Gökçeada (Imbros): Turkey's Largest Island, Stone Greek Villages and Salt Lake

Lying in the open northern Aegean west of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Gökçeada (known in Greek as Imbros) is Turkey's largest island (covering 289 square kilometres, nearly eight times larger than Bozcaada) and the westernmost point of the country. In 2011, Gökçeada was designated the world's first Cittaslow ("Slow City") island in recognition of its unspoiled volcanic mountains, organic farming, free-roaming hill goats (طعم), underwater marine park and five preserved hilltop Greek Orthodox stone villages.

How to Get to Gökçeada (From Kabatepe Pier on the Gallipoli Peninsula)

First, take the 15-minute ferry from downtown Çanakkale across the strait to Eceabat; from Eceabat, drive 12 minutes west across the narrow neck of the Gallipoli Peninsula (past Anzac Cove) to Kabatepe Ferry Pier (connected to Eceabat by municipal buses timed to every ferry). Large GESTAŞ car and passenger ferries sail from Kabatepe to Gökçeada's Kuzu Limanı in 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. (Important tip: because Gökçeada is a large, mountainous island where beaches and villages sit 15 to 30 km apart, bringing a rental car onto the ferry, or renting a car/scooter on the island, is much more useful here than on compact Bozcaada).

The Four Historic Hilltop Stone Villages (Built Inland to Hide from Pirates)

1. Zeytinli (Agridia, 3 km from Gökçeada Centre): the liveliest of the historic Greek villages, famous as the birthplace of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Walk the cobbled alleys to sip frothy Madam'ın Dibek Kahvesi (traditional mortar-pounded coffee cooked in hot sand) alongside a bowl of creamy, caramelized oven-baked sakızlı muhallebi (mastic milk pudding).
2. Kaleköy (Kastro) & Sunset at the Ancient Acropolis: perched on a volcanic crag directly above the old harbour, where ruins of a Byzantine-Genoese castle, a giant plane tree and panoramic sunset taverns look out across the sea toward the dramatic mountain peak of the Greek island of Samothrace (Semadirek).
3. Tepeköy (Agridia / Çınarlı) & Dereköy (Shinudy): climb to Tepeköy (the highest village on the island) to visit local homemade wine tavernas (such as Barba Yorgo) and stand beneath a 625-year-old monumental plane tree at Pınarbaşı, then drive through Dereköy, once the largest village in all of Turkey with nearly 2,000 stone houses, two churches and old olive-oil mills stepping up two facing hillsides.

Best Beaches: Aydıncık (Kefalos), Laz Koyu and Gizli Liman

On the south-eastern coast, Aydıncık (Kefalos) Beach offers a 1.2-kilometre crescent of fine golden sand backed by a shallow Salt Lake (Tuz Gölü) visited by autumn flamingos and prized for natural black therapeutic mud, while Laz Koyu and Gizli Liman ("Hidden Harbour") at the western tip offer sheltered pebble coves.