Ikaria Island is the Greek destination where inhabitants live to 100. Photo / Getty Images
Looking for the fountain of youth? Ikaria is an under-explored Greek island where the locals regularly live to 100. Does the secret lie in some radioactive hot pools? Samantha Priestly takes a dip.
When I first boarded the small boat cruise bound for a small collection of unexplored Greek islands, with Variety Cruises, I had no idea I’d be heading to a blue zone.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a blue zone is an area where inhabitants live longer than average, and far more people live to 100 than is usual. No one is sure why this happens, though there are many theories ranging from the diet eaten in these places to a sense of purpose achieved by continuing to work into old age (though not a 9-to-5) and feeling a sense of being valued. There are just five blue zones in the world, and I was about to visit one of them.
It was our first island stop on our seven-day cruise, our first full day as passengers, and all I knew at this point was that this small island, Ikaria, had natural radioactive hot springs we could bathe in for free.
We grabbed our swimmers and took the short van ride from the port to the aptly named village of Therma, where we were greeted by a small beach and a promenade of restaurants and bars. It’s idyllic, there’s no denying, but what struck me was how underplayed the hot springs are.
Although there is a spa on the island, at the natural hot springs in Therma there are no facilities. You simply turn up in your swimming costume and take the plunge.
The hot springs are at the end of the promenade and there are a few stone steps you can take to get into the water, or you can swim from the beach, as the hot springs are a continuation of the seawater.
Rocks have been arranged to make the hot springs into an alcove at this inlet, which serves as a seating area and also makes it clear where the radioactive waters are, separating the hot springs from the rest of the sea. The result is a semi-cave-like area that feels ancient and mystical.
The hot springs pulse from the seawater through veins and fault structures and you have to move around to catch them, meaning some parts of the hot springs area feel cool, some warm, and some hot, although it never felt overly hot when I was there. It’s more of a pleasant warmth that seems to come and go in waves. That said, the hot springs here on Ikaria are the most radioactive in the world and are classed as ‘superheated’.
The hot springs by the beach in Therma are less radioactive than in other parts of the island. There are four distinct areas where hot springs can be found on Ikaria: Therma, Lefkada, Agios, and Armyridas. The hot springs near the village of Xylosyrtis, in Lefkada, are known as the ‘immortal waters’, due to the elements found in these waters that are said to be useful for treating diseases.
The hot springs on this small Greek island are said to be good for treating kidney diseases, bladder issues, gout, skin ailments, lower back pain, anxiety, fatigue, and respiratory diseases.
About 300m east of the village of Therma is the ancient spa town of Thermea. There’s not much left of this once great spa town now, and it’s thought it was destroyed in an earthquake.
There are some remains of stone walls still visible , and you can visit the area for free and get an idea of what it must have looked like. But this isn’t a museum, there are no facilities and you can only reach the site by walking.
Perhaps it is the Mediterranean diet and the sense of community, the slower pace of life and the value placed upon older people here, that makes this island a blue zone.
Perhaps it’s the way the people here work. There are some hospitality jobs, but most people here work in a more traditional way, and their work is their way of life.
There’s a long history of self-sufficiency on the island, more so than other Greek islands, and so the people here have always worked the land and used their natural resources, and still follow this tradition now. All this means Ikarians are physically fit without really realising it. They certainly work at a more reasonable pace and with less stress than we do.
Or, maybe, as I was hoping, it’s those radioactive hot springs. We noticed there were a few locals bathing in the hot springs with us that day and one Ikarian told us he’d never visited a doctor in his life, and he was now 50 years old. I thought of all the times I’d visited the doctor in my life and how much stress I lived with on a weekly basis, and I wished I had access to these natural hot springs and this calming way of life.
We were told not to stay in the radioactive waters for more than 20 minutes and, to be honest, after around 15 minutes many of us were getting fed up of dealing with the Garra Rufu fish that kept nipping at our feet.
These nibbling little fish might have been giving us another free treatment, a foot pedicure that you’d pay for the privilege of in a spa, but after a while, it does get annoying. So, we made our way out and back to the beach.
After a quick change under towels on the beach, we stopped at one of the restaurants facing the shoreline on the promenade for dinner.
As I tucked into stuffed peppers with zesty lemon rice and a local white wine, I thought I could understand why people here live so long. If I lived on Ikaria, had daily access to the hot springs, could eat this fresh succulent food every day, and enjoy the sunshine and the slow pace of life everyone seemed to enjoy here, I’d be living as long as possible too.
Ikaria is still ‘real Greece’. Large cruise ships can’t stop here as the port is too small and, although the island does have a small airport, it only deals with national flights to and from Athens.
Tourism is kept deliberately low profile and only a few small operators, like the Variety Cruises yacht I was on, stop here. There are a few hotels on the island and lots of authentic restaurants, and some tourists do fly here via Athens, but the island is still unspoilt and follows a traditional way of life.
The Variety Cruises small boat cruise around these lesser visited Greek Islands takes 48 passengers and it also visit the islands of Amorgos, Patmos, Lipsi, Iraklia, Kalymnos, and Serifos. Each of these islands has its own charm, from the small family run winery on Lipsi to the secluded sandy beach on Amorgos only accessible by boat or by climbing the rocks.
It’s possible to see the same slow pace of life on all of these islands, the same fresh food diet, the same sense of community and regard for older people, the same level of daily exercise and the same low levels of stress.
But these other beautiful, unspoilt, traditional Greek Islands are not blue zones. Only Ikaria.
So, I’m holding onto hope that the high levels of health and people living to 100 are down to those radioactive hot springs, and I’m holding onto hope that my one-time dip in those magical waters boosted my longevity too.
For more things to do in Greece and its islands, see visitgreece.gr
When there's nothing as far as the eye can see, you may appreciate the company.