Karpathos is beautiful, but have you heard of the small, uninhabited island next to Karpathos? The small island north of is called Saria. From Pigadia and Diafani you can get there by boat to this uninhabited island then.

Yes, that’s right uninhabited! Only any fishermen and shepherds sometimes stay here for a short time. Saria, like Karpathos, falls under the Dodecanese archipelago. Karpathos and Saria are separated by a channel of only 100 meters. So it is incredibly close to each other! The island is rocky and volcanic and you will find beautiful bays and ruins. Saria is also known for its breeding ground for the Eleonora’s falcon.

Saria can only be reached by boat. You can get to Saria from the capital of Karpathos, Pigadia or from the town of Diafani (in the north of Karpathos). During the season there are daily boats from both ports. We ourselves chose to leave from Diafani. From Pigadia the boat trip seemed a bit too long to us. Today we sail with Captain Manolis (facebook). Very nice that it is already somewhat at the end of the season, because that makes the boat not so full.

Time to set sail

We are on the boat with the family and 4 other people whom we drop off halfway because they continue walking. After about an hour of sailing we arrive at a beautiful cave and it is immediately time for a dip in the water, lovely! We stay here for about 15 minutes to swim for a while and then continue to the beautiful bay Palatia. Here we stay for about 4 hours.

You can choose to just swim or snorkel or you can take a walk to the ancient village of Argos, the Syrian pirate ruins and the Byzantine St. Sofia chapel. By the way, on the left side of the bay you will find beautiful caves. You can swim through these and that too is well worth it!

On the beach of Palatia, a simple but mostly delicious lunch is also provided. After a few hours it is time to move on again. Before we go back to Diafani we stop at Alymounta where we can swim again for a while. From there we sail back to Diafani in one go and the captain has a nice glass of raki for everyone.