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The centre of Karpathos supports a quartet of villages blessed with superb hillside settings, ample running water - and a cool climate, even in August. Nearly everyone here has "done time" in North America, then returned home with their nest eggs. New Jersey, New York and Canadian car plates tell you exactly where repatriated islanders struck it rich - often fabulously so (the area has the highest per capita income in Greece). West-facing PYLES is the most attractive, set above another spring-fed oasis, while OTHOS , noted for its red wine and a private ethnographic museum, is the highest (approx 400m) and chilliest, on the flanks of 1215-metre Mount Kalilimni. Among several tavernas here, try Toxotis , basically a bar with mezedhes and a couple of cooked dishes of the day, plus the excellent bread the village is noted for. On the east side of the ridge you find VOLADHA with its tiny Venetian citadel and a pair of tavernas. From APERI , the largest, lowest and wealthiest settlement, you can drive 6km along a very rough road to the dramatic pebble beach of Ahata , with just a rather modest snack bar. Beyond Aperi, the road up the east coast is extremely rough in places, passing above beaches most easily accessible by boat trips from Pigadhia. Kyra Panayia is the first encountered, reached via a paved but twisty side road through Katodhio hamlet; there's a surprising number of villas and rooms and a few tavernas in the ravine behind the 150m of fine gravel and sheltered, turquoise water. Apella is the best of the beaches you can reach by road, though there's a final short path from the single taverna-rooms (the only facility) at the road's end to the scenic 300-metre gravel strand. The end of this route is SPOA , high above the shore just east of the island's spine, with a snack bar and more reliable kafenio at the edge of the village which might make better meal stops than the overpriced Votsalo down at Ayios Nikolaos , 5km below, a small hamlet with an average beach and the overgrown ruins of a Paleo-Christian basilica to explore.
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