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Travel
10 Gorgeous Mediterranean Islands You’ve Never Heard Of
Updated 4:18 AM EDT, Fri July 10, 2015
Ile Piana (France) — This tiny island resembles an atoll in Micronesia, but is instead found 300 meters off the southern tip of Corsica. It can be reached, depending on the tide and fitness levels, simply by walking or swimming from Piantarella beach on the Corsican mainland.Greece’s Cyclades islands are no strangers to boat-hopping visitors, but many overlook Serifos for the more spectacular Santorini or the boozier Mykonos.Though it was once the scene of a bitter clash between Venetians and Saracens, this tiny island has largely existed in isolation. Even today locals speak a dialect that most Croatians struggle to comprehend.Their name translates as the Bloody Islands, but while Iles Sanguinaires may have had a gruesome past, these days it refers to more relaxing qualities. The uninhabited four islets off the western coast of the French island of Corsica are famous for their ‘flamboyant’ purple sunsets.The sea and sky appear to bleed at sunset on Iles Sanguinaires, setting ablaze the reddish volcanic rocks and creating Corsica’s best evening displays, according to locals.Spain’s beautiful northeastern Costa Brava can get crowded with visitors in the summer, but these seven islands just off the fishing village of Estartit are a peaceful world away.A marine park of 16,000 square meters, the islands host ruins of a wall built by the crusading Knights of the Holy Sepulcher.Reaching Linosa from Rome is a 24-hour journey — but it’s worth it. This volcanic atoll is closer to the coast of Tunisia than it is to the Italian island of Sicily.Linosa’s jet-black beach of La Pozzolana has sulfur-yellow and red layers. Its Black Planet bar is popular for sunset aperitifs and private dinners.This lost, wild treasure isle, popular with weekending Romans, is considered by many as the Med’s most beautiful.Palmarola is a trip back to the Jurassic age, with lush vegetation, fluorescent blue waters, grottoes and massive sea stacks. The Cathedrals are impressive cliffs. I Fucili (the Rifles) are the leftovers of a collapsed natural arc.This former pirate island with palm trees, sand dunes and emerald waters lies south of Crete in the Libyan sea. There’s a dense Lebanon cedar forest, a medieval chapel, Minoan ruins and Roman graves.Visitors can cross Chrissi barefoot, but staying the night is prohibited — camping and campfires are forbidden. The atoll has one small tavern and a bar on Belegrina beach.This island on Turkey’s Aegean coast has been drawing them in for millennia. According to Homer’s Iliad, it’s where the Greek fleet hid waiting for Odysseus’ signal to invade Troy.Fishermen, shepherds and soldiers were once the sole inhabitants of Bozcaada; their legacy is a maze-like town filled with picturesque houses and fish taverns.With no electricity and no engines, the only transport around this Italian island is donkey ‘taxi’ — and they’re essential. There are no paved streets, just 25 kilometers of mule tracks winding around the island and no fewer than 10,000 steps up and down layers of whitewashed dwellings.In Serifos, visitors can explore untouched inlets by foot along trekking routes or take jeeps to abandoned mines. Even in August, travelers can enjoy the luxury of suntanning solo at Karavi and Ampeli beaches, while the scent of wild thyme and figs fills the air.
