Things to do in Kalymnos

Kalymnos has had two economies, and both are unusual. For a century and a half it was the sponge-diving island of the Aegean, sending fleets across the eastern Mediterranean. Since the late 1990s it has been one of the most important sport-climbing destinations in Europe. The two are connected only by the rock: Kalymnos is steep, dry limestone, which made farming hard, sent people to sea, and left behind exactly the cliffs climbers want. Understand that and the island explains itself.

The climbing, which is now a large part of what the island is. The west coast above Masouri and Armeos is the centre of it: hundreds of bolted routes on tufa-streaked limestone, with the sea below and Telendos filling the view opposite. This is not a niche the island tolerates, it is a substantial part of the local economy, and the villages along that coast are set up for it. The season runs spring and autumn rather than high summer, because the rock bakes. That is the single most useful planning fact on this page, and it is the opposite of how most Greek islands work.

Pothia, and the trade that came before. The port and capital is a working town stacked around its harbour, and the sponge trade is still visible in it: workshops, a nautical museum and the boats. The history is genuinely hard. There was a heavy toll from diving accidents before the physiology of decompression was understood, and the island does not romanticise it. Neither will we: this was dangerous work that killed and disabled a great many men, and the museum is where that is told properly rather than sold.

Telendos, which is the best half-day here. The near-vertical islet sits across a narrow strait from Masouri, reached by a small boat in minutes. There are no cars on it, a few tavernas, and more climbing. Crossing a strait that narrow to somewhere that different is the kind of thing Greek islands do well, and here it costs almost nothing in time.

Vathys, on the east coast. A fjord-like inlet with a citrus valley behind it, which is a startling green on an island this dry. It is the counterweight to the bare west coast and worth the drive for the contrast alone.

Emporios, at the northern end. Quiet, and a long drive. Say that plainly rather than selling it: it is a long way up a dry island and the reward is the quiet, so only go if that is what you are after.

What the island is not. Beaches here are small, mostly pebble, and often below the road. Kalymnos’s draws are the rock, the port town and the strait rather than the sand, and anyone booking it for a beach week has misread it. The beaches page is honest about that at more length.

Getting here. Kalymnos has a small airport with domestic flights, and ferries connect it to Kos, which has the international airport and is a short hop away. That Kos connection is how most visitors arrive. Three nights suits a general visit; climbers come for a week or two and stay on the west coast. Our Kalymnos guide has the island in full and the group is the Dodecanese.