's best Greek islands to visit?
Lonely Planet reveals: 'It takes effort to get to Ikaria, a wondrously wild island in the eastern Aegean, but those who make it this far too rewarded.
'Ruggedly mountainous, gorge-riven, thickly forested and well beyond the usual tourist radar, this island has its own look and culture.'
According to Homeric legend, Dionysus, the god of wine and theatre, was born on Ikaria.
At Therma, a spa village on the island, tourists can unwind in Ikaria's hot mineral springs which are thought to soothe arthritis and rheumatism
The island is heavily tied to Greek myth and even earns its name from Icarus, the man who flew too close to the sun.
Lonely Planet recommends hiring a car to explore the island to make your holiday 'feel like a proper adventure'.
The travel guide suggests heading to Seychelles Beach, known for its 'dazzling azure waters'.
A picturesque cove, Seychelles Beach has bright pebbles and is backed by rock formations.
At Therma, a spa village on the island, tourists can unwind in Ikaria's hot mineral springs which are thought to soothe arthritis and rheumatism.
Those looking to emulate the islanders' healthy lifestyle can head into the hills to see the giant rock houses where locals used to hide from pirate attacks.
'These stiff climbs - along with a herb-rich diet - are part of what contribute to the island's extraordinarily high number of centenarians,' reveals Lonely Planet.
While Lonely Planet recommends taking a ferry from Kos to Ikaria, it can also be reached by plane from Athens.
Those looking to emulate the islanders' healthy lifestyle can head into the hills to see the giant rock houses where locals used to hide from pirate attacks
The travel guide suggests that tourists spend two weeks on Ikaria to let the island 'truly work its magic'.
And Greece is also home to Europe's best beach, according to a new ranking.
Port Glarokavos Lagoon Beach took the crown in a ranking put together by judges at European Beach Destinations.
The beautiful Greek beach is located on the country's northern Kassandra Peninsula.
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The Independent
25 minutes ago
- The Independent
Dr Michael Mosley's widow reveals final moments before he died in first interview
Dr Michael Mosley 's widow has revealed the final moments before his death. The TV doctor and nutritionist, 67, was found dead on the Greek island of Symi after a four-day rescue operation last summer. In her first interview since her husband's death, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley has now recounted the events of the tragic holiday from which the 67-year-old never returned. The couple arrived in Symi for the week-long trip with friends on 4 June 2024. She told MailOnline: 'We'd only been there for half a day before it happened.' She said they were relaxing on the beach and enjoying the occasional dip in the sea and a coffee. 'Typically, Michael got bored,' she added. 'He wasn't enjoying his book and he doesn't really like lying on beaches, so he said: 'I'm going exploring. I'm off for a walk.' He agreed to meet us back at our friends' villa. 'I gave him my litre bottle of water and in his rather eccentric way, he had an umbrella to shield him from the sun. It was 1.30pm and he was given instructions on where to walk. 'He set off at a good pace, his rucksack on his back, up a steep hill. He hadn't brought his phone because he didn't want to risk it getting wet on the boat.' Dr Bailey Mosley went back to the villa with their friends after enjoying an afternoon at the beach, but started to get concerned where her husband had gone. She told the publication: 'Feeling things weren't right, we went to the police station and reported him missing. The police said: 'We can't do anything about it until he's been gone for 48 hours.' I said: 'What, in this heat?' It was 40 degrees, the hottest day for decades.' After she pushed them hard they agreed to send out a local search and rescue team. Dr Bailey Mosley then got in touch with the British consulate in Athens and also put an appeal out on the Symi social media page. She said: 'And it suddenly went 'whoosh' and local people turned out in force to search.' She said she also went out to look for her husband herself, adding: 'I spent a couple of hours walking along the coast and through trees and gorse calling his name. Every time I met someone, I asked: 'Have you seen him?' 'Then it got dark. It became devastatingly obvious something had gone terribly wrong.' Dr Bailey Mosley said she spent the first night curled up in bed crying. Then she was up before dawn and searching for her husband again. They feared he'd collapsed and fallen over something, and kept looking. But they found nothing. The Mosley children arrived that evening and later joined the search. Dr Bailey Mosley said: 'Extra plates were laid at the table – our friends were just so calm and supportive. They held us all together. 'There was this extraordinarily close, intimate sharing of agony, of tears and laughter – because they are closely aligned – and it was as if we were in a capsule, surrounded by a kind of magical cordon that gave us a sense of safety in impossible circumstances.' Outlandish stories about what might have happened to her husband began circulating at that time, such as a suggestion he had been abducted, and a similar-looking man spotted on CCTV. She said: 'I was naively optimistic. I think I was in denial. I remember sitting on the balcony watching the helicopters go round and round and still thinking: 'One of them will find him.'' Then, four days after Dr Mosley had gone missing, his body was found. The island's mayor and a British TV crew were out in a boat on 9 June when they spotted him just a few hundred metres from the beach bar at Agia Marina. Later, it emerged that Dr Mosley had missed his turn-off and fallen down the rocky mountain path, dying just two hours after leaving his wife at St Nicholas beach. Dr Mosley was known for popularising the 5:2 diet, a form of intermittent fasting, through his book The Fast Diet, as well as his documentaries on the BBC. His family has since set up a health research project to honour his memory. A new clinical research fellowship will be established in partnership with King's College London and the Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) to help improve the nation's metabolic health. Dr Bailey Mosley said: 'Michael was most proud of the work that he did in helping people to improve their metabolic health. 'It is increasingly clear that improving metabolic health decreases your risk of multiple chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, reducing blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer and more. 'The Mosley family are thrilled that this fellowship will continue in his name to improve so many people's lives.'
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
The Greek retreat that soothed my exhausted, stressed-out brain
There is no word I could find that quite summed up how I was feeling last summer. It wasn't just stress, but it wasn't burnout or breakdown. Yet it felt like more than normal tiredness. Perhaps it was facing up to the teeth-grinding malaise of middle age, and a nagging dissatisfaction with life among other things. But wonderfully — and thankfully — the Greeks, who might not have a word for that wobbling state of mental and physical health, do have a cure: the Euphoria Retreat. It is a fitting name for the resort tucked into the unfashionable but beautiful foothills of Mount Taygetus in the Peloponnese, about three and a half hours' drive from Athens, and an hour by airport pick-up from Kalamata. Today we use the word euphoria to describe an extreme state of happiness (or a drug-induced high), but, like many of the good things in life, it derives from the ancient Greek: euphoros, meaning 'healthy'. I landed in the high heat of summer when the temperature starts climbing from 30C from 10am, so indoor treatments and a swimming pool were essentials. I felt threadbare. I was unhappy in my skin, and worn down mentally due to the lingering impact of a long-ago trauma. I wanted not just to let go of my internal 'to do' list of how to be a better person and slump down and doze in the sun, but also to rejuvenate in as meaningful a way as I could manage. I wasn't up for the authoritarian rigour of a medi-spa or the breathless physicality of a bootcamp, but Euphoria hits the sweet spot in the middle. Everyone — singles outnumber couples — staying at the 45-room spa hotel is encouraged to do so too. It goes a long way to create an atmosphere, where under an endless blue sky and the near constant chorus of cicadas, everyone is invested in feeling better. Mobile phones are barely seen and alcohol is rarely drunk, though you can purchase it with dinner. Meals are a slow, civilised affair on the terrace overlooking farmland with as much oregano-infused water as you can manage. (It does help with the buckwheat crackers.) My room was comfortably large and serene, with light touches of local Greek design and lots of marble in the bathroom. Most of the day is spent in the spa itself, where you also find the pool and loungers, but I became addicted to an early night and deep sleep — you can choose from a pillow menu. • Read our full guide to Greece The passion project of Marina Efraimoglou, a former banker whose life was laid low by a cancer diagnosis, the resort is the culmination of years of research exploring and studying wellness practices. The result is a feat of engineering as well as ambition, where the building's design, as well as every therapy and every meal, are governed by a blend of ancient Greek and Chinese philosophies that centres on five elements: fire, water, earth, wood and metal. At Euphoria's heart is the spa, a concrete cocoon where shadows ripple across the white walls as light floods the central atrium. There are treatment rooms and specialised facilities, as well as two large spaces for complimentary lectures and sessions including sound healing meditation (deeply relaxing), freeing your voice, starting with breathwork and ending with a theatrical singing exercise that ran through the full range of my voice and finished as loudly as possible (uncomfortable), and what I came to really look forward to: yoga nidra. Led by Chryssi, I had an unusually deep sense of semi-conscious meditation where I felt my physical body disappear and my mind float away. Tall, resplendent in colourful kaftan and a halo of hair, Marina visits at least once a week and is constantly looking for new techniques and improvements when it comes to wellness. Her mission is a belief that healing does not have to mean suffering. It is a task that the Euphoria team take up as a vocation, reflecting another Greek word, philoxenia, which describes the respect extended to strangers, a gesture that is more seriously felt than simple hospitality. • 16 of the best wellness retreats in the UK But could good intentions, crystal water, a gong bath and a massage really deal with the mini crisis of confidence I was having? Namaste never did it for me before. After a phone questionnaire, I had signed up to a bespoke package offering not just a detox programme, now fairly standard for such a luxury-level, award-winning spa, but also emotional wellbeing. I rocked up to a detailed timetable for my ten-day stay that included lectures, treatments and even a respiratory test that would guide the Mediterranean menu drawn up by the in-house nutritionist. An analysis of my glucose, glutathione and glycogen levels — they call it a patented 3GL assessment — was apparently going to detect any 'energy disorders'. Hmm. The results, however, told me that my metabolic rate was average, but I needed to eat more protein. Cue plump steak and sweet potatoes for dinner, but also, far less appealing, daily vegan protein powder smoothies with beetroot and chia seeds for the mandatory mid-morning snack. Sitting cross-legged on mats, a small group of us answered a series of basic questions, such as 'what do you have for breakfast?', or 'what do you do after work?'. We all opened up and it was thanks to this straightforward process that it struck me that the person sabotaging me was not a friend leading me astray, but myself acting the part. It broke the ice and the three of us in that room felt closer for the remainder of the holiday. You don't have to share, but bonding over a starter of quinoa crackers and a teaspoon of sundried tomato tapenade or cashew dip, enjoying vegan carrot and ginger soup and surprisingly tasty buckwheat patties is a reassuring way to spend the evening. You can choose to sit alone, or join others. • I've been to 20 wellbeing retreats and this is what I've learnt I met an exhausted mum whose anxiety caring for her daughter had almost broken her; an executive whose stress was causing bloating and constipation; another who needed a break from her job in elderly social care. Everyone has a story. There is support to be gained in gradual conversation. But if that's too much information, you can just sit and stare at the far horizon taking in olive groves and scattered villages as cats slink around mewing for tidbits. Then it happened. I'd had some niggling cynicism about the boundless wellness industry that has sprung up in recent years. But this faded as I fell into a reassuring timetable of massages — cupping, scrubbing, reflexology, acupuncture — and a good night's sleep. This was as relaxed as I had ever been, and I felt that my mind and body were beginning to reconnect. That's not to say there weren't moments when the 'science' left me giggling with the silliness of it all. How else was I supposed to respond to the biofeedback analysis? During an appointment with the resort's medical director Dr Konstantinos Dardagiannopoulos, I gripped a Qest4 copper bioresonance device — imagine an old-fashioned gaming console with copper tubes for handles — with both hands and connected to a computer program. It determined that I was very stressed, and I had a slightly weakened liver and pineal gland. A 'parasitological test of a stool probe' was recommended. To be honest it all felt a bit lost in translation. Odder still was the 'Symptom-Emotion Correlation'. Still holding the same device, parts of the body lit up on the doctor's screen and were converted into feelings and behaviours. I know, I know. More than a hundred descriptions flashed up including 'Bunions 2' which was decoded to mean 'being stubborn and inflexible in your direction'; 'Hay Fever 2' was translated as 'unresolved feelings of grief or sadness' and 'Peptic Ulcer 2' was 'feels responsible for pleasing everyone'. It was unnerving. The method felt woo-woo, and up there with astrology and tea leaves wasn't too far off the mark. The prescription to 'focus only on the positive matters and thoughts — to trust only them, not the negative ones' is not exactly cutting edge, but it all felt so credible in the setting. And still does. • 18 of the best spa and wellness holidays The environment and ambience seem to be as much a part of the relaxation process as the treatments. But it was my three sessions of emotional transformation — a unique course offered at Euphoria — with Mary Vandaorou, a former dancer and confidante of Marina, whose gentle, probing counselling, and Reiki-like physical therapy as well as nourishing meditations left me weeping. Instead of heading back to the noise of London while feeling raw, I swam a few lengths in the pool, watching dragonflies dance through the grasses and over the water as the sun set slowly and the heat of the day rose up. I felt a weight was lifted ever so slightly as Marie advised me to 'breathe out sadness, breathe in hope'. I arrived home and was inspired to make my own thyme or oregano-infused water with dried herbs from the retreat. I ate sweet potatoes and steak; no takeaways or alcohol passed my lips. I began to walk taller, and started swimming most days. My fridge filled with feta and I was still filled with a sense of optimism. Naturally, the scales tipped, and the energy I had soaked up in Greece eventually disappeared like the fading of a summer tan. But that's OK. The philosophy of Euphoria Retreat is not to sell a cure, but to be part of the process of rejuvenation, and at least I know where to go now for that profound boost we all need from time to time. Helen Davies was a guest of Healing Holidays, which has two nights' full board from £1,999pp on a Wellbeing Detox programme; four nights' B&B from £2,699pp on the Emotional Harmony programme ( Fly to Kalamata
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Michael Mosley's family sets up research fund in his memory
The family of healthy eating advocate Michael Mosley has set up a research project to honour his memory. Mosley, who died aged 67 while on holiday with his wife Dr Clare Bailey Mosley on the Greek island of Symi last year, was known for popularising diets and fronting science programmes. A new clinical research fellowship will be established in partnership with King's College London and the Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF) to help improve the nation's metabolic health. Mosley's wife, Dr Clare Bailey Mosley, said: 'Michael was most proud of the work that he did in helping people to improve their metabolic health. 'It is increasingly clear that improving metabolic health decreases your risk of multiple chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, reducing blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer and more. 'The Mosley family are thrilled that this fellowship will continue in his name to improve so many people's lives.' The Mosleys have been working with King's College London and the CDRF, who will administer the Michael Mosley Memorial Research Fund, to appoint a dedicated research scientist. The researcher will work directly with patients in hospitals and healthcare settings to discover the challenges they face, and determine the most practical changes that can improve metabolic health. Professor Tim Spector, medical director of the CDRF and professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London, said: 'Michael was a dear friend and we shared a passion for sharing knowledge to help people lead healthier, happier lives for longer. 'The funds raised for the fellow will embody his spirit, translating cutting-edge metabolic research from the lab to hospital wards, directly benefiting patients.' The Michael Mosley Fund JustGiving page can be found here:
