One afternoon at the end of May, we decided to do a slightly shorter hike up by Platanos and then finish with a good dinner.
The drive up to the village of Platanos with all the vineyards around it took about 20 minutes. From the top of the village, we had a majestic view of the water on both the north and south sides of the island. We clearly saw “ormos” and its harbor which we had just left and the town of Karlovasi on the north side of the island.
We parked along the road in the small parking lot on the outskirts of the village and started walking towards the village centre. The village was inviting and genuine with several careful and stylish house renovations in progress. When we arrived at the small picturesque square, we turned right and followed the signs out towards the hiking trail.
The walk took us past vineyards mixed with pine forest and views. We followed hiking trail # 16, Samos Hikes, Samos Hikes – Platanos circular , a little over 2 kilometers before we turned off to the right back towards Platanos again, as this time we mostly just wanted to look around a bit and were quite hungry already.
Our little hike or walk this time only took about an hour before we were back in Platanos. If you want to walk the whole round, it takes about 4 hours with a relatively easy hike on dirt roads and good trails.
Once we arrived in Platanos, we sat down at one of the two nice restaurants and ate our fill before taking the car back to the Pantheon in the dark.
In Platanos there are two good restaurants with different orientations of Greek cuisine. One restaurant offers well-prepared completely traditional dishes, while the other offers good modernized versions of Greek cuisine.
