The volcanic part of western Lesvos is betrayed by its rugged landscape which also contains some of the island's best beaches. Skala Eressos boasts one of Lesvos' finest, a 3 kilometre stretch of dark-sand (some shingle), and a clean open sea.
Skala Eressos is small enough to keep its friendly village feeling but large enough to offer a good choice of restaurants, cafe-bars and shops. Sensibly, the 500 metre-long esplanade above the sea is a pedestrian zone, and here the tavernas spill out over the beach in a somewhat ramshackle but colourful array of elevated wooden platforms and stilts. It can be lively and quite fun in the evenings.
The beach is wide and very long, so there's always plenty of space, and has sunbeds, umbrellas and pedaloes for hire.
To the far end of the village, atop the small hill of Vigla, you can see the few remains of ancient Eressos, birthplace of Sappho, the greatest female poet of antiquity.
Skala Eressos today enjoys a relaxed bohemian atmosphere where artist and beach lovers enjoy a laid back feel enjoying long lazy lunches that the Greeks are famed for and giving you that real 'get away from it all' feeling.
If you want to move, then there is plenty of interest to be found in the rest of the west. Take a taxi to Eressos five minutes away, for an evening meal in an atmospheric village and a hire car will allow a visit to the Petrified Forest (one of only two in the world), the monasteries of Ipsilou and Perivolis, or the inland villages of Andissa and Vatoussa, where you can enjoy traditional ouzo-mezedhes under the shade of three enormous plane trees.
