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
Kasos · Things to do
Things to do in Kasos
Beaches, trails, festivals, food and wine: the experiences that make this island its own.
Experiences
Our favourite things to do
Ideas for every kind of day, from a lazy swim to a full-day hike.
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
Hike
Walk to Ellinokamara
Follow the cobbled path to the ancient cave sanctuary, best in the late afternoon light.
From Agia Marina
Hike
Hike the island's trails
Seven marked trails, about 54 km in all, link the villages, the monasteries, the mountain and the coves. There is no shade: start early.
All over the island
Beach
Sail to Armathia
Spend a day on the white sand of Marmara on the empty islet of Armathia.
Boats from Fry, summer
Nature
Sunset from Agia Kyriaki
Drive up to the chapel at about 600 m and watch the sun drop behind the islets.
Near the highest point of the island
Food & wine
Taste sitaka and elaiki
Try sitaka, the soft, sour cream cheese of Kasos, on rusks or melted over makarounes, and elaiki, a cheese kept in olive oil.
Tavernas and the island's dairy
Nature
Hop over to Karpathos
Take the local boat to the big island next door for a day, and look back at Kasos on the horizon.
Boat to Pigadia, or a few minutes by plane
Only on Kasos
What makes Kasos different
What makes Kasos different from every other Greek island.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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