Follow our journey to Ikaria, one of the 7 blue zones in the world. 

Ikaria, Greece || Blue Zone 

A Blue Zone is a region of the world where people have been proven to live the longest. There are 7 total regions today and to visit them is a real honor! They pride themselves on their healthy lifestyles (and wine) that help them to live longer. There’s a Netflix documentary about them all called “live to 100: secrets of the blue zone” if you’re curious to learn more!! 

As I’ve said before, I always try to find off the beaten path destinations. We knew we wanted to go to Greece but had no desire to do the usual Santorini, Mykonos island hopping thing … so we found Ikaria! Along with being a blue zone, Ikaria has amazing food, landscapes and people. If you’re looking for a slow travel vacation, I would highly recommend. 

You have basically two options (from the US). You can take a 14 hour ferry ride to Ikaria from Athens. Or you can take a flight from Athens to Ikaria in 45 minutes.  Spend a day or few in Athens and then fly to Ikaria! We flew Olympic air and it was a smaller plane and such a fun experience.  Just be prepared for possible slight delays, they’re not rushed or stressed about anything.

Someone from the company will be waiting outside the airport with a sign that has your name on it to take you to your car rental (parked at the airport). They don’t charge you when you take it, they charge when you come back and it was such a smooth process. No surprises or anything to be aware of that we encountered. As in any foreign country, check for manual vs automatic when you reserve it :)

Rent a car Ikaria - Ενοικίαση αυτοκινήτου Ικαρία

Airbnb, obviously!! Listen, we stayed in the absolute best airbnb ever and it was sooooo affordable. I cannot even imagine what we would’ve paid in Santorini or Mykonos for the same type of property. Pictured below, it was a 2 bedroom, one bath place with a huge private balcony that overlooks the sea. Someone else (the sister of the airbnb host) lives in the downstairs area, but it’s a totally separate house essentially. You don’t hear or see them at all really unless you want to. They were the nicest people and had homemade wine, jam, and other snacks for us when we arrived. We paid $170 a night for this place. Completely insane and so worth it!

Magganitis House

There are basically 4-5 “major” towns where I feel like most tourists stay: Agios Kirykos (the capital city), Evdilos, Magganitis (less common), & Armenistis. You can’t go wrong with any of them! We picked Magganitis solely because of this airbnb and it seemed like it was little less visited than the others. The shopping and food was very limited in Magganitis so if you’re looking for a town with more restaurants, stay in one of the other towns. We wanted to make some food ourselves and there were still 3 good restaurants in Magganitis.  

You really need a car rental if you plan on going anywhere here. 

I truly think this is the perfect slow travel destination. You can find countless things to do, just get in the car and explore! However, here are some of my top suggestions.

Once you arrive (at the smallest, dingiest airport ever) in Ikaria, there’s not a car rental booth that I saw to reserve a car. You have to do this in advance and there’s basically one or two companies. We did this one below. They’re not located at the airport, the drive the cars to the airport upon request. So again, dont be looking for a car rental booth. 

This is my #1 recommendation!! For only €70 per person, it was soooo worth it!! We learned so much about Ikarian local cooking and tips to longevity (lots and lots of olive oil and fresh herbs, fresh everything and very limited meat and dairy). The owners of this winery/farm/lodge are incredible people with so much knowledge about health and wellness. We made some incredible friends from this experience and the food was absolutely insane. So good. Plan on being there around 3 hours for the whole experience of cooking and eating and drinking wine with your new friends. If you don’t have time or if you’re just not into the cooking class thing, you can still go here for a glass of wine to enjoy on their beautiful patio! 

Ok. Once you get down to the beach, it’s so worth it! But the hike down gets a little sketchy towards the end because you have to basically scale the edge of a cliff side rock at one point. Locals were wearing flip flops but I could never!!! Wear good shoes if you’re not used to this. The rest of the hike down is fine and only took maybe 20 min. I highly recommend starting the hike early- like 9am - to beat the rush. The beach is not sand, it’s pebbles, so being a beach chair if you can or just be prepared to lay on pebbles. There used to be a local lady (Boo-boo) that would travel via boat to the beach with snacks and drinks but we met her and she said she stopped doing it because she also owns a store and wasn’t making enough money doing the beach thing, considering the time she was missing at the store. So, pack your own snacks and drinks! 

Ikaria, Greece || Blue Zone

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