Tilos: Nature, Trails and Island History

When looking for hotels on Tilos, it helps to first consider whether beaches, trails or historic sites will shape your trip most. Livadia is the port of Tilos and the island’s liveliest area. This gives you a clear starting point for getting your bearings; beaches, hiking trails and cultural monuments offer further perspectives on the island.

Island History and Cultural Monuments

Tilos was once home to Europe’s last dwarf elephants, which grew to just 1.5 metres tall. The Charkadio Cave is associated with this history: in 1994, an exhibition about the cave excavations and their dwarf elephant fossils opened at the town hall in Megalo Horio. Another historic landmark is Mikro Horio. The village is deserted and designated as a cultural monument. You can encounter different aspects of the island’s history: finds from Charkadio Cave and a designated cultural monument in the form of a deserted village.

Beaches, Dunes and Trails

Eristos is the largest and most popular beach on Tilos. Its features include turquoise water and natural shade from tamarisk trees. The beach also has incipient mobile dunes, representing the first stage of dune formation. These familiar beach features sit alongside an early stage of dune development.

The Nature Interpretation Walk in the centre of the island starts near the main road by the helipad, heads northeast, is 2,500 metres long and leads to a former Italian observatory on Prophitis Ilias, also called Olympus. Check the trail conditions locally before planning your walk.

Petra Tilos offers guided hikes on Tilos trails, led by local guides and available at easy, moderate and challenging difficulty levels. The duration depends on participants’ needs and ranges from one to four hours. The hikes are offered during seasonal periods; check current dates before making plans. The fixed length of the Nature Interpretation Walk and the participant-dependent duration of the guided hikes give you two different points of reference for planning.

Getting There and a Regional Perspective

From Athens, travel via Rhodes Airport and then take a ferry to Tilos. The flight takes one hour and the ferry crossing two hours and 30 minutes. As routes and journey times can change, check schedules before travelling.

In the wider Dodecanese destination, other places offer their own cultural highlights. On Rhodes, the Street of the Knights is considered one of the most outstanding examples of Gothic urban architecture. At the end of the Middle Ages, the fortifications of Rhodes influenced the entire eastern Mediterranean region. On Patmos, the World Heritage ensemble is an outstanding example of a traditional Greek Orthodox pilgrimage centre. Since its foundation in 1088, the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian has been a place of pilgrimage and Greek Orthodox scholarship. The Cave of the Apocalypse is traditionally associated with the account that Saint John dictated the Book of Revelation and his Gospel to his disciple Prochoros there. On Karpathos, Olympos lies in the north on rugged terrain facing the sea; the village has preserved its cultural identity thanks to its isolation.

Discover more destinations: Faliraki, Archángelos, Kolympia, Afántou, Petaloudes, Gennadi, Haraki, Rhodes.

Go to the broader travel overview: Rhodes.