The southernmost tip of Europe, Gavdos, a tiny speck of an island just south of Crete, is beginning to make some serious noise. Although if you’ve been listening closely, those of you in the know, will have heard of it in some capacity or other. It’s been Greece’s best kept secret for the past decade or so, as more and more people have stumbled across this paradisiacal slice of golden sand. A little like the beginning of the movie ‘The Beach’, Gavdos is a word of mouth destination with an almost mythical aura about it. The fact that it’s been so under-reported is only attributed to it’s clandestine and somewhat haphazard infrastcuture, and that is only surpassed by it’s laissez faire way of thinking. So what exactly is Gavdos?
If Woodstock and Christiania had a child and then Goa and Greenwhich Village had a child and those two childs had a child, that child would be Gavdos. The ultimate hippy paradise-reserve this side of the pond. Imagine no infrastructure bar a perfunctory water well/tank, one tavern, one generator that turns off at night, a boat service that operates every few days, one hostel and no convenience stores and then imagine a bunch of naked dudes parading around the beach. There yet? Welcome to Gavdos; Europe’s last hippy enclave. And we mean it, too. This is the real deal. Waltz up, pitch up a tent or a table cloth and strip down to the basics. Heck, there’s probably no cell coverage either.
Gavdos runs on its own time. We here at Athens Express hark on about nature and seclusion and all the wonderfully isolated spots, pretty much on repeat. But make no mistake about this. If you are looking for a spot under the sun , with no one in sight but pine trees and birds, then you need to get yourself to Gavdos, pronto.
