Fry, the capital of Kasos, seen from the hill village of Poli, with the islets in the sea beyond

Κάσος · The heroic island at the end of the Dodecanese: a harbour lit from under the water, all-night feasts and the memory of 1824

Kasos, the heroic island of the Dodecanese

Eat at a table on the round little harbour of Bouka as it lights up from under the water, walk to a cave sanctuary walled in by the ancients, swim on the white sand of an empty islet and stay up all night at a village feast of lyra, mantinades and pilaf.

Find your stay A perfect day
The church of the Panagia in the village of Panagia, Kasos

Greetings from Kasos

Kasos

Last night we went to the feast at Panagia. They cooked pilaf in cauldrons in the churchyard and handed it out to everyone with wine, and an old man with a lyra and a boy with a laouto played while people stood up and sang couplets they made up on the spot, about each other, about the sea, about the island. We walked back down to Fry at five in the morning, with the sky over Armathia already turning pale.

Wish you were here. x

Hour by hour

A perfect day on Kasos

Breakfast by the harbour, an ancient cave, the view from Poli, lunch in Agia Marina, a monastery and a swim at Helatros, and the lights of Bouka.

  1. 08:30

    Breakfast on the harbour

    Barley rusks with sitaka cheese and thyme honey, and a coffee on the edge of Bouka while the fishing boats come in.

    Stay: Galanou View
    A Kasos breakfast of barley rusks, sitaka cheese and honey
  2. 10:00

    The cave of Ellinokamara

    Walk out of Agia Marina on the cobbled path to the cave sanctuary, its mouth closed by a Hellenistic wall of great stone blocks.

    The ancient wall of large stone blocks inside the cave of Ellinokamara
  3. 12:00

    Up to Poli

    Drive up to the oldest village, on the acropolis of the ancient city, and look out over Fry, Agia Marina and the islets.

    The view north-west from Poli over Agia Marina and the sea
  4. 13:30

    Lunch in Agia Marina

    Sit down at a village taverna with a view and ask for the Kasiot dishes: makarounes with sitaka, tiny dolmades, roikio.

    Eat: Antama stis Kathistres
    A plate of roikio, a Kasos dish of chicory
  5. 16:00

    A monastery and a swim

    Cross the empty Argos valley to the monastery of Agios Georgios at Chadies, then go on down to the white pebbles and deep blue water of Helatros.

    The courtyard of the monastery of Agios Georgios at Chadies
  6. 21:00

    The lights of Bouka

    Back in Fry, take a table on the old harbour as the water lights up green beneath the boats.

    Eat: I Oraia Bouka
    The harbour of Bouka in Fry at dusk, its water lit from below

Where to stay

Where you'll wake up on Kasos

All stays

Only on Kasos

The things you'll tell everyone about

What makes Kasos different from every other Greek island.

The 1824 memorial site on the coast of Kasos, with a white chapel, a flag and the year 1824 laid out in stones

The Holocaust of 1824

Kasos joined the Greek Revolution with a fleet of some hundred armed ships and sent them to fight for Crete. In late May 1824 an Ottoman-Egyptian fleet came to punish it, and after days of fire its troops landed by night behind the defenders. Hundreds of islanders were killed, some two thousand women and children were carried off to the slave markets, and the ships were taken. Every year from 7 June the island remembers, and it carries the official title of the Heroic Island of Kasos.

The harbour of Bouka in Fry at dusk, lit from under the water

A harbour lit from below

Bouka, the old harbour of Fry, is a round basin of still water with a narrow mouth to the sea. Since 2020 it has been lit from under the water, so that at night the fishing boats float on glowing green beneath the bell tower of Agios Spyridon.

Boats in the harbour of Fry

The Kasiots of Suez

From 1859 men from Kasos went to Egypt to dig the Suez Canal, and many stayed on in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. Their descendants and the island's shipowning families are spread across the world, and they come home in summer for the feasts.

The church of the Panagia in Panagia, Kasos, home of the island's biggest feast

Feasts until dawn

At a Kasiot panigyri the church courtyard becomes a dining room: pilaf cooked in great cauldrons and wine, shared out free, then lyra and laouto and mantinades, couplets improvised on the spot, until morning. The biggest are Agia Marina on 17 July and Panagia on 15 August.

Agia Marina, the largest village of Kasos, seen from Poli

“And they that held Nisyrus and Crapathus and Casus and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnian isles…”

Homer, Iliad 2.676–677 (trans. A. T. Murray)

Towns & villages

Where you'll fall for Kasos

All towns & villages
View of Fry, Fry & Emporeios, Kasos
01
Fry & Emporeios

Fry

A tiny capital of white and blue round a little round harbour, where the water is lit from below at night

Fry is the capital and port of Kasos, a small white town on the north coast with fewer than four hundred people. Its heart is Bouka, the old harbour, a round basin of still water entered through a narrow mouth, ringed by fishing boats, café tables and the white-and-blue church of Agios Spyridon. Around it are the lanes, the square of the Heroes' Monument, the Archaeological Collection and the windmill on the shore, and everything is a few minutes' walk away.

  • Bouka, the old harbour, lit up at night
  • The church of Agios Spyridon above the boats
  • The Archaeological Collection
  • The Heroes' Monument of 1824
  • Sunset over Armathia from Agia Kyriaki
Discover Fry
View of Panagia, The inland villages, Kasos
02
The inland villages

Panagia

The village of the captains and shipwrights, with the Six Churches and the biggest feast of the island

Panagia is a small village just above Fry, once the home of the island's sea captains and shipwrights. Only a few dozen people live here now, among the big old houses of the seafaring families. It has the island's great church of the Virgin, the Six Churches, a cluster of vaulted chapels with red domes built together, and the biggest festival of Kasos on 15 August.

  • The Six Churches
  • The church of the Panagia and its ancient sarcophagus
  • The feast of 15 August
  • The captains' houses
Discover Panagia

Things to do

Moments to collect

Best beaches All experiences
The church of the Panagia in Panagia, Kasos

Festival

Stay up for a panigyri

Eat pilaf from the cauldron in the churchyard, drink the wine, and listen to the lyra, the laouto and the mantinades until dawn.

Agia Marina, 17 July; Panagia, 15 August

The 1824 memorial site on the coast of Kasos

Culture

Remember 1824

Three days of remembrance of the Holocaust of Kasos, set by the municipality every June. Visit the Heroes' Monument in Fry and the memorial of the landing above Antiperatos.

Fry, from 7 June

The entrance of the cave of Ellinokamara at sunset

Hike

Walk to Ellinokamara

Follow the cobbled path to the ancient cave sanctuary, best in the late afternoon light.

From Agia Marina

Good to know

Before you fall for Kasos

Kasos is the southernmost island of the Dodecanese, a rocky ridge some 17 km long between the eastern tip of Crete and Karpathos, with about 1,200 people. It is a bare, steep island of stone-walled terraces and ravines, with five small villages close together in the north and a wild, empty south-west running down to the Libyan Sea. Kasos has no big hotels and no nightlife but its own. What it has is a fierce pride: its sailors fought for Crete in 1821, the island was destroyed in 1824, its emigrants helped dig the Suez Canal, and every summer the scattered Kasiots come home for feasts that go on until dawn.

Area
≈ 66 km² with its islets
Population
≈ 1,200 (2021)
Highest point
≈ 600 m, by the chapel of Agia Kyriaki
Airport
Kasos (KSJ), small planes
Remembrance day
7 June, the Holocaust of 1824
  • Slow travel
  • Culture & history
  • Village feasts
  • Walkers

From Minoan Helatros to the Heroic Island

A Minoan bay, a city named by Homer, early Christian basilicas, Venetians and pirates, a great sailing fleet, the destruction of 1824, the Suez Canal, Italian rule and, in 1948, union with Greece.

Walk through the story

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