Greece Out of Season

What's It Like When Things Close Down?

Jan 27, 2024

I recently read this post on a new Substack page by travel writer Ben West:

When I arrived at the little Corfu beach resort of Agios Gordios on October 31, the last day of the tourist season, I didn’t expect it to close down quite so soon. But the last day of the tourist season really meant the last day of the tourist season. By 5pm it was like a ghost town…

2 years ago · Ben West

It reminded me of a couple of occasions when I’ve been to Greece out-of-season. Well, I’ve been several times in winter, but I’ve only twice been in holiday resorts in the very last week of the holiday season, and it can be weird.

Thassos

The second time was on the island of Thassos, when my then-partner and I were staying in the resort of Limenaria, on the south coast. On the first night we tried a taverna where the food was so good that we went back there the second night. Except that it was closed. Not just for the night but till the following Easter!

Oh well, we’ll just find somewhere else, which we did. That too was excellent food, so back we went the following night. Yep, that place too had now closed down at the end of the season. We noticed that some of the hotels were also locked up and shuttered. No, we weren’t about to be turfed out of our hotel as we’d booked for the full week through a tour company in England.

And that’s when it really became funny, as the place where we ate the previous night was closed now as well. Visitors were now wandering the streets asking for intel on which places were still open. Fortunately there were still several, but they got more and more crowded as the week went on.

It didn’t spoil the holiday at all. In fact it added to it with a bit of a laugh. Thassos was still a terrific place to explore. The bus service was still running. It’s a circular island with a hilly interior and a coast road that runs all around the island. We went to Thassos Town, and we went to different spots around the island, sometimes going walking in the hills, sometimes chilling on the beach and in the cafes.

Pserimos

The first time I experienced Greece out of season it was deliberate. I was writing travel pieces for the British newspaper The Guardian at the time, where the Travel Editor liked stuff that was a little bit quirky, or different in some way. I suggested going to the smallest Greek island I could find, on the very last week of the tourist season, to see what it was like.

I contacted the excellent Sunvil Holidays, and they suggested going to the tiny island of Pserimos, between Kos and Kalymnos in the Dodecanese. They booked me in for the very last week of the season, in late October. I could catch the last charter flight back. It was an inspired choice.

Pserimos has only a few dozen permanent residents. I stayed with a family in their hotel, and was the only visitor on the island. Because of that, I dined with the family and ate what they were eating for themselves. One night we had my favourite, calamari, but it was more delicious and fresh than any I’d ever tasted. It may have been the first time I’d had fresh calamari. The fishing season is only from about August to October, and the rest of the year you have to eat frozen. The difference in tastes is like night and day.

During the day, Pserimos was comparatively busy, with a few boats coming in from Kalymnos and Kos bringing day-trippers. Pserimos is basically one small town of a few streets, and then tracks or rough roads to a few other parts of the island. During the day I escaped the ‘crowds’ and explored the island.

In the evenings when the visitors had gone, I’d sit out at the front of the hotel with a beer and a book, waiting for the wonderful cooking smells to start wafting out from the kitchen. I’d then eat with the family, which was marvelous, maybe have a nightcap, and then retire to my room to read. I got a lot of reading done, as this was late October and though it was fine during the day, it was chilly at night. There was nowhere open to go to anyway.

And to end with…